The new business PDF reader won’t come cheap at all

Mar 28, 2014 07:54 GMT  ·  By

Back in February, we told you Sony launched its massive 13.3-inch eReader, dubbed the DPT-S1 in Japan. And now after one month, the company is bringing the “digital paper” offering to US shorelines.

In Japan, the product can be purchased exclusively via Sony’s business unit and, since it was introduced in the country, it has been submitted for trial at three distinct universities so, as you can see, it's mostly aimed at institutions.

Oddly enough after pulling out of the eBook business in the US, Sony is continuing to spawn the market with eReader offerings. Not so long ago, we told you Sony has brought its latest PRS-T3 eBook reader to the US days before it was scheduled to shut down its North American Reader Store.

The device launched in Europe and Canada last autumn and, for some obscure reason, the company said it would not be bringing the device to American land. But plans changed or Sony is just down right schizophrenic.

Anyway, let’s go back to the above-mentioned massive Digital Paper. The product is a tablet / eReader combo of sorts and might as well be made of gold because, when it finally ships in the US in May, it will take customers back with $1,100 / €803 (via The Digital Reader).

The hefty price-tag is enough to keep the normal folk very far away from this product and, just like in Japan, Sony is marketing at professional users with large spending accounts who really, but really, need their note-taking activities to be performed in a futuristic way.

The Digital Paper boasts a flexible e-Ink display with both optical and active digitizer touchscreens, so owners can fiddle with the device using their fingers but also an active stylus.

They can also make annotations right there on the screen with files being saved in a repository that can be shared if needed.

But there’s another caveat, the Digital Paper only makes friends with PDF files. So basically all you’ll be able to do with it is viewing and editing of PDF documents. While this certainly proves to be useful, there’s no reason you have to pay a whopping $1,100 / €803 to do it.

The good news is Word and Excel documents can be viewed on the device, but users will have to convert them into PDFs first. The device also lacks an email client and the ability to install additional software. What a drag!

In terms of specs, the 13.3-incher sports a 1600 x 1200 resolution, Wi-Fi connection and 2.8GB of flash storage (expandable via microSD). One of the Digital Paper’s advantages you might want to take into consideration is that it weighs almost nothing (358 g / 0.8 lbs), which makes it even lighter than (iPad) Air.