Pandigital Novel 2nd gen drops LCD for e-paper

Pandigital bounced back after its heavily criticized original tablet by launching a revamped Novel. It still uses Android underneath but has switched from its criticized resistive touch LCD to a Sipix-made, 600x800 e-paper touchscreen. The design gives up color but should be more responsive, significantly extend the battery life and make it much easier to view outdoors.

The six-inch slate still has many of the same features, starting with Wi-Fi to access Barnes & Noble's online bookstore and even for full web browsing. It can play music either through headphones or on its own speaker and has either 1GB or 2GB of built-in storage as well as an SDHC card slot that can add up to 32GB more. Pandigital supports both ePub and PDF for books and will transfer content from both Macs and Windows PCs.

Unusually, both capacities will cost the same official $200 when they ship later this month. Pandigital expects the price to drop to a more competitive $180 on the street.

By Electronista Staff