Samsung brings a third eReader into the mix – the E61 QWERTY eBook Reader

A side-by-side of the Samsung E61 and Kindle 2

Samsung had two touchscreen eReaders that they premiered at CES. The Samsung E6 was a 6-inch eBook reader that is selling for a whopping $399 and the Samsung E101 is a 10-inch (9.60-inch to be specific) eBook reader for $699. Now Samsung is introducing a third version into the mix.

The Samsung E61 is basically the E6 with a physical QWERTY keyboard. It has the same 6-inch, 600×800 resolution resistive touchscreen, 2GB of flash memory, an expandable microSD slot and WiFi. The form factor of the E61 begs to be compared to the Kindle 2, as it mimics the same hard QWERTY keyboard, screen size and page selector as the Amazon offering. The Samsung E61 does have a smaller footprint, is slightly lighter and of course has a resistive touchscreen that you can use a stylus on, but the touchscreen also means the screen clarity probably won’t be as good as the Kindle’s.

The main question is how much will the E61 cost? After seeing Samsung’s pricing on their other two eReader models, we’re guessing this will still be in the high $300’s — far, far away from mid-$200’s price of the Kindle 2.

Source: PC Professionale via Engadget