Affordable e-readers available in South Africa

There are some good e-readers which are available to order locally in South Africa. A popular and very affordable option is the Elonex e-reader. There are two models to choose from – the 5″ Elonex 500EB e-reader and also the 7″ 700EB e-reader. Both have colour displays and support a range of audio visual formats as well. The Gobii colour e-reader is a new addition and is very well priced and sports some excellent features. The other option is the iRiver Story. It’s more expensive than the Elonex and Gobii e-readers and comes with a 6″ grayscale screen.

I’ll highlight below the key features of each e-reader:

Elonex 500EB e-reader:

• 5″ TFT colour wide-screen (16:9) display
• 800 x 480 resolution
• Contains Adobe Reader Mobile Technology
• Supports ePub and PDF formats
• Multiple font sizes
• Also supports AVI, WAV, MP3, PEG, GIF, BMP & PNG audio visual formats
• Book reading for up to 6 hours
• Mini USB cable for charging and downloading
• Dimensions: 154 X 88 X 16mm

Click here to order the Elonex 500EB e-reader. NOTE: this is no longer being stocked by the supplier. Go for the Gobii e-reader instead below.

Elonex 700EB e-reader:

• 7″ LED backlit LCD colour wide-screen (16:9) display
• 800 x 480 resolution
• Anti-glare treatment
• Contains Adobe Reader Mobile Technology
• Supports ePub and PDF formats
• Multiple font sizes
• Also supports AVI, WAV, MP3, PEG, GIF, BMP & PNG audio visual formats
• Book reading for up to 5 & 1/2 hours
• USB cable for charging and data transfer
• Dimensions: 134 X 208 X 13mm

Click here to order the Elonex 700EB e-reader. NOTE: this is no longer being stocked by the supplier. Go for the Gobii e-reader instead below.

Gobii 7″ colour LCD e-reader:

• 7” LED Backlit Widescreen Colour LCD screen (16:9)
• Resolution: 800 x 480
• Anti-glare treatment on the screen
• 4GB on-board storage
• Supported e-book formats: Adobe DRM PDF, DRM ePub with reflow, TXT, FB2, PDB and HTML
• Audio formats: MP3, AAC, WAV, OGG and WMA
• Video formats: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4(Xvid), Divx, H.263, H.264, RM/ RMVB, MKV, MOV, VOB, FLV and WMV
• Image formats: JPG, BMP, GIF and PNG
• SD Card slot (up to 16GB)

Click here to order the Gobii 7″ colour e-reader.

iRiver Story:

• 6″ E-ink display
• 600 x 800 resolution
• Grayscale
• Supports PDF & ePub formats
• Office Viewer supports TXT, PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS & HWP formats
• Comic Viewer supports Zip (JPEG, BMP & PNG) formats
• Also supports WAV, OGG, MP3 audio formats
• Voice recording in MP3
• Book reading for up to 5 hours
• USB cable for charging and data transfer
• Dimensions: 127 X 203.5 X 9.4mm

Click here to order the iRiver Story.

Those are three good e-reader options which are available to order locally in South Africa. The Elonex e-readers are popular for their colour displays, multiple playback formats and affordable prices. You can also change the font-size of the e-book you’re reading on these two Elonex e-readers, which is very handy.

Protective cases are available for all three of the e-readers – just click here to see what’s on offer. I’d recommend getting a protective case to keep your e-reader safe from bumps and scratches.

Now what’s an e-reader without e-books to read? I’m pleased to see that Kalahari.net is currently stocking an excellent range of local and international titles. Click here to browse through their selection of e-books and e-magazines. More and more titles are being added all the time. Enjoy!