Infibeam Pi2 - Infinite Reading Pleasure

The eBook phenomenon has been around a long time but in India, it seems to have taken off alongside the tablet craze. Suddenly, the market in India has quite a few eBook readers.

The Infibeam Pi2

Infibeam runs an online store that sells a load of products and books. We run their new Pi2 eBook reader through the paces.

Features

The Pi2 has a 6-inch e-Ink display, which more or less is the same size as a paperback novel. The Pi2 has a resistive touchscreen unlike many other eBook readers. The Amazon Kindle for example has a QWERTY keyboard to type. The resistive touchscreen on the Pi2 can be used to access the onscreen keyboard too. A folding stylus fits into the body of the reader. 

Fairly thin and low profile device

The Pi2 has an internal memory of 2GB, which is good enough if you’re going to be using it to read eBooks. There is also a microSD card slot which will allow you to increase the capacity to 32GB. Files can be transferred to the tablet using the microUSB port at the bottom and music playback is possible as well through the 3.5mm analog audio jack.

Accompanying stylus to use with the resistive touchscreen

The controls on the Pi are simple. There is a directional joystick at the bottom of the tablet, an options button and back button. The control to move to the next or previous page is positioned on the side. Left-handed users might find this to be a minor inconvenience. 

Web browsing using WiFi

A status indicator is present on the right top, which keeps flashing from time to time. This can be a little annoying after a when you’re focused on reading the eBook. If you want to take a break, you can always switch over to the Browser the internet using the WiFi connectivity or play a game of Sudoku on it. There’s also a Notebook application that allows you to use the stylus and take rough notes. The utility itself is basic and the accuracy of the touch not very good. It’s useful only for some really basic note taking.

In terms of formats, all of the popular document formats are taken care of including Adobe’s PDF. Books are installed by dumping them into the device using USB or the external microSD card.