PineNote: open source eReader with Pen support

PINE Microsystems has announced a new product called PineNote. It is a tablet with electronic ink (e-Ink) intended to serve as an e-Reader for your eBooks or digital books. This device will work with the same SoC that your Quartz64 SBC is based on.

The Hong Kong-based manufacturer expands beyond its Pine64, with the PinePhone and PineTIme, and now with these other devices based on ARM and Linux chips. In the case of the PineNote e-book reader, it will cost about $ 399, and it is expected that in Europe it will sell for about € 399 (you know, the mania that manufacturers have of harming Europeans by converting $ = €).

On the other hand, the big brands of this type of device, such as Amazon's Kindel, also benefit from the book sale in your stores to get more profit. That gives them the advantage of reducing the prices of their e-Readers and making them more attractive to users, and this is not the case with this PineNote ...

Regardless of that, the PineNote has a e-Ink screen 227 DPI density, which is pretty good, and a resolution of 1404 × 1872. The screen is large, with 10.3 ″ and a 3: 4 aspect ratio. It can display up to 16 levels of grayscale, a capacitive glass layer has been added, and a Wacom brand electromagnetic resonance layer has been added to interface with the digital pen. And is that this tablet too will allow you to draw with this Pen besides reading.

As for the rest of the hardware, it includes a Rockchip RK3566 SoC, 1.8 Ghz ARM CPU, up to 128 GB eMMC internal memory, 4 GB of RAM, 5 Ghz WiFi connectivity, two integrated microphones and two speakers, without a webcam, and with a 4000 mAh LiPo battery for great autonomy. Charging is done through a USB-C socket.

PineNote will work thanks to a Linux operating system. The initial batches appear to be shipped with Manjaro, using KDE Plasma as the desktop.

El design and finishing materials They are also quality, with a magnesium alloy frame and body, a grippy plastic back, and are 7mm thick, which is 1mm thinner than the Kindle Oasis 3.