Cool-er eBook reader

The Cool-er eBook reader caused much excitement at PCW as a first example of what will surely become a common format for truly portable computers (read more about this here).

It's the size of a small and very thin paperback, not only pocketable but light enough at 180g to be carried without you noticing the weight. Ideally the 6in screen would be bigger, which could be possible without changing the overall size of the device.

The Cool-er has 1GB of built-in memory and an SD slot capable of holding up to 4GB of additional storage, which means you can carry a sizeable library around in your pocket. And at £189, it's the cheapest model we've seen despite being the best size.

Otherwise it's similar in performance, soft interface and technology to most of the other eBook readers on sale – including the use of an e-Ink bi-stable screen. It has no touch layer and cannot be pen driven.

Hard controls comprise a power button at the top edge and four feature buttons down the side including one that changes the page orientation. A navigation wheel on the front is similar to those on iPods but does not support scrolling, and is rather heavy on the thumbs.

On the bottom edge is a headphone socket to play music and a USB socket for charging and uploading files. Firmware updates are done through the SD slot.

We were warned the pre-production review machine might have bugs and indeed an up/down button on the right edge billed as a volume control and page turner did not work. File formats supported include digital-rights-protected PDF and ePub. But as with all the current e-readers, PDF files can be tricky to navigate unless specifically formatted for the device.