The forgotten perfect ebook device

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There's a lot of ebook devices out there (Kindle, Sony reader, Iliad et al), and obviously the iphone/touch and other mobile phones.

The one technical feature that I think makes a device suitable for extended text reading is the pixel density of the screen. Here's a good illustration of the effect of pixel density.

A typical PC screen has a 'Pixel per Inch' (ppi) density of 96, which isn't bad (particularly with font smoothing).

But as well as reflective, daylight screens, the main reason e-ink devices are lauded as 'paper-like' is the pixel density of the screen, which is almost double that of PC screens; 170 ppi. This makes for smooth, high-resolution text display.

But mobile phone displays, whilst not as large as dedicated ebook devices also have high ppi - the iPhone has a ppi of 163, for example, and of course is likely to be carried around at all times by it's owner, as it has multiple uses (as well as a great web browser).

But the king of affordable, portable displays belongs to the largely forgotten Nokia n810 'internet tablet', which has a lovely 4 inch screen with 225ppi!

I got to use one a few months ago...it really makes for a high quality text display device. It runs a form of Linux, so ebook readers should install fine. And with wifi and Opera as a browser, it makes for a really nice Instapaper client.

If only Nokia had stuck a SIM in it, instead of limiting it to wifi, they'd have sold a zillion.

It's almost a year old, and is selling new at nokia.com for a very reasonable £250 in UK ($440 in USA), which is £50 more than say, the £200 Sony Reader.

If I was in the market for a dedicated e-text reader, I think I'd spend the extra £50 and have the keyboard, wifi and browser capability.

And as a parting shot, the XO Laptop's 200ppi screen makes for a superlative e-ink type display.

PPI by device: