Pocketbook has just announced its latest innovation, the Verse Colour Pro e-reader, set to ship at the end of June. This pocket-friendly device boasts a six-inch screen, E INK Kaleido 3 Colour e-paper, Bluetooth, Waterproof capabilities, and an ultra-fast quad-core processor. These unique features and its current pre-order price of $169.99 from the Good e-Reader Store make it a compelling choice for e-reader enthusiasts.
The Pocketbook Verse Colour looks to compete against the Kobo Clara Colour, but the Pocketbook one seems to be better. The Verse Pro Colour features a 6-inch E INK Kaleido 3 colour e-paper display with a black and white resolution of 1448×1072 and 300 PPI. The Colour resolution is 536×724 and 150 PPI. The Color scheme of the e-reader is piano black on the front and back platting. There is a slight dip on the front of the e-reader and a recessed screen with no glass; this is great since the screen won’t reflect light from overhead lighting or when reading outdoors in the sun. Pocketbook employs its Smartlight system, which has a series of warm and cool lights that can be controlled via a slider bar. There are page-turn buttons below the screen, power, and settings.
Underneath the hood is a quad-core 1.8ghz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. There is a g-sensor for automatic screen rotation and Bluetooth 5.4 to pair wireless headphones and earbuds to listen to audiobooks sideloaded to the e-reader or purchased from the Pocketbook Bookstore. Dual-band WIFi will allow users to connect to the internet and use the browser to surf the web or connect to said bookstore. It is rated IPX8, which is somewhat waterproof from spills or drops in the pool. It is powered by a 2100 mAh battery with dimensions of 108 × 156 × 7,6 mm and weighs 182g.
This is a Linux e-reader, so that the battery life will be good, and the OS will rock stable. You cannot load in any apps. The real power of the Pocketbook is the support for ebooks; you can sideload ACSM, AZW, AZW3, CBR, CBZ, CHM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB(DRM),
EPUB, FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTM, HTML, MOBI, PDF (DRM), PDF, PRC, RTF, and TXT. If you want to load it into audiobooks, it supports M4A, M4B, OGG, OGG.ZIP, MP3, and MP3.ZIP.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
