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Are you going to buy the new Sony DPT-RP1?

By 32 Comments

Sony is going to be releasing their second generation Digital Paper on June 20th and many people are thinking about purchasing one because of its ability to read and edit PDF documents. Digital Paper is a singular purpose e-reader, it does one specific task really well, just don’t expect it to read your e-book collection. This device has more memory than the DPT-S1 and also has Bluetooth/NFC, not to mention it has an E-Ink Carta screen, which has performance benefits over Mobius.

The DPT-RP1 features a 13.3 inch flexible electronic paper display with a resolution of 2200 x 1650 and 207 PPI. Underneath the hood is a Marvell IAP140 64-bit Quad-core IoT Applications Processor and ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, up to 1.2GHz, and has a separate power low-power Cortex M3. It has 16GB of internal memory , which is the equivalent of 10,000 PDF Files. It also has Bluetooth and NFC.

Sony has created a Digital Paper app for the PC and MAC. It was designed to allow users to establish one folder on their computer to sync to their e-reader. This folder can be a local folder with all of your PDF files, but it can also be a folder on a network. What is most exciting is that this folder can be one that syncs files from Box, Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Docs, etc. Sony told me that you can connect the DPT to your computer via Bluetooth, WIFI or a USB cable.

When Sony released their first generation Digital Paper, it was an expensive proposition. It cost around $1,200 and over the years it came down in price. Sony is marketing the DPT-RP1 for $699, which makes it about as expensive as an iPad Pro or lower end Microsoft Surface. The question is, will you purchase this device?

Michael Kozlowski (7737 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send an email to michael@goodereader.com


News Items of Interest

  • mikochowjet

    yes.

  • Bruce Sweigert

    Such a specialized device – in what use cases is this a better option than an iPad Pro?

  • Thomas

    If the decide to sell it in France, yes.

  • Yu Song

    Yes, and have put an order ^_^

  • E-PAPER, so you can read in the sun, battery life is another, this will get you about 3 weeks, iPad you have to literary charge daily.

  • Sadly Sony really just cares about Japan and the US market.

  • Vance Vance

    Yes; preordered already including case, through Amazon.

  • Radical Edward

    Yes, but will wait for the reviews.

  • Michele Battisti

    One can buy it in the US and have it shipped over to Europe. Of course paying some import fees.

  • Michele Battisti

    I have a sony dpt s1 and I am very happy with it. i will wait for a few months but then I will probably get it

  • Barth Siemens

    Although I have been very satisfied with a few Sony products—walkman, laptop, several ereaders—I don’t like their current product development model. They dropped support for the PRS-T2 faster than I expected, and I now I read that they will stop supporting the Xperia Compact.

    I get that they make most of their money with flagship products. I’m just not that consumer.

    So when I finally purchase a digital paper tablet, I’ll find a manufacturer that will support it longer term.

  • Davester

    NO, if the devices doesn’t have a web browser.
    MAYBE, if it ever will. The DPT-S1 has one, but the DPT-RP1 does not as of now. My eyes get fried when looking at an LCD screen for more than 5 minutes & a 13.3″ e-ink monitor/device would solve that issue … but I am waiting for one that has: A) Touchscreen for ease of scrolling & zooming, B) Bluetooth for attaching a keyboard & C) At least a Gig of RAM, as the browser (and loading graphics) will be really slow (and not be able to open several tabs) without enough memory. The first device that provides me with A & B & C, and priced under $1,000 ,,, will get my purchase.

  • Jmirko

    As much as I love e-ink and handwriting, I will probably pass on the Sony. For such a high price I want more than a one-trick pony. E-ink tablets with Android, such as the Onyx Boox Max or Goodereader’s own 13.3 device offer better value in my opinion.

  • James Robertson

    Yes!!!! preordered already! seams to be the most polished 13.3 device. I think it will be a great tool for my graduate studies.

  • otnte

    Please let me know when this device will be jailbr*k*n.
    It’s terrific device which I would love but something is missing.

  • lanuovaterra

    No, I don’t buy it. I need to load Android app, surf the web (just news website, even if is slow it could be good) a USB, BT and WiFi foot pedal to turn pages and read music, SD memory slot, epub and .doc support too,not only pdf.

  • Bruce Sweigert

    Yes but how many uses cases are there where you need a huge 13″ device to use in the sun? Maybe architect or surveyor? Use cases sound very limited.

    iPad Pro can easily go two days, but who cares, you just plug it in before you go to bed.

  • Thomas

    Does anyone know how much Amazon or B&H charge for sending it in Europe ?

  • Jake

    Sony markets it to lawyers and academics… so those are the use cases.

  • Jake

    Purchased as soon as I found out it was available stateside. In fact, I emailed B&H a week or two before and told them I’d like to pre-order it. (They told me they didn’t think it would be sold outside of Japan for the time being, but they’d have their purchasing team investigate). Was a no brained for me, because nobody else will release a large ereader as polished as this one. And now I’m convinced they are serious about this product line (before I thought it was just a hobby / one-off product)

  • Sebastian

    Just pre-ordered it. I have the earlier version which is simply stellar for the work I do in academics. Looking forward to getting the update.

  • Ed

    Does anyone know the latency for this Sony device. Just read this from the Verge: “According to CEO Magnus Wanberg, a huge part of the tablet’s development involved figuring out a way to reduce latency with an E Ink display. The prototype I tested had that down to roughly 65–70 milliseconds, and the company hopes to reduce that even further to around 55 milliseconds in the final version that ships. It’s definitely one of the better pens I’ve used, although there was still some lag when I was scribbling words quickly. Spec wise, that’s still not quite up to par with solutions like Microsoft’s new Surface Pen, which boasts latency at just 21 milliseconds, or even the Apple Pencil, which is estimated at roughly 50 milliseconds. Given the nature of E Ink as a technology, however, it’s still pretty impressive.”

  • fff

    bah en france tu sais bien que la TVA c’est 20%, donc tu prends le prix total tu le divise par 5 et t’as le montant de la taxe…

  • Andriu CI

    Paperless office?

  • Guest

    My requirements are:

    1) screensize around the german DIN A4 format. CHECK!
    2) PPI 300 plus.

    3) PDF and EPUB (no digital rights restrictions)
    4) SD-Card slot for unlimited storage
    5) Web-Browser

    The first three are the important ones, at least to me.

    Two of these three requirements are not met.
    In a perfect world I would not buy this device.
    But knowing that one had to wait a decade to buy an eReader that comes close to being practical for reading academic Books and Papers…

    I don´t know. Will certainly have to test it first.

  • Ed

    Just got an email from bhphoto saying my preorder (5/24) is on backorder.

  • Ouch, any idea for how long?

  • Ed

    Update. Bhphoto clarified that backorder = preorder, so still set to ship June 22.

  • digiuser

    Is the Sony capable to sync directly with box.com or WebDAV? Everyone is talking about the sync app, but thats not the deal-breaker for me.

  • Daisy

    For academic researchers, it works so much better that an iPad pro

  • alexqzed

    Remember Sony will only invest on improved versions is this sells well, so I’d say but it is this tech is important to you.

  • damasoft

    I would, but SONY only sells to USA and Japan and therefore leaves the rest of the world to Re-Markable.
    I do not understand their decision.
    Can they be petitioned to start selling it at least in Europe? 🙂