The Ectaco Jetbook Color has been on the market for around a month now and it’s one of the best 9.7 inch e-ink e-readers on the market. Today Ectaco announced they were releasing a deluxe version of the device with a C-Pen for $599.99
What exactly is a C-Pen? It is the same little gadget that was bundled with the Jetbook K12. It plugs into the USB port of your e-reader and gives you the ability to scan text in textbooks or other tangible things and digitally transcibe it into your Jetbook Color. It is a unique little accessory that is more applicable to students who use it in the classroom. Let’s face it, the digital classroom is a fairly new thing and most schools end up using a combination of electronic books and the hardcovers. The main benefit of the C-Pen is that instead of highlighting passages or noteworthy material inside the book, you can scan it and put it in a dedicated file. You can then export this file into a text file and use it later.
The base model of the Jetbook Color costs around $499 and the new Deluxe model is $599. So you are basically paying an additional $100 for the C-Pen. Is it worth it? Well, we tested it extensively for around a week and found it actually works very well. It is certainly very niche and appeals mainly to students, which this device is geared towards anyways. I can see many people scanning their notes with the C-Pen instead of mucking up their school issued textbooks.
We did a full hands on review of the only e-reader in the world to use e-Ink Triton Color e-Ink a few weeks ago, so check it out to find out all about this shiny in gadget. If you want to see what the C-Pen can do, also see our review on the Jetbook K12.
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.
