Netherlands based e-reader company Icarus has just revamped their wildly successful 9.7 inch Excel e-reader with Android 4.0. This will allow users to not only have a very large screen display to take notes but also install their own e-reading apps.
The big trend of 2014 so far has been the open Android concept with e-readers. In the past, most of them all ran Linux and were physically unable to do anything, other than what the manufacturer intended. When it comes to smaller companies like Icarus, Onyx or Pocketbook, they all found it hard to compete against the juggernauts of the industry. Android levels the playing field, giving customers the option to deal with whatever ecosystem they want. I really like the freedom of choice concept to download Kindle, or Kobo or whatever 3rd party news app.
The Icarus Excel features a 9.7 e-ink Pearl display with a resolution of 1280×825 pixels and 167 DPI. It has a full touchscreen display, but only responds to the accompanied WACOM stylus. Underneath the hood lurks a solid 800 MHZ Freescale CPU processor and it has 256 MB of Ram. Storage gives you 4 GB to play around with and can be expanded up to 32 GB via the SD Card.
Not much has changed on the hardware front, as this is the same Excel that was released last year. The only thing that is different is the software running Android 4.0. Users can download and install apps from the Good e-Reader App Store, which comes pre-loaded.
The device is fairly expensive and is retailing for 319.95€ from the main Icarus website. If you live outside of Europe, you can pre-order it from Shop e-Readers.
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.