Bookeen has been teasing the e-reader world with the eight inch Cybook Ocean since 2013. The company has had huge problems with getting this one to market, and I often thought that this model is cursed. Fear not, the Cybook Ocean will be available to order at the end of the month and will start shipping out November 14th 2014.
The Cybook Ocean features an 8 inch screen and has a resolution of 1024×758. This model adheres to the current trend of packing a front-lit display on the e-reader and I was told that it is on par with the Kindle Paperwhite 2, in terms of overall screen clarity. Additionally, this is the first eight inch e-reader in the world that has their screen flush with the bezel.
Underneath the hood lurks a 800 MHZ processor, 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal memory. If this is not enough to store the books you have purchased from the on-board bookstore, you can simply insert an SD Card.
Tactile purists will enjoy the physical page turn buttons on the bottom of the device. It can also be interacted with solely via the touchscreen if that is your thing.
The Cybook Ocean was originally announced in October 2013 and was slatted to be available that holiday season. Various setbacks plagued the French company and it looks like it is finally going to be available in November and the cost will be 179€ or $229 USD.
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.