Jointech JE100 Touchscreen Ebook Reader Gets Reviewed

The first of Jointech's JE100 ebook readers have made it out to buyers, and in turn the reviews are coming in.  First spotted back in June, the JE100 differs from most ebook readers we see by virtue of its 7-inch LCD touchscreen, rather than using an E Ink panel.  According to MobileRead forum member Sweetpea, that's no great issue; the JE100's backlight turns down sufficiently low to make long-term reading possible without eye-strain.

Unfortunately outside reading is less of a success, with the non-transflective display washed out in bright sunlight.  There's also quite a bit of instability with the Windows CE build Jointech have used; Sweetpea sounds pretty accommodating, but we'd find data loss upon restarts, missing ActiveSync and, bizarrely for an ebook device, a native app that won't work to be potential deal-breakers.

The hardware is a mixture of success and concerns.  It's thin, but perhaps too thin; pressing on the back of the JE100 causes LCD distortion, while the stylus is cheap and scratchy.  However the page-turn buttons are in the right place, and it charges via USB.  It's good enough to keep Sweetpea happy, but we're not sure if we'd spend $270 on the JE100.