Iriver Story Hands-On

iriver's Story ebook reader has been floating around Korea since October last year, but it's the confirmation that it's coming to the US in 2010 that has really sparked interest.  We caught up with iriver at CES 2010 to check the Story out; more live photos plus a video demo after the cut.Video demo after the cut

Like other ebook readers we've seen lately, the Story uses a 6-inch E Ink Vixplex display and has a full QWERTY hardware keyboard underneath.  It looks a little Kindle-like, we have to say, but the controls are responsive and the UI generally easy to navigate.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, given iriver's PMP background, the media player app is slicker than that of the Amazon ereader in our opinion.

A second version, with integrated WiFi, will follow on in the next couple of months – potentially Q2 2010 – but the initial version will require books to be loaded onto a memory card (up to 32GB) or side-loaded to its 2GB internal storage via a USB connection.  That first-gen model will go on sale at the end of January, priced at around $279; no word on how much adding WiFi will add to the cost.

iriver Story demo:

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