Infibeam Pi2 – Touch Screen, WiFi, more language & formats support – next generation eBook readers

India’s first eBook reader Infibeam Pi has come up with its next version of the device. Thanks to the success of its first generation reader device and driven by huge demand, the company has recently unveiled Infibeam Pi2.

Infibeam Pi which was launched on July 2010, got good traction and good reviews in the market and was sold for Rs. 9,999/-. The second generation reader device Pi 2 is hitting the market well before one year time period from the former. Thats a fast move from the company.

New Infibean Pi2 has loads of new features. It has touchscreen and will offer Wi-Fi connectivity to download ebooks or documents wirelessly. Infibeam Pi2 is available for pre-orders from here at a price of Rs. 11,999. The introductory price of the same will be Rs. 14,999 and is expected to be available in the market at the end of February.

Unlike other eBoom reader device, the Pi ebook reader also offered services like listening to music/audiobooks apart from support for normal document and images formats. Infibeam Pi2 can read pdf, word and other formats of books, presentations, magazines and journals. Pi2 also supports 15 languages, can store ebooks in its 2GB internal memory and supports memory cards upto 32GB.

And, interestingly the new Infibeam Pi2 comes with a 6-inch E-Ink Vizplex with Resistive Touch and Epson Display controller screen and so this device readable even under the sunlight. The screen supports 600×800 pixel resolution with 166dpi and supports Black/White 8/16 grayscale.

Infibeam Pi2 Tech Spec:

– 10mm think

– 6 inch wide display (E-Ink Vizplex)

– 600 x 800 pixels, 166 dpi, Black & White 8/16 grayscale

– touch screen (Resistive Touch and Epson Display controller screen)

– Freescale iMX 35 serials processor

– 128MB RAM, 2GB internal memory

– runs on Linux 2.6.28 operating system.

– SD card slot (supports up to 32G)

– Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) enabled

– 1100 mAh rechargeable Li-Polymer battery (can support ~8000 pages read)

– supports 15 Indian languages incl uding Sanskrit and Hindi.

– supported book formats – PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, RTF, MOBI, PRC, DOC

– other supported formats – JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF, MP#

– support for music playing while reading books

Thats an impressive set of features for a home grown eBook reader device. Its no way less compared to the rivals like Amazon Kindle and Nook colour. Its putting up a strong fight with its peers in terms of technicalities. May be Infibeam Pi2 is lacking the digital book library collection which amazon boasts of, but days are not that far for this indian company to go over its global rivals.

We are yet to have hands on this latest eReader device. Once we get a chance, we will update you with our review. Stay tuned.