Sony's 13-inch 'Digital Paper' tablet acts like paper, costs $1,100

[Scorpus]

We haven't yet reached the stage where physical paper is a thing of the past, but Sony is hoping to take us one step further to achieving that goal with a brand new device. Called the 'Digital Paper', the 13.3-inch E Ink tablet-like device is designed for business, educational and legal uses, potentially replacing stacks and stacks of paper.

The massive device is actually quite light, coming in at just 355 grams, but with the same three-week battery life you'd expect from an e-book reader. And an e-book reader is essentially what the Digital Paper is, although it does support touch and stylus input for manipulating pages and annotating.

Sony isn't particularly clear about the hardware inside the Digital Paper, but it appears to have a 1200 x 1600 16-level gray scale display (without a backlight), Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n support, a microSD card slot to complement 4 GB of internal storage, and support for just PDF files.

How much will the Digital Paper set you back? A whopping $1,100, which is definitely a result of its professional-oriented feature package. Sony will be introducing the device at the American Bar Association Tech Show, which has been running over the past few days.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56171-sonys-13-inch-digital-paper-tablet-acts-like-paper-costs-1100.html

 

[VitalyT]

Next to a $100 Kindle White this is the biggest joke yet. This sort of business is in books, and Amazon makes it clear, not in the hardware sales.

Another flop by Sony.

 

[misor]

The massive device is actually quite light, coming in at just 355 grams, but with the same three-week battery life you'd expect from an e-book reader

I disagree with the 'massive' description for the 13.3" d-paper (or whatever it is).
wow at the 3 weeks (or 21 days) battery life. amazing!

 

[Capaill]

An $1100 device that can only show pdf's?
What about Word docs, text files and all the miscellaneous other files like presentations, screenshots, open office?
How many businesses are truly pdf-only?

Also that 3 week battery claim does need some explaining. If it's proper ePaper, then it's only a page change that uses power. Showing one page only for 3 weeks is hardly noteworthy.

I just can't see businesses paying for this when a 10" tablet can do so much more at a fraction of the cost. In colour.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

The massive device is actually quite light, coming in at just 355 grams, but with the same three-week battery life you'd expect from an e-book reader

I disagree with the 'massive' description for the 13.3" d-paper (or whatever it is).
wow at the 3 weeks (or 21 days) battery life. amazing!

Massive is also used to describe the Note 3's screen and it's 6 inches or something like that. It annoys me too. I prefer to reserve the word for things that actually are pretty big... like Jupiter, for example.

Anyway... sounds like a tough sell for this thing, but they're marketing it to lawyers and I don't know anything about how they'd use it. Maybe it's got what they need.

 

[cmbjive]

For $1,100 I can get 110,000 sheets of paper from Amazon. I'd have more paper than what to do with, but what I wouldn't do is a buy an $1,100 machine just to replace paper.

 

[davislane1]

An $1100 device that can only show pdf's?

I just can't see businesses paying for this when a 10" tablet can do so much more at a fraction of the cost. In colour.

This is a device that would appeal to managers (esp. in accounting and finance). Legal documents, Form 10-Ks, etc. don't generally need color, are typically distributed as PDFs and would benefit from a larger display. Sony's real problem here is price point. It's $400 too high as a special purpose device.

 

[Guest]

Hahaha, give me three of those so I can clean my.....

 

[wastedkill]

Something that acts like paper and costs $1,100 I think thats $1,099 too much for just paper...

 

[misor]

Hahaha, give me three of those so I can clean my.....

so now you have a digital poop? hurry, do digital printing now and be the first!

 

[Guest]

I could get a 12 inch Galaxy note pro android tablet that also could play movies and running some games on it, complete with stylus.. only for $850

 

[Mike Steele]

Add this to the list of things not to waste your money on

 

[Fbarnett]

Sony is selling oft the pc and tv division to sell these PS4 and headphones?

 

[Jad Chaar]

Wow this is ridiculous...

 

[coverturtle]

After my experience with Sony's 300-pound 40-inch XBR glass tube television, I doubt I'll be spending $1,100 for any of their products.