The Pandigital Novel is a 7-inch e-book reader with a color LCD screen that runs a customized user interface atop Android. While not positioned as an Android tablet, it’s drawn interest from people looking for less expensive alternatives to devices like the iPad thanks to its $200 price tag.
This is Pandigital’s second stab at a color e-book reader. The first Novel came out a few months ago, is white in color, and has 1GB of storage. The new Novel, which I reviewed, is black in color, has 2GB of storage (expandable via SD), and shaves a quarter inch off the original’s length and width. The new Novel weighs 12 ounces, versus the original at 19 ounces. Everything else appears to be pretty much the same between both devices.
Aside from built-in e-book software that’s connected to Barnes & Noble’s online store, the Novel features a full Android web browser, music/video/photo viewers, e-mail application, alarm clock, calendar, and contacts applications. Unlike traditional Android devices the Novel is locked down to prevent the installation of any new apps, which severely limits the device to reading, light web surfing (no YouTube in the browser or as an app, for instance), and little else.
Despite all the built-in features, the Novel doesn’t handle any of them particularly well since it’s hampered by a relatively slow processor and a cheap, resistive LCD touchscreen. The interface itself is actually pretty clean and thoughtful, but it often takes more than one deliberate tap of the finger to get it to respond. As a result, scrolling around web pages and flipping the virtual pages of an electronic book is pretty slow and monotonous.
The “problem” with this is that the screen has an 800×600 resolution, the tablet costs $200 (or less if you shop around a bit), and it only weighs 12 ounces. So I found myself wanting to use the Novel all the time just because of the big screen and its light weight. Just about any smartphone from the past year or two runs circles around this thing from a performance standpoint but the screen—the screen!—is so perfect for couch surfing.
Even after playing with the tablet for an hour, I found myself thinking, “This thing is begging to be hacked to run an honest version of Android.” Sure enough, plenty of people have done just that and reported that a stock install of Android seems to run smoother. But I digress.
As a book reader, the Novel has the novelty (pun, yes, etc.) of having a color screen. That’s cool and it works well for PDFs and magazines, but big long books don’t really benefit from it. And having to dig your finger purposefully into the screen in order to turn pages of any readable gets old quickly.
The library and reading interface leave a bit to be desired, as well. For starters, I seem to have two of everything on my bookshelf and when you “delete” a book, the Novel merely deletes the contents from its storage space while leaving the book on your bookshelf to be re-downloaded. If you want to get rid of it altogether, you have to go into Barnes & Noble’s website and delete it manually. When you purchase a book, the Novel asks you if you’d like to add it to your library. Yes, of course I would. And when you click on its cover once it’s in your library, the Novel asks you if you want to download the book. Yes! Come on, man!
What’s worse, the Novel adds things to your library—like newspapers—that aren’t cleared to be read on Android devices for some reason or another. So I’ve got the Boston Globe staring at me, complete with color photos, and when I click on it I get a message saying “This book is not downloadable now. Please update your library.” Now my library is full of individual days of the Boston Globe with no quick way to get rid of them or read them.
As for the other features, the only one you’ll really use with some frequency is the web browser. It’s actually pretty decent, but the slow processor and finicky touchscreen can make for a frustrating experience. The size and resolution of the damn screen keeps calling to me with its siren song, though.
The music player and photo viewers are okay but very basic. The video player is a total afterthought—no full screen, temperamental codec support, choppy, you name it. The e-mail and calendar apps are basic but functional. There’s no push mail, just automatic or manual checks for new messages.
Aside from the 800×600 screen and the 12-ounce weight, battery life is another shining point for the Novel. You’ll be able to squeeze around 4-6 hours out of it depending what you’re doing. There’s a hardware switch on the top of the device to quickly turn the wireless connection off.
The outward design of the Novel is pretty nice, too, in a minimal way. It’s cased in shiny, hard plastic with no buttons on the front; power jack and USB port on the right; headphone jack, wireless toggle, SD card slot, and volume buttons on the top; and a small power button on the left side. There’s also a stylus hidden in the back, lower-right corner of the Novel but all of the interface items are pretty finger friendly, so you may never use it.
The overall appeal of this device is not for people looking for a dedicated e-book reader. Aside from having a color screen, the Wi-Fi versions of either the Kindle or the Nook are much, much better options. There’s also very little appeal for those looking for an Android tablet since you can’t download any new apps to it. So what’s left? Hacker appeal.
Whether Pandigital planned on it or not, the Novel represents a fun and relatively inexpensive project for anyone looking to get a large-screen version of Android up and running. I don’t know if I’d shell out $200 for the Novel but if you can find it for closer to $150 or maybe even $100 someday, it’s not a bad device to play around with at all.
The black Pandigital Novel will be available at various stores starting sometime next month with a suggested retail price of $199.99.
More on Techland: Two Minute Video: eReader Meets Android Tablet with the Pandigital Novel