Elonex 705EB review

Elonex's latest LCD device falls uncomfortably between ereader and tablet

Elonex 705EB
800 x 480 pixel screens are fine in smartphones but are a bit blocky for seven-inch ereaders

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Elonex 705eb review

It's a shame that the Elonex 705EB is marketed as an ebook reader, because ebook reading isn't its strong point: it's a capable video player that doubles as an MP3 player and lets you read the odd ebook.

We wouldn't use it for protracted reading sessions, but it may be worth considering as an alternative to a portable DVD player.

We liked

The Elonex 705EB works quite well as a media player, outputting 720p video to your TV and doing a decent job of music, radio and movies. It's reasonably cheap and well suited to bright, colourful images.

We disliked

LCD screens aren't great for ebooks at the best of times, and the Elonex 705EB's screen resolution doesn't really suit the seven-inch form factor. The interface isn't very nice, the fonts are indistinct and the flat buttons are horrible.

Verdict

If you think of the Elonex 705EB as a media player, it's a decent device: the screen is at its best with brightly coloured photos and video, there's a TV out and 4GB of expandable storage isn't bad.

However, as an ebook reader it's less successful. We didn't enjoy the ereading experience on it at all.

Carrie Marshall
Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall (Twitter) has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR.