Available Reviews

If you're not a citizen of the US then you may have some trouble acquiring an eReader since Amazon and Sony both don't deliver to non US residents. Here is where the BeBook comes into play. Endless Ideas BV. which is a Dutch manufacturer of office electronics introduced the BeBook on late 2008. Matt Palen went out for a ride on this pretty surprising gadget.

General look and feel - In all fairness, it seemed a bit "cheap".
That was the first impression I got. It comes in one color (black), its
design is clean and it is very easy to carry (7.2'' * 4.7'' * 0.39''). 

Weight - This is one of the lightest eReaders out there.
weighing 7.75 ounces (220gr) it is extremely easy to carry around.

Display - As most of the other eReaders around, the BeBook has
a 6'' display which uses E Ink technology in order for the screen to
look like real paper. Very easy to read from, the text is clear and
there are no reflection issues.

User Interface - The BeBook's user interface is made out of a
small keyboard (only 10 keys of 1-10) and a 2 button controller.
This makes the design really smooth. It takes a short while to
get used to this as it is not 100% intuitive but after a few hours
of reading it becomes simple as any other gadget.
  
Storage space - The BeBook comes with an internal memory of
512MB. This allows you to store around 400 books depending on
which format you are using (HTML books are lighter so you can
store more of those). You can increase the memory capacity by
inserting an optional memory card with another 4GB.

Wireless capabilities - The BeBook does not have wireless capabilities.

Compatibility - BeBook supports the following file formats:
pdf, mobi, prc, epub, lit, txt, fb2, doc, html, rtf, djvu, wol, ppt, mbp, chm, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, rar, zip, mp3. It still has some issues with supporting DRM PDF files. This is crucial since a lot of the PDF publishers use DRM.

Upload methods - In order to upload eBooks to your BeBook you need to use a standard USB cable.

Battery life - The battery life of the BeBook lasts around 7000 consecutive page turns.This number is of course much lower depending if you are using the MP3 player.

Price - This is the really cool part. The BeBook is really cheap compared to other readers. Right now there is a special promotion and it is being sold for $279. Considering the fact that this reader is at least as good as the Sony PRS-505 this is a real bargain (and it comes with a case unlike some other eReaders).

Warranty - So here's the thing, I couldn't find
a warranty any where on the BeBook site so I
guess they are probably not giving one. That's
quite a shame, it seems that this eReader has
great potential but I'm not going to waste my
money on something that isn't covered. But
after contacting them it seems the BeBook
has a one year warranty so that's OK. One
thing that is extremely good about the
BeBook's site is that it has a support forum
so you can easily get questions answered and
help from other users.

Available downloads -  The BeBook currently
offers free downloads of around 20,000 books
and it supports major eBook formats such as
MobiPocket formats.

BeBook's eRreader Central Review

Overall Rating:

Cons:  "cheap" design, unknown brand, DRM PDF support not available.

Pros: Good design, simple to use, has almost every feature the Sony PRS-505 has. Great display and one of the cheapest eReaders out there.

Review Summary: If you're not a US citizen or you're having problems with getting a different eReader shipped to where you live you should definitely consider the BeBook. It seems to have everything an eReader needs. The only problem is that its brand isn't well known yet.

BeBook