The Jetbook Lite from Ectaco has been on the market for a number of years now. During that time the price has steadily decreased, and now you can own a brand new Jetbook Lite for around sixty dollars in the United States from reputable sources. The official sticker price on Ectaco’s website is still listed at $129.95 This puts the Jetbook Lite in the entry class of ereaders, many of which have some simple e-reading capabilities, but nothing more advanced like the latest offerings from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Hardware

The Jetbook Lite uses a TFT display with a 5 inch screen and resolution of 640×480. The unit itself weighs only nine ounces before the required batteries are added. The device runs on 4 AA batteries which provide the Jetbook Lite with around twenty hours of continuous reading time. The Jetbook Lite supports 100MB of books natively, with expansion capabilities via SD card of up to 32GB. The Jetbook Lite does not support Wi-Fi, nor is it a touchscreen device. With no backlight, the Jetbook cannot be read in the dark, although the TFT display does allow for high quality reading in bright sunlight.

Software

Perhaps the biggest positive of the Jetbook Lite is its ability to read nearly every popular ebook format available today. The major formats like mobi, prc, epub, pdf, fb2 and html are all covered. Additionally, the Jetbook Lite supports Adobe DRM, meaning that you’ll be able to use your Jetbook to read books that you borrow from your public library right out of the box. The Jetbook Lite has bidirectional cross-dictionaries between English, German, Spanish, Polish, and Russian, as well as the ability to adjust font sizes and font types. These features mean that the Jetbook Lite is above all else a reading device, with little ability to do more than display pictures or read books of various formats.

Conclusion

While reviewing this product, the single biggest thought on our minds was the age of the product itself. First debuted at CES 2010, the Jetbook is now nearly four years old, and the technology is definitely showing its age. In a direct comparison to the latest non-touchscreen offering from Amazon, The Jetbook falls short in nearly every category. The pixel density is inferior to other products on the market, and the TFT display is dated. The best thing that the Jetbook Lite has going for it is the massive amount of support for other formats. However, recent computer software has made it easier than ever to convert e-book formats between various devices, so this isn’t as big a deal as it was in 2010.

Overall, the Jetbook Lite is a quality product with some interesting, if somewhat dated, features. Retailing from reputable sites for just $56.95, its price and features is still enough to make some people bite. However, the older Amazon Kindle sells for $69 with better battery life, more built-in storage, higher pixel density display, lighter weight, and a larger screen. If you have an extra $12, the choice is clear.