First impressions: The Alex e-book reader

Announced the same day as the Nook last fall, and sharing a combination of a six-inch e-ink screen above a smaller touch LCD screen, the Alex e-book reader bears an uncanny resemblance to Barnes & Noble's e-book reader. (FYI, Spring Design, which makes the Alex, is suing B&N for "misappropriating trade secrets.")

The Alex is expected to launch in February at a cost of $400, which is markedly higher than the Nook's $259 price tag. And the respective performance of these dual-screen rivals? Based on using the Alex at the Consumer Electronics Show, the device does appear to have some navigation pluses over the Nook.

Its touch screen is squarer than the one on the Nook, and seemed a little more responsive in my demo. As on the Nook, there are turn buttons on each side of the main screen for changing pages. But the Alex adds another way to navigate that's among the faster ways I've seen to advance in a book, especially when you don't have a particular page or chapter in mind. It's a slide control, much like those sometimes employed to help advance through a song or video.

Where the Nook omitted a Web browser—because those that can be installed on an e-book reader are so frustrating, B&N says—the Alex boasts one. (Time limitations, and the broadband-access challenges at CES, prevented me from fairly judging the browser's performance.) You can access content, from the Web or your library, via the lower screen and then bump it up to the main screen for a bigger, if monochromatic, view.The Alex will be among the first devices to use the new Borders e-book library, it was announced at CES.

It also appears the Alex will, at least initially, more fully exploit the Android OS it shares with the Nook, offering the likes of Gmail access out of the box. Indeed, reflecting that OS, the home screen of the Alex's LCD closely resembles that of some smart phones.

Unfortunately, side-by-side comparison of the Alex and other devices I had with me at CES, suggests the device shares a key performance drawback with the Nook: Page turns that are on the slow side. And despite its high price tag, the Alex will launch with only Wi-fi wireless access; Spring Design says it's shopping for a wireless carrier and will launch a 3G version later in the year.

—Paul Reynolds.