Viewsonic VEB620 e-Book reader

Monitor maker's word view

By Sandra Vogel • Get more from this author

23rd June 2010 07:02 GMT

When music is playing the navpad offers playback controls, with left and right giving you volume control, up and down moving between tracks and the centre button stopping and starting playback. There’s no pause feature. If you stop a track it starts again at the beginning, which I found very, very annoying.

Plays music, displays text, but a bit on the pricey side

The 3.5mm headset connector is on what is by default the bottom edge of the device (next to mains power and SD card slot). If you like to prop your ereader up on a table while using it you will have to use the G-sensor to turn the text ‘upside down’.

The battery is rated as good for 6,500 page turns. That’s less than the norm, but still plenty of books-worth from a single charge. Using the music player will deplete the battery quicker, of course, and you can’t get to the battery to replace it if it pegs out.

In the end, while the ViewSonic’s VEB620 works, yet I can’t really recommend it. It is too expensive for what’s on offer in terms of features. ViewSonic could implement an immediate price drop to a sub-£100 for this model and start to make some hay at the lower end of the market. But as it stands, you might want to look at alternatives. ®