(Thanks to GBM Reader Aaron for the tip!) Astak has announced a new line of Mentor e-book readers at the IDPF trade show today. The line will include 5-inch, 6-inch, and 9.7-inch screen models with a variety of configurations. They all include E-Ink displays, 128MB of RAM, SD card slots, and MP3 playback capabilities. The really exciting news is price. Rumor has it that the 5" Mentor will be priced at around $150 and the ProMentor 9.7" is supposed to be around $350. US availability this summer with the 5" shipping first in June.

The features are generally what one would expect: E-Ink display, 128MB of on-board RAM, SD card slot, MP3 playback, and support for TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML/CHM formats are standard on all models.

Beyond that, the 5-inch model runs Linux 2.6 with QT environment and the display is 800 x 600 pixels, 170dpi, B&W, 4 grayscale. Full feature list.

The 6-inch model features Win CE5.0 with a 800 x 600 pixels, 170dpi, B&W, 4 grayscale display. The 6-inch appears to also include WiFi connectivity, which would be very cool. Full feature list.

The 9.7-inch is the high-end model with all the bells and whistles: high-res display with 1200 x 825 pixels, 170dpi, B&W, 4 grayscale, WiFi, and some form of touchscreen. The data here is a little confusing since it says touchscreen and then specifies Stylus Only. Hmm, could it really be an active digitizer?! That would be absolutely amazing. Imagine an active digitizer E-Ink system for around $350. Wow. Full feature list.

I'm trying to get more details on this new unit from Astak, but I'll definitely be following closely to see if we can really get a great little e-book reader at such a fantastic price.

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