Specifically, having a screen bigger than your device and at the same time maintaining the oh-so-in-vogue slimness that’s so important in today’s portables has always been a matter of compromise – getting a device with a bigger screen inevitable meant getting something that was heavier or bulkier than what you’d strictly prefer.

                                               Sure tiny is good, if it didn't include the screen.

Those were the breaks, and we got along with our tiny-screened iPods and not-thin-enough Razrs. But as I (excitedly) pointed out in one of my previous posts, the status quo is shifting – slowly and in fits and starts, but we’re getting there.  Now instead of agonizing over what kind of device to buy, and how big a pocket you’ll be custom tailoring into your jeans / jacket / gym bag, you can opt to buy into Polymer Vision’s (ahem) vision into the future of displays – the Readius.

                                             Aren't laptops supposed to be portable?

Besides the awkward name, this device is quite satisfactorily “out there” in terms of advanced sci-fi wow factor. It features a 3G/3.5G (HSDPA) tri-band system designed to work with GSM networks around the world. High speed connectivity feature allows for instant updates from news sources, special services and email. The Readius also features audio capabilities for podcasts, audio books and music. It comes with a Micro SD High Capacity storage slot which accepts Micro SDHC cards of up to 8GB in storage – for putting in gazillions of books, reports, and correspondences (well, thousands at least).

Most important though is the foldable 5-inch QVGA (320x240 pixels) 16-shade black & white display, mounted on the Readius’ 115x57x21 mm frame – like having a double-sized screenon a regular-sized candy-bar phone. With this feature, the aforementioned books, reports and correspondences will have a chance of getting read in the first few minutes or so, instead of spending half of your time scrolling left, or right, or down.

                                            
Besides the more obvious external features, there were no expenses spared in decking out the internal anatomy of the device, with a 400MHz ARM11 processor backed with 128MB of RAM and 256MB of internal storage. It has a battery life of 30 hours for continuous active reading, and comes works on a USB 2.0 connection for PC or Mac connectivity. It runs on the robust Windows CE platform, trumping many a portable reader and joining the ranks of the high-powered business handhelds with regards to compatibility and usability. A unique 8-button interface called Simple Touch further simplifies operation.

Some obvious shortcoming exist: the screen cannot display color (yet), and the display may be susceptible to wear and tear on the parts where it is folded against the device. Also, it is coming only in mid-2008, and in Italy (!) to add insult to injury. When will it arrive here? Regardless of these shortcomings, this is after all one of the first commercial demonstrations of the technology, and some disappointments are to be expected. Here’s to hoping we can have a device that sports a bigger screen but retain a svelte overall package – one that let’s us have our cake and eat it too.