Shopping without buying at Fry's again

Yep, it's me NOT contributing to economy again.

This time I was trying out a Lenovo netbook and see if it's a good deal since I saw a special offering online. The model is Lenovo Ideapad S10-2. It felt OK but after trying out Toshiba's Mini NB205-N311/W, I found that one feels so much better when doing a lot of typing. So I think I may settle on that one if I don't find any better deal within this month. I compared the price between Amazon and NewEgg and found Amazon has a better deal. This review also confirm my decision. With good battery life, nice heat emission and a reasonable price, I couldn't find a deal better at this moment.

But then, in tech world, things ALWAYS change.

I also tried the Sony netbook. I hated the right SHIFT key. The keyboard is too tiny. The only good thing about it is the style and the higher resolution.

A big surprise, though, was that I found a little device called Astak 6 inch EZ Reader. It's selling at $259.00. Not big deal, I thought, and 6 inch still seems small for my manga consumption. But the more review I read about this device, the more I was amazed. The best part of this device is that it support Chinese characters. None of the other devices, like Kindle, Sony eBook Reader, and so on support that.

• Review 1
• Offical Web site
• Review 2
• Review 3
• Review 4, with the hack that gives you a better reader
• CNet Review
• Chinese Info
• NewEgg Review
• Firmware Update
• Great font support

I also saw the Aluratek LIBRE eBook Reader PRO at the store selling at US$169.99. This one, however, doesn't seem as attractive as the Astak one. Not only the screen is smaller, but it support much less file format, and the worst part is that it doesn't support multiple language.

Finally I walked to the digital frame section and was surprised that reasonable looking digital frame only cost US$38. Sound like a great gift item to me.