It uses the same type of e-ink technology as the Kindle but it is in full colour, and can play back music and video.
The Teclast features a 5-inch screen which makes the print fairly small. Fortunately the zoom can magnify the screen substantially, and the glare-resistant e-ink (or c-paper as Teclast calls it) contrast ratio and brightness can be adjusted.
What separates this e-reader from others is that its use of a colour screen means that different colour combinations can be used to make the reading experience easier, and its built-in text-to-speech will read back text files with an effective female American accent.
As a bonus, the player will allow pictures to be viewed, play back all major video and audio formats, and includes a voice recorder. It can also be plugged into a computer for easily adding e-books such as .pub, .pdf or .txt files, and can also be used as a 4GB USB drive to just carry files around.
To make the e-reader affordable, however, there were several sacrifices made that should be considered before purchasing. Unlike the Kindle there is no way to connect it to the Internet, and there are no spoken menus, so it’s likely a vision impaired person would need some assistance setting it up.
In addition, the brightness levels are low by default, and some assistance may also be needed to locate the settings option to increase the brightness. Finally, the text-to-speech function only works on text files and not with other supported e-book formats.
As a standalone e-reader, the Teclast delivers a remarkable number of features to the price point and includes a number of accessibility features. However, people with disabilities should consider the advantages of other e-readers like the Kindle before making a purchase.
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