Electronic paper has long been the aim of many an office in order to eliminate waste at the workplace while keeping the environment green. Fujitsu has recently released the first color e-paper electronic book in the world known as the FLEPia e-book, and it will be available from this October onwards. While you might salivate at the prospect of holding one in your hands, hold on to your horses. Fujitsu is currently selling these in lots of 10 A5 size units for ¥1,575,000. When converted, that is roughly $13,303 for the entire bunch which doesn’t exactly bring up the words “affordable” and “cheap” to one’s mind.

The FLEPia’s main attraction would be its ability to display a maximum of 4,096 colors (pretty much the same amount as first generation color screen cellphones) on its 768 x 1024 pixel screen. Different color modes can be set, but realistically speaking, most people would stick to the eight-color mode since a higher setting requires up to ten seconds to refresh each page, which can get pretty irritating when you’re busy perusing an interesting article. At a lower color setting, however, the page can be turned within two seconds, roughly the same time taken to turn a page in a paper book.

The Fujitsu FLEPia is currently powered by an Intel XScale processor and runs on the Japanese Windows CE 5.0 operating system. Measuring a mere 12mm in thickness, the FLEPia is available in A5 or A4 sizes that weigh 320g and 480g respectively. Features on both models include WiFi connectivity, an SD memory card slot, a touch-sensitive display, an onscreen keyboard, a stereo speaker, and a headphone jack. The battery is rated at 50 hours, and we presume that’s at the lower color settings with the dimmest screen level. Real world usage will probably net a much lower battery life.

Source: Digital World Tokyo