The Pocketbook Era is the best dedicated e-reader the company has ever made. The hardware has exceptional build quality and this is the first time Pocketbook has totally redesigned one of its devices in a very long time. Gone are the buttons at the bottom of the screen, in addition to the page change buttons. Instead, all the buttons are now on the side of the screen, which wrap around the edges. This makes page turning much more natural and organic, as it’s the same button layout used by Kindle Oasis, Kobo Libra, and Barnes and Noble Nook. You can buy the Era from the Good e-Reader store, starting at $199.

The Pocketbook Era features a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen with E INK Carta 1200. This new e-paper technology is currently only available on a few models, such as the 11th Gen Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Sage. It offers a 25% increase in performance and a 35% increase in page turns. The resolution is 1264×1680 with 300 PPI. The screen is protected by a layer of glass and is flush with the bezel. The screen has improved anti-scratch protection, which gives more confidence in the security of the device, even in the most active uses. In addition, the waterproof Pocketbook Era is an ideal gadget for reading in the bathroom or outdoors. The eReader is water protected to international standard IPX8, which means the device can be submerged in fresh water to a depth of 2 meters for up to 60 minutes without any harmful effects.

In terms of industrial design, it is very elegant. The color scheme is all black and the back of the reader is perforated with over a hundred lines that provide excellent grip without leaving a lot of fingerprints. The sides of the bezel have a nice silver bronze accent, but if you buy the Copper model, they have a copper tone along the sides of the bezel. Although this model has a capacitive multitouch screen, you really don’t need to interact with it much if you’re reading a book. This is due to the physical page-turning buttons which are slightly raised, without being obtrusive. Above the page switch button is a small home button.

There’s an illuminated screen on the front and a color temperature system for reading in the dark. This eReader has an all new design and doesn’t have the traditional buttons at the bottom of the screen like previous Pocketbook eReaders. However, it does have manual page-turning buttons on the side of the screen, which is useful if you don’t want to rely exclusively on touchscreen interactions.

Under the hoods is a 1GHZ dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. There are two different colors to choose from and each has different storage. Sunset Copper with 64 GB of memory and Stardust Silver with 16 GB of memory. You can charge the device and transfer data using the USB-C port. You can listen to music through the single speaker at the bottom of the player or pair headphones or wireless headphones and enjoy Bluetooth 5.1. Another useful feature for those who prefer to listen to books is text-to-speech which turns any text into a natural sounding vocal audio track. Just two clicks and the device will read aloud any text file in one of the 26 available languages. It is powered by a 1700mAh battery and the dimensions are 134.3×155.7.8mm and weighs 228G.

Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and The New York Times. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.