Noteslate – No frills e-ink tablet for $99

Tablets are getting more popular lately thanks to the iPad with more coming from the Android, Windows and BlackBerry stable. However such device are still a luxury to many considering it costs RM1000-RM3000 depending on specs and options. India has been talking about developing low cost tablet but that still seems far from reality right now.

What if you’re just looking for a tablet that works exactly like a clipboard with a bunch of paper? Now, there’s a tablet that does just that! At $99, NoteSlate is a low cost tablet with a single colour display and battery that lasts for 180 hours! It has a 13″ matte monochrome eInk display which has a resolution of 750×1080 pixels. The screen is said to be A4 sized, which makes it similar as the real thing. Of course at this price point, you don’t expect the fancy features as a full fledge tablet. There’s no apps and it even lacks a browser. However you do get a mini-USB, SD card slot, a 3.5mm jack and MP3 playback capabilities. Strangely WiFi is a free option but we’re not sure what it is used for.

There are several body colours available which comes with its colour matching E-ink. If that’s too limited, Noteslate has also mentioned that a multi-colour version is on the way with 4 e-ink colours.

Currently the basic noteslate is expected to hit the market in June 2011 and if you’re interested, you can sign up for their newsletter for the latest updates.

For more information, check out their official website.

In case you missed it, there’s also a no-frills phone called John’s Phone that boasts a standby time of 3 weeks!