Of the many readers at CES, the Alex dual-screen e-book reader from Spring Design got our attention. It's an "open reader", not a closed system like the Kindle, which means other developers can create software for it. And it has some features the others don't have.

The upper screen is a 6-inch low power consuming e-ink display and the lower one is a 3.5-inch touch screen that runs Android 1.6. This combination allows the user to browse the web below and print the page above. Alex features Wi-Fi and has built-in 3G, and there is much scope for annotation, integration and Web grabs.

Of note, performance seems snappier than that of other e-readers, and we find the larger second screen more pleasing than the Nook's. Alex is our pick for its ability to transfer content to the e-ink screen above for ease of reading which also, happily, saves battery power.

+ springdesign.com