Alex eReader: The good, the bad, the ugly

The Alex eReader has some impressive features, but its high price is a problem.

(Credit: Spring Design)

While we've had Spring Design's Android-powered, dual-screen Alex eReader in hand for a few weeks, we held off on our review to give Spring some time to work out the kinks.

The good news is that Spring has already implemented some firmware upgrades and the Alex experience has improved. The bad news is the Alex remains a work in progress, still carries a high price tag of $399, and doesn't have a major e-book store integrated into it. In the end, those downsides are hard to ignore, but the Alex does have some impressive features and is wonky enough to appeal to techie types.