Readius: The standout device of Mobile World Congress?

While I’ve been nodding gently and with reasonable excitement at the likes of Samsung’s new handsets, Nokia’s announcements (the N96 does look gorgeous) and Yahoo’s oneConnect strategy.

But nothing new or totally unexpected has really caught my attention. At least that was the case until I came across Readius from Polymer Vision. I didn’t get an announcement, a release or anything about this! In fact I almost missed it!

Versions of the device have been around since last year’s 3GSM — however the current version looks very much ready for production. Here’s hoping. I’ve no word on whether you can buy one yet.
The concept is pure genius.

Readius is a small device, 115 x 57 x 21 millimeters (when closed). It’s principally an e-Reader, although it also functions has a tri-band handset allowing worldwide calls — and of course, ‘high speed instant updates’ from ‘personally selected news sources’ (like SMS Text News!).

You can read for up to 30 hours on one battery charge (no word on call time). The fold-out screen has ‘twice the surface area of the current largest phone display’ (the iPhone is 3.5″ in case you were wondering). Bluetooth 2.0, 256mb of internal storage (up to 8GB with MicroSD), and it’ll function as a mass storage device when connected to your PC.

I’m sold. I really like the concept.

A few sites around the world are reporting that the Readius should be available to the public mid-2008. There is, alas, a dearth of current information. I’ll try and find some more soon.