I'm considering looking for an ultrabudget tablet. I currently use my pocket pc to read .txt and .rtf ebooks, and my wife's laptop to read .pdf and .cbz/r* ebooks. I also use her laptop sometimes to watch .avi movies in bed. I'm looking for a supercheap tablet pc, used I'm sure, to fill this roll. The pocket pc works, but its kind of small, and a bigger screen would be great. Also, freeing up my wife's laptop would make her very happy.

I'd only need about 1 gig of hard drive space (at the minimum), but a wireless (or ethernet port if that's not possible) connection would be almost required. I've got a spare PCMCIA wireless card around. No need for an optical drive, as we take the laptop with us whenever we go anywhere where I'd want to read or watch a movie, and all the files could be stored there.

I'd like to spend less than $250 for this. Does anyone know if this is possible yet? If so, does anyone know a retailer I should look at? I assume this puts me in the realm of the used market.

Thanks!

*These are rar and zip archives of jpegs, read by a program that displays them sequentially.

Tablet PCs and UMPCs are great for reading. However, they are also full PCs so new ones don't quite fit the price that you're wanting. You might be able to find used ones in that price range, then download one of the several ebook readers.

Sony has a portable ebook reader. Have you looked at it? It's not a PC and would be just for ebooks, but something to consider: SonyStyle.com | Sony® Portable Reader System

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