[hug]

I dream of a clamshell e-reader, with dual 7 or 8" screens, that reads in the traditional two-pages-at-a-time kind of book orientation.

It seems a no brainer to me. It would keep the fragile e-ink substrate safe, while being more ergonomic and allowing you to have twice the screen real-estate without ending up with the terrible reading experience with too-long-lines that you get from current large-screen e-readers.

[kelnos]

Back in 2009/2010 I worked for a startup that was doing something like that. The screens were a bit bigger (maybe 10" or 12"? can't remember), and they were LCDs, not e-ink. The device was heavy, but the intended market was college students who could read textbooks on it, and take notes directly on the book's pages with a stylus. (It also had a web browser and dedicated note-taking app, among other things.)

The product's timing was off; the first iPad came out while we were still building it, which made it quite a bit less attractive, and it likely could be made much thinner and lighter today. (What really killed it was the founders' inability to secure digital rights from any textbook publishers... though arguably it would still have been a tough product to sell even without that obstacle.)

[addcommitpush]

There is the double mode of the PadMu: two A4 ereaders with a "double mode" case for 1837€. Not quite what you're asking at all, but the closest right now as far as I know.

[TheGoodBarn]

On a similar thread, I saw a post today for a Phillips 24" monitor with an e-ink extension display: https://www.anandtech.com/show/18859/philips-reveals-dual-sc... its pretty nuts.

I couldn't find any pricing info, but I would test drive one for a work setup if I had the chance.

[jibbers]

Every time I pick up my Kobo I imagine it being exactly that - two of them connected with a hinge.