With the Kindle, Amazon seems to have a pretty tight hold on ebook readers, having created an attractive and desirable – yet also affordable – product in a market that until then hadn’t really been catching people’s attention.

This has led to the rest of the market to up its game – no bad thing when this results in products like the Bookeen Cybook Odyssey.

At first glance it looks like a rather standard ebook reader, but dig a little further and you’ll find some good features.

The vibrant and clear black and white e-ink display is also touch sensitive, and though it’s not as instantly as responsive as the latest tablet PCs, it does a good job and feels quite natural when browsing an ebook.

It also works well with the onscreen keyboard for entering text.

A built-in wireless adapter is another good addition.

It lets you connect to Bookeen’s online bookshop, though it’s not quite as large as Amazon and the majority of books are in French.

A web browser is also included and websites, though black and white, appear fine – though more complicated ones don’t work well.

A microSD expansion port lets you increase the already rather generous 2GB capacity.

Overall it’s a good device, though not quite as slick as the Kindle, and quite expensive.