When is a qwerty keyboard a bad idea? When it’s on the Samsung E61 e-book reader. The problem with this thing isn’t just the ugly keyboard, or the fact that it’s obviously “inspired” by the Kindle, it’s that the Samsung E6 looks promising.

The E61 has a lovely (meaning ugly) clear keyboard, but other then that it’s almost identical to the E6. It has the same 600×800 screen and removable battery, but it navigates without the sliding tray, through physical keys on the face of the unit. The folks at PC Professionale got a hands on with the new device first, and they seemed to like it. We’ve got not word on the actual release date or how much it’s going to cost yet, but it’s probably safe to assume the E61 will be out this year along with the E6.

[Via Engadget]