Ereaders are starting to gain ground in the eyes of the consumer, and become desirable pieces of hardware. At the same time there is something of a price war starting. This has to be a good thing for the consumer, but for the likes of ViewSonic it probably isn't welcome news.

The VEB620 and its close cousin the VEB625 are the company's first ereaders, and they are over-priced, under-featured pieces of kit which won't help establish ViewSonic in this relatively new and fast evolving market. The VEB620 is the first of the duo to become available. The VEB625 adds Wi-Fi and a touch screen, but is otherwise identical.

The ViewSonic VEB620 comes in either black or white. Either way you get a slipcase to protect it in transit. With or without the case the device is just a bit large for most pockets, though its 6-inch screen gives you less viewing area than you get with the average paperback book.

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Like its rivals the ViewSonic VEB620 offers a choice of font sizes to make reading easy on the eye. In this case there are five sizes to choose from, and there is a button dedicated to stepping between them. You'll almost certainly find a comfortable reading font size for ebooks, but PDFs fare less well. There's no text reflowing, so as you increase the font size on a page you need to scroll around to read because the edges sit outside the viewable area. Not a pretty solution, and not one that is very easy to live with.

The VEB620 has no fewer than seven buttons on the front of the chassis. You use these to go back and forward through pages and to access back, menu, home, bookmark and text size changes. There is also a D-pad. That's a lot of buttons and it all looks rather busy to us.

A G-sensor means text rotates round through four orientations as you turn the ViewSonic VEB620 in your hand. This is not unusual and it is a welcome feature. The wide formats can help considerably with reading some PDF documents.

Something we've not seen before is a shake control for page turning. You flick the ereader in your hand to move back and forth between pages. We found we needed to be very definite about this action, and it did detract from the smoothness of reading.

The slow processor was also a problem in terms of getting a smooth reading experience. Some rival ereaders we've seen, such as the new Bookeen Cybook Opus, have much faster processors and this means quick page turns, quick action on menus and a much more responsive feel all round.

Like many of its rivals the ViewSonic VEB620 plays music files, and you can either listen to these through headphones or via the rather tinny speaker. You can also use the speaker to listen to audio books if they are in MP3 format.

Storage capacity is perfectly adequate. There is 1.5GB of accessible internal memory and an SD card slot for you to add more. Books stored anywhere on an SD card, even in folders, are found automatically and added to the library.

The battery is rated as able to deliver 6,500 page turns, though this will be reduced if you also listen to music. That is a lower rating than other ereaders, and in fact sums up the ViewSonic VEB620 nicely. What is on offer here works, but it all feels a bit behind the times.

The ViewSonic VEB620 ereader is far from being the best ereader we've used. The processor is slow and the build feels second rate. Add in the relatively high price and we'd suggest you shop around rather than plumping for this offering.