Archive for the ‘ereader reviews’ tag
Bebook Neo Review– Update 4 comments
I’ve come to like the Neo ereader, although it is a bit hard to go back to the smaller screen after using the DR800SG. Function wise, the Neo is comparably a very capable ereader – it is too bad we can’t do some sort of ereader mind meld. I had hoped to do some videos this weekend of the controls and maybe of the PDF handling on the Neo.
The control scheme on the Neo is quite good; you can even adjust the font size with a single click of the control rings. PDF’s can be zoomed and panned. And what’s more the Neo will remember your zoom setting between page turns on PDF’s, so there is no more tedious resetting of your zoom level from page to page.
Yes, I planned to update my Neo ereader reports and shoot some video this weekend. Unfortunately…
I have cracked the Neo’s screen.
I’m sure you too have had a few of those “OMG, I can’t believe I just did that please God let me wake up now I know this is just a bad dream” kind of moments before. Well … welcome to my latest bad toon.
I am currently waiting to hear back from Bebook with an RMA and the cost of replacing the screen.
My wife is not a happy camper.
“Camping??? What you talking about camping for? We don’t have any money left for camping! Maybe you better go camping in 
the backyard for a while!”
Looking at things from the “Well, the aquarium is still half full” point of view as I slowly and methodically begin banging my head against the wall, I reflect on how I can now check out Bebook’s customer service.
‘And stop banging your head on that wall – we just had it painted!!”
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Irex DR800SG Ereader Update – First Impressions no comments
I love reading books on the DR800SG. The e-ink screen with its 16 grayscales and 768 x 1024 resolution is gorgeous. I also find that I much prefer reading on the 8.1 – inch screen to the usual 5 – 6 inch ereader screens. The larger screen does add a little width to the device though, which may impact portability for some.
I am also a fan of the minimalist design of the DR800SG ereader which does not waste space and which is devoted to and complements the display screen. I hope other designers of new ereaders will take a close look at Irex’s design choices here and maybe stand on Irex’s shoulders, as Steve Jobs would say. The DR800SG definitely has some qualities worth emulating. I would like to see some more ereaders with this screen size format for one thing. That being said however, the DR800SG’s design as executed does lead to some control awkwardness that I think could have been avoided by Irex.
Page turning and menu navigation are accomplished via the flipbar on the left
side of the bezel and the Menu button underneath it. If you hold the flipbar to one side for a longer period it will turn five pages at a time instead of just one.
To use the DR800SG with one hand you will need to hold your ereader in your left hand and use thumb power to turn pages. This works fine, unless you want to shift hands for awhile. This control scheme will also not work if you are left handed and want to hold the ereader in your right hand so you can have your left hand free. Adding a couple of small page turning buttons on the right bezel might have impacted the aesthetics of this ereader, but it would also have greatly increased its functionality.
You can navigate through most menus and make selections without the stylus by using the flipbar and menu button, but sometimes it does feel a bit awkward. Since there is no docking bay for the stylus on the ereader it is good to be able to do as much as possible without it.
Unlike most ereaders that come with a stylus, you cannot turn pages with a swipe or touch of the stylus on the edge of the screen. There are a couple of small arrows at the very bottom of the screen (you can just see them at the bottom of the picture) you can touch with the stylus for page turns, but they are quite small and inconvenient. It feels as though the Wacom digitizer is minimally implemented at best.
There’s Not Enough “There” There
The DR800SG has five four different font sizes to choose from, but only one font style. The
pic shows the largest font size, which is about 3/16 inch height for capital letters. You can also set the page margins from 0 to 1/2 inch.
The search function so far seems to work quite well. You will need to use the stylus for this. It would have been nice if Irex had added a Go To Page function as well.
You are able to sort through your library or documents by Name (title), Author, Date Added or Recently Added. It is also possible to delete content from the ereader itself without connecting to a computer, which is nice.
With its larger screen, Wacom digitizer and $400 price tag you would assume that Irex is targeting users who need to handle a lot of PDF or other documents with this ereader. Judging by what is missing you would be making a wrong assumption. There are no annotation, note taking or even highlighting functions. Bookmarking is as good as it gets. It kind of makes you wonder why Irex bothered to use Wacom technology on the DR800SG at all. At the moment it seems like the digitizer is wasted.
PDF zooming is unavailable on the DR800SG as well. Even viewing a PDF in landscape mode does not seem to achieve any magnification – you just get the same size doc with very wide margins. With PDF’s made up only of text you may be able to enlarge the font as long as there are no graphs, schematics or tables, etc.
So far my take is that the DR800SG is a wonderful ereader for general book reading. But is that enough to justify paying $400 for it – especially in view of all of the soon to be released competition? True, Irex will hopefully have a firmware update soon that will add some of the missing functionality to their new ereader, but I can not recommend buying one based on that expectation/speculation alone.
If there were a dictionary on this ereader it would probably have a picture of the DR800SG next to half-baked.
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Hands-On With a nook eReader Demo no comments
My local Barnes & Noble did in fact get their nook ereader demo over the weekend and had it on display today. Silly me for being a doubting Thomas.
Surprisingly, I had the demo to myself for about ten minutes. The staff at B&N was very friendly and eager to demo the demo for me, but it’s obvious that they are still learning – there definitely is a pretty steep learning curve with the nook’s control and navigation system; it does not seem very intuitive.
The color book covers on the LCD screen are nice, but it is not really a killer feature for me. As the nook reviewers have said, the scrolling on the LCD is not really smooth and is laggy. I was able to apply my thumbs to the virtual keyboard only a little, but it seemed average. I really had the impression that the navigation was over complicated and could be better implemented so as to simplify things. It will take more than the few minutes I had with the nook to get used to the control interface.
Yes, as other reviewers have found, the nook ereader is laggy, and I can see it being an annoying and frustrating distraction to one’s reading. Hopefully B&N will be able to remedy this soon with updates.
The nook ereader is one of those devices that I was expecting to be even more attractive in person than when viewed only in pictures. For me it wasn’t, though to be fair this was a demo unit that had been handled a lot. The LCD touchscreen is a fingerprint magnet for sure. Personally I find that I prefer the feel of the slightly lighter and thinner Kindle 2 in my hands, but you may feel otherwise. I do like the rubberized finish B&N used on the back of the nook ereader.
So how does the nook compare to the Kindle ereader now that I’ve been able to play with one for a few minutes?
nook vs Kindle eReader
The e-ink screen of both ereaders seems pretty much the same. However, due to the somewhat clumsy and slow controls of the nook I have to say that the Kindle still rules in terms of hardware. This could change if B&N releases effective updates soon. But Amazon is not standing still; the Kindles are a moving target and Barnes & Noble is the one playing catch up. Just this morning Amazon announced another feature upgrade that they are working on to make the Kindle ereaders better suited for use by those with visual impairments.
The Kindle ereaders are still available for the holidays. Besides being sold out until January, no one knows when B&N will have software updates available or how effective the updates will be. If you really want a nook, consider waiting a couple of months if you can.
Kindle eBook Store vs Other eBook Stores
Many who are considering buying a nook ereader or have already ordered one complain that they don’t like the Kindles because they lock you into getting your ebooks from one source, namely Amazon. Actually you can get non-DRM’ed ebooks including EPUB’s from other sources and convert them for the Kindle using a program such as Calibre, which is pretty easy to use. True, it would be even easier if the Kindle ereaders had built-in EPUB capability.
As for DRM’ed ebooks; yes, if you have a Kindle then the Kindle Store will be your primary source and Barnes & Noble hopes you will buy nook content from them. But you can also buy ebooks from other stores for the nook. Just don’t expect that you will be able to shop around and find the ebook you are looking for at a much better price, as in my experience many of the ebook stores have similar prices and the Kindle Store usually beats them all.
I would suggest making a list of books you want to read and do your own survey. I made an ebook price and availability comparison not too long ago with just over 100 ebooks and Amazon was the clear winner. Even more recently Inkmesh ran a comparison study with over 11,000 ebooks and again the Kindle Store came out on top.
To its credit, Barnes & Noble has said that they are working to lower the prices of their ebooks, but I doubt that they will ever be able to reach parity with the Kindle Store.
It is not only about price though; it is also about being able to find what you want to read as an ebook. The more off of the beaten path of the bestseller lists the books you read are, the more likely you are to find them available as an ebook at the Kindle Store.
How much all of this affects you will depend on what you read. If you mostly read current bestsellers then you will most likely find less price differences between the Kindle Store and other providers in many cases. If you want to read mainly public domain titles you can find loads of these for free for either ereader.
Customer Service
I’ve never had to return anything at Barnes & Noble, but I’m not encouraged by the way in which they have handled the nook launch. I also don’t like the fact that if you don’t like your new nook ereader you will have to pay a restocking fee to return it. This in spite of the fact that in order to get one in time for the holidays you had to order one sight unseen, with no reviews available and not even a manual posted online.
Update: The nook manual is now available online.
I see some on B&N’s forums saying that if the nook doesn’t live up to their expectations they will just eBay it. I wouldn’t count on this. I suspect that the halls of eBay will soon be crowded with nooks. Indeed, the prices being asked for on eBay for nook ereaders are already down from what they were a week or two ago.
I have made several returns on Amazon, which has a liberal 30 day return policy with no restocking charges. Recently I downloaded a few MP3 tracks which through my own silliness were unusable. When I called Amazon they graciously reauthorized my account so that I could download them again. They didn’t have to do this – it was my own negligence that caused the problem, but that is the customer service that I have come to expect from Amazon.
In conclusion, at this time I feel that the Kindle is still at the top of the ereader heap, with the nook a close second and nipping at Kindle’s heels. We will have to wait a bit and see if Barnes & Noble can fix the nook’s glitches in a timely manner and perhaps reevaluate.
£149.00
£109
