MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Is iRex Iliad good decision at the moment?

baldman · 03-14-2009, 04:53 PM

Hello mobileread members,

I have been reading this forums for quite a while now, and am a big fan of eInk technology. Now I finally decided it is time for me to get an actual device. And as all of you know, getting the right one is not an easy decision to make, hence I hope you, experienced users and fans alike, might help me out (and I hope it is not much trouble, as this must be the number one question around here).

Basically the most painful thing that keeps bugging me is, whether i should go for iRex Illiad Book edition (don't need the wifi, which is not of much help on that device anyway), or not. I am willing to pay that premium price, if the things I like the most (apart from say "standard" features) are actually useful.
For starters, 8" screen is a big plus and looks gorgeous, with 16 gray scale. (Btw, is it Vizplex or not? I found several threads, but didn't make out any consensus on this topic). The writing capabilities are one of the "most wanted" things on my list, planned use would be for making annotations inside pdf documents (I am a student, you know). Last but not least, mobipocket support is a big advantage, as I already own several eBooks (reading on my BlackBerry).
But I am concerned with the known disadvantages of Iliad, which are power consumption (lack of suspend mode etc.), not particularly responsive controls and support from iRex itself. I know, there was an effort called IliadOS, which aimed for solving lot of things, but seems dead at the moment. What I am afraid of is, wouldn't I be buying already obsolete device?

So If Iliad would show up as a no go, that got me thinking. What to do next?
As there are not any devices with pen enabled capabilities as iRex has
(or with that great display)

, I must choose from the variety of 6" readers. At least, I would not spend that much money and can wait for next gen devices, but *sigh*....

Nevertheles, here are my thoughts: Under any circumstances, I won't go for Kindle, because I live in central Europe, meaning there is no reason for me to pay extra for features I cannot use (whispernet).
So what is left is: Hanlin in any of its incarnations, Cybook, and two Sony versions. Sony is great as far as epub is concerned and visual style, otherwise, their LRF format is something I don't like very much. I know, I can use calibre, but the conversion is not 100%. Hanlin and Cybook seem almost the same (feature wise, at least). Cybook is a bit more expensive, but the stock firmware seems more capable than Hanlins, alas on the second device, I could use OpenInkpot, which appeals to me (and I am considering a donation to that great folks, btw

). One last thing is, Hanlin and Cybook are readily available in my country (Czech Republic), while the others I must buy somewhere and have them shipped to me.

In the end of the day, I could not get my head around it and decided I would ask this open community for opinion. I hope I am going to read a novel on my brand new reader by the end of the next week

, but don't want to rush things in a way, that I would be disappointed.

Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post, but I needed to express myself correctly.

03-14-2009, 04:53 PM	#1
baldman Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505	Is iRex Iliad good decision at the moment? Hello mobileread members, I have been reading this forums for quite a while now, and am a big fan of eInk technology. Now I finally decided it is time for me to get an actual device. And as all of you know, getting the right one is not an easy decision to make, hence I hope you, experienced users and fans alike, might help me out (and I hope it is not much trouble, as this must be the number one question around here). Basically the most painful thing that keeps bugging me is, whether i should go for iRex Illiad Book edition (don't need the wifi, which is not of much help on that device anyway), or not. I am willing to pay that premium price, if the things I like the most (apart from say "standard" features) are actually useful. For starters, 8" screen is a big plus and looks gorgeous, with 16 gray scale. (Btw, is it Vizplex or not? I found several threads, but didn't make out any consensus on this topic). The writing capabilities are one of the "most wanted" things on my list, planned use would be for making annotations inside pdf documents (I am a student, you know). Last but not least, mobipocket support is a big advantage, as I already own several eBooks (reading on my BlackBerry). But I am concerned with the known disadvantages of Iliad, which are power consumption (lack of suspend mode etc.), not particularly responsive controls and support from iRex itself. I know, there was an effort called IliadOS, which aimed for solving lot of things, but seems dead at the moment. What I am afraid of is, wouldn't I be buying already obsolete device? So If Iliad would show up as a no go, that got me thinking. What to do next? As there are not any devices with pen enabled capabilities as iRex has (or with that great display) , I must choose from the variety of 6" readers. At least, I would not spend that much money and can wait for next gen devices, but sigh.... Nevertheles, here are my thoughts: Under any circumstances, I won't go for Kindle, because I live in central Europe, meaning there is no reason for me to pay extra for features I cannot use (whispernet). So what is left is: Hanlin in any of its incarnations, Cybook, and two Sony versions. Sony is great as far as epub is concerned and visual style, otherwise, their LRF format is something I don't like very much. I know, I can use calibre, but the conversion is not 100%. Hanlin and Cybook seem almost the same (feature wise, at least). Cybook is a bit more expensive, but the stock firmware seems more capable than Hanlins, alas on the second device, I could use OpenInkpot, which appeals to me (and I am considering a donation to that great folks, btw ). One last thing is, Hanlin and Cybook are readily available in my country (Czech Republic), while the others I must buy somewhere and have them shipped to me. In the end of the day, I could not get my head around it and decided I would ask this open community for opinion. I hope I am going to read a novel on my brand new reader by the end of the next week , but don't want to rush things in a way, that I would be disappointed. Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post, but I needed to express myself correctly.