Any new info about the ASUS DR-900/DR-950?

[Marcor]

One more info. Some rumours about the DR 900 available as from tomorrow on the online shop ofMediaworld.

Originally Posted by AdamV

Marcor - where do you live exactly? Are you aware if there is any Mediaworld shop in Piza? If so, can you ask about availability of the readers there? When and how many?

I live close to Como (you know the lake?) and about 30 km from Milano. If you mean Pisa, I found there is one shop there and one in Lucca, not so far away from Pisa. I can call, however the issue is that being a few or more readers in every shop and so many people waiting they will be sold out in a few hours.

[AdamV]

Marcor, thanks for the feedback... yes, i meant Pisa sorry for that

my cousing boyfriend lives in Pisa and he's the guy I asked to get one for me... he will be travelling to Poland for new years eve so if I can give him a call on quickly after the devices arrive, he could bring it with him on his travel... the problem is he's not much technical person so I cannot really ask him for any research

if it is not too much and you could call the MW shops near Pisa, and let me know - I would be very greatful!

[Marcor]

Send me a private message with your email. I'll let keep you updated via email. When I called they told me to try every day, so I'll keep calling also the shop of Pisa.

[Marcor]

Today I purchased the Asus DR 900. I went to the store and compared the Asus with the Sony PRS650 and the Asus just is far away from it. The screen refresh is slowlier compared to the PRS. Also the Sipix screen is way behind the e-ink. The Sipix white is rather light gray and the black is rather dark grey. Anyhow I still pruchased it after knowing this because I think that the reading experience will not be too much affected by it.
My first impression is that if you just read e-books (epub etc,) I would purchase the 650. However if you are also on pdf's a bigger screen is still a plus. Haven't had the chance to test the Kindle Amazon so I would not really be able to compair it.
This is my first feedback but I will test it and come back with more detailed feedback.

[Dulin's Books]

Thank you Marcor. Im very eager to hear how it is to read with. What price did you pay?

[Marcor]

299 euros including 20 euros for ebook purchases. I loaded my favorite science fiction book (Heinlein's Universe /Orphans of the Sky) which I have an old paper version of and a .lit version that I converted in epub. The first reading in the office ( I coudln't wait) seems great. So happy I did purchase it.

[Latinandgreek]

Congratulations on your purchase, Marcor. I can't wait to hear all your impressions. I'm interested in getting this device for PDFs.

[SkyDream]

Enjoy your reader

I'm happy to take a look at it once it's available in a store nearby.

[grega_g]

Can you youtube it? I would like to see how dictionary in epubs and web browser work.

tnx

[CalvinL]

Marcor, how it compare to the 1st gen e-ink screen?
Now we got 3 9' screen readers in the market, yay.

[Marcor]

A little bit more feedback.
I have now played a little bit with my new toy. If I have time I'll tube it allthough I am not really experienced with videos etc.

Anyway. As I said I could compare the DR900 Sipix with the Sony PRS650 e-ink which is just another world and way superior. The light grey (instead of white) and dark grey (instead of black) of the DR900 result into a lower contrast making the whole appear a little bit “smoggy”. However I tested the DR900 yesterday reading about 10 pages in the dark with a small artificial light and the reading is just still the same pleasure. I also tested a capacitative screen stylus which seems to work very well. According to another italian purchaser it is better than VizPlex, but I haven’t seen VizPlex working.

The reactiveness of the touch screen is sort of disappointing (especially if you are used to a tablet). However also in this case it doesn’t really affect the reading. Just the page refresher is a little bit slowlier and and you have to get used to the highlighting or use of dictionary, which however I liked eventhough I did no extensive testing and just picked some words out of the text. The dictionairy did fine and not like those small paper dictionairies in which you never find a good translation.

Internet connectivity surprised me because I thought it would not be possible at all to browse the net. The browser works and you can google or wiki as much as you want, with the limitations of the low reactiveness and the fact that flash content/video etc are not supported. I opened the Wiki entry for Heinlein and scrolling works, you can read everything and also see the pictures. For some reason I could not enter my Yahoo Account, but I didn’t really insist too much.

I tested the reader also with PDF’s and the result is positive. If you need to read an A4 PDF you can do it properly, without too many complications. if you have to zoom or move the page (though I had some troubles in zooming properly (but maybe I have to just understand better how it works) again: the reactiveness is an issue. The quality of reading is quite acceptable and consider that with a 6” you will never even get close. I tested the DR900 also with an Italian Newspaper PDF page and in this case the difficulty in zooming properly moving the page, even in horizontal layout make it possible but rather complicated.

For epub's, you can set 4 different text sizes which you can customize, but I have to look better to see how exactly it works.

Overall I am very satisfied and I enjoyed the reader with the limitations I noted above. Great reader but some improvements would make the difference. If you read epub ebooks only a 650 is better (but still I really wanted a little bit of a bigger screen) , if you read PDF’s A4 size this will do, if you read PDF’s bigger size than i would not really recommend it. I would recommend it, however I suggest you to see it working live before purchasing it. If you are more of a perfectionist and really want something more maybe you better wait (but I am waiting since March and really in no mood to wait another 12 months).

[Dulin's Books]

thank you marcor

[Marcor]

Just two corrections:

1. I compared the DR900 with the Sony PRS650, the word "could" is misleading.

2. At the end. I recommend the reader as a whole, but suggest you to go and see it working with your eyes because depending on the use you will make, I could be the right/wrong choice.

[AdamV]

although I have been decided to give it a go - thank you for the nice review! i wish i had mine already [sigh]

[italianReader]

Marcor what about the glare? is it at the same level of the sony PRS650?