Size Matters! Discussion about 8-10 inch readers

[martienne]

Let's discuss the option for those of us who want a reader for academic type literature that requires a large screen.

Quality, speed, availability and general impressions.

Right now I am interested in the Pock
Pocketbook Color Lux and the Jetbook Pro.
But what else is available?

Ectaco Jetbook Color

[Billi]

Is color necessary? I have neither seen a Jetbook Pro nor a Pocketbook Color in real but reading some reports here the color display seems not to be very convincing.

One possibility is to wait a little bit and see if Sony produces its 13" and how useful it will be. It "could" arrive by the end of this year. But it is black and white only, not color.
The discussion about it you can find here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=213019

[martienne]

Originally Posted by Billi

Is color necessary?

No actually....
It's definitely nice, and I prefer it. But if it's between a problematic product with colour and a flawless product without, I'd go with the flawless...

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by martienne

No actually....
It's definitely nice, and I prefer it. But if it's between a problematic product with colour and a flawless product without, I'd go with the flawless...

There is no flawless in the E-Ink world. Everybody seems to get something annoyingly wrong. It seems to me that you have to find the device that annoys you the least, rather than implements some quality the best.

[Feher]

At the moment, Black and White readers are superior to Washed-out-colored ereaders for academic purposes. Still some may have use for colored screens such as for viewing diagrams. If you are interested in color, my vote is for pocketbook for superior firmware

By the way, When i saw the topic i thought discussion was going to be on preferred Screen size for large ereaders. I feel 9.7 inch is small and 13.3 would be a bit large. I want to see a 11-12 inch ereader in the market.

[jojoba]

I'm a researcher and use an iPad for reading and annotating all my academic literature. I just find it a much better tool for academic work than e-ink readers. I love e-ink for non work related reading, though.

[martienne]

Originally Posted by Feher

At the moment, Black and White readers are superior to Washed-out-colored ereaders for academic purposes. Still some may have use for colored screens such as for viewing diagrams. If you are interested in color, my vote is for pocketbook for superior firmware

By the way, When i saw the topic i thought discussion was going to be on preferred Screen size for large ereaders. I feel 9.7 inch is small and 13.3 would be a bit large. I want to see a 11-12 inch ereader in the market.

I just didn't think that anything bigger than 10 inch was available, with e-ink.

If it is, would you tell me the make please?

As for making a 13 inch reader for E-ink: My impression is that this would mean slow graphics, books taking minutes to load and new pages flickering whileloading. That's apparently the issue with those large readers that are on sale in Russia - forgot the make. There are some rather offputting reviews on Youtube, suggesting that they simply don't put fast enough hardware into the large-screen devices. In order to perform flawlessly they need better spec components. E-ink screens just take more power to generate the output, I guess!

I guess the market just isn't big enough to create a real a la carte model that BOTH has a large screen, AND fast components.

I'd certainly be willing to pay what it costs, but it seems I am in the minority. Most people want a budget device and it's hard to produce quality large screen e-ink cheaply.

[vxf]

Originally Posted by jojoba

I'm a researcher and use an iPad for reading and annotating all my academic literature. I just find it a much better tool for academic work than e-ink readers. I love e-ink for non work related reading, though.

This is exactly the spot in which I am.
I need a larger screen to read PDFs - and an iPad works. It's not just screen size though - I would not use e-ink for this because I need fast scrolling and flexibility in handling annotations.

I use a Kindle PW for everything else - newspapers and fiction. I would prefer a slightly larger screen (I was in love with my PRS950, until it died), but it's not a big deal.

[Feher]

Originally Posted by martienne

I just didn't think that anything bigger than 10 inch was available, with e-ink.

If it is, would you tell me the make please?

As for making a 13 inch reader for E-ink: My impression is that this would mean slow graphics, books taking minutes to load and new pages flickering whileloading. That's apparently the issue with those large readers that are on sale in Russia - forgot the make. There are some rather offputting reviews on Youtube, suggesting that they simply don't put fast enough hardware into the large-screen devices. In order to perform flawlessly they need better spec components. E-ink screens just take more power to generate the output, I guess!

I guess the market just isn't big enough to create a real a la carte model that BOTH has a large screen, AND fast components.

I'd certainly be willing to pay what it costs, but it seems I am in the minority. Most people want a budget device and it's hard to produce quality large screen e-ink cheaply.

I was referring to Sony 13.3 inch eink reader to be released in 2014:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=213019

As for large screen ereaders being slow: I don't think the same way. I assume the process of loading the graphics is parallel or simultaneous, though it will consume more power

[ProfCrash]

I would have loved a 10 inch e-reader that could handle PDFs well when I was in grad school. I had two full size filing cabinets full of journal articles and the like that I could have read on an e-reader. The books I could have downloaded. The freedom to go home for the summer with only one suitcase and all of my reading material at my fingertips.

(sigh)

Heck, I would have been thrilled with a tablet.

[martienne]

Re the 13 inch Sony: Well stuff like this is ALWAYS late, isn't it? Or if it's on time, it's full of bugs. I don't think anything will come of this until late 2014, so I will buy before then. After a few months with a 9.7 inch I should be able to determine if how useful 13" would actually be.

[WillAdams]

I use a 10.4" Fujitsu Stylistic w/ daylight-viewable Transflective display, and despair of finding a suitable replacement.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by jojoba

I'm a researcher and use an iPad for reading and annotating all my academic literature. I just find it a much better tool for academic work than e-ink readers. I love e-ink for non work related reading, though.

Agreed.