"Slick e-Reader" (whatever that is) coming to Big Lots

[imaredr]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

So, I went to Big Lots tonight to check out this unit. They had three of them in stock. A smart and helpful employee got one out for me to look at.

I looked quite a bit nicer (and bigger) than I had expected. I didn't think it looked or felt cheap. Of course I didn't get to turn it on and there was no display so I couldn't say for sure.

I had planned to buy one for my son but he turned it down. He doesn't want an eReader period. Glad I asked and didn't surprise him with it. So then I almost bought it for myself even though I definately don't need another reader. My husband talked me out of it.

Now it's haunting me so I'm hoping others here will convince me it's not worth the $90.

I could only watch 5 second increments of the video that "Reviewer" made as I live in the boondocks and have satellite internet. I hope that you are reading and can explain a couple things I did hear -
"sometimes it turns on and sometimes it doesn't"
"I'm not that impressed with it"

Ellen, I would love to hear what you have to say about yours.

So, is anyone who bought one keeping it? Returning it?

I will be posting my thoughts later today. I can say this: For $90 it is a good reader. Some minor cons, but all could be fixed with an update to the firmware.

Ellen

[mdotson]

I presently own a Sony Reader, an Augen The Book, and now one of the Slick e-readers from Big Lots. I have had it up and running for two days now and these are my impressions.

1. On the music player. I love to read, and buy e-readers for for that purpose, but since it is part of the slick I tried the feature out. With earphones the unit is more than adequate as a music player. Hooked the slick up to my PC and when loaded dragged a music folder of MP3's over. The slick recognized the files immediately and played with no problems. Sound on earphones was quite good. Once music is loaded you can hit the Slick back button and return to reading a book if you like. Since I like classical music, with the volume set on low this was actually nice as an added function.

2. On SD cards. I have SD card with almost 1400 epubs on it already. I placed the SD card in the Slick and turned it on (yes, you have to hold the on button for about 2 to 3 seconds for it to activate, but it works every time). The Slick immediately recognized the card and loaded all my books in about 1 minute to the library bookself. All were in alphabetical order. I have had no problems opening any of them. With such a large number the you can access them easier by folder by going to settings - explorer.

3. On the video player functions and pictures. I have not as yet tried this and probably will take a pass as I have never watch videos on small screens. Seems like a waste of effort to me for an e-reader.

4. On page rendering and readability. Page turns are faster than the Sony Reader, but slightly slower than Augen The Book. The readability of the one supplied font (small, medium, and large) is quite simply the best I have seen to date. This is by far the most readable LCD screen I have come across. Since I prefer the LCD screes to e-ink Augen The Book was my personal favorite for readability, but this is far better.

5. On battery life, I suspect it will be about 8 hours from what I have seen so far, but time will tell.

6. On will I Keep it. The answer is an unqualified yes, and I will buy a few extras for Xmas presents. This makes units such as The Literati, and Pandigital look like sad second cousins.

7. On Kobo and Borders bookstore access. I have not tried it as yet, but this is one unit I most likely will attempt to use it on just to see how well it fares.

8. On the Instruction manual. Ok on Kobo and basic unit functions, but weak on details. They could stand to do some cleanup up and add more detail on things like clock settings, bookmarks, etc.

For a Unit under $100.00 this one has more going for it than many of the pricier model. I do not need WiFi or 3G in an e-reader. Just good basic functionality and the Slick passes that test with flying colors.

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by ebsebs

I had no problems turning the Slick on - just press and hold the power switch for about 2 seconds.

This is exactly what I was thinking. I thought maybe she just wasn't holding the power switch long enough.

Also, I am glad it's not a touch screen. I hate those things. I'm not sure why this was mentioned on the video since the ad/box/manual never said anything about that.

Originally Posted by imaredr

I will be posting my thoughts later today. I can say this: For $90 it is a good reader. Some minor cons, but all could be fixed with an update to the firmware.

Looking forward to it.

Originally Posted by mdotson

6. On will I Keep it. The answer is an unqualified yes, and I will buy a few extras for Xmas presents. This makes units such as The Literati, and Pandigital look like sad second cousins.

Just good basic functionality and the Slick passes that test with flying colors.

This is exactly what I was waiting to hear.

Thank you all for taking time to post your thoughts. Now I wish I would have bought one while I was in town today. I likely will tomorrow. I currently own a Kindle so this is very different and gives me an excuse to own two readers.

[bookratt]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Geeze, he didn't think that through. It also plays several types of video files. He could have said "thanks for the book reader, Mom!" and had a portable porn machine!

very funny!

[twowheels]

Somebody said that there was no video on the Big Lots site... it's there now:

http://www.biglots.com/browseItem/as...ed/2460#videos

Above the picture there's a video tab if this doesn't take you to it...

[imaredr]

My review is posted on Nate's blog at http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...ew/#more-13849

Ellen

[twowheels]

Anybody know if it has library support? Is ADE enough to guarantee that? I'm thinking about getting one for my daughter.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by mdotson

I have SD card with almost 1400 epubs on it

This is why I run antivirus software and avoid all those dodgey websites on the Internet.

[ebsebs]

It looks like Ellen and I agree on pretty much everything, especially the need for some additional font sizes and page layout options.
I will probably keep the Slick too, but the poor quality of the image viewer and video player could be a deciding factor for me.
I wrote a long e-mail to their Customer Service department yesterday - no reply yet.

There is one thing Ellen might have missed: you can lock the screen rotation. Just go to the Settings menu and set the Auto Rotate option to Off.
That's something I sorely missed on the Augen.

I also discovered that the Slick supports .TXT (text) and .RTF (rich text format) files.

Regards,
Eric

[imaredr]

Originally Posted by ebsebs

It looks like Ellen and I agree on pretty much everything, especially the need for some additional font sizes and page layout options.
I will probably keep the Slick too, but the poor quality of the image viewer and video player could be a deciding factor for me.
I wrote a long e-mail to their Customer Service department yesterday - no reply yet.

There is one thing Ellen might have missed: you can lock the screen rotation. Just go to the Settings menu and set the Auto Rotate option to Off.
That's something I sorely missed on the Augen.

Regards,
Eric

Thanks on the tip about locking the screen. I didn't notice it. I was looking for something within the book. You know in case I change my mind and not have to exit what I am reading to change the setting.

Ellen

[imaredr]

Originally Posted by twowheels

Anybody know if it has library support? Is ADE enough to guarantee that? I'm thinking about getting one for my daughter.

I just finished trying that. My library doesn't have ebooks, so I asked my daughter if I could use hers to test it. ADE works with the Slick reader. I chose the Adobe Epub format to download.

Ellen

[twowheels]

Thanks imaredr. Unfortunately I called four Big Lots stores in the area, and they're all sold out. Looks like they underestimated the demand!

[wvcherrybomb]

Quoted from Ellen's review:

"Just to see what would happen, I also connected the reader to Kobo Desktop app. As soon as it connected there was an option to sync my reader. I now have the books I bought from their site on my Slick. Nice to know, huh?"

Yes, this is nice to know! Turns out this is a quite versatile reader.

[nathonix]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

Sounds a lot like our brand new (opened 11/19/10) store.

Last time I was there the girl waiting on me informed the FedEx delivery woman to "Take those boxes and shove them up your a**"
Wow, way to show your enthusiasm for your brand new job....

Even so, I think this item has solved my problem as to which eReader to get for my teenage son. I will try to get one tomorrow evening.

colombia county huh? I'm actually a cashier at that store and would like to know which girl that was.

back to what i came here for. picked this ebook reader up today for the wife with my employee discount it came out to 77.03 after tax, so its really quite cheap in my case. I selected it because it said it handles pdf files and that would mean i could move our library of books from my pc to it without any gobetween. it works a bit like a usb flash memory device in that you just plug it in and drag and drop the files.

its a bit sluggish between pages, which is odd given that the manual says it can play back 720p video at 25fps. the case feels sturdy enough, and the reader itself is rather light. my major gripe is that it lacks in reformatting pdf files, although the included epub's look quite nice on it. just a case of having to load up acrobat and do some formatting, but still a bit of an annoyance.

pictures work nicely, buttons are chunky, and most everything is gravy, other than having to use the arrow keys when zoomed in, would be nice if next page just acted as a page down button instead of a hard set next page.

more testing to do with video playback at a later time, and fooling around in acrobat to get the proper format down.

EDIT: new to ereaders, didnt realize that epub was designed to reflow, whereas pdf just doesn't like to do it. trying a converter now

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by nathonix

colombia county huh? I'm actually a cashier at that store and would like to know which girl that was.

Yep, Lake City. Next time I see her in the store I will note her name and private message you. She was actually older than a girl, 30ish if I remember correctly.

The smart, friendly girl that got one out for me to look at told me they weren't selling that fast but there were only a couple in stock. I hope they are not all gone by the time I get back to town.