iRiver HD Story on sale for $99 at Target

tomsem · 10-02-2011, 01:09 PM

..until October 10 or so (sorry don't remember the exact date).

This has a 6" 1024x768 e-ink screen, which at least in theory should be noticeably sharper than everybody else's 800x600. I was able to see one first hand yesterday but the demo unit wouldn't actually operate for some reason, so it really wasn't possible to evaluate the screen. I thought it was kind of ugly and cheap looking, and reviews have not been that great. Still, I like the idea of a higher resolution screen..

Wonder if anybody has actually bought one and what you think?

exscentric · 10-02-2011, 02:05 PM

there is a youtube comparison of it and the kindle and the screen has better contrast, and looks quite nice. Have only seen boxed real ones.

carpetmojo · 10-02-2011, 02:34 PM

Has anyone ever found a demo unit that worked, completely ?

And isn't on either a long cable/chain, or tethered somehow in a modern version of a chastity belt ?

Zoshka · 10-02-2011, 03:10 PM

I bought one and returned it yesterday. The screen isn't that much sharper than a Kindle, I thought, especially with the bold Kindle fonts. The dealbreaker for me, though, was the page turn lever in the middle of the device. It's loud and takes too much effort to press, compared to the Kindle's and the easy tap on the touchscreen readers. It just seems obsolete to me, especially compared to all the new devices coming out, especially the new Kindles. I got a K4 non-touch yesterday, and it's smaller and lighter than the iriver, and the page-turn levers on each side are small but easy to use and almost silent, so I'm not distracted by them, as on the iriver.

Also, I was hassled a little by the Target customer service person, saying they don't accept returns on an opened device, but then they had someone from electronics look it over and approved it, but it wasn't a pleasant experience, so be careful if you get an irriver and hope to return it if it doesn't work out.

SmokeAndMirrors · 10-02-2011, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

..until October 10 or so (sorry don't remember the exact date).

This has a 6" 1024x768 e-ink screen, which at least in theory should be noticeably sharper than everybody else's 800x600. I was able to see one first hand yesterday but the demo unit wouldn't actually operate for some reason, so it really wasn't possible to evaluate the screen. I thought it was kind of ugly and cheap looking, and reviews have not been that great. Still, I like the idea of a higher resolution screen..

Wonder if anybody has actually bought one and what you think?

I took a look at it... and wound up going with the Kobo Touch instead.

I'm a broke student and I am all about best bang for buck. I never really wanted a physical keyboard, but for the price point, I was willing to check out the demo. They keys are pretty terrible to be honest. I'm not a fan of tiny keys a la Kindle and texting phones in the first place, but the iRiver keys were especially unappealing to use.

I didn't notice a truly significant difference between the screen of the iRiver and other Pearl screens. I doubt it actually makes a difference in use.

It felt a little cheap. Reviews confirmed this - the Engadget review even reporting that their demo unit broke.

There's something to be said for affordable, stripped-down ereaders. But I would rather spend a little more and get something not quite so stripped-down.

This is just my passing impression by toying with a demo unit and reading reviews. I haven't actually owned it - but I didn't find anything that made me want to.

teh603 · 10-02-2011, 06:09 PM

I got one, haven't had any meaningful issues with it yet. It became unstable and froze a lot on the "favorites" and "recent" screens, so I switched from collection view to folder view and the problem went away. Probably some caches not being cleared properly or something, who knows? I haven't tried SSHing onto it to see what the problem might be.

Although its kinda funny, I had to get the lady at the electronics counter to do a price check since the sale wasn't listed on their display. Sure enough, it rang up as $99 instead of $149, and the lady was like "OMG! I need to put up some sale tags, like NOW!"

As for the comparison to the Kindle... this is my first e-reader, so I refuse to draw a comparison on readability. The fact that it easily synchs with Linux and isn't laden with a lot of the baggage the Kindle is, was a big sale point.

10-02-2011, 01:09 PM	#1
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,464 Karma: 25996225 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	iRiver HD Story on sale for $99 at Target ..until October 10 or so (sorry don't remember the exact date). This has a 6" 1024x768 e-ink screen, which at least in theory should be noticeably sharper than everybody else's 800x600. I was able to see one first hand yesterday but the demo unit wouldn't actually operate for some reason, so it really wasn't possible to evaluate the screen. I thought it was kind of ugly and cheap looking, and reviews have not been that great. Still, I like the idea of a higher resolution screen.. Wonder if anybody has actually bought one and what you think?

10-02-2011, 06:09 PM	#6
teh603 Autism Spectrum Disorder Posts: 1,212 Karma: 6244877 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Coastal Texas Device: Android Phone	I got one, haven't had any meaningful issues with it yet. It became unstable and froze a lot on the "favorites" and "recent" screens, so I switched from collection view to folder view and the problem went away. Probably some caches not being cleared properly or something, who knows? I haven't tried SSHing onto it to see what the problem might be. Although its kinda funny, I had to get the lady at the electronics counter to do a price check since the sale wasn't listed on their display. Sure enough, it rang up as $99 instead of $149, and the lady was like "OMG! I need to put up some sale tags, like NOW!" As for the comparison to the Kindle... this is my first e-reader, so I refuse to draw a comparison on readability. The fact that it easily synchs with Linux and isn't laden with a lot of the baggage the Kindle is, was a big sale point. Last edited by teh603; 10-02-2011 at 06:11 PM.

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10-02-2011, 02:05 PM	#2
exscentric Addict Posts: 379 Karma: 1033424 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: WY Device: Kindle keyboard	there is a youtube comparison of it and the kindle and the screen has better contrast, and looks quite nice. Have only seen boxed real ones.

10-02-2011, 02:34 PM	#3
carpetmojo Wizard Posts: 3,117 Karma: 9269999 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: UK Device: Sony- T3, PRS650, 350, T1/2/3, Paperwhite, Fire 8.9,Samsung Tab S 10.5	Has anyone ever found a demo unit that worked, completely ? And isn't on either a long cable/chain, or tethered somehow in a modern version of a chastity belt ?

10-02-2011, 03:10 PM	#4
Zoshka Connoisseur Posts: 97 Karma: 1000000 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: WA Device: Kindle 3 & 4, Nook Tablet	I bought one and returned it yesterday. The screen isn't that much sharper than a Kindle, I thought, especially with the bold Kindle fonts. The dealbreaker for me, though, was the page turn lever in the middle of the device. It's loud and takes too much effort to press, compared to the Kindle's and the easy tap on the touchscreen readers. It just seems obsolete to me, especially compared to all the new devices coming out, especially the new Kindles. I got a K4 non-touch yesterday, and it's smaller and lighter than the iriver, and the page-turn levers on each side are small but easy to use and almost silent, so I'm not distracted by them, as on the iriver. Also, I was hassled a little by the Target customer service person, saying they don't accept returns on an opened device, but then they had someone from electronics look it over and approved it, but it wasn't a pleasant experience, so be careful if you get an irriver and hope to return it if it doesn't work out.

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