Literati reader owners

jbcohen · 03-01-2011, 07:38 AM

What is your opinion of the Literati, use the thread space to add explination if you feel any is necessary:

blt50203 · 03-01-2011, 08:06 AM

I picked one of these up on an after holiday clearance sale at Kohls. After discounts, coupons, etc I walked away with the reader for under $30. My primary reader is an iPad and my wife has a nook. I thought it would be fun to play around with it. The unit it poorly constructed and just feels cheap when you hold it. I gave it to my son, seven, and he uses it as an imaginary controller when he plays with his brother.

Meemo · 03-01-2011, 05:15 PM

I got mine for $40 at Bed Bath & Beyond (also found the charging cover for $10). I voted "Other" - I definitely wouldn't call it "the best electronic book reader available", because I prefer an eInk screen. But it's better than "so so" - I really like reading on it in bed in night mode, and I like color for kids' books.

Now having said that, if I'd paid $150 for it my opinion would be different - it's a pretty good little reader for what I paid for it. And I have to say I read on it more than I read on my nook these days....

My 2nd generation Kindle is still #1.

amybobamy · 03-07-2011, 10:59 PM

I guess I wish I hadn't bought it, since I had to return it when it "bricked" on me, dead as a doornail or whatevah ... BUT it did whet my appetite to find an ereader that I really WOULD like to own, and made me think about positives and negatives about ereaders.

Sort of like the ex-boyfriends of high school -- Interesting at first, and then disappointing, but over time I came to appreciate the perspective I gained.

MR. Pockets · 03-07-2011, 11:47 PM

The literati is a great reader if you get it at the right price (below $80, preferably ~$40-$50). It doesn't have a search function or a "jump to", but it does have a (slow) dictionary, acceptable build quality and (I think) awesome page turn "buttons" (they are touch sensitive areas under the arrows). Battery life is about what can be expected from a backlit LCD device (turn the brightness down and you will get significantly better battery life). Formats are limited to epub and PDF (which for some reason show up under the "Docs" tab rather than "books" tab...) and the D-pad is a little frustrating at first (I got used to it. Well, sort of.)

Overall, I am glad I got it, but I would not pay more than ~$60 for one.

megacoupe · 03-08-2011, 01:30 AM

Having owned a PRS500, a Nook, a Pandigital Novel (white) and a PRS650, I can unequivocally that the Literati is the worst ereader I've ever used. And yet, it still isn't so bad. There's a completely useless keyboard (there's almost no reason to ever type anything, seeing as how internet access is blocked), the navigation is slow and extremely clunky and the device feels cheap. It only gets around 6 hours of battery life and it's a touch too heavy.

With all of that said, once you actually have a book open and the only button you're pushing is the "next" key, it's perfectly functional as an ereader. For a kid or an adult's first ereader experience it's not bad (though the difficult-to-use interface might actually turn them off of this whole ereader business). My 10-year-old cousin has no problem using his but my 57-year-old mother gets confused all the time.

I bought mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $12 (it was on clearance for $40, a 20% off coupon reduced it to $32, plus there was a $20 mail-in-rebate). In my opinion, the full $40 would have been a little too high for this device.

wvcherrybomb · 03-08-2011, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meemo

I voted "Other" - I definitely wouldn't call it "the best electronic book reader available", because I prefer an eInk screen. But it's better than "so so" - I really like reading on it in bed in night mode, and I like color for kids' books.

I personally prefer my K3. However, my opinion of the Literati is much better than some others. I don't think it feels "cheap" at all. I've had zero problems with it. My daughter uses it everyday and also reads books to my grandson on it.

I only paid $12 for it, but had planned to buy another when they were on Amazon for $69. Unfortunately, they sold out at that price before I got another.

fjtorres · 03-09-2011, 07:23 AM

Other.
The proper term, I think is: good-enough.
It is a minimum-frills reader roughly comparable to the Kobo but trading off the eink for LCD.
It reads epubs, pdfs, rtf, and html quite well.
It talks to Adobe Digital Editions on the PC just fine, as well as the Kobo PC app. It also works fine with Calibre.
It uses an onboard database to track and manage the books so it can have issues if you feed it a *lot* of new books at once. (Much as the Sony 505, at that.) It is s-l-o-w to add even a handful of books. And the books show up on a single listing, either in a 3x3 Covers view or a thumbnail-plus-text vertical tile list. No pure text listing. So expect a *lot* of paging if you feed it thousands of books via SD Card.
It helps a bit that it segregates epubs from the document files so the later have a separate tab, DOCS, and listing. But that's it.
While reading, you have a choice of serif or sans-serif font face, 7 brightness levels, day, night, and sepia Themes, and about 7 font sizes. As with most mobile ADE-based readers, one could wish for both smaller and larger sizes.
It is supposed to be limited to 8GB SDHC cards but I fed it a 16GB MicroSDHC in an adapter with no issues; it saw all 16GB and reported the correct amount of free space. Books opened fine, too.
Online connectivity to the KOBO stores works but it seems to prefer encryption-free connections. (At least it didn't get along with my router with encryption on.)
Paging speed is good, even with PDFs.
And I've yet to see a crash while reading.

So, no; it is not the best ebook reader out there.
And it lacks all sorts of user controls and file management features that the best readers offer.
It's no Pocketbook or even Kindle.

But it's good enough to read on (if you don't mind the snowboard form factor) and fairly priced if you can get it in the US$69 range (do an online search--they're still out there) and a bargain at $39.
It is far from the worst reader you could get, especially if you favor color LCD over eink displays. And, hey, it comes with a cover!

View Poll Results: Litterati owners, what is your opinion of the Literati
It's the best electronic book reader available	1	11.11%
It's so so	2	22.22%
Wish I hadn't bought one	2	22.22%
other	4	44.44%
Voters: 9. You may not vote on this poll

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03-01-2011, 07:38 AM	#1
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	Literati reader owners What is your opinion of the Literati, use the thread space to add explination if you feel any is necessary: Last edited by jbcohen; 03-01-2011 at 07:40 AM.

03-01-2011, 08:06 AM	#2
blt50203 Rogue Bookseller Posts: 20 Karma: 260 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Rhode Island Device: Apple iPad, iPhone, B&N nook	I picked one of these up on an after holiday clearance sale at Kohls. After discounts, coupons, etc I walked away with the reader for under $30. My primary reader is an iPad and my wife has a nook. I thought it would be fun to play around with it. The unit it poorly constructed and just feels cheap when you hold it. I gave it to my son, seven, and he uses it as an imaginary controller when he plays with his brother.

03-01-2011, 05:15 PM	#3
Meemo Groupie Posts: 175 Karma: 1023952 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: U.S. Device: Kindle Oasis (1st & 2nd gen) & a Paperwhite	I got mine for $40 at Bed Bath & Beyond (also found the charging cover for $10). I voted "Other" - I definitely wouldn't call it "the best electronic book reader available", because I prefer an eInk screen. But it's better than "so so" - I really like reading on it in bed in night mode, and I like color for kids' books. Now having said that, if I'd paid $150 for it my opinion would be different - it's a pretty good little reader for what I paid for it. And I have to say I read on it more than I read on my nook these days.... My 2nd generation Kindle is still #1.

03-07-2011, 10:59 PM	#4
amybobamy Befuddled Neophyte Posts: 49 Karma: 3138 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Nook Color	I guess I wish I hadn't bought it, since I had to return it when it "bricked" on me, dead as a doornail or whatevah ... BUT it did whet my appetite to find an ereader that I really WOULD like to own, and made me think about positives and negatives about ereaders. Sort of like the ex-boyfriends of high school -- Interesting at first, and then disappointing, but over time I came to appreciate the perspective I gained.

03-07-2011, 11:47 PM	#5
MR. Pockets Addict Posts: 216 Karma: 4320 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Idaho, USA Device: Kobo Touch, Aluratek Libre Pro	The literati is a great reader if you get it at the right price (below $80, preferably ~$40-$50). It doesn't have a search function or a "jump to", but it does have a (slow) dictionary, acceptable build quality and (I think) awesome page turn "buttons" (they are touch sensitive areas under the arrows). Battery life is about what can be expected from a backlit LCD device (turn the brightness down and you will get significantly better battery life). Formats are limited to epub and PDF (which for some reason show up under the "Docs" tab rather than "books" tab...) and the D-pad is a little frustrating at first (I got used to it. Well, sort of.) Overall, I am glad I got it, but I would not pay more than ~$60 for one.

03-08-2011, 01:30 AM	#6
megacoupe Connoisseur Posts: 80 Karma: 8682 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Kindle Voyage	Having owned a PRS500, a Nook, a Pandigital Novel (white) and a PRS650, I can unequivocally that the Literati is the worst ereader I've ever used. And yet, it still isn't so bad. There's a completely useless keyboard (there's almost no reason to ever type anything, seeing as how internet access is blocked), the navigation is slow and extremely clunky and the device feels cheap. It only gets around 6 hours of battery life and it's a touch too heavy. With all of that said, once you actually have a book open and the only button you're pushing is the "next" key, it's perfectly functional as an ereader. For a kid or an adult's first ereader experience it's not bad (though the difficult-to-use interface might actually turn them off of this whole ereader business). My 10-year-old cousin has no problem using his but my 57-year-old mother gets confused all the time. I bought mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $12 (it was on clearance for $40, a 20% off coupon reduced it to $32, plus there was a $20 mail-in-rebate). In my opinion, the full $40 would have been a little too high for this device.

03-09-2011, 07:23 AM	#8
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Other. The proper term, I think is: good-enough. It is a minimum-frills reader roughly comparable to the Kobo but trading off the eink for LCD. It reads epubs, pdfs, rtf, and html quite well. It talks to Adobe Digital Editions on the PC just fine, as well as the Kobo PC app. It also works fine with Calibre. It uses an onboard database to track and manage the books so it can have issues if you feed it a lot of new books at once. (Much as the Sony 505, at that.) It is s-l-o-w to add even a handful of books. And the books show up on a single listing, either in a 3x3 Covers view or a thumbnail-plus-text vertical tile list. No pure text listing. So expect a lot of paging if you feed it thousands of books via SD Card. It helps a bit that it segregates epubs from the document files so the later have a separate tab, DOCS, and listing. But that's it. While reading, you have a choice of serif or sans-serif font face, 7 brightness levels, day, night, and sepia Themes, and about 7 font sizes. As with most mobile ADE-based readers, one could wish for both smaller and larger sizes. It is supposed to be limited to 8GB SDHC cards but I fed it a 16GB MicroSDHC in an adapter with no issues; it saw all 16GB and reported the correct amount of free space. Books opened fine, too. Online connectivity to the KOBO stores works but it seems to prefer encryption-free connections. (At least it didn't get along with my router with encryption on.) Paging speed is good, even with PDFs. And I've yet to see a crash while reading. So, no; it is not the best ebook reader out there. And it lacks all sorts of user controls and file management features that the best readers offer. It's no Pocketbook or even Kindle. But it's good enough to read on (if you don't mind the snowboard form factor) and fairly priced if you can get it in the US$69 range (do an online search--they're still out there) and a bargain at $39. It is far from the worst reader you could get, especially if you favor color LCD over eink displays. And, hey, it comes with a cover!

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