Is 902/903 heavy? Help need it to decide...

[athan00]

Hi,

I m ready to buy a 9.7 inch pocketbook 903 model with touch screen or 902 (which ever I ll find available). Are they heavy on the hand? I mean will I need some kind of stand in order to use them after a while? 903 is 580gr so I suppose after a few minutes will be quite heavy on the hand. Is there a stand for it?

Also another question, I mostly want to read pdfs (that I ll convert them to epubs) and some big internet forums (like 500+ pages). Should I go for 903 or 902 or an even 6 inch model is good enough?

If you could help me I would really appreciate it...

Athan

[LoneTech]

Yes, the 903 is pretty heavy. I haven't heard of a stand specifically for it, but not everything needs a specialized product.

As for reading PDFs, this doesn't tell us much. I have PDFs of comics, technical books and reports, multipage datasheets and even (somewhere) books preformatted for some ereader. The contents matter far more for your needs than the format.

The forums likely depend on how you want to load them. In my limited experience, accessing web forums directly from the 903 is clumsy.. and it would be much harder on anything less. One weakness is the browser doesn't rotate easily.

[athan00]

Originally Posted by LoneTech

Yes, the 903 is pretty heavy. I haven't heard of a stand specifically for it, but not everything needs a specialized product.

As for reading PDFs, this doesn't tell us much. I have PDFs of comics, technical books and reports, multipage datasheets and even (somewhere) books preformatted for some ereader. The contents matter far more for your needs than the format.

The forums likely depend on how you want to load them. In my limited experience, accessing web forums directly from the 903 is clumsy.. and it would be much harder on anything less. One weakness is the browser doesn't rotate easily.

Thanks for your answer.

Is 902 as heavy as 903?

Also about web browsing, what about if I ll first convert the forums to a epub format, would that help?

I start thinking if I should go with a 600 series...

[onesome]

If you insist to browse the web and read PDF on e-reader, 903 is obvious choice. Where it fails is your weight criteria. I browsed some forums and it is suitable for reading them but you have to be patient. It just can't replace the tablet in this area.

[paola]

In terms of heavyness, for the moment I do not find it too bad, but of course it may very well be a matter of expectations - for a few months now I have been weighing all the tree-books that I read, and I think I was expecting the PB903 to feel much heavier than it actually does - but as I said I had very low expectations.
Of course, if you read mainly papers for work, te PB903 will weigh much more than any single paper - but if you have the habit of carrying many papers around, PB wins hands down.

Originally Posted by LoneTech

... not everything needs a specialized product.

@ LoneTech
thanks for this tip, sounds really good!
Wonder wheter you can enlighten me on two points on browsing:

Originally Posted by LoneTech

One weakness is the browser doesn't rotate easily.

Did you actually manage to rotate the page when browsing? For I couldn't, even if setting the display to portrait in the preferences, so I thought it wasn't possible, but if you did then it is either me or my device to be defective

And one more question, in order to scroll the page down, I could only do it with the "down" arrow button (and each press goes down at most a couple of lines): is there any other way to do it? Many thanks!

[LoneTech]

No. I haven't found a function to rotate the browser. My guess is that it has not been implemented, like so much else.

As for scrolling, I've tapped the scroll bar with the stylus. Clumsy as heck, but a lot better than scrolling a few lines at a time.

[paola]

Originally Posted by LoneTech

As for scrolling, I've tapped the scroll bar with the stylus. Clumsy as heck, but a lot better than scrolling a few lines at a time.

Thanks LoneTech - I have tried that too (furiously, I should add), tapping on the top or botton of the scroling line, trying to drag the "thingy" on the scroling bar, tapping anywhere onteh scrolling bar, but nothing - so it may be an issue with my device (FW version 2.0.4), or jus maybe with the sensitivity of the stylus - sorry to bug you, but do you tap on any specific point to make it work?

[LoneTech]

I tap below the "handle" which indicates how far down I have scrolled, the usual place for scrolling about a page. I've seen some reports that the DirectFB environment doesn't know about the touchscreen calibration, so pay attention to where the pointer goes when you tap; in a worst case scenario, perhaps your digitizer could be so misaligned you can't actually reach that far to the right (i.e. pen reaches the edge before the cursor reaches the scroll bar). That wouldn't mean your hardware is unusable, however, just that the software is nowhere near release ready.

[paola]

Originally Posted by LoneTech

in a worst case scenario, perhaps your digitizer could be so misaligned you can't actually reach that far to the right (i.e. pen reaches the edge before the cursor reaches the scroll bar).

that is precisely what I get - the cursor gets to the edge of the cursor bar, and no further (while I have no problems with the horizontal abr at the bottom, but that is little consolation).

So when you talk about misalignment, is there anything I can do to fix it? I am hopeful, since you are also using the PB903.
Many thanks!

[LoneTech]

Sorry, while it's theoretically possible this bug can be worked around, it would be far from easy. The bug itself is nearly trivial, something like a forgotten call to CalibrateTouchpanel() in the libdirectfb_zytronic.so driver, but it's not easily tested or replaced since PocketBook are withholding the code and SDK. Considering DirectFB as well as Midori are under LGPL, this is not only counterproductive and rude but even illegal.

[jshzh]

I don't think 540g (902) is unbearably heavy but one has take into consideration the size and shape of 9"7 readers. Unlike books, a big E-reader is one big flat solid piece that can't be held in one hand. An opened book, even a hard-cover, is often easier to hold at the spine. So weight plus size and shape decide 902 won't be comfortable for reading in bed at least. If I have to read in front of a desk, the only advantage of an ebook reader over a computer is the e-ink. But computers are much easier to operate.

Just my 2 cents. I don't have 902 or any other e-reader of that size. Even my 602 hasn't arrived yet. I tried to convert my pdf academic e-books. The results are very good except that the italic won't show. I cut a piece of 12*9cm paper to try on files shown on the computer screen. Most scanned pages also show very well in the landscape mode. The words are at least as big as those in printed books. But my books have little to none graphics.

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by jshzh

I don't think 540g (902) is unbearably heavy but one has take into consideration the size and shape of 9"7 readers.

After 10 minutes it's getting heavy.
I always put it on my knees or lay it down somewhere when holding for more than a few minutes.

[paola]

Originally Posted by LoneTech

Sorry, while it's theoretically possible this bug can be worked around, it would be far from easy....

Many thanks LoneTech - you gave me the idea that I had somehow to try and resize the browsing window, so in desperation, I managed somehow to "hook" the bottom right corner of the browser window, producing some strange looking "corner" shaped cursor - I did not manage to resize the window, nor how I got this strange looking object (but I still have nto figured out how to get an arrow pointer and how to get a hand pointer, as I get them both though I do not consciously do anythign to get one rather than teh other), at any rate after this "apparition" the problem appears fixed. Of course, it would be nice to know how this happened, but there you go.

The problem that the browser still does not remember any change in settings, nor bookmark, is still there, but that is another story....

Thanks for your suggestions!

on weight:

Originally Posted by SkyDream

I always put it on my knees

same here!