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Old 05-01-2009, 09:55 PM   #1
Mach1.9pants
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Got my eSlick...

...and man it is light! probably weighs the same as my phone (N95!)

Seems good to me, I read mostly PDFs. The reflow is a bit slow when you are doing a 350+ PDF with images in it! However I have been converting my PDFs using PaperCrop into more manageable page sizes3 in anticipation of this, and now they run great. PaperCrop is awesome, all my PDFs so far are in 2 or 3 columns so it works so very well.

It is all simple to use (and basic compared to every other ereader) but it is exactly what I want. I will post more latter, I have just unpacked it

More thoughts on several posts below

Last edited by Mach1.9pants; 05-12-2009 at 05:12 PM.
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Old 05-05-2009, 03:49 AM   #2
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OK so after a couple of days with it...

Bugs I have had to do one hard reset on the first day/ half hour (I was ready to nerd rage I can tell you!) of getting it, it wouldn't start and just had the last page showing. I think this was my fault pushing the buttons too quickly. Been fine since.
Every so often (once per 100 pages or so I suppose) you push the next page button, it flickers but doesn't change page...just push it again. Not a biggy for me.

Power It charges quickly even using a USB to mini USB cable from the PC. I have done over 5 hours of reading, going on and off often (maybe 25 odd times) and the battery indicator has just gone to half way. 2 of 4 bars. I'll try and resist charging it and give an idea until run down.
I don't know how other readers work but it seems to go into sleep mode after each pages (cos the page image stays without power) and wakes up when you push a button.

Comfort As I said in my first post it weighs next to nothing. It also feels good in the hand (I don't have huge hands for a guy), the buttons easy to activate... the few there are

Reading the screen is great, but I have no other eReader to compare it too only laptops/phones/monitors. Even in the brightest light it is clear and easy to read. Even a crappy scan I have was easily readable at 8 point size. The 'zoom to fit content' works really well, I picked up a PDF from Baen to test and it was really small, but readable, font. Zoom to content was great.
Reflow is OK, once again I have nothing to compare it to, but I have landscape PDFs (with 3 columns... which it refuses to let me view in landscape grrrrr..greyed out option) and portrait PDFs (2 cols). They come out OK. There are pictures and stuff in them but they just get ignored I think. You get some split lines like:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog becomes:

The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog.
rather than:

The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog.The quick brown fox jumps
over the lazy dog.


Some empty lines also appear. Certainly usable, my files are full of images so not the best for reflow I guess. You can choose font size (I use 8) for the reflow, but I prefer to modify my files with PDFCropper first.

Speed: It 'boots' up in about 10 seconds. PDFs are generally loaded in a quicker time 3 to 5 secs (even my 800+ page ones); often less. A page turn can take anything from less than a second to 2 secs, although the occasional turn takes 5 seconds or so. The menu appearing takes a second or two as well, and there is a definite 'lag' on button inputs and what happens on the screen... takes some getting used to. I dunno if this is the norm but I calmed down after realising that whatever I am doing (turning a page, finding something in the bookmarks, etc) is still quicker than a physical book, unless I niow that book inside out. It is really slow to transfer files using the USB cable, so I take out the SD card (max size 4GB) and transfer it plugged in my PC... However I do the same with every device like that I can (phone, camera, MP3 player etc), my PC is a quad core overclocked to over 4Gz so the CPU in the device is always going to be a bottleneck!

Other Well I can't think of much else to say. It is a REALLY simple device. It reads PDFs. Some work is required on the PDF to get the best out of it, but it is still fine just reading raw PDFs. It plays MP3s but apart from that the menu is amazingly lacking in options.... I have no problem with any of this because I use other tech [s]toys[/s] tools to do the other things I want. I can do a bit of work getting the PDFs exactly as I want them and I have a great, and cheap, source of reading material.

Overall I am happy with it, I would like it to be faster... but then I want my PC to be faster as well!

Hope this helps anyone thinking about the eSlick.

EDIT: A frimware update already, that is what I like to see! (I know it would be better if there were no bugs but we are in the real world here! If it was a PC game the patch would be out before the game LOL)
Quote:
This update includes performance enhancements and minor bug fixes listed below.

Bug Fixes

*
Cannot save the last viewing settings on a document when the power is turned off.
* The slow speed when rendering txt files.
* Some of the MP3 files are displayed twice in category “Music”.
* Cannot refresh the list of the “Music” category when inserting the SD card again.
* The error message “File corrupted” shows up randomly after it shows up for the real error file for the first time.
* Power leak after full charging and the USB cable is still connected.

Foxit strongly receommends that you update your firmware even if you have not experienced the problem that the eSlick device while in standby mode begins draining the battery after being fully charged (usually after 5 hours of continuous charging).

Last edited by Mach1.9pants; 05-10-2009 at 06:05 PM.
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Old 05-10-2009, 06:12 PM   #3
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Well an update:
Power:The battery is down to the last of four bars after over 13 hours of reading, so I guess it will go blank soon!
Bugs:It is impossible to transfer a large bunch of files to the device using the USB cable. You have to take out the SD card, put it in a SD reader and transfer it that way, which is a bit annoying. Although, to be honest, it would be how I would do it anyway due to the speed of a PC vs the eSlick.
Support:The above was confirmed by Foxit as a known problem, the customer service has been really good with replies within 24 hours on every email I have sent.. so kudos to them. Probably the quickest replies I have come across in my time working in the IT industry.

I guess it is a epaper thing but the greatest bit for me is the fact I can read some of my full page PDFs on this. I have an emag which is landscape and has a largish font and a bit of blank around the outside. By cropping the blank areas (which are not totally blank but have page number and stuff in it) I can read the whole page at once. That is so cool, when I full page it on the laptop (1280x800) I can barely read it..and the screen is 1/4 the size. epaper FTW! Obviously I would prefer a KindleDX for this...you lucky Yanks!

Last edited by Mach1.9pants; 05-10-2009 at 06:19 PM.
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Old 05-10-2009, 08:06 PM   #4
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Does the eSlick support any other formats besides PDF?
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Old 05-10-2009, 08:11 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by JSWolf View Post
Does the eSlick support any other formats besides PDF?
.txt LOL. Just PDF reader, from a PDF software company. Definitely not for every one.
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Old 05-10-2009, 08:14 PM   #6
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if you are using PaperCrop to preprocess your PDF, then how is the eSlick any better then a 505? Why would anyone really want a 6" eink device that only supports text and PDF? The 505's PDF support has reflow and even will handle DRMed PDF such as those from the library. Will the eSlick do that?
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Old 05-10-2009, 08:31 PM   #7
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The main reasons I got an eSLick are:
1. Cheapest available.
2. Available! Sony (and just about every other sod) doesn't sell their devices here, so no warranty and stupidly expensive postage. Foxit ships to all destinations for 25 bucks.
3. (EDIT) I only read PDFs.

Yes the eSlick does reflow, but I am not a fan of reflow.. my PDFs contain too many images, graphs, tables etc. But you can do it. AFAIK DRM PDF support is coming in a firmware update. As for the eSlick being any better or worse than the 505 or any other device, I cannot answer. My quasi-review gives my own experiences, I have none with any other ereader (as stated in the 'review') and does not say anywhere 'buy this device' or 'it is the best' or anything of the sort.

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Old 05-10-2009, 09:57 PM   #8
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Thanks for posting about your experiences with the eSlick. It's good to know more about the various options on the market.

I don't know that a pdf/txt only reader would work for me, but it's great that it works out well for you.
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Old 05-10-2009, 10:07 PM   #9
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Yeah it is a very limited device, though I wonder (as they are already talking of adding DRMd PDFs) how much more will be added.
Still it does the job for me, here in NZ we have no eBook stores and have to pretend to be US to get anything .. all that licensing. IF we had access to all those other lovely formats and could actually buy thse different machines (without the US credit card work arounds etc) I certainly would have gone for something more expensive....like the DX.
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Old 05-12-2009, 01:43 PM   #10
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Great review thank you
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Old 05-12-2009, 03:59 PM   #11
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Great review thank you
Your welcome, I have downloaded a PDF of LotR, so I will give that a read and a more thorough test of the reflow, as I only did a quick test before.
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Old 05-12-2009, 06:50 PM   #12
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Reflow:OK after giving a good go at LotR (which was readable in 1 page view, but for testing I increased the font on the reflow) I have seen that on text PDFs reflow works really well. The odd reflow error I noted above, where it sometimes does this:
The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog

Appears to almost only happen after the first line in every paragraph. Weird, all the others are formatted fine, like this:
The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps
over the lazy dog

And it is not every first sentence of the paragraphs, just some. About a third, maybe less (I didn't count!). Overall not enough to cause reading to be 'uncomfortable' but noticeable.

NOTE: I have heard on this forum that the eslick doesn't remember your reflow settings and last page after shut down, this is INCORRECT. It comes back fine, maybe an older firmware did.

OK I then DL'd Assassin's Apprentice FOR FREE from here: http://www.suvudu.com/mt/mt-search.c...entice&x=0&y=0 awesome, I enjoyed his first series until the characters got too thick at the end of the last book (d'oh don't you get who turns into the dragons?!&^*&^&!!) This is another ebook that is easily readable on one per page. Again I reflowed and upped the font to check it out.
EPIC FAIL: it is a scanned doc, no OCR so the reflow didn't work d'oh.

OK so now I'll look for another book to try

NOTE:I have confirmed the eSlick will only remember the last 10 books 'last page' and settings, etc. When you read book 11, the first one you read drops out of memory. Obviously those are all lost after a hard reset as well (as is required for the firmware update).

OK I went mad and DL'd heaps of books and articles:

I had some books with no errors at all
I had one book where all the words ran together! (sent to Foxit)
But mostly the reflows works as advertised.
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Old 05-15-2009, 01:21 AM   #13
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A very professional and well thought out review.
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Old 05-15-2009, 07:56 AM   #14
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A very professional and well thought out review.
Shouldn't this come with a disclaimer that you work for the company?
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Old 06-06-2009, 07:26 AM   #15
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What's about some math symbols in eSlick?

Will be grateful for any answer, cause there's no information about this...
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