"Slowness" of the Pocket PRO

Egbert · 09-03-2009, 06:59 PM

I got my Pocket PRO yesterday and I just want to comment on a particular aspect of it. I bought the Pocket PRO partially on the basis that page turns will be much faster than most other ebook readers out there. To quote RobertB's blog: "The heart and soul of any eBook Reader is centered around the controller and the processor. The speed of bringing up a book and speed of turning pages... all are a matter of the controller and processor. The Pocket PRO has the new Epson high-speed controller and a 400MHz processor (about double what the competition has in most cases)." In addition, on June 8th, he also said "page turns are a matter of 1-2 tenths of a second". (The quotes link to the relevant blog posts)

Now for the reality: my unit (and I must stress that this based only on a sample of one) does not turn pages as fast as I had been led to believe. First, according to the E-book Reader Matrix on the MobileRead Wiki, it has the same exact Epson controller as the Kindle 2, which is listed as having a 0.9 second full-screen refresh rate. Second, and to me more troubling, is that it takes at least a full second before the screen starts refreshing. I have tested this under various conditions (PDFs, TXTs, and ePUBs) and this is reproducible. This only occurs when I have been on a page for 2+ seconds. When I press the page turn button less than 2 seconds after the screen has refreshed, there is no lag of that length for the next refresh. This behavior does not happen on the Kindle 2.

Do I regret buying the Pocket PRO because of this slowness? It depends on whether the "input lag" issue can/will be fixed. This is a solid e-book reader for the price point ($200) and it has a better button layout than the Sony PRS-300, which is the only other competition at that price. However, I do feel that anyone who is considering buying the Pocket PRO based on the speed of the page turns should be aware that it is not as fast as we have been initially told. I would implore Aztak (or Jinke) to release a new firmware that fixes the "input lag" issue though. Otherwise, when the price returns to $230, having an effective page turn speed of ~2 seconds would make the Pocket PRO a really hard sell.

pdurrant · 09-03-2009, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Egbert

Second, and to me more troubling, is that it takes at least a full second before the screen starts refreshing.

Ouch. I'd guess that it goes into some kind of 'doze' mode to conserve battery power after a couple of seconds, and takes a little time to wake up from that doze. But ouch.

A firmware update might be able to improve that. If they decide it needs fixing.

emellaich · 09-03-2009, 07:33 PM

I have been following the comments on the Hanlin V5 and you are not the first to notice this. It appears that the e-ink flash is quite fast, but that there is a delay between button push and the flash.

I'll cross-post this question in the Hanlin forum, but I'm curious if the users of the OpenInkpot firmware have noticed a similar delay.

MLH

cvkemp · 09-03-2009, 07:35 PM

The natural of the eink is that the only power that is needed to to open the books and turn pages. There is no refresh of the display and yes the reader will go to sleep to save the battery that is how you get the 7 or 8 thousand page turns out of the battery. The slowness is not noticed for normal reading and normally you would not even be able to turn a page of a paper book as fast as the ereader can. I have the Ezreader and it I believe has a slower controller than the pro.

Chuck

wayamauro · 09-03-2009, 07:36 PM

Too bad. I was going to purchase one today. I will have to wait now.
Let's see what other people say when they put their hands on it. It may just be a quick fix.

luqmaninbmore · 09-03-2009, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cvkemp

The natural of the eink is that the only power that is needed to to open the books and turn pages. There is no refresh of the display and yes the reader will go to sleep to save the battery that is how you get the 7 or 8 thousand page turns out of the battery. The slowness is not noticed for normal reading and normally you would not even be able to turn a page of a paper book as fast as the ereader can. I have the Ezreader and it I believe has a slower controller than the pro.

Chuck

That's beside the point. The slowness on my 500 is something that I got used to with time but this does not change the fact that my much faster 700 is preferable to read on, at least as far as page-turn time is concerned. This device was hyped as having near-instantaneous page turns. The reports that began to trickle in regarding the V5 were one of the reasons that I decided to go with the Sony instead (that and the Bride of Hawking TTS voice and the plastic as opposed to metal housing).

wallcraft · 09-03-2009, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emellaich

It appears that the e-ink flash is quite fast, but that there is a delay between button push and the flash.

I agree with this comparing my V3 and V5 side by side. The V5 is always faster, it reaches the "flash" faster and to my eye the black reversal phase is quicker (or less apparent). However, the difference isn't a factor of two - it is at best 25% faster.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Egbert

Second, and to me more troubling, is that it takes at least a full second before the screen starts refreshing. I have tested this under various conditions (PDFs, TXTs, and ePUBs) and this is reproducible. This only occurs when I have been on a page for 2+ seconds. When I press the page turn button less than 2 seconds after the screen has refreshed, there is no lag of that length for the next refresh. This behavior does not happen on the Kindle 2.

I do see a difference between the V5 page turns in quick succession and after a few second pause, but I don't see it as dramatically different as in your case. I agree, though, that is should not be slower than the Kindle 2. I am used to the V3's page turn time, so perhaps it is slow and I have adjusted. It is the time for the "flash" that typically matters because I find that a can anticipate the delay and hit the page advance early.

richough3 · 09-03-2009, 09:48 PM

Does it come from reading off the SD memory card or the internal memory?

SDRebel · 09-03-2009, 10:17 PM

not sure if you saw it, but there was someone else commenting on the speed of page-changing, it was also in the astak subforum. One person's PP was able to change pages in less than a second while the other persons's took about 2 seconds. Not sure why these differences, but it may be seen with only some devices.... I hope I get a speedy one :P (tomorrow

)

griffonwing · 09-03-2009, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SDRebel

not sure if you saw it, but there was someone else commenting on the speed of page-changing, it was also in the astak subforum. One person's PP was able to change pages in less than a second while the other persons's took about 2 seconds. Not sure why these differences, but it may be seen with only some devices.... I hope I get a speedy one :P (tomorrow

)

Maybe it is the lateness of the hour, but I busted a gut upon reading this. I thought "Isn't it amazing what they can train them to do these days"

I suppose I am more partial to calling the units a PEZ... it's a bit less Freudian

Chiron · 09-03-2009, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffonwing

Maybe it is the lateness of the hour, but I busted a gut upon reading this. I thought "Isn't it amazing what they can train them to do these days"

I suppose I am more partial to calling the units a PEZ... it's a bit less Freudian

Wait, then what PP means then?

griffonwing · 09-03-2009, 10:41 PM

Apologies. In America, and possibly other English countries, little boys were commonly taught to call their penis a 'pee pee', or 'wee-wee'. That's one reason why the Nintendo Wii was commonly ridiculed when it was first released here in the US.

So, now here you tell us that someone's PP can change pages in a book in under a second. That, mi amigo, is what I call talent

JSWolf · 09-03-2009, 10:47 PM

PP = Pocket PRO

griffonwing · 09-03-2009, 10:51 PM

Yes. I know. Thank you Wolf.

Chiron · 09-03-2009, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffonwing

Apologies. In America, and possibly other English countries, little boys were commonly taught to call their penis a 'pee pee', or 'wee-wee'. That's one reason why the Nintendo Wii was commonly ridiculed when it was first released here in the US.

So, now here you tell us that someone's PP can change pages in a book in under a second. That, mi amigo, is what I call talent

Hmm, now thats something i need to try

09-03-2009, 06:59 PM	#1
Egbert Member Posts: 16 Karma: 488 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: Aztak EZ Reader Pocket Pro	"Slowness" of the Pocket PRO I got my Pocket PRO yesterday and I just want to comment on a particular aspect of it. I bought the Pocket PRO partially on the basis that page turns will be much faster than most other ebook readers out there. To quote RobertB's blog: "The heart and soul of any eBook Reader is centered around the controller and the processor. The speed of bringing up a book and speed of turning pages... all are a matter of the controller and processor. The Pocket PRO has the new Epson high-speed controller and a 400MHz processor (about double what the competition has in most cases)." In addition, on June 8th, he also said "page turns are a matter of 1-2 tenths of a second". (The quotes link to the relevant blog posts) Now for the reality: my unit (and I must stress that this based only on a sample of one) does not turn pages as fast as I had been led to believe. First, according to the E-book Reader Matrix on the MobileRead Wiki, it has the same exact Epson controller as the Kindle 2, which is listed as having a 0.9 second full-screen refresh rate. Second, and to me more troubling, is that it takes at least a full second before the screen starts refreshing. I have tested this under various conditions (PDFs, TXTs, and ePUBs) and this is reproducible. This only occurs when I have been on a page for 2+ seconds. When I press the page turn button less than 2 seconds after the screen has refreshed, there is no lag of that length for the next refresh. This behavior does not happen on the Kindle 2. Do I regret buying the Pocket PRO because of this slowness? It depends on whether the "input lag" issue can/will be fixed. This is a solid e-book reader for the price point ($200) and it has a better button layout than the Sony PRS-300, which is the only other competition at that price. However, I do feel that anyone who is considering buying the Pocket PRO based on the speed of the page turns should be aware that it is not as fast as we have been initially told. I would implore Aztak (or Jinke) to release a new firmware that fixes the "input lag" issue though. Otherwise, when the price returns to $230, having an effective page turn speed of ~2 seconds would make the Pocket PRO a really hard sell. Last edited by Egbert; 09-03-2009 at 07:07 PM.

09-03-2009, 07:36 PM	#5
wayamauro Connoisseur Posts: 73 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505, KindleDX	Too bad. I was going to purchase one today. I will have to wait now. Let's see what other people say when they put their hands on it. It may just be a quick fix. Last edited by wayamauro; 09-03-2009 at 07:39 PM.

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09-03-2009, 07:33 PM	#3
emellaich Wizard Posts: 1,101 Karma: 4388403 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Palm>Ebookman>IPaq>Axim>Cybook>Kndl2>IPAD>Kndl3SO>Voyager>Oasis	I have been following the comments on the Hanlin V5 and you are not the first to notice this. It appears that the e-ink flash is quite fast, but that there is a delay between button push and the flash. I'll cross-post this question in the Hanlin forum, but I'm curious if the users of the OpenInkpot firmware have noticed a similar delay. MLH

09-03-2009, 07:35 PM	#4
cvkemp Loving life Posts: 1,412 Karma: 7991496 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Hot Springs Village, Arkansas Device: PaperWhite 5,iPhone 13, IPad, MacBook Air	The natural of the eink is that the only power that is needed to to open the books and turn pages. There is no refresh of the display and yes the reader will go to sleep to save the battery that is how you get the 7 or 8 thousand page turns out of the battery. The slowness is not noticed for normal reading and normally you would not even be able to turn a page of a paper book as fast as the ereader can. I have the Ezreader and it I believe has a slower controller than the pro. Chuck

09-03-2009, 09:48 PM	#8
richough3 Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 2206208 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: none	Does it come from reading off the SD memory card or the internal memory?

09-03-2009, 10:17 PM	#9
SDRebel Addict Posts: 294 Karma: 92 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: astak pro	not sure if you saw it, but there was someone else commenting on the speed of page-changing, it was also in the astak subforum. One person's PP was able to change pages in less than a second while the other persons's took about 2 seconds. Not sure why these differences, but it may be seen with only some devices.... I hope I get a speedy one :P (tomorrow )

09-03-2009, 10:41 PM	#12
griffonwing Suave Swabby, Savvy? Posts: 1,602 Karma: 520350 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Harrison, ARrrr, USA - southern Ozark mountains Device: Slate Blue PEZ (Astak Pocket Pro), CVSCX-9300 Quad-band watch phone	Apologies. In America, and possibly other English countries, little boys were commonly taught to call their penis a 'pee pee', or 'wee-wee'. That's one reason why the Nintendo Wii was commonly ridiculed when it was first released here in the US. So, now here you tell us that someone's PP can change pages in a book in under a second. That, mi amigo, is what I call talent

09-03-2009, 10:47 PM	#13
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,957 Karma: 128903250 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	PP = Pocket PRO

09-03-2009, 10:51 PM	#14
griffonwing Suave Swabby, Savvy? Posts: 1,602 Karma: 520350 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Harrison, ARrrr, USA - southern Ozark mountains Device: Slate Blue PEZ (Astak Pocket Pro), CVSCX-9300 Quad-band watch phone	Yes. I know. Thank you Wolf.

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