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Old 12-10-2009, 04:58 PM   #1
eubalaena
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Question PRS-600 or Pocketbook 301 for PDFs?

I've been looking at getting an e-reader and based on a variety of options I've narrowed it down to either the Sony PRS-600 or the Pocketbook 301. My big issue is that most of what I want this for are reading technical journal articles. Think: PDF, mutiple columns, probably mixed multiple columns and single column text with diagrams thrown in.
Can any of the 6" e-readers handle that sort of thing and how?

I'm willing to muck with the files on my computer if that is necessary and I'm willing to do a bit of extra page turning/zooming but less of that is certainly better.

Secondly does anyone have general thoughts on comparison between the two?

Thanks
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Old 12-11-2009, 07:27 AM   #2
MLDaeni
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6" devices (I own a PRS600): forget about PDF files in A4 format or letter (even more so if they are multiple columns), with one exception: text PDF files reflow very well, so no problem there.

Speaking for the 600: the PDF viewer is probably the best you can get for a reading device. It's all however a problem of size. If the size of PDF is around A5 (half of A4): cut the margins and view them in landscape. The PDF viewer on the PRS 600 is excelent. It never crashed on me and I thowed at it very complex documents (math, tables, figures etc), the rendering is faithful to the document, even if too small sometimes to be useful for prolonged reading/study sessions.

The bottom line is this: do not expect to just put PDF files on the device and view them; you have to spend some time to adapt them for the device (cut crop etc). I do this and I am able to use the device with many PDF files.

Good luck in your search!
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Old 12-11-2009, 09:38 AM   #3
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I would have said that the PRS-600 had the best 6" PDF viewer, until I read Pocketbook 360 test diary. Now I am sure that PocketBook (same software on the 360 and the 301) is significantly better. It does not have a touch screen, and it does not have an arbitrarily located zoom - but this is of limited use on the PRS-600 because its setting are not remembered from page to page. The PRS-600 also does not have the option to autocrop margins (this has been added to the PRS-900)

I'm not convinced that any 6" EInk device is good enough for PDFs. The PocketBook 901 (9.7" screen) now looks very interesting, but I would actually like to see PocketBook's PDF capability in a device with a 8.1" screen.
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Old 12-12-2009, 07:51 PM   #4
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Hi Wallcraft, I did not follow the Pocketbook forums, but after some more
tests (I had my reader three days ago) I have to agree with your opinion.

Although PRS600 is not a bad device, I returned it today. The reasons are
as follows:
- The main reason: the screen. I really wanted this to be a non-issue, but
the glare and the reflections ended by getting in my way when reading.
It is my first device, but still, I needed a constant conscious effort to not
see the reflection of my face in the device, all this combined with a sort of
"fuzzy display" due probably to the "through the glass" effect induced by
the screen.
- Second: the PDF viewer do not have two important things: (1) automatic
crop margins and (2) persistent zoom (when switching to the next page).
Without these, each PDF must be prepared with special software like
Adobe Acrobat, pdfcrop, or sopdf, which is time consuming and does not
work as expected all the time. So PDF is pretty much broken, except for
text PDFs, which reflow quite well.

Like you, I think now a good PDF reader, must have a larger size, probably
8" or more.

Last edited by MLDaeni; 12-12-2009 at 07:53 PM.
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