8" Ereader

[AdmiralAnimE]

I think you are right, in general, all the larger readers are not so polished. There's just not enough demand or motivation or competition.

But unexpectedly, I just ordered Pocketbook Inkpad 840, which I thought I already discarded. After researching a lot these few days, I went to a nearby store again. The moment I saw it near a few smaller Pocketbook and Kindle readers, I knew this is the perfect size and the Kobo wont satisfy me. I didn't really compare it to the other readers, because the screen was good enough for me, contrast, readability and interface.

So I made myself a table with some pros and cons of the readers, watched some russian reviews, I saw that they released new firmware that made it usable, and decided this is it. It is somewhat slower than the other readers, but I don't mind and thankfully it's not from the hardware, only software. If I don't like it, I guess I can install Koreader.

[phasor]

Originally Posted by AdmiralAnimE

I think you are right, in general, all the larger readers are not so polished. There's just not enough demand or motivation or competition.

But unexpectedly, I just ordered Pocketbook Inkpad 840, which I thought I already discarded. After researching a lot these few days, I went to a nearby store again. The moment I saw it near a few smaller Pocketbook and Kindle readers, I knew this is the perfect size and the Kobo wont satisfy me. I didn't really compare it to the other readers, because the screen was good enough for me, contrast, readability and interface.

So I made myself a table with some pros and cons of the readers, watched some russian reviews, I saw that they released new firmware that made it usable, and decided this is it. It is somewhat slower than the other readers, but I don't mind and thankfully it's not from the hardware, only software. If I don't like it, I guess I can install Koreader.

What is your experience after 6 months?
PDF experience, speed, zoom...
battery life
contrast
light...

[AdmiralAnimE]

Originally Posted by phasor

What is your experience after 6 months?
PDF experience, speed, zoom...
battery life
contrast
light...

It is slower than others and what I'm used to from phones, but it's perfectly fine for reading. It is all from the software. I tried the other programs for reading and they are faster, but are not quite as simple to use as the default. Sadly the default lacks word-wrap and justification for some reason, but there is another almost identical program installed that has that. It can be used if you edit a system file, but sometimes it renders some texts differently.

The light is good, but it is stronger at the bottom where the diodes are. I wish it was more yellow. It can go really low, so it's fine for reading in the dark.

About the battery, it can drain fast in certain conditions, maybe when adding tons of books or using internet, but when reading books or offline it lasts long. Sorry that I can't gvie you numbers, I haven't read that often for the last few months but it hasn't really discharged. Only one time it gave me a false percentage, but the next time I turned it on it was fine.

The contrast is fine, enough for reading. A little more could be better. I wish the screen was a little lighter color, it is darker and more gray than a real book, so if you want to read without diodes, you need to be closer to direct sunlight. => https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K93oS1Rij...0/DSC_0001.JPG

I haven't read much pdf, because I try to find only epubs. The experience with epub is just better. Generally I think that pdf has good options and they work well. The mode where it reflows the text is limited to zooming on 100-200-300... which for some files is not good so when you set it, you have to zoom manually to the desired size. It is slower with big images. Zooming is good with text and small images, not so much with whole page images in pdf.

Overall I have a few complaints but I really like that it's easy to use and allows customization with other programs and fonts. I also liked the sudoku.
Browsing is not that good, especially for dark sites. I think it doesn't support https and newer css3 styles like flexbox.
It is heavier than a book, but you get used to it. The size is just perfect and its comfortable. The buttons require more force than they should. It is not as sturdy as a tablet.

[phasor]

AdmiralAnimE, thanks for info. I have bought Pocketbook 840 and mostly agree with your observations.

Since I have a lot of books in pdf, which are not convertible to ebook formats due to equations and figures, my main goal was to get something capable to deal with large pdfs and scanned documents.
Display size is perfect, big enough even for pdfs in big format, but still small enough to have it with you. Weight is not a problem. The resolution is much higher comparing to my previous Kindle keyboard, so even small text is visible. Margins cropping, Fit width, Columns, Reflow, one of them is almost for sure perfect for any type of pdf that you get. If the format is big then combination of Margin cropping and Landscape mode works perfectly and thanks to resolution even the smallest text is visible. Some of books are scanned with 2 pages at once and in that case Columns mode works perfectly.
I am finally able to read everything I get and this is worth of money I put in this device. So far the only minus with pdfs is the zooming mode if the document is big. It is slow and commands are legging too much. Practically you don't need zooming but sometimes it is activated by mistake, and then it is boring.
There are also some things that could be better, but I can live with it. For example the quality of display is one of them. Contrast is not too high and background color is a bit grey, but it is not a big deal, it is good enough.
Back-light is adjustable to very low level for reading in dark, but I don't like the blue color. It should be yellow since it is not healthy to be exposed to blue color before sleeping. Producers should consider this fact and change it, or at least give us opportunity to choose. Maybe yellow is not energy efficient as blue, but it is not so important. Battery life is OK.
I have noticed one annoying bug in some epub books (maybe because due to 700 pages). If I go back one page and then try to go forward it shows blank page. You can go on the next one, but it does not allow you to read the previous, it is always blank. It was really annoying till I found that problem disappears if I go to settings and change Line spacing. Then all pages are visible again.

After all Pocketbook 840 is good in the most important things for me and it is worth of money. There are several bugs or minuses, but in all of them it is somehow good enough (neither of them is screwed totally), so you can live with them.

[joepie]

Hi AdmiralAnimE, I have been reading on the 840 for about a year now. I too hardly ever read PDF's on my ereader, mostly epubs. May I suggest you install CR3 by Bruce Lee on it?

CR3 increases speed and it uses a lot less power. I can read for 4 to 6 weeks on a single charge.
Only drawback is the settings screen is not setup for larger screens, so some parts like turning to the next option page do not work very well. A bit of a struggle sometimes, but it can surely be done, and once the setup is ok, you'll not revisit these pages often.

Only thing I would wish is larger fonts on the dictionary, but I can live with it. CR3 is a four star App for me.

[AdmiralAnimE]

Originally Posted by phasor

I have noticed one annoying bug in some epub books (maybe because due to 700 pages). If I go back one page and then try to go forward it shows blank page. You can go on the next one, but it does not allow you to read the previous, it is always blank. It was really annoying till I found that problem disappears if I go to settings and change Line spacing. Then all pages are visible again.

Isn't that the bug they fixed with the latest version? I think it's 5.11, if you haven't updated do it, mine arrived on older one and I immediately updated.
I too wish for yellow light but it seems the standart is white...
Mine sometimes does this delay when I press on the screen but nothing happens, and if I press again it does the two actions.