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Old 07-25-2010, 11:09 AM   #28
Lady Fitzgerald
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Posts: 2,013
Karma: 251649
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth
Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solicitous View Post
I know the resolution is different between the two, but when it comes to reading how is the resolution disappointing in the JB? I know it is less but I don't see how it could be disappointing if there are a reasonable number of lines of text on the screen in a clear and reasonable sized font.

I asked this on another thread, but will ask again. The JB used FBReader as I understand. The recent firmware upgrade has included Adobe Digital Editions. Are you able to select reading either ADE or FBReader for non-drm'd epubs at all? I personally am not a fan of ADE with the page numbers on the right hand side of the screen. I've been for a while intrigued by the JB and am tossing up on another reader to buy. Currently I own an Astak (which i think is great) but am thinking if I am to buy something else I should look for another brand and experience something else.
The screen background on the JBL is darker than on the Astak Mentor I have. Both have black text. The text is not as sharp on the JBL as on the Mentor when viewing image PDF books (such as one would have when scanning a book directly to PDF without OCR) even though it is much larger on the JBL as on the Mentor. When the text of an image PDFis somewhat fine, it looks a bit like an old laserjet printout that has some of the print starting to flake on the edges; not to the point unreadability but definitely noticeable.

I don't know how well built the JB is since all I have is the JBL but if it is similar to the JBL, then the Mentor (the only other e-Book reader I have to compare to) appears to be much better built. For reading non-DRMed e-books, it appears to be a toss-up although the JBL boots much faster. Whether being able to change batteries "in the field" with already charged, non-proprietary batteries (AAs) will be an advantage great enough to warrant using a reader of lower quality remains to be seen (although the normal price of the JBL is only 2/3 of the Mentor, once one allows for the lack of a cover for the JBL and that a cover comes with the Mentor). At least with the JBL, I won't have to keep up with a separate charger and deal with being tethered to a power source when the batteries run down which In have to do with the Mentor (although careful planning should alleviate much of the tethering problem). I have version v15d on my JBL so I can't comment about it's ability to read ADE (I don't plan on purchasing any books in ADE since most are DRMed). I use calibre so converting ADE to, say, ePub wouldn't be a problem as long as it was DRM free.
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