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screenreader · 01-03-2008, 07:59 AM

Hi!

I received my Cybook Gen3 yesterday (deluxe pack), and I've been testing it for a day and a half to let you know my impressions. I hope they are useful for the people out there who are still unsure... you may be still unsure after you read this!

I´ll just say in advance that I had never ever seen or touched a e-reader before.

To make this an easy read, I'll talk about its good things and bad things. Also sorry for possible typos, my english is not as good as it used to be.

Thumbs up:

-The Screen: I had never seen before an e-ink screen "in real life". The sharpness, details, even the gray scaling is absolutely over my expectations.
-Ease of use: I find the 4 direction-button suitable for all that's needed, although in a future update I hope folder navigation is performed like in a cellular phone, I man: right to enter the folder, left to exit, etc. This button nearly makes all the others go unnoticed and even unnecesary.
-Mobipocket and html formats. This was beyond my expectations. I hadn't thought how a simple html text, with almost no editing, could be read so easily and quickly.

Thumbs down:

-Incredibly cheap feel. Plastic, buttons, sd card, earphones. It's somewhat disappointing when you think of the overall price. The leather case is the only thing that makes it look or feel price-worthy.
-Navigation system. Is a pain you-know-where to deal with covers. I hope soon that update everybody talks about when a folder navigation system is implemented. I'd add to this a line-by-line (sort of excel data sheet appearance) to sort author, title and all that. I personally don't see the "covers" system useful, specially when you want to have a full library there.
-Pdf and manga. Maybe this is my fault, and not cybook's but I bought the device mainly for reading pdfs (specially manga), and it's real hard to make it work properly. It's way too slow and lots of pages even don't show. I'll open a thread asking for help, so don't count this as a totally negative issue yet.
-The SD card included. After an evening of cutting, copying and pasting in the sd card included, something went wrong. The card became like corrupt, and was unaccesable by windows, and I had to format it twice, thus deleting all my libraries, and having to copy them again. Again, maybe it was my fault, but this never happened to me with cameras and similar devices using sd cards.

So in a nutshell, I am satisfied with its overall features, but still feel that the software included could work far better, and that pdf support should be better.

My advice for buyers is: wait for the firmware update and let's see how much navigation, pdf use and overall speed are enhanced.

Hope it was useful.

Cheers.

01-03-2008, 07:59 AM	#1
screenreader Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Cybook Gen3	My First Impressions Hi! I received my Cybook Gen3 yesterday (deluxe pack), and I've been testing it for a day and a half to let you know my impressions. I hope they are useful for the people out there who are still unsure... you may be still unsure after you read this! I´ll just say in advance that I had never ever seen or touched a e-reader before. To make this an easy read, I'll talk about its good things and bad things. Also sorry for possible typos, my english is not as good as it used to be. Thumbs up: -The Screen: I had never seen before an e-ink screen "in real life". The sharpness, details, even the gray scaling is absolutely over my expectations. -Ease of use: I find the 4 direction-button suitable for all that's needed, although in a future update I hope folder navigation is performed like in a cellular phone, I man: right to enter the folder, left to exit, etc. This button nearly makes all the others go unnoticed and even unnecesary. -Mobipocket and html formats. This was beyond my expectations. I hadn't thought how a simple html text, with almost no editing, could be read so easily and quickly. Thumbs down: -Incredibly cheap feel. Plastic, buttons, sd card, earphones. It's somewhat disappointing when you think of the overall price. The leather case is the only thing that makes it look or feel price-worthy. -Navigation system. Is a pain you-know-where to deal with covers. I hope soon that update everybody talks about when a folder navigation system is implemented. I'd add to this a line-by-line (sort of excel data sheet appearance) to sort author, title and all that. I personally don't see the "covers" system useful, specially when you want to have a full library there. -Pdf and manga. Maybe this is my fault, and not cybook's but I bought the device mainly for reading pdfs (specially manga), and it's real hard to make it work properly. It's way too slow and lots of pages even don't show. I'll open a thread asking for help, so don't count this as a totally negative issue yet. -The SD card included. After an evening of cutting, copying and pasting in the sd card included, something went wrong. The card became like corrupt, and was unaccesable by windows, and I had to format it twice, thus deleting all my libraries, and having to copy them again. Again, maybe it was my fault, but this never happened to me with cameras and similar devices using sd cards. So in a nutshell, I am satisfied with its overall features, but still feel that the software included could work far better, and that pdf support should be better. My advice for buyers is: wait for the firmware update and let's see how much navigation, pdf use and overall speed are enhanced. Hope it was useful. Cheers.