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Snarfblat · 02-20-2011, 12:40 PM

Hi,

Thanks for all the valuable information on this forum. I'm a new user here and the Jetbook Lite is my first dedicated e-reader. I picked it up at Newegg.ca for $100, and it was the reasonable price that sealed the deal. I was looking for the Sony 650 since about Christmas, watching Ebay and looking for sales, but that reader seems to be in very short supply right now.

I had a chance to compare the LCD (Aluratek) and Pearl (Sony650) screens side-by-side at BestBuy, and I was surprised at how much I liked the LCD screen. The contrast was great, the fonts seemed sharp, the page turns were really fast and there was no "reset" between each page. I decided to get the 5" LCD screen and try it out, maybe buy the Sony as well when there were more units available.

I liked the idea of using rechargeable AA batteries since I have a lot of them and always have a set charged and ready to use, so that pushed me towards the Jetbook Lite. I probably would have considered the mini as well, if it could handle more formats. I'm not really interested in wifi or mp3 capabilities.

Out of the box the Jetbook is feather-light, but it feels a little heavy once the batteries are installed. It's also clearly off-balance if I try to hold it with my right hand, but perfectly balanced in the left. I also find the case to be very slippery (could be my dry hands) and I almost dropped it a couple of times. I might consider a silicone skin for it.

I've heard the page-turn slider on the left-side described as unusual and useless, but I find that I really like it and have been using it about 90% of the time for page turns. It's right there at my thumb when I'm holding the Jetbook, it's got the right sensitivity, and it doesn't make any noise. I hope that they keep this feature for future products.

I think that the chrome page-turn buttons on the bottom left are too shiny, and they catch the light once in a while like little mirrors. I think flat-black would probably be a better choice.

I've been reading at font size 18 or 20, less page turns at 18, but easier for me to read at 20. I think this is where a larger screen would be nice, to have less page turns AND a slightly larger font. More font style choices would be great too.

It took me a little time to adjust to reading on the device, probably a least an entire book to really get into the zone and forget about the device itself. I'm on my third book now and reading on the device feels pretty natural.

I've been going through a lot of batteries, 3 sets on the first day. I'm not sure if removing the sd card and/or transferring files sucks up a lot of juice but that seems to have settled down a bit and I'm on 4-bars after about 8 hours on this last set. I read about some units freezing up, so I've been replacing them at 2 bars to stay on the safe side. I like popping in a new set and just continue reading. I suppose with a lithium-ion you could plug in an AC adapter and continue reading and that would be OK with me as long as the cord is pretty long.

I was surprised at how slow some actions are on the device, like loading up the book list on the SD card for the first time. It's not so bad after the first time though. I also read an epub book that took longer and longer to turn the page, and after about 110 pages it was almost 5 seconds to turn. My current book is also epub and has about 300 pages so I jumped to the end to test out the page-turn speed and it's pretty much as fast as at the start. Maybe there is some kind of formatting issue I should watch out for.

I've been using Calibre to convert and transfer books and it seems to work very well although it is not very intuitive for me. Watching the how-to videos on YouTube helped a lot.

One feature that I would really like is a comprehensive (read: huge) English dictionary that works with every format. Even if I had to type in the word that would be OK as long as I could get back to reading quickly. That is probably one of the most appealing features of the Sony to me, double-click on a word and get the definition. That's just awesome.

Sorry for rambling. Overall I'm pleased with the Jetbook Lite so far, I think it was worth every penny.

02-20-2011, 12:40 PM	#1
Snarfblat Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 178 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: JBL, 350, 650	New JBL owner, rambling thoughts Hi, Thanks for all the valuable information on this forum. I'm a new user here and the Jetbook Lite is my first dedicated e-reader. I picked it up at Newegg.ca for $100, and it was the reasonable price that sealed the deal. I was looking for the Sony 650 since about Christmas, watching Ebay and looking for sales, but that reader seems to be in very short supply right now. I had a chance to compare the LCD (Aluratek) and Pearl (Sony650) screens side-by-side at BestBuy, and I was surprised at how much I liked the LCD screen. The contrast was great, the fonts seemed sharp, the page turns were really fast and there was no "reset" between each page. I decided to get the 5" LCD screen and try it out, maybe buy the Sony as well when there were more units available. I liked the idea of using rechargeable AA batteries since I have a lot of them and always have a set charged and ready to use, so that pushed me towards the Jetbook Lite. I probably would have considered the mini as well, if it could handle more formats. I'm not really interested in wifi or mp3 capabilities. Out of the box the Jetbook is feather-light, but it feels a little heavy once the batteries are installed. It's also clearly off-balance if I try to hold it with my right hand, but perfectly balanced in the left. I also find the case to be very slippery (could be my dry hands) and I almost dropped it a couple of times. I might consider a silicone skin for it. I've heard the page-turn slider on the left-side described as unusual and useless, but I find that I really like it and have been using it about 90% of the time for page turns. It's right there at my thumb when I'm holding the Jetbook, it's got the right sensitivity, and it doesn't make any noise. I hope that they keep this feature for future products. I think that the chrome page-turn buttons on the bottom left are too shiny, and they catch the light once in a while like little mirrors. I think flat-black would probably be a better choice. I've been reading at font size 18 or 20, less page turns at 18, but easier for me to read at 20. I think this is where a larger screen would be nice, to have less page turns AND a slightly larger font. More font style choices would be great too. It took me a little time to adjust to reading on the device, probably a least an entire book to really get into the zone and forget about the device itself. I'm on my third book now and reading on the device feels pretty natural. I've been going through a lot of batteries, 3 sets on the first day. I'm not sure if removing the sd card and/or transferring files sucks up a lot of juice but that seems to have settled down a bit and I'm on 4-bars after about 8 hours on this last set. I read about some units freezing up, so I've been replacing them at 2 bars to stay on the safe side. I like popping in a new set and just continue reading. I suppose with a lithium-ion you could plug in an AC adapter and continue reading and that would be OK with me as long as the cord is pretty long. I was surprised at how slow some actions are on the device, like loading up the book list on the SD card for the first time. It's not so bad after the first time though. I also read an epub book that took longer and longer to turn the page, and after about 110 pages it was almost 5 seconds to turn. My current book is also epub and has about 300 pages so I jumped to the end to test out the page-turn speed and it's pretty much as fast as at the start. Maybe there is some kind of formatting issue I should watch out for. I've been using Calibre to convert and transfer books and it seems to work very well although it is not very intuitive for me. Watching the how-to videos on YouTube helped a lot. One feature that I would really like is a comprehensive (read: huge) English dictionary that works with every format. Even if I had to type in the word that would be OK as long as I could get back to reading quickly. That is probably one of the most appealing features of the Sony to me, double-click on a word and get the definition. That's just awesome. Sorry for rambling. Overall I'm pleased with the Jetbook Lite so far, I think it was worth every penny.