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cmdahler · 05-09-2011, 04:34 PM

I tried one of these for a couple of weeks, and I returned it to Best Buy today. There were so many things wrong with it I wouldn't even know where to begin. The PDF support on it was just ludicrous, so that's a necessary fix. Complete PDF support with highlighting and annotations just seems so, I dunno, obvious that having the pathetic and almost laughable support it does have really speaks volumes about their software engineering folks.

The plastic build of the device just feels incredibly cheap when you stack it up next to the Sony 350/650 devices or the iPad. For the kind of money Amazon wants for the DXG, they should be able to manage the same sort of build quality as Sony manages.

WiFi is, again, just so obvious.

I cannot imagine why implementing a basic web browser on a device with a screen size of the DXG should be such a challenge. Basically, so long as they eliminated video, there's no reason why the browser shouldn't just display a web page, period.

I don't really care about touch in general on a dedicated reader, but not having that silly keyboard would be nice.

Better format support for the overall clientele of this device, but personally I export my books as PDFs optimized for the screen size of the device I'm using so I can have more control over typography, so I don't really care much about mobi versus ePub, etc. - I never read books in those formats anyway.

And lastly, better dpi density. The 150 dpi of the DXG is approaching the horrible 133 dpi of the iPad, and given that the entire eInk industry is structured around the idea of reproducing an ink-on-paper experience, it's just silly that these devices aren't made to a minimum of 250+ dpi. I saw a news article a few years back where some company (might have been Epson, IIRC) demonstrated an eInk screen that had some unbelievable density like 350 dpi, or something in that neighborhood. Then I never heard anything more about it. In any case, the dpi of the DXG was really minimal at best, and with some fonts and point sizes it really became a problem.

All in all, I probably would have kept the device if it cost $200. For its actual price point, however, it fell well short of what I expected in quality.

05-09-2011, 04:34 PM	#16
cmdahler Addict Posts: 292 Karma: 24688 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad	I tried one of these for a couple of weeks, and I returned it to Best Buy today. There were so many things wrong with it I wouldn't even know where to begin. The PDF support on it was just ludicrous, so that's a necessary fix. Complete PDF support with highlighting and annotations just seems so, I dunno, obvious that having the pathetic and almost laughable support it does have really speaks volumes about their software engineering folks. The plastic build of the device just feels incredibly cheap when you stack it up next to the Sony 350/650 devices or the iPad. For the kind of money Amazon wants for the DXG, they should be able to manage the same sort of build quality as Sony manages. WiFi is, again, just so obvious. I cannot imagine why implementing a basic web browser on a device with a screen size of the DXG should be such a challenge. Basically, so long as they eliminated video, there's no reason why the browser shouldn't just display a web page, period. I don't really care about touch in general on a dedicated reader, but not having that silly keyboard would be nice. Better format support for the overall clientele of this device, but personally I export my books as PDFs optimized for the screen size of the device I'm using so I can have more control over typography, so I don't really care much about mobi versus ePub, etc. - I never read books in those formats anyway. And lastly, better dpi density. The 150 dpi of the DXG is approaching the horrible 133 dpi of the iPad, and given that the entire eInk industry is structured around the idea of reproducing an ink-on-paper experience, it's just silly that these devices aren't made to a minimum of 250+ dpi. I saw a news article a few years back where some company (might have been Epson, IIRC) demonstrated an eInk screen that had some unbelievable density like 350 dpi, or something in that neighborhood. Then I never heard anything more about it. In any case, the dpi of the DXG was really minimal at best, and with some fonts and point sizes it really became a problem. All in all, I probably would have kept the device if it cost $200. For its actual price point, however, it fell well short of what I expected in quality.