MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

StevenP · 06-30-2010, 08:53 PM

There are many pros and cons to the Edge. I must admit, I am in the middle of the road on it. I am happy Boris finds it 100% to his satisfaction but I, unfortunately, don't.

Here are some of the negatives:
* It is somewhat slow and sluggish. Although the processor is 1.2 Ghz it is only running at 800 Mhz and it shows.
* The e-ink is quite "laggy" when using it for marking notes on ebook pages (sometimes, really bad) or even in the journal. I have grown somewhat accustomed to it on the journal side but I still find it annoying at times. I also find it difficult to be neat or precise when taking notes or wanting to mock something up. I am starting to revert back to paper.
* I am finding that although the e-ink screen is larger then the nook or smaller Kindle (which are meant more for novel reading) I find it still too small for my technical books. Unfortunately, the toolbars at the top and bottom take up space (I would love to be able to hide when not needed) and zooming only does so much because most of my books don't reflow.
* I find the 8 shades of grey limitation can make reading some colorized text (such as source code that has been colorized) difficult to read. The Documents to go was definitely meant for a phones and is really practically useless, IMHO, for a tablet. The color view for the page uses the current resolution of the e-ink making the images with text unreadable. I don't want to zoom in, view it and zoom back out (that's very slow on the Edge.)
* Android: it is so painfully obviously that it was meant for phones and not tablets. I have hopes that Android will be updated to take into consideration tablets (which I think Google has planned) but for now, it just comes across as silly half the time and the lack of access to the Market just plain old limits the tablet side even more. Sure there are some APK's people can link to and some 3rd party stores that can be used but I find they, for the most part, really have lousy apps.
* The camera first off is not really great quality but that's okay, since it's really meant for recording classes and perhaps seminars and not making home movies. But, how should that be done? Lift the tablet side up vertically and face it towards the speakers while recording all the while they see their mirror reflection? The Edge also becomes useless for note taking or ebook (textbook) reading during that time. It's best to buy a cheap digital camera on a small ipod that supports video. Move the video to the Edge when done (extra money and more to carry around.)
* SD cards are second class citizens. I really thought I could expand my library just be inserting an SD card. You can read from the there but they're not really part of the library.
* Lack of useful software (my opinion, others will most surely disagree).

Much of this can be fixed via software updates but I am not sure I am willing to wait months with the hope that it'll be updated to meet my needs. At this point I am really beginning to doubt whether the Edge is what I had hoped and whether it fits my needs.

06-30-2010, 08:53 PM	#8
StevenP Edge User	There are many pros and cons to the Edge. I must admit, I am in the middle of the road on it. I am happy Boris finds it 100% to his satisfaction but I, unfortunately, don't. Here are some of the negatives: * It is somewhat slow and sluggish. Although the processor is 1.2 Ghz it is only running at 800 Mhz and it shows. * The e-ink is quite "laggy" when using it for marking notes on ebook pages (sometimes, really bad) or even in the journal. I have grown somewhat accustomed to it on the journal side but I still find it annoying at times. I also find it difficult to be neat or precise when taking notes or wanting to mock something up. I am starting to revert back to paper. * I am finding that although the e-ink screen is larger then the nook or smaller Kindle (which are meant more for novel reading) I find it still too small for my technical books. Unfortunately, the toolbars at the top and bottom take up space (I would love to be able to hide when not needed) and zooming only does so much because most of my books don't reflow. * I find the 8 shades of grey limitation can make reading some colorized text (such as source code that has been colorized) difficult to read. The Documents to go was definitely meant for a phones and is really practically useless, IMHO, for a tablet. The color view for the page uses the current resolution of the e-ink making the images with text unreadable. I don't want to zoom in, view it and zoom back out (that's very slow on the Edge.) * Android: it is so painfully obviously that it was meant for phones and not tablets. I have hopes that Android will be updated to take into consideration tablets (which I think Google has planned) but for now, it just comes across as silly half the time and the lack of access to the Market just plain old limits the tablet side even more. Sure there are some APK's people can link to and some 3rd party stores that can be used but I find they, for the most part, really have lousy apps. * The camera first off is not really great quality but that's okay, since it's really meant for recording classes and perhaps seminars and not making home movies. But, how should that be done? Lift the tablet side up vertically and face it towards the speakers while recording all the while they see their mirror reflection? The Edge also becomes useless for note taking or ebook (textbook) reading during that time. It's best to buy a cheap digital camera on a small ipod that supports video. Move the video to the Edge when done (extra money and more to carry around.) * SD cards are second class citizens. I really thought I could expand my library just be inserting an SD card. You can read from the there but they're not really part of the library. * Lack of useful software (my opinion, others will most surely disagree). Much of this can be fixed via software updates but I am not sure I am willing to wait months with the hope that it'll be updated to meet my needs. At this point I am really beginning to doubt whether the Edge is what I had hoped and whether it fits my needs.