[Halk]

Rather than make a new thread. Here's my initial thoughts.

Cybook arrived on Thursday, well packaged. The box contents were surprisingly sparse - but this is a good thing for me, I've got too much needless crap around anyway. The Cybook and the USB cable. The box had space for the case which I'd ordered as well.

The page flash annoys me immensely, as I had thought it would. Thankfully it can be turned off, and there's almost no ghosting. The ghosting that is there is less than what you would see with the print on a paperback showing through from the other side. However with the page flash off there is a touch less contrast.

Emboldened text seems to be the way to go to increase contrast. Also lighting has a very large effect on things. The more light the smaller the text can be comfortably.

So far I've only read 1/3 of a book - Imperium by Robert Harris. I cannot tell how many "pages" I've read. However from the bar down the bottom, and by checking the paperback has 500 pages I would say I've read 200.

There is a delay between pressing the button and the page updating. There's also a green light up the top right which goes on when you initiate a page press. This lets you know it's been registered. Unfortunately an oversight has meant that the case completely covers the green LED meaning you can't tell if the page turn has registered or not, other than waiting.

What this means is that you hit the button and then wait, and then think that's long enough it's not changed and hit the button again, just as the page moves and you end up moving forward 2 pages. I started changing pages using the down key, and over time I got less, and less presses without a page turn. I've since switched to the right key to move pages. I still press and don't get a page turn, but I'd say that's becoming less - although with only 200 pages read it's hardly a scientific measurement.

The case is well done, it's perfect for the job (bar the green light being blocked). It's padded and there's rigid material inside to hold shape. I have no idea if it's cardboard or if it's plastic inside. The "spine" has no rigid material, and so far having been bent both over to close the Cybook, and completely in the other direction when I hold the book shows no signs of stretching, cracking, etc, and no lines have appeared on it. Personally I don't like the colour, I'd far prefer a black case, but that's my preference not yours.

Reading the book is far superior to a paperback. The book doesn't fold back closed, you don't need to hold it open. There's no papercuts, it's less bulky, it's easy to hold. You can support it to sit at 45 degrees for an easy reading angle by just propping it up against almost anything. So far it's been propped up against the centre speaker at my PC, a mug, the sugar jar, the milk jug, and when I'm in bed it quite happily sits on the quilt, unlike a paperback which is too heavy.

An area where I think the Cybook suffers is dim lighting. Again it's hardly scientific, but I feel the contrast suffers when the lighting is poor. However, the Cybook does have a trick up it's sleeve there. You can increase the font size, which you can't do with a book. The ability to increase (and decrease) the font size means that no matter what the lighting conditions are I'll be able to read. There will be times I suspect where I could read a paperback with smaller print than the font I'd be using on the Cybook. However again it's such a subjective thing, so I'm not going to put any money on it!

I did have an issue with fonts, but deleting the cache (as said in another thread here) fixed that with no other impact. I'm sure Bookeen will fix that issue in a firmware revision, but it's hardly critical, the only time you'll stick new fonts on you will be in a position to delete the cache. The ability to put new fonts on is pretty spanky. I've already stuck on some free fonts (Liberation) although I'm back to Verdana. Over time I'll try different fonts, and eventually I expect I'll find a favourite and stick with it. Line spacing, however, would be nice if it was adjustable, there's a little wasted space on my screen at the moment, and the more text that's on there the less page turning I have to do.

Frankly the Cybook is wonderful, and I'm delighted I've bought one. I can't justify the price at all, it came out at £280 with just the basics (I'd consider the case to be essential). I love my toys, so I can justify it. But £280 is a hell of a lot of paperbacks. I managed to talk myself into it because £280 is the amount I'll have saved by next year because I negotiated my Vodafone contract down. But at the end of the day if you consider the amount of use you'd expect to get from it - what, 10 hours reading a week, that's 500 a year, assuming it lasts you 3 years that's not bad going per hour. For me I expect I'll read more than 10 hours a week.