MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Color Alturatek Color

RKanarek · 12-02-2011, 04:13 AM

Greetings.

I *just* bought my Aluratek 7” Libre | Color Ebook Reader from B&H Photo, and I’d like to amplify Catlady’s comments and add a few of my own.

N.B. Before I discovered this one, I had intended to start a new thread. I hope you'll forgive me if this is a bit long.

First about my ebook habits. I normally store virtually all of by ebooks on a single 16GB non-mini SD card. The 8GB of ebooks that the card contains are all 100% DRM-free, mostly in the form of images of scanned books bound in a PDF format (e.g., “Google [PDF] Books”), and logically organized in a hieratical directory structure. My actual reading is indoors, under sub-optimal lighting conditions

My previous ebook reader, an Aluratek Libre Pro, made reading most of the scanned books impossible due to its tiny 5” screen and its imperfect PDF viewer, but navigating the SD card was a cinch (almost a delight considering the set of piano-style menu keys that line one side of the ‘Pro) and it could handle other formats (including “proper” reflow-able PDFs). The Libre | Color, however, is absolutely awful!

The L|C seems to delight in pointlessly and extremely slowly scanning the SD card at every opportunity or pretense of an opportunity. And by extremely slowly, I mean MINUTES, not seconds! After a hard reset, it seems to scan the card twice! Usually it conducts these scans for the purpose of listing my ebooks alphabetically, without regard to my subdirectories: If arranging books alphabetically were a sensible thing to do, why would Melvil Dewey have bothered to create his system? Have these Aluratek people never been to a library?

Once can put the L|C into “file explorer” mode, in which case it will, after yet another lengthy scan, display my directories properly. Unfortunately, will only display directories page by page; advancing to the next page requires another lengthy scan (albeit not quite as lengthy, but still over a MINUTE!), and there is no way to jump ahead. Oh, and when the gadget is in ‘explorer mode, one loses all of the home page context menu options.

The actual viewing of PDFs (any type) is also far more badly implemented than in the ‘Pro reader, despite the fact that its wide (in landscape mode) screen could have made viewing scanned-book PDFs feasible IF it had quality software.

As far as reading text on the screen, IMHO its like trying to read the markings on an illuminated car headlight at night. Okay, the comparison is not exact, but its not as different as one would hope. In fairness, however, I don’t think any backlit LCD is suitable for e-book reader use. (The notion that backlit LCDs on ereaders make them better for reading when lighting is poor is, IMHO, silly. The more your pupils are dilated, the more unpleasant it’s going to be to stare at something bright for a prolonged period of time.)

Tip: If the above has not dissuaded you, Aluratek is selling refurbished Libre Color ereaders (AEBK07FS-R) for $49.00 (I bought my new for $7x.xx; I just can’t catch a break ;-).

12-02-2011, 04:13 AM	#8
RKanarek Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 14 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Aluratek AEBK01F ...	Greetings. I just bought my Aluratek 7” Libre \| Color Ebook Reader from B&H Photo, and I’d like to amplify Catlady’s comments and add a few of my own. N.B. Before I discovered this one, I had intended to start a new thread. I hope you'll forgive me if this is a bit long. First about my ebook habits. I normally store virtually all of by ebooks on a single 16GB non-mini SD card. The 8GB of ebooks that the card contains are all 100% DRM-free, mostly in the form of images of scanned books bound in a PDF format (e.g., “Google [PDF] Books”), and logically organized in a hieratical directory structure. My actual reading is indoors, under sub-optimal lighting conditions My previous ebook reader, an Aluratek Libre Pro, made reading most of the scanned books impossible due to its tiny 5” screen and its imperfect PDF viewer, but navigating the SD card was a cinch (almost a delight considering the set of piano-style menu keys that line one side of the ‘Pro) and it could handle other formats (including “proper” reflow-able PDFs). The Libre \| Color, however, is absolutely awful! The L\|C seems to delight in pointlessly and extremely slowly scanning the SD card at every opportunity or pretense of an opportunity. And by extremely slowly, I mean MINUTES, not seconds! After a hard reset, it seems to scan the card twice! Usually it conducts these scans for the purpose of listing my ebooks alphabetically, without regard to my subdirectories: If arranging books alphabetically were a sensible thing to do, why would Melvil Dewey have bothered to create his system? Have these Aluratek people never been to a library? Once can put the L\|C into “file explorer” mode, in which case it will, after yet another lengthy scan, display my directories properly. Unfortunately, will only display directories page by page; advancing to the next page requires another lengthy scan (albeit not quite as lengthy, but still over a MINUTE!), and there is no way to jump ahead. Oh, and when the gadget is in ‘explorer mode, one loses all of the home page context menu options. The actual viewing of PDFs (any type) is also far more badly implemented than in the ‘Pro reader, despite the fact that its wide (in landscape mode) screen could have made viewing scanned-book PDFs feasible IF it had quality software. As far as reading text on the screen, IMHO its like trying to read the markings on an illuminated car headlight at night. Okay, the comparison is not exact, but its not as different as one would hope. In fairness, however, I don’t think any backlit LCD is suitable for e-book reader use. (The notion that backlit LCDs on ereaders make them better for reading when lighting is poor is, IMHO, silly. The more your pupils are dilated, the more unpleasant it’s going to be to stare at something bright for a prolonged period of time.) Tip: If the above has not dissuaded you, Aluratek is selling refurbished Libre Color ereaders (AEBK07FS-R) for $49.00 (I bought my new for $7x.xx; I just can’t catch a break ;-). Last edited by RKanarek; 12-03-2011 at 02:35 AM.