Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I hope you'll be happy with the Nexus 7. I like mine a lot, although I don't use it much as a reader. Permit me to point out, though, that like most Android tablets, the N7 has a 16:10 aspect ratio screen. It's not 4:3, like the iPad and most eInk devices are.
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Now I've gotten rid of all the banners I am absolutely delighted with the Nexus 7. First time I see a piece of hardware that has it all... and my current home machine is a 17" screen laptop originallly designed with photographers and other graphical types in mind with an initial price tag of over $5000.00!
Only problem I've had with the N7 is that the screen initially (?) had a rather strong yellow cast. Or perhaps it was not initially so and I was too busy playing with it to notice... and then something unfortunate I did along the way... some setting I should not have touched.. some app I installed... or whatever... screwed up the colors?
This yellow cast was quite obvious when I looked at the Chrome logo which uses the three base RGB colors + yellow for instance...
Quite unacceptable where I am concerned since the template I have used to make my own book covers has a black and (dark) red background and the particular tone of red I chose was rendered as a liverishy dirty brown.
Tried a couple of apps that let you play with color balance.. but these of course were pretty useless... They just ended up messing up the blacks without really fixing the yellow cast!
But while I was considering my options I eventually got lucky with this one. The problem went away of its own accord!
Maybe someone with the right technical background could confirm this... but it sounds as if the device recalibrates its screen automatically under certain circumstances.. and since I screwed up a couple of times (and some) while trying to root the device from my linux box I eventually decided I should start afresh to get rid of any leftovers from previous attempts. So I reset it to factory defaults... this may have triggered the color recalibration mechanism.
Mind you... it might as well be that having the device on for an extended period of time and having set the device
not to turn the screen's light off could just as well account for whatever happened ;-)
As far as e-reading goes.... Google's "Play Books" reader app does the best font rendering job I have ever ever seen anywhere. The default font is wonderfully crisp... perfect contrast... text stands out like it's in 3D or something... and just beautiful to look at... Reminds me of what you see when you open one of those glossy high-end magazines.
Needless to say it makes the Kobo Glo' e-ink screen look like something printed with a toner cartridge that should have gottten a refill like two years ago.
Hey... maybe that's what's happening with my Kobo so-to-speak... Maybe I've used it so much over the last couple of years... the e-ink screen is just faded and it's telling me it's time I bought a new device..
In any case... since the app is also the best I've looked at re: ergonomics/usability... it's a bit of a shame it's missing a few features I would find useful such as dictionary access. Otherwise I would look no further.
Other reader apps I have looked at so far do not seem to do such a good job of font rendering at all—FBreader for instance is really atrocious in this respect—or perhaps the default fonts need to be replaced by something else? But I doubt that... I've already tried switching to fonts I found in /system/fonts (?) and it didn't make any difference. Looks more like just another case of an app developer not being... hmm.. font-aware...?
The only slight issue I can think of with this superior device is perhaps the fact that the screen tends to reflect surrounding lights a little too much for my taste... But then since I only use the tablet in my bedroom I can turn off the lights if they bother me.
Three cheers for your excellent advice.
CJ
P.S.. I had closed the tab where I kept this thread (in my web browser) & it took me longer to find it again than it took me to write the above update... Is there any way I can ask the mobileread forums application to list my threads or should I get into the habit of bookmarking them?