[kacir]

Originally Posted by vmsda

Ultra : The least talked about PocketBook ?

I do not think so.
PocketBook Sense with Kenzo cover is even less talked about

OK. I had an opportunity to test PocketBook Ultra thoroughly and here is what I think.

Originally Posted by vmsda

1. Excellent perceived build quality.
2. Spectacular footprint, much more wieldy than my previous 622 and 626.
3. Physical reading experience on a par (not noticeably better) than with previous PBs.

I have to agree with those points.
I also like magnets built into the back of the body, because using those I could finally build an ultimate custom case for it. Juts glue in a few magnets to the back of the cover and line the cover with a 3M Post-it board glue.
I also like the magnet that shuts the reader off when you close the cover.

Please note, that PocketBook Sense with Kenzo cover has even smaller footprint, misses the useless camera and has all the other features that Ultra has.

Originally Posted by vmsda

4. Books inherited from other PBs could easily be flagged as "read". Now, ReadRate wants to connect to the Net to tell the world at large I have "completed" them. So I have to open every book, jump to the last page, close the book, have it "completed". Ludicrous.

I do not care for that feature
Please note that I consider the newest generation of firmware to be very inferior when compared to the legendary PocketBook 360°.
Even firmware 4.xy - found on Touch Lux generation is worse than on PB360, but firmware generation 5.xy is a total catastrophe.
I was pretty unhappy with my Touch Lux until somebody ported Coolreader for it, so I can read epubs with the formatting *I* like without having to tweak each epub manually.

On PocketBook Ultra
They screwed up fbreader - so you can't set things like justification for some epubs.
They screwed up all reading apps - you can't configure the bottom status line to show time, battery level, light, percentage of book read and other things. On PB360 in third-party fbreader 180 you could also have a graphic progress-bar and other goodies
They screwed up ability to set up a list of applications to open epub files with
They screwed up user interface. On PB360 you had an opportunity to install your own themes that completely redefined user interface and then they sponsored a programming competition where some magnificent themes were created
They screwed up the library. The library doesn't display filenames anymore, even if you select that option - so for the books that have less-than-perfect metadata, but have nice filenames you are unable to see what the book is.
They screwed ten more things, but I am not going to tire you.
Yes, the new firmware has interesting new features, but I do not care about fancy Dropbox integration if that means that *the* basic reading app - the fbreader is MUCH less configurable than the one two generations back. I do not care about new fancy features when it means that the "good old" third-party apps can't be ported because they can't be bothered to release theme builder of properly documented SDK for the new generation of firmware.

Originally Posted by vmsda

5. I also indulge in concurrent audio+reading books, especially for poetry and foreign language reading. The audio player reproduction is acceptable. But I found no way to control the audio player and the reading screen from the same interface. Very little thought obviously given to user experience.

The only opportunity when I used the audio was when I was testing it for a review - on Ultra or my Touch Lux

Originally Posted by vmsda

B. What are the Ultra weak points?
I spend so much time reading that I hardly ever play with other features. Still:
1. I hardly ever use the two side buttons. Perhaps they are there for future apps, for normal reading they can be dispensed with.
2. The multisensor control is too sensitive, and is more suited to bigger screen sizes anyway, only adds to the price in small screens. It could be useful to enlarge poorly reproduced figures, but I have not been very successful with my experiments.
3. The camera and the scanner yield indifferent to poor results. They felt more like work-in-progress than features-ready-to-be-shipped.

The paging buttons on the back are placed on a position that is awkward for me. It is an interesting idea, but not well implemented.
Camera is almost useless.
OCR software - they used Tesseract (open source OCR currently developed by google) - gives abysmal results, thanks to the almost-useless camera and missing graphical user interface where you could tweak settings.

Originally Posted by vmsda

C. Am I disappointed with the Ultra?

I personally was disappointed with the device SO MUCH, that I declined an offer to buy the review unit for a significantly discounted price. At that point I was hoping that they will release a firmware update that will solve the most glaring problems, but the problems (for example extensions.cfg not working for epubs, screwed-up library, reading app not being able to display time and other info on the bottom status-line ...) remain even now - after several firmware updates.

The Ultra is still a pretty good reader - when compared to other brands, BUT I was spoiled rotten by numerous configuration options on PocketBook readers two generations back and I am furious that they obviously handed the development to the team that doesn't adhere to fantastic system architecture and specifications set up by the first generation of programmers - the legendary "Guys in Kiev".

One big plus for the new modes is that the new programmers working on the 5.xy generation of firmware did not manage to screw up some features [yet], such as dictionary system, so I can still use large collection of dictionaries and encyclopedia that I collected over the years.