MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Getting a used Lenovo Smart Paper for manga (and some PDFs)?

carmik · Today, 03:42 AM

First impressions, will compare with my Kobo Libra H2O and Kindle paperwhite (11th gen IIRC):

Device was on the latest (presumably last) firmware.
quality is excellent indeed. The metal casing has an impeccable finish. On the downside, metal adds weight to the device; for reading purposes the quality plastic of my Libra will always be my goto choice (feels lighter than the kindle)
did not try the pen at all, just some jots so I can't provide any feedback here
putting files to the device over USB proved impossible. Even though a proved-for-file-transfer usb-c cable was connected, only charging took place. Tried connecting to a Windows as well as to a Linux system, same result. Changed cables same. Finally I installed F-Droid, then a file explorer app from it that understands SMB shares and transferred my reading material to the device over the network (bit slow for my taste). Still the Lenovo faq states that USB transfer is possible: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/sol...stions-faqs#32
Google drive/Onedrive integration is also touted, have not tried it though and not really interested, considering the device's security is a bit low.
installing koreader was a snap: just download the arm64 APK from the koreader github releases page and install it. Have never used it before (tried it on Kobo once and went back to the official reader) but here it worked just fine. Tried manga and it seemed to have special optimized settings for. Image was sharp and with good contrast (fiddled with it a bit). Nice touch that you can adjust backlight easily with a gesture, like the Kobo (slide vertically from the left side).
Backlight went up and down for some reason at certain moments: felt like I could not find the sweet spot here. Plus there is a different setting on the device itself, compared to the setting in koreader. I think it might be a good idea to disable automatically adjustable backlight.
Tried some epubs as well in koreader, looking great as well.
PDFs on koreader: had to disable continuous scrolling. Plus I could not pinch to zoom. Was dead tired at this point so did not have the time to research.
Lots of options in koreader, much more complex beast from my usual Kobo/Kindle experience.

All in all: great device when bought for less than 200 euros and you have the knowledge to sideload stuff on it. Bad device otherwise (possible exception epub/PDF/Microsoft office files-only reading).

Today, 03:42 AM	#12
carmik Member Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2022 Device: Kobo Libra H2O	First impressions, will compare with my Kobo Libra H2O and Kindle paperwhite (11th gen IIRC): Device was on the latest (presumably last) firmware. quality is excellent indeed. The metal casing has an impeccable finish. On the downside, metal adds weight to the device; for reading purposes the quality plastic of my Libra will always be my goto choice (feels lighter than the kindle) did not try the pen at all, just some jots so I can't provide any feedback here putting files to the device over USB proved impossible. Even though a proved-for-file-transfer usb-c cable was connected, only charging took place. Tried connecting to a Windows as well as to a Linux system, same result. Changed cables same. Finally I installed F-Droid, then a file explorer app from it that understands SMB shares and transferred my reading material to the device over the network (bit slow for my taste). Still the Lenovo faq states that USB transfer is possible: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/sol...stions-faqs#32 Google drive/Onedrive integration is also touted, have not tried it though and not really interested, considering the device's security is a bit low. installing koreader was a snap: just download the arm64 APK from the koreader github releases page and install it. Have never used it before (tried it on Kobo once and went back to the official reader) but here it worked just fine. Tried manga and it seemed to have special optimized settings for. Image was sharp and with good contrast (fiddled with it a bit). Nice touch that you can adjust backlight easily with a gesture, like the Kobo (slide vertically from the left side). Backlight went up and down for some reason at certain moments: felt like I could not find the sweet spot here. Plus there is a different setting on the device itself, compared to the setting in koreader. I think it might be a good idea to disable automatically adjustable backlight. Tried some epubs as well in koreader, looking great as well. PDFs on koreader: had to disable continuous scrolling. Plus I could not pinch to zoom. Was dead tired at this point so did not have the time to research. Lots of options in koreader, much more complex beast from my usual Kobo/Kindle experience. All in all: great device when bought for less than 200 euros and you have the knowledge to sideload stuff on it. Bad device otherwise (possible exception epub/PDF/Microsoft office files-only reading).