[jgray]

I ordered a Jetbook from NewEgg on Monday, using the coupon code. It arrived today. I have only done a preliminary hands-on so far, but thought I'd share my initial impressions.

First, the screen. It is a non-backlit, reflective, B&W LCD. It is similar to the screen on the eBookwise 1150 that I used to have, but has four times the resolution (640x480) and no backlight. It also doesn't appear green, as the 1150 did. Although the screen does have a reasonably wide viewing angle, the background does get lighter or darker with a change in angle. This is inherent in LCD screens. It is not too critical, so I don't find it a problem when reading.

I haven't seen the Pixel Qi screen that everyone is raving about, but I would imagine that in B&W mode, it is probably similar to the Jetbook. Although I believe the Pixel Qi screen is supposed to be higher resolution.

Since I commented elsewhere about having to return a Sony PRS-505 because of lack of contrast, I'll compare it with the Jetbook. The Sony has the advantage of not being as affected by viewing angle. The Jetbook seems to have more contrast in low light (quite dim light in fact). The Sony does have a larger screen with a higher DPI, but the Jetbook seems more than adequate to me in that regard. Even at the smallest 12pt font, the Jetbook was readable if you have very good eyes. Being LCD, the Jetbook has no flashing or lag when turning pages. When opening books, there is a 1-2 second delay.

I haven't read the user's manual yet, but I was able to figure out all the controls quite easily. The page up/down slider on the left side is a bit cumbersome. I don't really see how you can hold the reader with one hand and activate the slider with your thumb without almost dropping it. Maybe I'm just not dexterous enough. The two paging buttons on the lower left work just fine without fumbling.

The Jetbook comes with several translation dictionaries and a straight English lookup dictionary. Looking up a word is fairly easy, considering the buttons-only interface. While reading a book, two button presses to get you into dictionary mode, use the arrows to highlight the word, then press OK. You can use the L/R arrows to change dictionaries when the definition or translation is on screen. I did have to change the default dictionary to English, so I didn't have to keep selecting it instead of the translation dictionaries. The English dictionary does seem to be missing some words that you would expect, however. I'll have to see whether better dictionaries can be loaded or not. The dictionaries are apparently from Lingvosoft, who specialize in translation software.

All of the sample ebooks that came preloaded are either TXT or FB2. I have yet to try my own epub, mobi or RTF ebooks. The current firmware does not support any DRM format. This is of no concern to me. There was mention on the Jetbook forum about some DRM format being supported in a future firmware.

Speaking of firmware, my Jetbook came with v0.30f firmware. I see that a newer version is available. I will be updating it later this evening.

I will have more to say after I have used the Jetbook further and tested the other ebook formats. For now, I think that it is well worth the $170 that I paid for it.