Quote:
Originally Posted by wallcraft
I'm not sure a cover is that much help if you drop your reader. It helps prevent twisting forces (which a sleeve does not do) and sharp pressure on the screen (e.g. from the corner of another device in, say, a backpack). A sleeve also helps for the latter very common failure mode, but only if you always use it.
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For me, it's not about protection.
For me, it's mainly about the touch and feel.
Sony 505, I hold in hands very similar to a book. The cover opens like a book cover would do.
That's the reason, why I don't like "backflip" covers, like they are available for iRex 1000S for example.
And sleeves simply mean, there's nothing at all. You take it out of the sleeve for reading and hold the "naked" unit in your hands.
First of all, this means fingerprints on the unit. On Cybook Opus' plastic housing this may not be visible, but on Cybook Gen3 or Sony 505 it probably would annoy me.
(This doesn't mean, that I prefer Opus' housing. To me it's a bit too "plasticky".)
Second of all, ergonomically it's less convenient, to hold the unit without cover. Opus for example has "round edges", so the best holding position is laying it flat on your hand. A cover, I way more conveniently could hold where it folds between my thumb and index finger.
And last but not least: Protection. Not so much protection against falling, but protection while transporting in my bag. Sony 505 for example can't slip from it's cover. The only way to damage it would be, putting too much pressure on the screen, for example my laptop pushing against the reader. But Opus and similar units simply could slip out of the sleeve, having no protection at all. And I guess, there's less protection against pressure to the screen as well. A cover is flat, perfectly parallel to your unit's screen. A sleeve isn't perfectly parallel, it's kind of "bulgy".
And: What to do with the sleeve, while reading? When reading on a train for example, I only have to remember, not to forget my reader in the train. With a Sleeve, I already have 2 parts to remember. And I need to lay down my sleeve "somewhere in the dirt", whereas I'd hold a cover in my hands...
I hope, there will be 3rd party cover for Opus asap.