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lordfrikk · 02-19-2020, 04:20 AM

I just bought the Inkpad X after long period of indecisiveness. First impressions:

The screen is beautiful and the content looks great.

The build quality has some serious flaws. First, left side of the back cover does not fully adhere to the frame and since I am holding the device at that exact spot I can notice it all the time. When tapped it even produces a sounds made by the back cover snapping to the frame. Second, both the left and right side have something like a glue residue left on it. I'm not sure how that happened since the plastic it came wrapped in did not seem to be glued to the device. Third, the buttons on the bottom of the screen are inserted into the frame in such a way that it's not easy to recognize which button you're pressing without looking. Additionally, the rightmost button for turning the device off is very small and thus pressing it usually results in pressing the surrounding frame and nothing happening.

Next, the Pocketbook ecosystem.

I mostly read EPUB files and from my brief experience yesterday (comparing to my old Kindle Touch) it seems like setting a particular font size has wildly different results depending on the book. This is very annoying because I had to fiddle with the size for almost every book.

The included dictionary is just barely usable (again, comparing to Kindle). I am interested in having a comprehensive English-English dictionary because I mostly read English books. The only dictionary that satisfies this criteria is the famous but extremely sparse Webster dictionary from 1913. Webster's dictionary is more a curiosity than something for serious, day-do-day usage nowadays. I am aware of the possibility of installing additional dictionaries by hand but the out-of-the-box experience is completely inadequate for me.

Finally, tapping the shop button resulted in opening a non-existing page (404 Not Found) in the browser. I didn't get far enough to comprehensively review the shopping experience because the book cover carousel in the shop is implemented extremely poorly. It has inertia which causes the carousel to slowly come to stop and blinks constantly. Even when moving it just a few covers at a time this took around 15-20 to come to a full stop.

Now to the size. I think the 10" screen looks great but for regular reading the books have to be properly formatted and the reader has to consistently resize the content to fit the screen, which I feel the Pocketbook software does not. Reading PDFs and comic books is just OK, nothing amazing. Despite having 200+ PPI, the picture quality is visually degraded compared to something like the iPad Mini so for all the comic book lovers I suggest a tablet instead.

Then, and this is not Pocketbook's fault, you are left with all the disadvantages of such a big screen. Even using it at home you have to constantly think which surfaces can fit such a big device without risk of falling to the ground or being toppled by inadvertent movement. The screen seems like it would scratch easily so I am definitely not comfortable just throwing it in my backpack like I would with my old Kindle Touch.

All in all, for me 10" is too big despite my expectations to the contrary and yet not big enough for things like PDFs and comic books. I plan to return the device and get another 6" device once they're moved to USB-C and having warm front light. If anyone else is deciding whether this is a device for them, my personal suggestion would be to either go 13" or 6". I haven't used 7" or 8" devices but I assume they would suffer from the same "too big yet not big enough" issue as this Inkpad X.

02-19-2020, 04:20 AM	#20
lordfrikk Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2020 Device: Kindle Touch	I just bought the Inkpad X after long period of indecisiveness. First impressions: The screen is beautiful and the content looks great. The build quality has some serious flaws. First, left side of the back cover does not fully adhere to the frame and since I am holding the device at that exact spot I can notice it all the time. When tapped it even produces a sounds made by the back cover snapping to the frame. Second, both the left and right side have something like a glue residue left on it. I'm not sure how that happened since the plastic it came wrapped in did not seem to be glued to the device. Third, the buttons on the bottom of the screen are inserted into the frame in such a way that it's not easy to recognize which button you're pressing without looking. Additionally, the rightmost button for turning the device off is very small and thus pressing it usually results in pressing the surrounding frame and nothing happening. Next, the Pocketbook ecosystem. I mostly read EPUB files and from my brief experience yesterday (comparing to my old Kindle Touch) it seems like setting a particular font size has wildly different results depending on the book. This is very annoying because I had to fiddle with the size for almost every book. The included dictionary is just barely usable (again, comparing to Kindle). I am interested in having a comprehensive English-English dictionary because I mostly read English books. The only dictionary that satisfies this criteria is the famous but extremely sparse Webster dictionary from 1913. Webster's dictionary is more a curiosity than something for serious, day-do-day usage nowadays. I am aware of the possibility of installing additional dictionaries by hand but the out-of-the-box experience is completely inadequate for me. Finally, tapping the shop button resulted in opening a non-existing page (404 Not Found) in the browser. I didn't get far enough to comprehensively review the shopping experience because the book cover carousel in the shop is implemented extremely poorly. It has inertia which causes the carousel to slowly come to stop and blinks constantly. Even when moving it just a few covers at a time this took around 15-20 to come to a full stop. Now to the size. I think the 10" screen looks great but for regular reading the books have to be properly formatted and the reader has to consistently resize the content to fit the screen, which I feel the Pocketbook software does not. Reading PDFs and comic books is just OK, nothing amazing. Despite having 200+ PPI, the picture quality is visually degraded compared to something like the iPad Mini so for all the comic book lovers I suggest a tablet instead. Then, and this is not Pocketbook's fault, you are left with all the disadvantages of such a big screen. Even using it at home you have to constantly think which surfaces can fit such a big device without risk of falling to the ground or being toppled by inadvertent movement. The screen seems like it would scratch easily so I am definitely not comfortable just throwing it in my backpack like I would with my old Kindle Touch. All in all, for me 10" is too big despite my expectations to the contrary and yet not big enough for things like PDFs and comic books. I plan to return the device and get another 6" device once they're moved to USB-C and having warm front light. If anyone else is deciding whether this is a device for them, my personal suggestion would be to either go 13" or 6". I haven't used 7" or 8" devices but I assume they would suffer from the same "too big yet not big enough" issue as this Inkpad X.