Color e-reader on sale for $59

thegrendel · 05-13-2011, 12:12 PM

It's a Slick e-reader, the approximate equivalent of a stripped-down Aluratek color e-reader. It's an in-store only clearance special at Big Lots.

The URL:

http://www.biglots.com/search/product/2460

West Virginia · 05-14-2011, 03:27 AM

I could say that I'm a total loser and it wouldn't matter much. You can't see me, judge and such. You don't know me really.

I'm not a well, total loser, just temporally one. So in the spirit of annominity, I'll admit. I work at BigLots. Owwwww! It hurt my fingers to type!

At that price, I'd consider this. Especially, if I can use my 20 percent discount. It would mitigate the reader's cheapness and almost certainly very cheap battery that I may have to replace in six months.

But a warning to readers. This reader doesn't really have folder management, you have to do a work around to see any folders. And frankly, the screen looks like crap. It's not a good ereader really unless you get it for so very cheap and for special circumstances.

Actually, I can't really recommend this thing unless you can get it for $20 bucks and want to use it for a 3rd or 4th backup reader. And actually, if one thinks of it like that then there is really no point to this thing at all.

Joe

booklover6 · 05-14-2011, 07:39 AM

Hey! There's nothing wrong with working at Big Lots.

Thanks for the review, its good to know.

dixieknits · 05-16-2011, 10:30 AM

I bought one for my grandson for the RV for trips this summer as his faher won't give me back my 60.00 Kohl special Pandigital originally purchased for that purpose. It's fine for a backlit no frills epub reader and if it kicks around the RV all summer, we got our money's worth. It works fine and came with a suedette case.. What more can you ask for $60.00?

seigezunt · 05-17-2011, 08:22 PM

I bought one when they were $80. They are pretty good. I have a Sony Pocket Reader, a much better machine, but I got the Slick because it has the advantage of having the SD-card slot, and can read some PDFs better as it doesn't try to "translate" (don't know the term) but just presents the page image. And because you don't need a light to read it in bed.

I'm kind of burying the lead sentence here, but I was at Big Lots the other day, and I noticed that they not only had the Slick for sale, but they had the Sony Pocket Reader, for the same price! Refurbished model, but still, a very good deal. I grabbed one for my wife.

West Virginia · 05-23-2011, 01:05 AM

Quote:

I bought one for my grandson for the RV for trips this summer as his faher won't give me back my 60.00 Kohl special Pandigital originally purchased for that purpose. It's fine for a backlit no frills epub reader and if it kicks around the RV all summer, we got our money's worth. It works fine and came with a suedette case.. What more can you ask for $60.00?

A battery that lasts for more than four months. Many don't.

J

ApK · 05-23-2011, 09:20 AM

It says it does video. If that's any good, it might be worth it for that. Or for photo's like a digital picture frame.

RickCain · 05-23-2011, 02:04 PM

I picked up one with big lots insider discount for about $48. It looks good but the firmware is pretty weak. It doesn't sync and the menus are laid out in a way that doesn't make much sense. The reader app is in one menu, the music player in another, and the video player is in the setup menu! Its pretty slow for reasons that I can't ascertain, because it plays videos just fine, so it has the horsepower. It plays music quite well but the music player is rudimentary and has no playlist option I know of and the music is listed in A-Z format regardless of how you organize it in the e-reader. It doesn't even seem to care if you put things in subfolders, it just presents your songs to you in a great big list.

The video tends to be distorted so doesn't seem to do proper aspect ratio scaling. The speaker is at the lower rear of the reader so when you put it in the protective flip cover, the speaker volume is muffled. There are brightness and contrast controls so you can adjust for a dark room or outdoors.

PDFs are SLOWWWW, even smaller ones. Sometimes it looks like its locked up when it actually is just loading the next page, which can take up to a minute or more.

The firmware upgrade from southern telecom gives no noticeable changes, it must be a very minor bug fix, but not a fix for the bugs I'm experiencing.

http://www.southerntelecom.com/slick...rmware138.html
Make sure you install the slick USB driver first!

Overall a very mixed bag. The reader looks nice without annoying branding on the front, the buttons all seem to work as expected, it comes with a free protective flip cover mounting, it has a charger and a USB cord, it supports SD cards and has a headphone jack. You can even charge it from the USB port so you don't have to whip out the charger all the time. The firmware is what really trips this reader up. It feels like its still in Beta stage.

dixieknits · 05-25-2011, 03:30 PM

Hmmvery strange, my video player icon is righ on the home screen; It is the little TV/movie screen, center bottom, and also the music and settings icons are there. I just found the settings and was able to turn off the automatic page rotator and turn on the function that let's it go to catnap mode after 30 seconds of inactivity. All you need to do to turn it back on is touch the ok button. I like the non shiny screen and think it's fine for my purpose for it.
I was not able to get it to play a video. As a matter of fact, it would not see the file at all. I used an avi file, which it said it read, but I haven't managed to get it to see any video files af any format. What format did you load?

RickCain · 05-27-2011, 01:31 AM

It only seems to play FLV and MPG (Mpeg1) formats at 640 x 480, but I'm still testing. The lower center icon is the picture viewer. The video player is in the settings icon submenu. Why it is there I have no idea. There's plenty of real estate on the main screen, the reader icons are HUGE.

johndoak · 05-29-2011, 06:24 PM

This is quite a nice little eReader. Paid $59 at Big Lots for the last one (a return, I think.) Anyway it has worked perfectly and is easy on the eyes. The battery lasts for long time (about 4 hours) compared to my LookBook from CVS. It can store more books than I will be able to read in a lifetime. The only thing I can't get it to do is to save the settings on the Calendar. It always wants to revert back to May 4, 2010 no matter how many times I set it.

05-13-2011, 12:12 PM	#1
thegrendel Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Sony PRS-500	Color e-reader on sale for $59 It's a Slick e-reader, the approximate equivalent of a stripped-down Aluratek color e-reader. It's an in-store only clearance special at Big Lots. The URL: http://www.biglots.com/search/product/2460

05-23-2011, 02:04 PM	#8
RickCain Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Slick ER700-2	I picked up one with big lots insider discount for about $48. It looks good but the firmware is pretty weak. It doesn't sync and the menus are laid out in a way that doesn't make much sense. The reader app is in one menu, the music player in another, and the video player is in the setup menu! Its pretty slow for reasons that I can't ascertain, because it plays videos just fine, so it has the horsepower. It plays music quite well but the music player is rudimentary and has no playlist option I know of and the music is listed in A-Z format regardless of how you organize it in the e-reader. It doesn't even seem to care if you put things in subfolders, it just presents your songs to you in a great big list. The video tends to be distorted so doesn't seem to do proper aspect ratio scaling. The speaker is at the lower rear of the reader so when you put it in the protective flip cover, the speaker volume is muffled. There are brightness and contrast controls so you can adjust for a dark room or outdoors. PDFs are SLOWWWW, even smaller ones. Sometimes it looks like its locked up when it actually is just loading the next page, which can take up to a minute or more. The firmware upgrade from southern telecom gives no noticeable changes, it must be a very minor bug fix, but not a fix for the bugs I'm experiencing. http://www.southerntelecom.com/slick...rmware138.html Make sure you install the slick USB driver first! Overall a very mixed bag. The reader looks nice without annoying branding on the front, the buttons all seem to work as expected, it comes with a free protective flip cover mounting, it has a charger and a USB cord, it supports SD cards and has a headphone jack. You can even charge it from the USB port so you don't have to whip out the charger all the time. The firmware is what really trips this reader up. It feels like its still in Beta stage. Last edited by RickCain; 05-23-2011 at 02:05 PM. Reason: typos

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05-14-2011, 03:27 AM	#2
West Virginia Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 64718 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Augen The Book	I could say that I'm a total loser and it wouldn't matter much. You can't see me, judge and such. You don't know me really. I'm not a well, total loser, just temporally one. So in the spirit of annominity, I'll admit. I work at BigLots. Owwwww! It hurt my fingers to type! At that price, I'd consider this. Especially, if I can use my 20 percent discount. It would mitigate the reader's cheapness and almost certainly very cheap battery that I may have to replace in six months. But a warning to readers. This reader doesn't really have folder management, you have to do a work around to see any folders. And frankly, the screen looks like crap. It's not a good ereader really unless you get it for so very cheap and for special circumstances. Actually, I can't really recommend this thing unless you can get it for $20 bucks and want to use it for a 3rd or 4th backup reader. And actually, if one thinks of it like that then there is really no point to this thing at all. Joe

05-14-2011, 07:39 AM	#3
booklover6 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,545 Karma: 14008730 Join Date: May 2008 Location: PA (USA) Device: Kobo Clara, 2E, Libre 1, PW4, PW5, 2022 Kindle, Kobo Libre Colour	Hey! There's nothing wrong with working at Big Lots. Thanks for the review, its good to know.

05-16-2011, 10:30 AM	#4
dixieknits Addict Posts: 283 Karma: 1011418 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Kindle 3, Nook Color	I bought one for my grandson for the RV for trips this summer as his faher won't give me back my 60.00 Kohl special Pandigital originally purchased for that purpose. It's fine for a backlit no frills epub reader and if it kicks around the RV all summer, we got our money's worth. It works fine and came with a suedette case.. What more can you ask for $60.00?

05-17-2011, 08:22 PM	#5
seigezunt Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Dell Axim, Sony PRS-300, Slick	I bought one when they were $80. They are pretty good. I have a Sony Pocket Reader, a much better machine, but I got the Slick because it has the advantage of having the SD-card slot, and can read some PDFs better as it doesn't try to "translate" (don't know the term) but just presents the page image. And because you don't need a light to read it in bed. I'm kind of burying the lead sentence here, but I was at Big Lots the other day, and I noticed that they not only had the Slick for sale, but they had the Sony Pocket Reader, for the same price! Refurbished model, but still, a very good deal. I grabbed one for my wife.

05-23-2011, 09:20 AM	#7
ApK Award-Winning Participant Posts: 7,384 Karma: 68329346 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: NJ, USA Device: Kindle	It says it does video. If that's any good, it might be worth it for that. Or for photo's like a digital picture frame.

05-25-2011, 03:30 PM	#9
dixieknits Addict Posts: 283 Karma: 1011418 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Kindle 3, Nook Color	Hmmvery strange, my video player icon is righ on the home screen; It is the little TV/movie screen, center bottom, and also the music and settings icons are there. I just found the settings and was able to turn off the automatic page rotator and turn on the function that let's it go to catnap mode after 30 seconds of inactivity. All you need to do to turn it back on is touch the ok button. I like the non shiny screen and think it's fine for my purpose for it. I was not able to get it to play a video. As a matter of fact, it would not see the file at all. I used an avi file, which it said it read, but I haven't managed to get it to see any video files af any format. What format did you load?

05-27-2011, 01:31 AM	#10
RickCain Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Slick ER700-2	It only seems to play FLV and MPG (Mpeg1) formats at 640 x 480, but I'm still testing. The lower center icon is the picture viewer. The video player is in the settings icon submenu. Why it is there I have no idea. There's plenty of real estate on the main screen, the reader icons are HUGE.

05-29-2011, 06:24 PM	#11
johndoak Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Slick ER700-2	This is quite a nice little eReader. Paid $59 at Big Lots for the last one (a return, I think.) Anyway it has worked perfectly and is easy on the eyes. The battery lasts for long time (about 4 hours) compared to my LookBook from CVS. It can store more books than I will be able to read in a lifetime. The only thing I can't get it to do is to save the settings on the Calendar. It always wants to revert back to May 4, 2010 no matter how many times I set it.

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