Opinions about EE and PE

I don't see any thread like my title so i'm creating it.

I'm owner of EE since April 2010. I've been using it and I can share some observations.
I was really happy at first of having this dualbook but it's anymore like that. I like E-ink and using it for reading but recently I had opportunity to see E-book reader which was like a small book in weight. My EE was just SO HEAVY (approximately 1.48 kg , 3.268 pounds) compared to that one (Sony PRS-650 0.215kg or 0.474 pounds) and really inconvienient. Holding that one made me really angry on my big, clumsy, thick EE which needs 2 min to startup.
It's nice to have everything in one device but let's face the reality:
* EE is really heavy
* is really clumsy
* needs too much time to startup
* can't be hold in air for longer than 1 minute
* has TFT resistive touchscreen
* E-ink side isn't really good for writing (this screen lacks precision and built-in eraser in pencil)
* most cool apps just don't run on both Edges
* it can't even play 1024x600 (LCD screen res) smoothly , my new Samsung Galaxy S plays real HD movies with no problems(!!)

As I was thinking about it, my conclusion is that drawbacks of Edge eclipse it's advantages.

Now I would buy tablet like Ipad (which is very nice device btw) and real E-book reader like Kindle. It would weight less than EE ... more than little...

I don't disagree with your points and I've not been using the EE as long as you have. But I find myself using the e-ink side 3X as much as the lcd side. I do use lcd for e-mail and web information. Even connecting to the school library and downloading PDF's for required reading and research. I also use it for library books and recreational reading. I can sit under a tree in the yard and read in sunlight, I couldn't do that with my laptop. It does weigh a lot but the size advantage makes a difference for me. A textbook printed on polished paper weighs half again as much and I find the glare off the polished paper frustrating. Also today my backpack weighs 5-6Lbs (including my snacks, etc.) when last semester it was upwards of 13-15 Lbs. I don't watch a lot of video on the EE or my laptop for that matter, so it is not that big of a concern to me. The YouTube videos assigned or shown in classes replay well enough for me. I do watch TED.COM and those replay on the native player well. As does my music with headphones on. I've friends with the iPad, and other devices but they are limited in where I could use them. This is the only device that will let me highlight and annotate on the same page. And it has taught me not all PDF's are created equal and therefore to be flexible. For me, this is a wonderful device, but then I'm not a media rich person. For a movie, I will go to the theater where I can have free refills on my popcorn and pop and if it is not a 1st run then a pizza and beer. Friends have asked me the same question, why buy this device that runs 1.6 when 3.0 is out. But when I show them what the EE will do and ask if theirs can do the same they say "Ya BUT...", not really. It really depends upon what you need and want to use it for. The machine doesn't change, but our needs do, or perhaps our "wants" do. That is what the manufacturers hope for.

Regards,

Micheal

There's no point in getting angry that you invested in something almost a year ago and now you found something better. That's the way of the world lately, especially in electronics, that its technology will be eclipsed in a few months. Good luck with your new toys.

BTW, after you pay for your ipad, your sony and your kindle, did you spend more money than on your edge? Everything comes at a price.

You are not completely right. Sony PRS-650 is newer device than EE but for example PRS-600 is older (and it has not many differences). Ipad came to sell about 1 month after EE.
Anyways, I don't want to buy Apple devices. I prefer Android, that's why I have EE. Maybe 2.2 Froyo will change something when it's brought in.

... you know, when you see tablet weighting 2,7 times less than EE with multi-touch ... it's just ENTERTAINMENT to use such thing, it's so enjoyable! EE screen is not sensitive, lacks multi-touch and I find it... let's say not great in the year 2010

Viewsonic G Tablet is probably the best of the 10" sub-$500 Android tablets out there right now. It's merely decent out of the box, but can be made into a really good gadget with some modding to get rid of Viewsonic's strange proprietary "Tap N Tap" software, and there's a strong community online for doing that. But obviously it doesn't have e-ink capabilities.

They keep hyping this as the year of the Android tablets, saying you should wait until later to buy a tablet, but it just doesn't seem to be happening. Xoom is ridiculously overpriced, Adam is a buggy mess, and other players like Asus have pushed back their release dates yet again.

The XOOM may be expensive but I played with one today and it is really beautiful. Great screen, very fast, nice size. Android 3.0 is superb. Which ASUS tablet do you mean being pushed back? If you want a Windows tablet, the ASUS EEE EP121 is also beautiful. Played with it today. It is fast, a little bit too big, but worth it if you need a Win7 Tablet. Interesting info about the ViewSonic G tablet.

The key feature of the EE is the annotatable eInk... this sets the eDGe apart from all other devices, in my opinion.

* EE is really heavy/ clumsy- Not really. Once I began utilizing the edge's advanced annotation features, it has truly become a 'book' as opposed to a 'tablet'.

* needs too much time to startup - I agree here. Not sure if it's the scaled downed proc. speed or O.S causing the problem, but it really shouldn't take as long as it does.

* can't be hold in air for longer than 1 minute - again, if you were studying regularly from voluminous texts in which you annotated and required quick access to certain section within said texts, I think the matter of the edges size becomes not only less of an issue, but an advantage.

* has TFT resistive touchscreen - Can't totally disagree here. Would the cost of the device increased significantly if they'd gone another way? I don't know. But this is another point negated once the Edge is used in the manner intended.

* E-ink side isn't really good for writing (this screen lacks precision and built-in eraser in pencil) - Again, can't disagree totally. I seems to me that the problem with the lag on the edge has to do with OS and proc. down-scaling. My solution for these problems are 1) release the **** SDK so clever programmers can optimize the OS for the hardware (look at what is currently taking place on the Viewsonic G-tablet. It has been turned from a potential turd to a stud by the community developed ROMs) 2)Scale the proc. up. I understand the limitations that may be in place with the current ver. of And., but if you release the SDK, perhaps the community make good things happen.

* most cool apps just don't run on both Edges - Part of this has to do with the ver. of And. currently running. Release the **** SDK!

Overall, I think the Edge is still in a class by itself. A co-worker has the G-Tablet, and although I'm tempted, it just would not give me what the Edge does, which is more valuable to my career and personal growth at this point.
Finally, I will say that it does seem Entourage is holding the device back from truly being a star. For example, why is it totally necessary to use Adobe as the e-reader software? This is very limiting. Only having the ability to read e-pub and PDF formats is kind of crazy. I've had readers(Aztek) that read **** near every format with aplomb. And not having 2.2 available for the device by now is obviously a resource issue. This too is crazy when there is an unlimited pool of talent at their disposal.

I have the pocket edge and over all for my needs quite like it. That said I am disappointed in the battery life. I tend to not want to power off completely because of the protracted boot up time but nothing I have tried has seemed to allow it to be ready when I go to use it.

Example I power it up in the AM to read a little (LCD turned off). Do the lock, wait and close (I turn the wifi on only when I actually use it) Say, get home at 6pm and bust it out to read some more and the battery is almost dead.... Not sure why that seems to be happening. I guess I could maybe have an app that is hanging it on...

If it's a PE, o_krush, then the power LED should blink every 3 seconds when closed if it's actually in "sleep" mode. If it's one steady, an app is preventing "sleep". In this case, open the last couple of apps you used (on the LCD side) and use the Back button to get back to the home screen. This usually will actually close the app, whereas pressing the Home key doesn't always.

Originally Posted by borisb

If it's a PE, o_krush, then the power LED should blink every 3 seconds when closed if it's actually in "sleep" mode. If it's one steady, an app is preventing "sleep". In this case, open the last couple of apps you used (on the LCD side) and use the Back button to get back to the home screen. This usually will actually close the app, whereas pressing the Home key doesn't always.

Yeah, Thanks. It is definitely doing that now. I uninstalled a few things I had put on for some testing. Dunno about before. I had been trying to use it to RDP to my servers VPN (unfortunately we use a IPSEC VPN.....)

I agree with most of your points abour startup and resistive touch screen but the writing isn't to bad just takes getting used too. I have had my PE for about a month now, and I greatly enjoy it. It is a versatile I find am still finding new uses for it. If there is ever an update to 2.2 and it runs with same speed it would be perfect, not that I think that is likely to happen. My only real complaint besides no way to make the LCD sleep without closing it, is the camera, its terrible, I am not sure why they bothered. The PE is my toy and my wife has an Ipad and while I mainly use my PE of work and reading, the Ipad is much better for anything illustrated and web broswing. While I can understand your points (I also realize the price difference of the PE and EE) for what I use it for the PE is perfect and I knew about most of the drawbacks before I bought it, single touch vs multitouch screens and such. I currently have a PE, IPad, Archos 5, Iphone 4 & 3g, and Samsung Captivate (the apple stuff belongs to my wife and she loves it all and won't touch my stuff unless she has too).

Originally Posted by alefor

The XOOM may be expensive but I played with one today and it is really beautiful. Great screen, very fast, nice size. Android 3.0 is superb. Which ASUS tablet do you mean being pushed back? If you want a Windows tablet, the ASUS EEE EP121 is also beautiful. Played with it today. It is fast, a little bit too big, but worth it if you need a Win7 Tablet. Interesting info about the ViewSonic G tablet.

Asus EeePad was supposed to come out in Q1 2011, but then they announced a delay a few months ago. Now it looks like they have three versions (Transformer, Slider, Memo) to come out in April, May, and June. Who knows if they'll really be able to do it though...Eee Pad was originally supposed to come out Q3 2010.

It also appears that they're releasing the Eee Note, an 8" grayscale, non-backlit LCD tablet with touchscreen/stylus input for under $200 in March. It doesn't look like it runs Android though, just some proprietary OS...but it could emerge as a competitor for the PE. This one is already available in Taiwan.

Originally Posted by Corpulent One

Asus EeePad was supposed to come out in Q1 2011, but then they announced a delay a few months ago. Now it looks like they have three versions (Transformer, Slider, Memo) to come out in April, May, and June. Who knows if they'll really be able to do it though...Eee Pad was originally supposed to come out Q3 2010.

It also appears that they're releasing the Eee Note, an 8" grayscale, non-backlit LCD tablet with touchscreen/stylus input for under $200 in March. It doesn't look like it runs Android though, just some proprietary OS...but it could emerge as a competitor for the PE. This one is already available in Taiwan.

The eee Note looks fantastic! That's the only device I've seen that even vaguely tempts me as a PE replacement.

Of course, you're limited to Epubs and PDFs since it doesn't run Android.