Sony Digital Paper DPT-S1 Owner's Thread - Page 35

allochi · 05-24-2016, 08:03 AM

@xtech I have been in the decision phase for long time, between Max and Sony, I own Onyx M96 Plus. Yesterday, I just decided to go with the Sony (I should have done that over a year ago)

Now, the Max doesn't lack at all compared to Sony (actually, it maybe the other way), Max is more powerful and the software has more features. I just posted 2 days ago a video showing the Max playing a cartoon movie, the Max is newer, the Max is under active development, and Booxter just announced that Onyx is working on a faster more functional PDF reader, with tabs, notes and more.

Using the Onyx M96 for over 6 month, I love it, but I don't want a tablet, I don't want a monitor, I just want a PDF reader that annotate PDF files, so, taking into consideration weight, thickness and the capacitive screen, it was Sony for me. If I want to run android applications including dictionary and such I will just use my smart phone.

The Max and Sony are the only available functional 13.3" reader in the market now, with some "Real" customer support behind them, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them, the question is how do you define your reading sessions routine.

for example, even with the ability to browse the Internet using the M96, I just find myself print the webpages into a PDF in Chrome and transfer them to my M96, in textbooks, I jump between problems page and solutions page at the end of the book a lot, so I appreciate the multiple tabs in Sony, I also want to handwrite my comments and solution on an empty clean note, not on the top if the text of the book.

Now I haven't received my Sony yet, I don't know how much I will like it, I'm not worried about the Onyx reader crop/zoom functionality that I will miss with the Sony (or not), I'm only worried about the contrast/boldness function that I don't see in Sony but I keep using in my Onyx, I hope that the Sony just turn the contrast up automatically.

When I get my sony, I will share my experience comparing Sony and Onyx, things like text quality and performance when it come to read books.

xtech · 05-24-2016, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allochi

When I get my sony, I will share my experience comparing Sony and Onyx, things like text quality and performance when it come to read books.

Yes, thank you, such feedback is very welcome. My concern about Sony vs. Onyx is that with Android in Onyx it is possible to use greater number of pdf/dejavu reading programs, and thus I assume that it may be easier to adapt various scanned image documents for a more comfortable reading.

I've thought that the contrast in both Sony and Onyx may be the same.

Quality of the pen. Onyx allows to change the tickness of the pen software-wise, while Sony allows to change the thickness by different changeable tips. Is there any difference?

The pluses of Sony are very tempting, namely, for me, the capacitative screen and the weight.

P.S. Booxtor has just written at the Onyx thread, that Onyx is working on the new pdf reader that is able to open multiple documents. Is this what you implied by different tabs?

T.W.G · 05-24-2016, 09:02 AM

You can change the thickness of your writing in the side menu of the Sony DPT-S1 and you can choose the colour of your writing: Red and Blue. I hope Sony will add a simple black in the next update.

I didn't want an experimental thingy with 1000 options I wanted a reliable(!), simple to use tool for PDFs and with the Sony DPT-S1 I've found it after many years of experimenting. It is a tool that I can use daily at the university without problems.

As said before, you can use tabs. You can even safe complete workplaces which means that all required notes and documents for one job don't need to be opened seperately every time you need it.

The Wifi-Sync feature is indeed something of a hit and miss and I don't know if it depends of having a free or paid box-account!?

And sorry, but everybody who thinks those 9,7" devices are good for A4 PDFs only seems to like living with a compromise. I tested so many big e-book-readers... the 13,3" is the only way to go.
As you can zoom into the documents, there's no need for reflow etc.

The build-quality of previous Onyx devices (not only the M92) is only middle class or lower. Using the pen of the Onyx I thought they used technology from kids toys. Horrible!

Have a look at the Onyx Max and then tell me again, that this is NOT a copy of the DPT-S1?

If the MAX is super fast for webbrowsing I could imagine to use it as an internet tablet, but nothing more. But for a chinese copy it's just too expensive. :-)
They could sell the Max for 300,-$ and still make profit.

The biggest problem is that many chinese companies just steel the know-how and technology and the dumb people that support those companies will make (not only) themselves obsolete in the future.

xtech · 05-24-2016, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T.W.G

Have a look at the Onyx Max and then tell me again, that this is NOT a copy of the DPT-S1?

Yes, it does look quite similar to it, if you imply the pen holder. However, the button are placed differently. For me, in some cases, Onyx looked like a slightly upgraded Sony, though missing some of its hardware features.

Quote:

If the MAX is super fast for webbrowsing I could imagine to use it as an internet tablet, but nothing more. But for a chinese copy it's just too expensive. :-)

It would seem that with the new Onyx pdf reader the difference of Sony and Onyx as to software will be zero. It would be interesting to learn if there are any software options, that are missing in Sony.

Quote:

The biggest problem is that many chinese companies just steel the know-how and technology and the dumb people that support those companies will make (not only) themselves obsolete in the future.

Since we do not know the details, we can hardly say with any credibility that the Onyx necessarily steals from Sony. The technology can be created by different people. And some design features are coming from the past experience, from the general human experience with paper notebooks. As far Chinese quality, well, my Kindle DXG says that it was assembled in China, and yet the quality is good. However, I am not defending Onyx, since I have never touched it, but if the Sony was manufactured fully in Japan, yes, the quality of its build may be better, especially due to the materials that Sony used, but the difference in other respects may be tiny.

After all, it is a pity that Sony does not produce the upgrade of DPT-S1.

allochi · 05-24-2016, 02:55 PM

@T.W.G I don't see making a similar device to Sony a problem, Chinese or not, they see a gap in the market and hey are trying to fill it, I don't know when did the DPT-S1 dropped in price, but when it was alone in the market it was completely out of reach region and price wise. I won't be surprised if I open my Sony when it arrives and find some component made in china

. But I do understand your point, this could lead a company like Sony to drop the 13.3" ereader production, and if it wasn't for Sony there would have been no 13.3" device in the market. I still hope they release DPT-S2 when iMax7 and the new ePaper model are out, and that it will cost like $100

@xtech don't under estimate the weight factor, the Max weights about 40-50g less than my M96, but still it's about 490g, if you are planning on long reading sessions, and reading while communing, unless you are a master in the "Rock Solid Strong Fingers" Kung Fu style your palm and fingers are going to hurt, I know because this is my experience with the M96, and the funny part, I do Kung Fu

Here is also another feature that the Max has the sony doesn't, now, it could be that contrast/blackness of PDFs are not a problem, but the Max (assuming it has the same browser as M96) have the feature of turning the text to black, so web pages don't look faded, this is no problem for me because as I said, I print the pages I want to read into PDFs and transfer them to my reader, but for someone want to use it for web reading, it could mean something.

I really can't wait to see when I get it and use my full of PDFs 32G SD card how it's going to perform, I hope it won't disappoint me.

I also would like to thank all of the people who shared their experience in this thread and posted reviews and youtube reviews about the device, I hope I will be able to return the favor one day.

allochi · 05-25-2016, 08:45 AM

I got my DPT-S1

Seriously! this thing is light like nothing I held before, I should have just bought Sony DPT-S1 like a year ago and saved myself the headaches. I'll try to list my observations while setting it up:

* Very responsive - normal ePaper refresh rate
* Typing with the keyboard during setup was fast
* It scanned my 32G SD very fast!
* The "Folders" tab browsed through my SD books very fast
* It take time to grab the cover of each book about a second each (depends on the pdf size)
* Scrolling through file list is fast
* Searching the SD card for a book title is very fast
* 6-7 second to open a large scanned textbook
* fraction of a second to turn a page (in the scanned textbook)
* Quality of text looks great (specially it's zoomed the page to fit)
* it takes about 1-2s to show tile view of scanned textbook
* NO GHOSTING! AT ALL!
* Switching to another textbook, this time it's normal PDF not scanned, switching between books took me about 18s
* Funny, 2 pages tile view in landscape mode feels like hold a small book open 180 degree
* OMG! the handwriting is AMAZING! it's fast, responsive (takes a second to antialiasing and delete)
* Text looks great, big and readable, and it's dark enough, still, the contrast function on the M96 can make the text darker, kind of miss that.
* Zooming is very snappy on textbook
* Table of content took a few seconds (3-4) to show up, but jumping between chapters and bookmarks is very fast (just like turning a page)
* Search was impressively fast searching for the world "birthday" in a 590 pages book on probability took like a second, jumping between results is as fast as turning a page.
* Switching between tabs take a little bit more time, like 2-3 second, noticeably longer than a page turn although they both belong to the same book.
* Note taking is really nice, it's so nice to be able to write on a clean rectangle note that on top of the book text. (solving problems, taking long notes)
* The browser on the M96 is better, faster and better contrast/readability
* The browser is ok to read blogs or check wikipedia, text is big!

* On really heavy PDF like D&D 5th ed., it could take 9-10s to turn a page, it seems when I wait for few second between page turns it caches the next page, so it's really fast (1s) to turn to the next page, if I was really reading the book
* I just noticed that it kept my other tabs open while I was browsing D&D book, so I'm guessing that the memory can handle all the above quit good.
* D&D Zooming is quit fast (the D&D is 28.5mb heavy graphics)
* My piano music sheets look amazing (turn very fast)
* Another comic pdf, 130mb, readable, but page turn is slower now, like 6s

Overall I'm so happy with the device, this is what I needed for years, I'm happy that I got the Sony not the Max, for the weight, touch screen and the software, it's well organized to work as a study device. If the Max had the touch screen and weighted 360g like the Sony, probably I would have got the Max.

The only addition to the software that I have in mind now is to have a way to increase the darkness of the document, the Onyx do it, I don't see why the Sony can't.

I think in the future I will compare the Onyx and the Sony in a video, showing the screen quality and difference in performance, difference in font rendering and such. The Onyx is snappier, and does feel faster, still for the reasons above, I still would get the Sony.

I'm studying french, and my French course book is one of those slim, colorful course books, the Sony is lighter

If you guys have any questions just post them, since I'm still excited to try things on the Sony, I hope I could help in any possible way.

Kumabjorn · 05-25-2016, 09:31 AM

I'm curious about balloon notes. Does the Sony software support that? You know, like a speech bubble that his the content until you tap/click on it.

Twitter is to communications as haiku is to literature.

T.W.G · 05-25-2016, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I'm curious about balloon notes. Does the Sony software support that? You know, like a speech bubble that his the content until you tap/click on it.

Twitter is to communications as haiku is to literature.

Sure, that works handwritten or you can enter text with the keyboard. Handwritten is much faster.

@Alochi:
Congratulations Alochi!
Just as I told you: This Sony has no competition, it's the best! :-)

I'm happy that you love the device!

Regarding web browsing on the M96 device: Does it support landscape mode?
Is there a good video somewhere where I can see the web browser?

I guess that the Onyx devices are a good alternative to a standard computer / tablet for web surfing without hurting your eyes!?
Would be great to use them as an e-ink monitor :-)

xtech · 05-25-2016, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allochi

I think in the future I will compare the Onyx and the Sony in a video, showing the screen quality and difference in performance, difference in font rendering and such. The Onyx is snappier, and does feel faster, still for the reasons above, I still would get the Sony.

Thanks for your review! It would be interesting to know more about any difference of the screen quality between Sony and Onyx. They come from the same manufacturer, however since the Sony used some additional feature, it may have theoretically positively effected the overall quality. It is interesting to compare the sharpness of the text on two devices.

From your review it would seem that Onyx's sofware is doing somewhat better in certain features, in terms of speed and text rendering,

allochi · 05-25-2016, 11:57 AM

@T.W.G Thanks, you were right! the Sony device feels much more dedicated and well thought, someone did their homework well at Sony, the build quality is amazing too, I feel I'm holding a quality device in my hand, hand writing is great too, now that I did the calibration, my hand writing feels more like what it would look like on paper.

@xtech
Once I get sometime I will try to take some photos and videos on both, keep in mind that I have the Onyx M96 Plus, not the Onyx Max, the Max could be a completely different experience. My M96 Plus is 1GB + iMX6 1Ghz, which is also unfair for the Sony, but in reality I like the Sony experience better. Also, I updated recently the software from Booxter website, and the M96 Plus felt much faster and snappier than before the update, so Onyx has done good job too.

I kinda wanted to put the Sony under some real browsing test, and it did quit well, it was fast enough to make me enjoy browsing wikipedia, Quora, some blogs and download some PDF, I just realized that when I was excited trying all my PDFs, the Sony kept them loaded in the memory, once I started closing them, the reader started to respond faster, the browser did great.

Another thing that worried me before, was how much I will miss the zooming/cropping functions in M96 Plus, well, I don't, almost all the books render in full size, so I don't need zooming.

One document has some big margins and the font is small, I later found out that if I keep the side tool bar on, and zoom, I can use the next/previous arrows to turn pages, and the reader will keep the zoom level, this is wonderful, unfortunately, the zoom level is not saved when you close/reopen the document.

@Kumabjorn as T.W.G said, you have two kind of bubble notes if you want to call them this way, text based with a keyboard, and drawing based with the pen, their icons look different too on the document, I found that the drawing note really useful when I did some math today reading my probability book, I was able to solve multiple problems and save the solutions next to the problem in the book, this is quit a big thing, because this way I can easily find my notes and solutions when I read the chapter again.

Please keep in mind that in no way I'm saying that the Sony is better than the Onyx, I like the Sony better for the same reasons I keep saying touch screen, weight and software. My experience with Onyx was enjoyable too, and the support and the service that Booxter provide is really amazing.

Aurinko · 06-01-2016, 07:13 AM

I have had my Sony DPT-S1 for five months now, here are my thoughts.

What I was most worried about was the input lag of the stylus, i.e. the delay between making physical contact with the screen and pixels appearing on the screen.

As opined by numerous people in this thread and elsewhere, the input lag is negligible. There is a noticeable delay but it doesn't negatively affect my handwriting any more than the little quirks one must tolerate when working with real (graphite and ink) pencils and pens.

Another important aspect was the display quality. I had done what research one could on the Internet and it looked good, but I wasn't sure until I'd get to perform hands-on closer inspection.

No surprises here; the display is indeed great. You can distinguish the pixels from close range, but antialiasing, 16 levels of gray and 150 ppi easily suffice to provide a soft, yet sharp reading experience. I have some PDF's on which the text is still readable when fitting nine pages on the screen, but in most cases this is breaking the limit of the pixel density. I can easily read most single-column PDF's in a four-page view.

Build quality is superb. I think I have a knack for determining the build quality of a device in a matter of seconds by touching and feeling it, and in the long term I find that the initial impression was almost always indicative of the overall sturdiness and durability of the device.

Physically, Sony DPT-S1 has a very satisfactory feel to it. I have dropped it on the floor without the cover on, a cat has jumped on it and walked over its exposed screen, I have read outside in light rain, it has traveled with me (in my backpack) in -15 to +30 deg Celsius (5-86 deg F), and I have deliberately exerted pressure on and tested the flexibility of the frame. Apart from litter and dust particles accumulating in the ~0.4 mm seams between the display and the display frame, and the frame and the back plate, it still looks and feels mint.

Sounds good so far, and indeed these are all areas that commendable engineering went into, which helps to justify the premium price.

Then on to the negatives...

The user interface is - although mostly functional in its minimalism - severely lacking. There are so many functions absent that would make using the device easier and faster. I'm not going to list them here - suffice to say that when working with multiple PDF's the experience feels like constantly having to jump through hoops and taking detours instead of the shortest path. So much room for improvement in this area, but I suspect the lack of effort in it is somewhat related to my next gripe about the DPT-S1...

The hardware and software "kind of" do their job, but nothing to write home about. Since I'm not sure which is the bigger culprit, I've lumped them together as they are so intertwined in delivering performance and user experience.

While my fear of the stylus lag was in vain, in regular use I feel that lag is always present, even if just lurking while things run smoothly, waiting to rise to surface. Sometimes the device simply chokes and loads a page (plain text or light graphics) for several seconds, doesn't respond to touch at all, doesn't SEEM TO respond but then flips several pages in quick succession because the commands got queued, sometimes it does things by its own will (static electricity?), PDF's can take ages to load to the point where switching between multiple files becomes such a strenuous act I find myself trying to avoid it more than I should, whether zooming works is often flipping a coin, etc.. Zooming on handwritten documents also gradually slows down to a crawl as they accumulate information (writing speed is still mostly fine, but rendering the curves typically starts lagging behind more). In short; too much waiting around. When I'm reading paper books my speed is limited by my dexterity, while on the Sony my speed is limited by the UI and the OS/CPU/memory.

Worth noting is that the drawing speed of the display is not the problem. The display technology has its limitations but I'm totally fine with what it can do. What I find unacceptable is (in this era of low-cost electronics) the system lagging behind the slow display.

The calibration of the stylus isn't quite perfect. Essentially you can adjust the angle that the stylus must be held in to cause it to activate a point in the display that the stylus tip touches. The sensor is so deep beneath the display that a fair amount of programmatic compensation must be made in order to align the point that visually appears on the [near] surface with the physical tip. No problem conceptually, except that since I am not a CNC machine, the angle of the stylus varies depending on the position and angles of my palm etc., which means I have to manually do extra compensation by taking the calibration into account and adjusting my physical movements accordingly, which does feel unnatural but is something I have mostly been able to adapt to.

The choice of Android 2.2.1 puzzles me. As far as I know, the whole essence of Android is being a flexible and somewhat extendable general purpose platform - things that the DPT-S1 clearly is not, as Sony has been very reserved about even marketing the device to individuals, targeting institutions and companies instead. This makes me wonder why they didn't choose to build their own optimized proprietary operating system instead. Perhaps the SoC they used was available for low cost, maybe it had already been extensively tested with Android, or the familiarity with Android from the smartphone/tablet segment made it the easy choice and cutting development costs was deemed necessary for profitability. What ever the reasoning behind those choices, the end result is that the DPT-S1 feels like a beta. I think this is in part (besides high development costs involved with developing cutting-edge technology) why Sony didn't roll it out as a consumer device and decided to carefully "field-test" the product by marketing it to institutions and companies with which they could maintain a closer and more private and direct line of communication and be motivated to respond more swiftly to feedback. A premium price beta e-reader would also have been difficult to market to consumers and prone to fail, possibly leaving a stain on Sony's reputation.

All that said, am I happy with the purchase? Yes, because the DPT-S1 is an asset to my toolset that I didn't know I needed until I got one. Now I am carrying a small library with me everywhere I go, that weighs 358 grams and slips smoothly into and travels unnoticeably in my backpack's 14" laptop back pocket. As a result I have done a lot more reading than before and spared a lot of paper. While studying I can write markings and highlight text in books without brutalizing them (which is the reason pen(cil)s are not allowed near my paper books). If I need to sketch something, afterwards I can "trash" the whole page in a flash without producing waste. Now if I know I'm going away for a few days, I leave my laptop home and take the DTP-S1 with me.

I have acquired a fair number of gadgets and novelty items that turned out useless or uninteresting in long term, and Sony DPT-S1 does not belong in that category. I'm sure it will be traveling with me until it dies or gets replaced. In the meantime I will be keeping an eye and ear out for similar devices with better specs.

rem736 · 06-01-2016, 03:53 PM

@Aurinko, the dpt-s1 is not on android at all. why do you think it's on android 2.2.1?

Aurinko · 06-01-2016, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rem736

why do you think it's on android 2.2.1?

Because a Chinese cracker says so. If that is the case, the UI you're accessing while using the device could be nothing more than an Android "app" that Sony has locked you in.

The physical buttons on the DPT-S1 might also hint in this direction:
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/9860/787.JPG

Compare with Android symbols:
http://moc.co/wp-content/uploads/201...pacitative.jpg

P.s. Nitpicking, but; it makes more sense to say "Android on DPT-S1" than vice versa.

rem736 · 06-01-2016, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aurinko

Because a Chinese cracker says so. If that is the case, the UI you're accessing while using the device could be nothing more than an Android "app" that Sony has locked you in.

The physical buttons on the DPT-S1 might also hint in this direction:
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/9860/787.JPG

Compare with Android symbols:
http://moc.co/wp-content/uploads/201...pacitative.jpg

P.s. Nitpicking, but; it makes more sense to say "Android on DPT-S1" than vice versa.

my mistake. i did not read up on what the original os is, only that the result is android 2.2.1. thanks.

Willy Tärk · 06-02-2016, 06:54 AM

@ allochi
Hey it's great that you found now a device which fits to your needs! I know EXACTLY how difficult it is to make a decision like this... Thank you really much for your thoughts, they are everytime very helpful.
I hope you enjoy your device furthermore and I would very much appreciate a video, where you compare your m96 with your Sony DPT-S1.

What are your thoughts now in terms of 9.7 and 13.3 Inch screens for pdfs? Have you any new suggestion - now, since you got the chance to directly compare these two screensizes side-by-side?

@ Aurinko
Thank you so much for your amazingly detailed and professional review. I am really impressed!

05-25-2016, 11:57 AM	#520
allochi Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 6770 Join Date: Jun 2014 Device: Kobo Aura	@T.W.G Thanks, you were right! the Sony device feels much more dedicated and well thought, someone did their homework well at Sony, the build quality is amazing too, I feel I'm holding a quality device in my hand, hand writing is great too, now that I did the calibration, my hand writing feels more like what it would look like on paper. @xtech Once I get sometime I will try to take some photos and videos on both, keep in mind that I have the Onyx M96 Plus, not the Onyx Max, the Max could be a completely different experience. My M96 Plus is 1GB + iMX6 1Ghz, which is also unfair for the Sony, but in reality I like the Sony experience better. Also, I updated recently the software from Booxter website, and the M96 Plus felt much faster and snappier than before the update, so Onyx has done good job too. I kinda wanted to put the Sony under some real browsing test, and it did quit well, it was fast enough to make me enjoy browsing wikipedia, Quora, some blogs and download some PDF, I just realized that when I was excited trying all my PDFs, the Sony kept them loaded in the memory, once I started closing them, the reader started to respond faster, the browser did great. Another thing that worried me before, was how much I will miss the zooming/cropping functions in M96 Plus, well, I don't, almost all the books render in full size, so I don't need zooming. One document has some big margins and the font is small, I later found out that if I keep the side tool bar on, and zoom, I can use the next/previous arrows to turn pages, and the reader will keep the zoom level, this is wonderful, unfortunately, the zoom level is not saved when you close/reopen the document. @Kumabjorn as T.W.G said, you have two kind of bubble notes if you want to call them this way, text based with a keyboard, and drawing based with the pen, their icons look different too on the document, I found that the drawing note really useful when I did some math today reading my probability book, I was able to solve multiple problems and save the solutions next to the problem in the book, this is quit a big thing, because this way I can easily find my notes and solutions when I read the chapter again. Please keep in mind that in no way I'm saying that the Sony is better than the Onyx, I like the Sony better for the same reasons I keep saying touch screen, weight and software. My experience with Onyx was enjoyable too, and the support and the service that Booxter provide is really amazing. Last edited by allochi; 05-31-2016 at 12:38 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Testmode app on sony DPT-S1	Yokowa	Sony Reader	32	02-15-2024 03:39 AM
In depth Look through of Sony Digital Paper	davidspitzer	Sony Reader	5	08-24-2014 03:38 PM
Sony Digital Paper Quick look video	davidspitzer	Sony Reader	6	08-16-2014 12:10 PM
How can one get Sony DPT-S1 repaired	bbhuston	Sony Reader	6	07-20-2014 02:03 PM
Wo/wie einen Sony DPT-S1 Reader bestellen?	joblack	Sony Reader	4	05-07-2014 06:30 AM

05-24-2016, 08:03 AM	#511
allochi Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 6770 Join Date: Jun 2014 Device: Kobo Aura	@xtech I have been in the decision phase for long time, between Max and Sony, I own Onyx M96 Plus. Yesterday, I just decided to go with the Sony (I should have done that over a year ago) Now, the Max doesn't lack at all compared to Sony (actually, it maybe the other way), Max is more powerful and the software has more features. I just posted 2 days ago a video showing the Max playing a cartoon movie, the Max is newer, the Max is under active development, and Booxter just announced that Onyx is working on a faster more functional PDF reader, with tabs, notes and more. Using the Onyx M96 for over 6 month, I love it, but I don't want a tablet, I don't want a monitor, I just want a PDF reader that annotate PDF files, so, taking into consideration weight, thickness and the capacitive screen, it was Sony for me. If I want to run android applications including dictionary and such I will just use my smart phone. The Max and Sony are the only available functional 13.3" reader in the market now, with some "Real" customer support behind them, I don't think you can go wrong with any of them, the question is how do you define your reading sessions routine. for example, even with the ability to browse the Internet using the M96, I just find myself print the webpages into a PDF in Chrome and transfer them to my M96, in textbooks, I jump between problems page and solutions page at the end of the book a lot, so I appreciate the multiple tabs in Sony, I also want to handwrite my comments and solution on an empty clean note, not on the top if the text of the book. Now I haven't received my Sony yet, I don't know how much I will like it, I'm not worried about the Onyx reader crop/zoom functionality that I will miss with the Sony (or not), I'm only worried about the contrast/boldness function that I don't see in Sony but I keep using in my Onyx, I hope that the Sony just turn the contrast up automatically. When I get my sony, I will share my experience comparing Sony and Onyx, things like text quality and performance when it come to read books.

05-24-2016, 09:02 AM	#513
T.W.G Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 12034 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: prs-505	You can change the thickness of your writing in the side menu of the Sony DPT-S1 and you can choose the colour of your writing: Red and Blue. I hope Sony will add a simple black in the next update. I didn't want an experimental thingy with 1000 options I wanted a reliable(!), simple to use tool for PDFs and with the Sony DPT-S1 I've found it after many years of experimenting. It is a tool that I can use daily at the university without problems. As said before, you can use tabs. You can even safe complete workplaces which means that all required notes and documents for one job don't need to be opened seperately every time you need it. The Wifi-Sync feature is indeed something of a hit and miss and I don't know if it depends of having a free or paid box-account!? And sorry, but everybody who thinks those 9,7" devices are good for A4 PDFs only seems to like living with a compromise. I tested so many big e-book-readers... the 13,3" is the only way to go. As you can zoom into the documents, there's no need for reflow etc. The build-quality of previous Onyx devices (not only the M92) is only middle class or lower. Using the pen of the Onyx I thought they used technology from kids toys. Horrible! Have a look at the Onyx Max and then tell me again, that this is NOT a copy of the DPT-S1? If the MAX is super fast for webbrowsing I could imagine to use it as an internet tablet, but nothing more. But for a chinese copy it's just too expensive. :-) They could sell the Max for 300,-$ and still make profit. The biggest problem is that many chinese companies just steel the know-how and technology and the dumb people that support those companies will make (not only) themselves obsolete in the future.

05-24-2016, 02:55 PM	#515
allochi Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 6770 Join Date: Jun 2014 Device: Kobo Aura	@T.W.G I don't see making a similar device to Sony a problem, Chinese or not, they see a gap in the market and hey are trying to fill it, I don't know when did the DPT-S1 dropped in price, but when it was alone in the market it was completely out of reach region and price wise. I won't be surprised if I open my Sony when it arrives and find some component made in china . But I do understand your point, this could lead a company like Sony to drop the 13.3" ereader production, and if it wasn't for Sony there would have been no 13.3" device in the market. I still hope they release DPT-S2 when iMax7 and the new ePaper model are out, and that it will cost like $100 @xtech don't under estimate the weight factor, the Max weights about 40-50g less than my M96, but still it's about 490g, if you are planning on long reading sessions, and reading while communing, unless you are a master in the "Rock Solid Strong Fingers" Kung Fu style your palm and fingers are going to hurt, I know because this is my experience with the M96, and the funny part, I do Kung Fu Here is also another feature that the Max has the sony doesn't, now, it could be that contrast/blackness of PDFs are not a problem, but the Max (assuming it has the same browser as M96) have the feature of turning the text to black, so web pages don't look faded, this is no problem for me because as I said, I print the pages I want to read into PDFs and transfer them to my reader, but for someone want to use it for web reading, it could mean something. I really can't wait to see when I get it and use my full of PDFs 32G SD card how it's going to perform, I hope it won't disappoint me. I also would like to thank all of the people who shared their experience in this thread and posted reviews and youtube reviews about the device, I hope I will be able to return the favor one day.

05-25-2016, 08:45 AM	#516
allochi Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 6770 Join Date: Jun 2014 Device: Kobo Aura	I got my DPT-S1 Seriously! this thing is light like nothing I held before, I should have just bought Sony DPT-S1 like a year ago and saved myself the headaches. I'll try to list my observations while setting it up: * Very responsive - normal ePaper refresh rate * Typing with the keyboard during setup was fast * It scanned my 32G SD very fast! * The "Folders" tab browsed through my SD books very fast * It take time to grab the cover of each book about a second each (depends on the pdf size) * Scrolling through file list is fast * Searching the SD card for a book title is very fast * 6-7 second to open a large scanned textbook * fraction of a second to turn a page (in the scanned textbook) * Quality of text looks great (specially it's zoomed the page to fit) * it takes about 1-2s to show tile view of scanned textbook * NO GHOSTING! AT ALL! * Switching to another textbook, this time it's normal PDF not scanned, switching between books took me about 18s * Funny, 2 pages tile view in landscape mode feels like hold a small book open 180 degree * OMG! the handwriting is AMAZING! it's fast, responsive (takes a second to antialiasing and delete) * Text looks great, big and readable, and it's dark enough, still, the contrast function on the M96 can make the text darker, kind of miss that. * Zooming is very snappy on textbook * Table of content took a few seconds (3-4) to show up, but jumping between chapters and bookmarks is very fast (just like turning a page) * Search was impressively fast searching for the world "birthday" in a 590 pages book on probability took like a second, jumping between results is as fast as turning a page. * Switching between tabs take a little bit more time, like 2-3 second, noticeably longer than a page turn although they both belong to the same book. * Note taking is really nice, it's so nice to be able to write on a clean rectangle note that on top of the book text. (solving problems, taking long notes) * The browser on the M96 is better, faster and better contrast/readability * The browser is ok to read blogs or check wikipedia, text is big! * On really heavy PDF like D&D 5th ed., it could take 9-10s to turn a page, it seems when I wait for few second between page turns it caches the next page, so it's really fast (1s) to turn to the next page, if I was really reading the book * I just noticed that it kept my other tabs open while I was browsing D&D book, so I'm guessing that the memory can handle all the above quit good. * D&D Zooming is quit fast (the D&D is 28.5mb heavy graphics) * My piano music sheets look amazing (turn very fast) * Another comic pdf, 130mb, readable, but page turn is slower now, like 6s Overall I'm so happy with the device, this is what I needed for years, I'm happy that I got the Sony not the Max, for the weight, touch screen and the software, it's well organized to work as a study device. If the Max had the touch screen and weighted 360g like the Sony, probably I would have got the Max. The only addition to the software that I have in mind now is to have a way to increase the darkness of the document, the Onyx do it, I don't see why the Sony can't. I think in the future I will compare the Onyx and the Sony in a video, showing the screen quality and difference in performance, difference in font rendering and such. The Onyx is snappier, and does feel faster, still for the reasons above, I still would get the Sony. I'm studying french, and my French course book is one of those slim, colorful course books, the Sony is lighter If you guys have any questions just post them, since I'm still excited to try things on the Sony, I hope I could help in any possible way.

05-25-2016, 09:31 AM	#517
Kumabjorn Basculocolpic Posts: 4,356 Karma: 20181319 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sweden Device: Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle 4SO, Kindle for Android, Sony PRS-350 and PRS-T1	I'm curious about balloon notes. Does the Sony software support that? You know, like a speech bubble that his the content until you tap/click on it. Twitter is to communications as haiku is to literature.

06-01-2016, 07:13 AM	#521
Aurinko Member Posts: 19 Karma: 41372 Join Date: Nov 2015 Device: Sony DPT-S1	I have had my Sony DPT-S1 for five months now, here are my thoughts. What I was most worried about was the input lag of the stylus, i.e. the delay between making physical contact with the screen and pixels appearing on the screen. As opined by numerous people in this thread and elsewhere, the input lag is negligible. There is a noticeable delay but it doesn't negatively affect my handwriting any more than the little quirks one must tolerate when working with real (graphite and ink) pencils and pens. Another important aspect was the display quality. I had done what research one could on the Internet and it looked good, but I wasn't sure until I'd get to perform hands-on closer inspection. No surprises here; the display is indeed great. You can distinguish the pixels from close range, but antialiasing, 16 levels of gray and 150 ppi easily suffice to provide a soft, yet sharp reading experience. I have some PDF's on which the text is still readable when fitting nine pages on the screen, but in most cases this is breaking the limit of the pixel density. I can easily read most single-column PDF's in a four-page view. Build quality is superb. I think I have a knack for determining the build quality of a device in a matter of seconds by touching and feeling it, and in the long term I find that the initial impression was almost always indicative of the overall sturdiness and durability of the device. Physically, Sony DPT-S1 has a very satisfactory feel to it. I have dropped it on the floor without the cover on, a cat has jumped on it and walked over its exposed screen, I have read outside in light rain, it has traveled with me (in my backpack) in -15 to +30 deg Celsius (5-86 deg F), and I have deliberately exerted pressure on and tested the flexibility of the frame. Apart from litter and dust particles accumulating in the ~0.4 mm seams between the display and the display frame, and the frame and the back plate, it still looks and feels mint. Sounds good so far, and indeed these are all areas that commendable engineering went into, which helps to justify the premium price. Then on to the negatives... The user interface is - although mostly functional in its minimalism - severely lacking. There are so many functions absent that would make using the device easier and faster. I'm not going to list them here - suffice to say that when working with multiple PDF's the experience feels like constantly having to jump through hoops and taking detours instead of the shortest path. So much room for improvement in this area, but I suspect the lack of effort in it is somewhat related to my next gripe about the DPT-S1... The hardware and software "kind of" do their job, but nothing to write home about. Since I'm not sure which is the bigger culprit, I've lumped them together as they are so intertwined in delivering performance and user experience. While my fear of the stylus lag was in vain, in regular use I feel that lag is always present, even if just lurking while things run smoothly, waiting to rise to surface. Sometimes the device simply chokes and loads a page (plain text or light graphics) for several seconds, doesn't respond to touch at all, doesn't SEEM TO respond but then flips several pages in quick succession because the commands got queued, sometimes it does things by its own will (static electricity?), PDF's can take ages to load to the point where switching between multiple files becomes such a strenuous act I find myself trying to avoid it more than I should, whether zooming works is often flipping a coin, etc.. Zooming on handwritten documents also gradually slows down to a crawl as they accumulate information (writing speed is still mostly fine, but rendering the curves typically starts lagging behind more). In short; too much waiting around. When I'm reading paper books my speed is limited by my dexterity, while on the Sony my speed is limited by the UI and the OS/CPU/memory. Worth noting is that the drawing speed of the display is not the problem. The display technology has its limitations but I'm totally fine with what it can do. What I find unacceptable is (in this era of low-cost electronics) the system lagging behind the slow display. The calibration of the stylus isn't quite perfect. Essentially you can adjust the angle that the stylus must be held in to cause it to activate a point in the display that the stylus tip touches. The sensor is so deep beneath the display that a fair amount of programmatic compensation must be made in order to align the point that visually appears on the [near] surface with the physical tip. No problem conceptually, except that since I am not a CNC machine, the angle of the stylus varies depending on the position and angles of my palm etc., which means I have to manually do extra compensation by taking the calibration into account and adjusting my physical movements accordingly, which does feel unnatural but is something I have mostly been able to adapt to. The choice of Android 2.2.1 puzzles me. As far as I know, the whole essence of Android is being a flexible and somewhat extendable general purpose platform - things that the DPT-S1 clearly is not, as Sony has been very reserved about even marketing the device to individuals, targeting institutions and companies instead. This makes me wonder why they didn't choose to build their own optimized proprietary operating system instead. Perhaps the SoC they used was available for low cost, maybe it had already been extensively tested with Android, or the familiarity with Android from the smartphone/tablet segment made it the easy choice and cutting development costs was deemed necessary for profitability. What ever the reasoning behind those choices, the end result is that the DPT-S1 feels like a beta. I think this is in part (besides high development costs involved with developing cutting-edge technology) why Sony didn't roll it out as a consumer device and decided to carefully "field-test" the product by marketing it to institutions and companies with which they could maintain a closer and more private and direct line of communication and be motivated to respond more swiftly to feedback. A premium price beta e-reader would also have been difficult to market to consumers and prone to fail, possibly leaving a stain on Sony's reputation. All that said, am I happy with the purchase? Yes, because the DPT-S1 is an asset to my toolset that I didn't know I needed until I got one. Now I am carrying a small library with me everywhere I go, that weighs 358 grams and slips smoothly into and travels unnoticeably in my backpack's 14" laptop back pocket. As a result I have done a lot more reading than before and spared a lot of paper. While studying I can write markings and highlight text in books without brutalizing them (which is the reason pen(cil)s are not allowed near my paper books). If I need to sketch something, afterwards I can "trash" the whole page in a flash without producing waste. Now if I know I'm going away for a few days, I leave my laptop home and take the DTP-S1 with me. I have acquired a fair number of gadgets and novelty items that turned out useless or uninteresting in long term, and Sony DPT-S1 does not belong in that category. I'm sure it will be traveling with me until it dies or gets replaced. In the meantime I will be keeping an eye and ear out for similar devices with better specs.

06-01-2016, 03:53 PM	#522
rem736 purpose priority passion Posts: 645 Karma: 9002000 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: socal, usa Device: sony prs-350, b&n ngp, rM2, kindle scribe, boox poke5	@Aurinko, the dpt-s1 is not on android at all. why do you think it's on android 2.2.1?

06-02-2016, 06:54 AM	#525
Willy Tärk Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2016 Device: none	@ allochi Hey it's great that you found now a device which fits to your needs! I know EXACTLY how difficult it is to make a decision like this... Thank you really much for your thoughts, they are everytime very helpful. I hope you enjoy your device furthermore and I would very much appreciate a video, where you compare your m96 with your Sony DPT-S1. What are your thoughts now in terms of 9.7 and 13.3 Inch screens for pdfs? Have you any new suggestion - now, since you got the chance to directly compare these two screensizes side-by-side? @ Aurinko Thank you so much for your amazingly detailed and professional review. I am really impressed!

Advert

Advert