PocketBook Verta: New 6’’ Models Announced

[Yapyap]

PocketBook seems to be bringing out successors to the Verse/Verse Pro line - PocketBook Verta, one with a Carta 1300 BW screen and one with a Kaleido 3 colour screen. Buttons on the bottom, as they’ve had with this form factor before.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Compac...1416287.0.html

Product pages are also up at the PocketBook website, e-readers themselves not available yet though:

https://pocketbook.de/en/verta

https://pocketbook.de/en/verta-color

[Logseman]

The UI was pretty sluggish on the Verse Pro Colour and I wasn't fond of the colour screen (that's my own problem though) but I'm ready to give them another chance if the Verta is a bit zippier on that regard.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Logseman

The UI was pretty sluggish on the Verse Pro Colour and I wasn’t fond of the colour screen (that’s my own problem though) but I’m ready to give them another chance if the Verta is a bit zippier on that regard.

Looking just at the specs, the BW Verta seems to have more processing power and twice as much RAM compared to the BW Verse Pro, so that would be an upgrade and should make things a bit snappier compared to the older BW device, but with the colour Verta vs Verse Pro, the specs look identical (except the Verta seems to have a smaller battery than the colour Verse Pro), so probably not as much of an upgrade.

(In other words, new Verta BW seems to have similar processor & RAM specs as the Verta Colour and the older Verse Pro Colour.)

I doubt they’ll have managed to improve the look of the colour screen much - same Kaleido 3, and I don’t think PocketBook have the resources to do as much custom tweaking as Amazon is doing with their Colorsofts to get the best possible results out of the limited potential they’ve got to work with.

I’ve never had PocketBooks but UI slowness is a complaint I’ve been seeing for years - all models really. Maybe they’re just not very good at optimising their UI for the hardware. One can always hope for some improvement though, I guess…

They’ve redesigned the buttons. And will offer swappable back plates in various colours. I guess that’s designed for the fun / aesthetics factor. Swappable backs do seem like a better (and at least a bit more eco-conscious) option than getting a whole new e-reader just for a new “fun” body colour.

[DJUNGELSKOG]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

And will offer swappable back plates in various colours. I guess that’s designed for the fun / aesthetics factor. Swappable backs do seem like a better (and at least a bit more eco-conscious) option than getting a whole new e-reader just for a new “fun” body colour.

I'm not sure how is it different from putting the device in a different case

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DJUNGELSKOG

I'm not sure how is it different from putting the device in a different case

Because not all people want to use a case (i.e. the one with the front). I don't use cases, for example.

[cellaris]

The Kobo Mini also had interchangeable back plates. I had several of them.

[DJUNGELSKOG]

I see, to each their own!

I’m happy that this time they are honest about their device’s actual water resistance rating (or the lack of thereof). My first supposedly IPX8 resistant Verse Pro has perished after a brief contact with water and I’m still pissed off at them. I bought my Verse Pro #2 used from a Frenchman on Leboncoin.

The housing is IPX4-certified and therefore protected against water splashes

[JSWolf]

I would like Pocketbook to come out with a Verta 7".

[ab78727]

I know memory and storage are insanely expensive thanks to the AI junk, which might explain the 16gb storage but I think it is a poor choice on their part to also remove the external memory option. I guess I'll continue holding on to my Inkpad Color 3 and Basic Lux 4.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

PocketBook seems to be bringing out successors to the Verse/Verse Pro line - PocketBook Verta, one with a Carta 1300 BW screen and one with a Kaleido 3 colour screen. Buttons on the bottom, as they’ve had with this form factor before.

The fact that they they're not calling it the Verta Pro probably means there will be no mid-range version, like the Verse (the verse "family" included the Verse Lite and Verse Pro).

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I’ve never had PocketBooks but UI slowness is a complaint I’ve been seeing for years - all models really. Maybe they’re just not very good at optimising their UI for the hardware. One can always hope for some improvement though, I guess…

I guess it's true that the PocketBook is slower for navigating through the Menus, but I've never any trouble (or slowness) in reading on my Touch HD 3 (which is the "grandfather" of the Verta). Also you can turn the my HD 3 all the way off, and it turns on to your page in about 3 seconds. Good for saving on battery life. PocketBooks have other features that (in my opinion) outweigh the slower Menu options (like built .acm support and a newer ePub 3 rendering engine). But you have to add a decent dictionary, if you use one.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DJUNGELSKOG

I'm not sure how is it different from putting the device in a different case

If the back comes off, that might mean the battery is easy to replace. That would be a plus. Otherwise, yeah, it would be in a case for me also.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I would like Pocketbook to come out with a Verta 7".

Wouldn't that basically be the Era Lite?

[kandwo]

I'd be interested as long as the sluggishness doesn't extend to dictionary look ups. I find them slow on my Libra 2 using koreader.

[DJUNGELSKOG]

Originally Posted by kandwo

I'd be interested as long as the sluggishness doesn't extend to dictionary look ups. I find them slow on my Libra 2 using koreader.

Oh yes it does (unless the new models have a faster UI somehow)! The dictionary lookups are sluggish and they don't handle conjugated verbs in a graceful manner.

Example: I want to know what "achetons" or "acheté" means. Kobo's or koreader's dictionaries would immediately display the word "acheter". Pocketbook's dictionary would say that it's "a form of 'acheter'" but this message is not clickable, so if I wanted to know what "acheter" means I would have to click the "edit" button and edit my search query. This is extremely annoying.

On top of that you have to click two different buttons to add a word to the vocabulary builder - once to add the word and once to confirm that the word was added. This also gets very annoying very quickly.

And if you want to export the vocabulary builder you get a HTML file that only contains the words and their translations but does not contain the original sentence in which you've encountered this word. You can browse this information on your device but you can't export it.

Long story short - Pocketbooks are not good for language learning