Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[DeReader]

Originally Posted by catharsis

what tool did you use? i'm interested how long it takes. also, would it be too much if i asked you to take a photo of that page near the actual a4 print? the text seems readable in both of your pictures, but i don't have a real reference to figure it out. also, the ability to display this kind of documents weighs about 90% in my decision to buy an e-reader, so it's very important to me. thank you very much.

I used the PDFill-Tools from this site. There's an option "Rotate or crop PDF pages", you can set the cropping manually, it's a bit of guesswork.

I enclosed a photo with a printout in A4 in comparison to the reader.

One important point is also the resolution of 768x1024 of the device. I think the Sony 900 has only 600x800? By rendering small fonts, the resolution is important. The only devices available with a higher than 600x800 resolution ara AFAIK the Iliad, DR800S and the Kindle DX.

For this kind of paper the resolution and display size should be higher, future devices like the QUE or the Skiff would be appropriate, but they are also physically much bigger.

So far I think the DR800S hardware and the form factor is top. The software is lacking, but Irex could fix this. I hope they will this time.

There's even a firmware update available at Irex. I installed it, but it changes no functionality. Only thing I could observe in the system settings was a change in "Micro Bootloader Version" from 1.2 to 1.3 and "Micro Application Version" also from 1.2 to 1.3. The software Version is still 1.0 and the software build number is 1000.201001050630.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by olis

Mgmueller, thanks for sharing your impressions.
By the way, you have been mentioned in an article at slashgear.com:
http://www.slashgear.com/irex-dr800s...pping-2270988/

Wow, cool.
Thanks for sharing!

[catharsis]

Originally Posted by DeReader

I used the PDFill-Tools from this site. There's an option "Rotate or crop PDF pages", you can set the cropping manually, it's a bit of guesswork.

I enclosed a photo with a printout in A4 in comparison to the reader.

One important point is also the resolution of 768x1024 of the device. I think the Sony 900 has only 600x800? By rendering small fonts, the resolution is important. The only devices available with a higher than 600x800 resolution ara AFAIK the Iliad, DR800S and the Kindle DX.

For this kind of paper the resolution and display size should be higher, future devices like the QUE or the Skiff would be appropriate, but they are also physically much bigger.

So far I think the DR800S hardware and the form factor is top. The software is lacking, but Irex could fix this. I hope they will this time.

There's even a firmware update available at Irex. I installed it, but it changes no functionality. Only thing I could observe in the system settings was a change in "Micro Bootloader Version" from 1.2 to 1.3 and "Micro Application Version" also from 1.2 to 1.3. The software Version is still 1.0 and the software build number is 1000.201001050630.

Thanks for the picture. I will really help me in the decision to buy or not this reader. I don't mind a phisically much bigger device, but such device does not exist on the market right now, with the exception of Kindle DX.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

It is possible for customs to require you to pay import taxes for gifts, though.

Only tried it once and had been lucky that time....

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by DeReader

I used the PDFill-Tools from this site. There's an option "Rotate or crop PDF pages", you can set the cropping manually, it's a bit of guesswork.

I enclosed a photo with a printout in A4 in comparison to the reader.

One important point is also the resolution of 768x1024 of the device. I think the Sony 900 has only 600x800? By rendering small fonts, the resolution is important. The only devices available with a higher than 600x800 resolution ara AFAIK the Iliad, DR800S and the Kindle DX.

For this kind of paper the resolution and display size should be higher, future devices like the QUE or the Skiff would be appropriate, but they are also physically much bigger.

So far I think the DR800S hardware and the form factor is top. The software is lacking, but Irex could fix this. I hope they will this time.

There's even a firmware update available at Irex. I installed it, but it changes no functionality. Only thing I could observe in the system settings was a change in "Micro Bootloader Version" from 1.2 to 1.3 and "Micro Application Version" also from 1.2 to 1.3. The software Version is still 1.0 and the software build number is 1000.201001050630.

Sony 900: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...specifications
Display
Gray Scale : 16 level gray scale
Resolution : 600 x 1024 pixels
Screen Size : Vizplex™ 7.1 inches

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by DeReader

I tried to display the document on the DR800S. Without cropping the empty margins, it is nearly unreadable (first picture). But if I crop the margins of the PDF with a tool, the print is small but readable (second picture).

Reflowing the PDF is not an option, in that case the formatting of all formulas is gone.

But cropping the margins with an extra tool for every PDF is unnecessary extra work, which the reader itself could do with a software update.

Can you read one column at a time? PocketBook has this zoom method and it allows the document to keep the formatting but still be a readable size even on the smaller devices.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Wow, cool.

Indeed! :-)

Well, may I ask you to help me a bit, please?
At the end of this week I'll finish a test PDF (and possible ePub) for e-reader testing, including special fonts, different character styles, in-line graphics (both vector and bitmap), pictures, hypertext TOC and so on. I'll share it somehow. May I ask you to download it to your DR, and take some sample images?

Thanks,

Professzore

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by professzore

Indeed! :-)

Well, may I ask you to help me a bit, please?
At the end of this week I'll finish a test PDF (and possible ePub) for e-reader testing, including special fonts, different character styles, in-line graphics (both vector and bitmap), pictures, hypertext TOC and so on. I'll share it somehow. May I ask you to download it to your DR, and take some sample images?

Thanks,

Professzore

I even can test it on a bunch of my readers: Kindle DX, iRex iLiad/1000S/800, Sony 900/600.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Can you read one column at a time? PocketBook has this zoom method and it allows the document to keep the formatting but still be a readable size even on the smaller devices.

Unfortunately, there is no zoom function at all. You only can change font sizes.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Unfortunately, there is no zoom function at all. You only can change font sizes.

How about the Kindle-DX style 'zoom', where you rotate the screen to landscape and the document is zoomed to fit the sides? Does that work on the DR800? If so, hopefully the flipbar will show the next section of the page and then at the bottom, move to the top section of the next page.

[DeReader]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Sony 900: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...specifications
Display
Gray Scale : 16 level gray scale
Resolution : 600 x 1024 pixels
Screen Size : Vizplex™ 7.1 inches

Ups, I did not realize this, so the Sony 900 is resolution wise also in the upper category.

[DeReader]

Originally Posted by badbob001

How about the Kindle-DX style 'zoom', where you rotate the screen to landscape and the document is zoomed to fit the sides? Does that work on the DR800? If so, hopefully the flipbar will show the next section of the page and then at the bottom, move to the top section of the next page.

It's a shame, but the DR800S does not do this. It'll display the page in portrait mode on the landscape screen. The rotation makes only sense, if the PDF is formatted in landscape mode (e.g. presentations slides).

Even my Sony PRS-300 splits the PDF in landscape mode to read 1/2 page at a time by keeping the formatting of the PDF.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by cmdahler

And then did no one at iRex consider the possibility that a user might just sort of like to organize their books into categories and folders?

iRex was one of the first that offered folder support with the iLiad. I believe the DR1000 also has it. It's kind of strange if it's missing in the DR800. It seems to be a standard feature of the iRex devices so far.

[myprecious]

Originally Posted by DeReader

It's a shame, but the DR800S does not do this. It'll display the page in portrait mode on the landscape screen. The rotation makes only sense, if the PDF is formatted in landscape mode (e.g. presentations slides).

Even my Sony PRS-300 splits the PDF in landscape mode to read 1/2 page at a time by keeping the formatting of the PDF.

But surely you can zoom in while in landscape mode? With dr1000 I usually activate page flow mode and landscape mode works perfectly.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

iRex was one of the first that offered folder support with the iLiad. I believe the DR1000 also has it. It's kind of strange if it's missing in the DR800. It seems to be a standard feature of the iRex devices so far.

Yes, the DR1000S has a very nice "file manager" which allows you to browse a folder hierarchy, copy files around, and so on. It appears that iRex decided to go from a file manager to a more specialised "library" application as the "front page" of the device. It is, IMHO, a retrograde step to remove folder support.