JetBook Mini Review

[jjm6383]

I really liked the look of the Jetbook Mini, and so, when I had a little free cash, I ordered a Royal Blue Mini from NewEgg.

It's going back very soon.

It took me about 15 minutes to figure out which button did what. There was not an information sheet in the box. I had loaded an SD card with some books, already re-formated as fb2. The Mini would not read it. It took 3 cards to find one that it would read. My JBL will read all of them.

The Mini comes with a number of public domain books loaded in memory. Enough so there is no room to add another book without deleting one already loaded.

The manual is loaded on the Mini. That's the only place you'll find it. The manual says it's on the website with the other manuals, but it isn't. (http:/www.ectacto.com/support/manuals)

The font on the Mini is a very readable sans-serif font. Similar to Verdana.

Although there are 3 buttons on the front, the top and bottom buttons function as 2 each. The larger part is the Menu button (top), and the On/Off button and exit (bottom). The smaller part of each button is raised and acts as up and down buttons..

The center button acts as an "Enter" key or selection key.



I used a picture of the yellow model because the color contrast makes it easy to see the buttons and layout.

The Mini has a whole page of settings, but they don't really help the formatting of the book in any way. You can change the font size, line spacing, Alignment - Justify/left, indented or not.

The first time you open a book, the Mini has to re-format it. The manual says it takes about 40 seconds. I had a very long book that took 8 minutes. To get it to load, I had to change to auto-shut off time to 10 minutes.

FB2 books only load without pictures.

You must allow 20mb of free space for every 10mb of book. Text files require about 3% free of the total size.

I haven't tried the games.

Things I like. It has a clock. The size - it's just a little wider than a Jetbook, and about an inch shorter. Lined up with the Mini on top of the JBL the Bottom of the Mini is just about at the top of the Menu pad.

It rotates 360.

I'll keep it till the end of the week, and will be happy to answer any questions.

If anyone is interested in buying it, please contact me by PM.

[Kris777]

Did you try update it with new firmware - v.0.3.6 ?
http://www.jetbookmini.com/update/

I updated my jetbook mini and it works with Transcend and Sandisk 2GB SD cards without problems and it works much faster after update.

[LuBiB]

i have 2 jetbook minis in my possession but i never really had an issue.

the second one i purchased off the ectaco site and received the 2gb sd card with 1000 books which is my savior every night when i get home.

i remember when the first jetBook came out it had SO many issues, but ectaco releases updates on a weekly basis and now the jetBook is superb in terms of format support and functionality.

im sure they'll do the same for the jetBook mini - and the best part is you get all the updates for free

i get the majority of my books from gutenberg, so i would recommend that site for well formatted books

the jb mini definitely has a lot of features and the design is super cool so like i said before i would def keep up to date with the firmware updates: http://www.jetbookmini.com/update/

[Ron46]

Questions on Mini- will use for txt only.

Does it remember where you left off in each book?
Does it go directly to the last opened book when you turn it on (like the JBL) or does it go through a full boot?
Does adjustable line spacing really work?
Since AAA batteries are about half the capacity of AAs, can I expect my NIMH battery life to drop to 12 hours (I get 25 on my JBL)? (Ectaco is claiming very high battery life on this but at the same time recommending Lithium batteries that happen to be 4x or 8x that of alkalines, so I see their claims as misleading.
I have a JBL. Is this mini so much more convenient to carry that it is worth getting?

[Kris777]

>Does it remember where you left off in each book?

Yes

>Does it go directly to the last opened book when you turn it on (like the >JBL) or does it go through a full boot?

yes, with new firmware

>Does adjustable line spacing really work?

yes, it works

>Since AAA batteries are about half the capacity of AAs, can I expect my >NIMH battery life to drop to 12 hours (I get 25 on my JBL)?

No. It works about 90 hours with 4 AAA lithium batteries (it comes with unit) and about 50-55 hours with alkaline (I use Energizer) or rechargable batteries (I use Sony rechargable)

>(Ectaco is claiming very high battery life on this but at the same time >recommending Lithium batteries that happen to be 4x or 8x that of alkalines, >so I see their claims as misleading.
>I have a JBL. Is this mini so much more convenient to carry that it is worth >getting?

I like it more than JBL because more handy to use, works longer and very light.

[Andrasz]

Hi, guys! I've just found something quite cool. It is a review of a gadget lover. He is comparing a mini against HPC. A pseudo-review – The Jetbook Mini versus using an HPC for EBook Reading is called the thing.

Here is a bit from it:
"Until now, I’ve never owned a designated eBook reader. And I’m making that statement with disregard for the Franklin eBookman that I used to own. I say that because I never considered the eBookman as an eBook reader simply because to me, it was nothing more than a glorified PDA with eBook reading capability.

And until now, I’ve used my Mobilepro 400, 700, 790, 900…along with my Jornada 680, 720, 728….along with my Aero 1500, Casio E125, Ipaq hx4700…along with my Neta 980…along with my Audiovox 6601 smart phone…along with my Ipaq rx5720 GPS to read my eBooks with. Most of the time I used these devices with the Mobipocket Mobibook Reader software.

And up until now, I have never been totally satisfied."

The rest of the story with pic here (straight download): http://www.hpcfactor.com/staff/Rich/Jetbookreview.doc

[GA Russell]

Thanks for that, Andrasz!