I'm just about to buy the DS1000s, but...

[Over]

I'm just about to buy the DS1000s, but... I'm having some last minute doubts.

I've been waiting to see what the competitors will bring to the table next year, but except Aztak, they all are aiming for the business market. That translates to "more expensive". If I consider that Aztak is USA based and that means I'll have to pay an extra 40% at customs if I import it, the price ceased to be the main factor in my decision.

Most people are giving favourable opinions about the eReader, although considering it far from perfect. I've alread read some threads here about unhappy costumers too... So that makes me tremble before making the decision to splash 700€ + 50€ (cover) + S&H.

The DR800 is around the corner, so maybe I don't really need the 10,2" screen... But 8" seems small to me, considering that my main purposefor a new ereader is to read some image heavy PDFs and, not less important, read comics books/manga. What do you think? I know there's some iLiad owners here, so you might have a better idea about what would be better: 8" or 10,2"? DR800 or DR1000?

I've also heard that the latest firmware (1.7) is giving problems. Are they solved with the 1.7.1 patch?

Also, how's battery life, after one year of development?

Finally, for DS1000s owners... What's your honest opinion about it, months after buying it?


Thank you for any answers and opinons you might share with me.

PS: Oh, is there any rumour about a possible price drop? I would hate to buy it now and see it cheaper in Christmas. :S

[lastgasp]

I hate to give out advice that would cost someone lots of money. That being said here is my opinion.
When I bought the dr1000 it was awesome because nothing like it was out there. Today I find it not worth my time to fiddle around to make it work the way it should. The 6" EZ reader which my brother owns opens way more formats without conversion. Sure I use FBreader and that helps. But for the 800+ dollars I spend I am annoyed that I cannot use the dictionary lookup feature. For reading comics or just image viewing in general the lack of any feature to adjust brightness\contrast means having to do this before transferring the jpg over to the irex. These days I just use my irex reader to do light reading.

luckily for you there are better choices today. For reading text I recommend an EZ reader. For viewing images I like the ASUS Eee PC T91SA ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220568 ). A new Eee tablet PC with a 10.2 is supposed to be out sometime next year. That a much better option for image heavy PDF's.

I want to stress and avoid any confusion that while I have tested the 6" EZ reader I have never used the Eee tablet pc and am basing my opinion on reviews. My next purchase will either be a 5" or 6" EZ reader. I will wait for the 10" Eee and see how that product develops.

Here a funny aside...
recently I bought a Palm m500 for $20 and I use it more as an ebook reader than my dr1000. I have even got it working with dictionary lookup. Couldn't Irex make the dr1000 work as well as this Palm that originally came out 8 years ago?

16 grey scales but no way of adjusting brightness\contrast? What a waste

[Over]

Thanks, lastgasp.

I already have a 6" Cybook, so my light reading and dictionary needs are already fulfilled. I'm just after a bigger ereader for the purpose I've mentioned.

That Asus alternative looks nice, although I imagine the battery won't last long (in terms of each charging cycle and life time too). At least I have a laptop which in less than a year had to have the battery replaced. I imagine the Asus will last more than two hours, but I guess not much more than double than that. And I don't know about the battery life.

About brightness/contrast, I've already an eink device, the Cybook, so I know that EInk doesn't compare to LCD. I'm already alerted to that. But that's fine for me, as it's important for me the fact that eink doesn't tire your eyes as much as LCD. And it can be read easily in very bright places, under the sun for example.

[plisken]

It is not something I would say great or perfect. It is damned slow, it has quirks (bugs), battery life could be much better. But it has big screen and it saves my eyes. If I got my money back I would buy it again anyway -- there is no real competitors to match DR1000S for reading long hours.

Hope I helped a bit :-)

[Over]

Originally Posted by plisken

It is not something I would say great or perfect. It is damned slow, it has quirks (bugs), battery life could be much better. But it has big screen and it saves my eyes. If I got my money back I would buy it again anyway -- there is no real competitors to match DR1000S for reading long hours.

Hope I helped a bit :-)

It certainly helped to build confidence about giving the big $tep

But I've just read somewhere that Plastic Logic's QUE will cost somewhere between 400 and 500$ (270 and 337€). A lot cheaper than 700€ (1039$). Even if they do the famous $=€ conversion. So I'm afraid to spend all that money and right in January PL announces the QUE far more cheaper and with better software.

Yesterday I had the DR1000s in my shopping cart, but backed up in the last minute. I'm still in doubt.

[myprecious]

I am also very pleased with my dr - I can't imagine reading/living without it But if i were you I'd wait a few months - there are so many new models to be available next year... On the other hand, you'll never buy anything if you always wait for something better. cheers

[KingDani]

as our fellow book lovers mentioned , the reading experience of DR1000 is unrivaled , and if QUE does not materialize soon , it will stay the same. you get the real paperbook feel of it. other than that , there are times when you expect a fully charged battery and you encounter a dead device , is the times you ask yourself , was it worth it?
i am in a hate/love situation with it , so i am not the best person to advise you. but here is my two cents.
cheers

[tjdean256]

You asked about the DR100S with regards to 2 uses, image laden PDF's and manga files. I don't have any experience with manga files, but I have lots of experience with PDF files with the DR - that is practically all that I use. In short, I am very pleased with the device. It can be a little slow with complex PDFs with lots of pictures. If you have Acrobat Professional you can optimize the file and speed up the page turning. You might give up a little quality for the increase in speed. I haven't investigated that too much.

I like the fact that it is an open-source device. My favorite application is Xournal ported by Mackx. I use that program a lot. I use other applications also, but their use is minor compared to Xournal for my needs.

I have had the device for nearly a year now and I have not seen a degrade in battery life. With the latest update, it will operate for nearly 10 hr, depending on usage. I haven't had the battery problems some on the forum have reported.

The display is glass, but it is not as fragile as you might think. I have used it to take research note in the woods. It works well in a large zip-lock bag. My biggest fear is someone squashing in the overhead bin in an airplane. The other fragile component is the mini-USB connection. I am very careful inserting the connector into the device.

The QUE is scheduled to be shown at the next consumer electronic show the first of Jan 2010 (its on Plastic Logic's) web site. While it might be worth your while waiting, I wouldn't wait too long - they have been showing a prototype all year long with no firm date for shipping a final product. This is the old Microsoft ploy to keep people from buying a competing product - in fact the Que will be based on Microsoft Windows CE. Then it was 2 to 3 revisions for the product to work out its bugs.

My 2 cents.

td

[lastgasp]

FYI I direct you to these two pdf's freely available from autodesk.

This first one http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/file...euserguide.pdf works perfectly with the irex dr1000. I am able to use the table of content function and by using fullscreen + hide margins I get a fine reading experience. Dictionary feature also runs smoothly.

This second one http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/file...0_help_pdf.exe when extracted from its exe file is almost 200 megs in size. Surprisingly the DR loads it in about one and half minute after that it little slower than the smaller pdf . Internal links work well and dictionary also works. The TOC function is bad though. With constant fiddling it will eventually come up though. It was easier to just go back to the beginning of the pdf and use the links in the content pages.

There is no easy way for me to show the problems with image viewing. My experience with mangas is that they are too dark or too bright to be enjoyed. The EZ reader has a brightness\contrast so it is possible to do on e-ink . I suspect that the DR1000 is set to maximum brightness by default. Using FBreader on the DR I can adjust the brightness of both background and text. I sometimes invert the text to white on black.

[SplogSplog]

There is so much wrong with the DR1000. The battery life stinks, the device is quite heavy, the price is astronomical. I could go on.

There is only one really good thing about it: it is the only device available that works well with A4-sized PDF documents. If, like me, you have loads of documents of that type (too many to print out) then there are no decent alternative and I would recommend you buy the DR1000. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

[tjdean256]

Check out this post

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...6&postcount=24

In fact the whole thread is probably of interest to you.

[animedude01]

As a DR1000 owner I'd like to chime in. I originally bought it to read PDFs. I have a lot and it does that very well. I have an Iliad2 that I was planning on using for general reading as it's smaller and easier to carry, but I've ended up putting that in the closet where it's been since I got the DR.

I'm really happy with mine. Is it perfect? No, but I wasn't expecting it to be. I think a lot of people end up having high expectations or are expecting it to be something else.

It's one of the very few large format readers. It allows you to annotate PDFs. How many other readers do that?

I'm never really that far away from a power outlet so the battery life isn't a huge issue for me. Even with saying that, though, I get several days of use out of it before I really need to recharge it.

Overall, I really enjoy my DR. I even started using it for my general reading because I'm a pretty fast reader and with the big screen I get a lot of text so I can read longer before having to flip pages.

As to other readers coming out, there will always be newer models on the horizon. The question you have to answer is do I need it now or can I wait and see if the next model will do what I want? If I had waited before getting my DR, I would likely still be on the sidelines

[Over]

Thank you for all your input, guys!

The only thing that is stopping me from buying the DR1000s right now is because of the CUE, to be presented just less than two months from now. I would really just hit my head several times if the QUE would be cheaper than iRex's ereader or if its launch would make iRex reduce their prices. 700€ is a lot... If we were talking about 400 or 500€, I would buy it anyway, but for 700€...

I know there will always be something better in the horizon, but January is very close.

Almost everyday I'm tempted to just order the iRex, and almost everyday I have to force myself not to. That's why I'm coming here less often. Everytime I read you, I have to stop myself from ordering it.

[HarryT]

Note that the Que is not being released in January - all that's happening in January is that Plastic Logic will announce when it will be released, and how much it will cost.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Note that the Que is not being released in January - all that's happening in January is that Plastic Logic will announce when it will be released, and how much it will cost.

Right. All they did was basically announce the date of when they will be announcing the release date.