New BeBook Mini - 5" Eink Reader

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The computer monitor on which you are reading this almost undoubtedly has a rather lower resolution that that.

Excellent point. And very true, I find rendering of serif fonts adequate on LCD's.

Not sure why it is so, though. Probably a combination of two things:
- The ergonomics are different, my LCD's are, roughly, 1 meter away.
- The difference in technology, true colour probably gives more "freedom" when rendering algorithm creates illusion of round shape(s).

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by slayda

Can you tell me where you got this data on the screen pixels? Outside MR posts, I've been unable to find info on the screen pixels.

I also saw this info here on MR, and took it at face value. I assumed that this is first deployment of 5" Vizplex's mentioned here.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Ankh

Excellent point. And very true, I find rendering of serif fonts adequate on LCD's.

Not sure why it is so, though. Probably a combination of two things:
- The ergonomics are different, my LCD's are, roughly, 1 meter away.
- The difference in technology, true colour probably gives more "freedom" when rendering algorithm creates illusion of round shape(s).

Using grey scales you can get a virtual resolution that is much higher.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by tompe

Using grey scales you can get a virtual resolution that is much higher.

How does that work? 24 bits are used for grayscale (even more "freedom" for the rendering algorithm), or it is purely optical effect?

[HarryT]

By rendering the "edge" pixels in the appropriate shade of grey, you can greatly increase the apparent "smoothness" of the font.

[Faenad]

Maybe I'm missing something but it looks very similar to the 6" BeBook, so how is it ugly? or do you consider the 6" BeBook to be ugly?

The screen bezel of the new 5" BeBook seems as wide as in the original beBook, while the screen is significantly smaller. The new 5" BeBook thus looks much more "massive" than the original, which was already the biggest 6" reader without a keyboard.

I prefer the look of the new Netronix 5" reader (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43118 ), but it's comes down to personal preference at the end of the day.
And anyway if I was in the market for one I would choose the reader with the better software.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by slayda

Can you tell me where you got this data on the screen pixels?

For EInk screens, the source reference is High Resolution Active Matrix Displays. The 5" screen is 200 ppi.

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The computer monitor on which you are reading this almost undoubtedly has a rather lower resolution that that.

Which is almost completely irrelevant, because DPI are useless as a measure for display quality unless you also give the viewing distance. So let's have a look at this.

Some quick measurements show that my monitor has ~100 dpi at a viewing distance of ~70 cm. My ebook reader has ~170 dpi at a viewing distance of ~40 cm. Which results in almost exactly the same angular size of a pixel (which is the measure that actually matters, ergonomically speaking) in both situations (100 dpi * 70 cm / 40 cm = 175 dpi).

And I sure wouldn't mind a higher resolution in both cases, either.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Gudy

Which is almost completely irrelevant, because DPI are useless as a measure for display quality unless you also give the viewing distance. So let's have a look at this.

Some quick measurements show that my monitor has ~100 dpi at a viewing distance of ~70 cm. My ebook reader has ~170 dpi at a viewing distance of ~40 cm. Which results in almost exactly the same angular size of a pixel (which is the measure that actually matters, ergonomically speaking) in both situations (100 dpi * 70 cm / 40 cm = 175 dpi).

And I sure wouldn't mind a higher resolution in both cases, either.

Unless of course your eyeballs are as old as mine. If my arms were 70 cm long, that’s how far my viewing distance would be.

That's why scalable fonts (big ones) are much more important than screen resolution.

[David Munch]

Originally Posted by slayda

Maybe I'm missing something but it looks very similar to the 6" BeBook, so how is it ugly? or do you consider the 6" BeBook to be ugly?

Oh yeah, hehe.

[carandol]

If this is $/€ 200, I wonder where that leaves the British price? $200 is about £134, whereas €200 is about £178! Damn the pound and it's mighty towering strength against your weak, puny foreign currencies!

Oh, and I hear that the funny thing on the side is some sort of page-turning scroll wheel.

[brudigia]

Anybody knows other characteristics of the machine ? Processor speed, memory, number of gray levels ....

[Moe The Cat]

Mobread says:

First, specifications of parameters
Availability: May 2009
Size: 151.2mm (length) × 105mm (width) × 10mm (H)
Main screen: 5-inch electronic paper display (E-Ink technology), 8 gray
Memory: SDRAM: 512MB, built-in 2MB NOR FLASH
Weight: about 160g
Power: built-in Li-ion 1000 mAh
Communications: A. headphones C. SD card slot interface B.USB1.1
Expansion: the largest 16G SD Card
Operating temperature: 0 ℃ ~ 40 ℃
Storage Temperature: -20 ℃ ~ 55 ℃ (non-rechargeable batteries)
Supported formats: txt, pdf, doc, chm, wol, rar, zip, jpg, bmp, tiff, fb2, djvu, gif (static), epub, html, htm, ppt, prc, mbi, pdb, MP3, etc.
CPU: Samsung Arm9 200Mhz
Operating System: Linux OS
Accessories: charger, data cable, SIM card, headphones, lanyard, a battery, 1G SD card

The eight shades of grey sounds good to me (BeBook 1 had four). But, the battery is listed as "built-in". Does that mean it's not replaceable?

[rbarhat]

The screen size at 5" may affect PDF viewing, especially when we're looking at magazine PDFs. Correct me if i am wrong.
So if i have a preference for A4 PDFs, should i wait for it or go for Sony-505.

[rgeorg]

Would you (more knowledgeable people) expect page refreshes to be faster on the 5" model than on the current BeBook (Hanlin)? Will OpenInkpot run on this as well? Any idea of software usability differences with the current model? What other differences in functionality are there likely to be? Too soon to know, perhaps?

I'm just wondering if it's worth it to trade screen area (6" -> 5") with improved functionality/portablility?