Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[Mr. Goodbar]

I managed to pick up a Sony 900 today in Best Buy. I was planning on comparing this to the 800 and then deciding which I prefer, but after using it for about 10 minutes I realized it's not for me. To my eyes, the screen is significantly less sharp than my Kindle DX. In bright light it's not an issue, but dim the lights a bit and the non-touch Kindle beats it hands down. Nice form factor overall, but I couldn't help but think the focus on touch has significantly degraded the reading experience. Hopefully the 800SG manages to hit the stores before too long.

[Kolenka]

Well, some of that would be being able to ship directly to the US from the factory, possibly avoiding VAT, which accounts for maybe 10-15% (depending).

In the US, they can't really afford to sell it for much higher as the Kindle will eat their lunch from above, and Sony below.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

I managed to pick up a Sony 900 today in Best Buy. I was planning on comparing this to the 800 and then deciding which I prefer, but after using it for about 10 minutes I realized it's not for me. To my eyes, the screen is significantly less sharp than my Kindle DX. In bright light it's not an issue, but dim the lights a bit and the non-touch Kindle beats it hands down. Nice form factor overall, but I couldn't help but think the focus on touch has significantly degraded the reading experience. Hopefully the 800SG manages to hit the stores before too long.

iRex 800 DOES HAVE better contrast and clarity than Sony 900. But I consider Sony 900 absolutely fine as well. Have been using it on the train and plane in dimmed light without any real annoyance. Yes, touchscreen IS degrading the reading experience. But I've stopped comparing my units to each other (except for some statements here on mobileread). I look at each unit on its own. And right now, it's way more likely for me to take Sony 900 or iRex 800 on a trip than Kindle DX. Kindle DX can't do anything at all with PDFs, which already is a showstopper to me.
But the good thing is: Each unit has slightly different focus. So each of us will find a gadget for his specific demands.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Kindle DX can't do anything at all with PDFs, which already is a showstopper to me.

Doesn't the DX support viewing PDFs? Neither the Dx or dr800 supports zooming for PDFs, but I'm guessing you would prefer the dr800 instead for the added reflow function?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Doesn't the DX support viewing PDFs? Neither the Dx or dr800 supports zooming for PDFs, but I'm guessing you would prefer the dr800 instead for the added reflow function?

Exactly. At least you can tune your font sizes.

[nabrum]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Every setting you add multiplies your QA matrix by the number of options this setting has.

So, "easier" is NO... you have just multiplied the testing effort by 2.

BOb

C'on, that's not 100% true. As an ex programmer, SOME settings MAY have to be tested in every iteration possible, but not all.

In this case it's a simple switch to look at when producing lists, either the switch is "on" and you produce a folder version (assuming folders were created), or it's "off" and you produce the flat version, no matter how the content is literally organized. It's not that big of a deal.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

iRex 800 DOES HAVE better contrast and clarity than Sony 900. But I consider Sony 900 absolutely fine as well. Have been using it on the train and plane in dimmed light without any real annoyance. Yes, touchscreen IS degrading the reading experience. But I've stopped comparing my units to each other (except for some statements here on mobileread). I look at each unit on its own. And right now, it's way more likely for me to take Sony 900 or iRex 800 on a trip than Kindle DX. Kindle DX can't do anything at all with PDFs, which already is a showstopper to me.
But the good thing is: Each unit has slightly different focus. So each of us will find a gadget for his specific demands.

I've always liked the Sony's. Had the 500 and the 505 and I still think the 505 is the best 6 inch device on the market. I like most things about the 900 and you are correct in that it is perfectly readable, but when you compare it to a DX or another non-resistive touch device the reading quality pales in comparison when just looking at contrast and clarity. Everyone has different needs and wants in a device, but it surprises me that they make some of the readability tradeoffs that they do when the quality of eink is still not up the printed page. With that said, the other features of the device may be worth the tradeoff for a segment of the market.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by nabrum

C'on, that's not 100% true. As an ex programmer, SOME settings MAY have to be tested in every iteration possible, but not all.

In this case it's a simple switch to look at when producing lists, either the switch is "on" and you produce a folder version (assuming folders were created), or it's "off" and you produce the flat version, no matter how the content is literally organized. It's not that big of a deal.

And still....although being (presumably) market leader, Kindle doesn't have it for at least a year...

[The Straven]

I purchased an iLiad BE shortly after it was released (and shortly after finding mobileread, incidentally), and thanks to the work of Adam B., ericshliao, and Kirys, among others, truly enjoyed using the device. My main want of the thing was a battery that lasted longer than ten hours; when the 800 was announced, with its much more reasonable power characteristics, it was an easy decision to give the iLiad to my sister for her classwork. Then I waited.

And waited, and waited .... I don't actually regret having waited; I don't mind IRex's poor communications skills; I don't mind the lack of a dictionary; I don't mind the lack of the annotation function (although I do find it somewhat important); I don't mind price fluctuation (within a certain tolerance). I do mind the lack of folder navigation. Casual readers, it's true, may not need it. The DR-800 was not (haphazardly as it has been) marketed to casual readers; it's been marketed to professionals.

I've got a sizable personal library, but I've also got a substantial professional library. My employer publishes exclusively in PDF, and the majority of those files are letter-sized. I also like to save blog, magazine, and news articles to PDF. The 8" format is ideal for me: I can travel without a trunk full of reference materials, I can carry around an 8" device with ease, and the letter-size PDFs are still legible. But not being able to sort professional materials from personal reading, and not being able to sort professional materials by category is a real problem for me. If anyone can give me some good advice, I'd like to read it, but I think I'll be waiting a little longer, until such time as IRex might provide that functionality or a better alternative turns up--and I'm not optimistic that one will, because all the 9" devices I've seen look much too big to carry.

- James

[steffi]

What can you do with an IREX 800 with PDFs that you cannot do with a Kindle DX?

Any suggestion that IREX will be available in Best Buy soon? I need to buy something to take on my Asian trip next week and I'm being offered a Kindle DX Global for $375

Originally Posted by mgmueller

iRex 800 DOES HAVE better contrast and clarity than Sony 900. But I consider Sony 900 absolutely fine as well. Have been using it on the train and plane in dimmed light without any real annoyance. Yes, touchscreen IS degrading the reading experience. But I've stopped comparing my units to each other (except for some statements here on mobileread). I look at each unit on its own. And right now, it's way more likely for me to take Sony 900 or iRex 800 on a trip than Kindle DX. Kindle DX can't do anything at all with PDFs, which already is a showstopper to me.
But the good thing is: Each unit has slightly different focus. So each of us will find a gadget for his specific demands.

[Dulin's Books]

When I decided to start this business I researched the market to find what was missing. It turned out most people were annoyed at the same things I was,
no folders bad PDF support and and lack of note taking abilities. Turned out PocketBook and Onyx had come to the same conclusions because they were making devices and firmware to provide what everyone wanted.

That's what perplexes me about this device and Irex. Irex has been in the game longer than everybody except Sony. They have years and years of customer feedback asking for all the things they have left out of this device. I know because i read those forums for 2 years and asked a few questions there myself.

It's not "simpler" for the customer to leave out folder support. Its not cheaper to leave out notes when you have a wacom screen. Not having both zoom and reflow for PDFs is just sloppy. Especially when you have selection/smart zooming capability in your other devices. A wacom device makes selections EASY.

I've got half an idea to get a DR800 and hack another companies firmware on it just so people could see how much better the device could be if it was finished.

[steffi]

Given what everybody's seen about the Irex reader how does it compare to the known featureset from CES demonstrations of the que pro reader?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by steffi

What can you do with an IREX 800 with PDFs that you cannot do with a Kindle DX?

Any suggestion that IREX will be available in Best Buy soon? I need to buy something to take on my Asian trip next week and I'm being offered a Kindle DX Global for $375

Kindle DX does show PDFs "as is". On iRex 800, you can change font size, trying to optimise the ratio readability:amount of information.
That's far from perfect. For PDFs, personally I prefer leaving the layout intact and just zooming to the area of interest. iRex 800 (with the actual firmware) can't do that, whereas iRex iLiad and iRex 1000S can do so.
But at least, by changing the font size, you can change a bit, whereas Kindle DX doesn't allow even that.
I've got quite a few PDFs, which simply don't make any sense on Kindle DX.
The Sony units with touchscreen (600, 700, 900) have a basic zoom function. Only applicable for a single page, but else quite okay.

[steffi]

What is the PRS 900 like at technical PDFs since it's a lot narrower isn't it?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by steffi

What is the PRS 900 like at technical PDFs since it's a lot narrower isn't it?

Not very well, if you read the PDF "natively". (Like any other reader of that or similar size. Most PDFs are A4/letter, every reader smaller than that will have difficulties with "complex" documents).
But: You can zoom in. You have to do it for every single page, so it's far from perfect and doesn't help for, let's say, cropping margins. (On iRex iLiad you can use the zoom level, once set, for the entire document). Still: You can make any area of interest readable (zoom and pan) by freely blowing that respective area too fullscreen. Easy to mark via Sony's touchscreen interface. On Kindle DX you either can read it or not, no option there.

BTW: Of course you can rotate the screen on Sony 900 (manually, no auto-rotate feature) and still zoom OR reflow.