Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I haven't heard any official statement about implementing the zoom feature into iRex 800. To me, it's not that important. It has been a major argument for iRex iLiad and iRex 1000S. But I rarely use PDFs, so it's not a biggy for me.

They haven't answered it directly, but based on comments from them on here I think you can draw your own conclusion. My interpretation is that it is not something they plan to support on the "consumer" DR800, and that it will be a "professional" DR1000 only feature. Plans may change in the future though.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by FutureBSD

Because I'm living DIRECTLY at the dutch border I'll driving to my next dutch Media Markt on Saturday and try one of these devices. If I like it I'll buy it. When they release a firmware update with the other features (as promised) it'll get the perfect device. If not I won't die and got a great and really fast reader.

I would call ahead and make sure they have them. I was reading some other posts saying that Media Markt didn't have any of the DR800S in stock yet, but that was a week ago.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by ajamudc

Hi all, thanks to everyone for all the great information about the DR800SG. I am in the market for my first ereader and my short list contains the Sony 900, Onyx Boox and the dr800sg.

I really like what I'm reading (and seeing via Youtube) about the dr800sg. I'm in the US, so unfortunately there's nowhere for me to see it in person yet. My only hesitation is the lack of annotations in pdfs.

For those that may have experience with the devices I'm considering, what are your general impressions? Which device do you prefer? How much of an advantage is the larger screens of the 900 and the dr800 vs. A 6 in screen like the Boox (Neo)? Does the dr800 have dictionary support?

Thanks in advance for any information!

iRex 800 does not have dictionary support (yet?).
Concerning screen size: Whatever you compare, it always comes down to your source material.
For your casual Stephen King, Cybook Opus' (great) 5" display probably will be fine.
For "professional" documents (usually A4/letter PDFs) the bigger the better.

My rule of thumb: If you want to use your reader (semi)professionally, 5" is out of the question.
6" may be okay. I wouldn't care that much about the screen size, but about the capabilities for your specific file formats. If you're into ePUB, for reflow screen size isn't that important for example. For PDFs, I'd aim for being as close to the original as possible, which means efficient zoom and big screen.
If you give us your main demand and file format(s), you'll certainly get lots of detailled feedback.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by ajamudc

Hi all, thanks to everyone for all the great information about the DR800SG. I am in the market for my first ereader and my short list contains the Sony 900, Onyx Boox and the dr800sg.

I really like what I'm reading (and seeing via Youtube) about the dr800sg. I'm in the US, so unfortunately there's nowhere for me to see it in person yet. My only hesitation is the lack of annotations in pdfs.

For those that may have experience with the devices I'm considering, what are your general impressions? Which device do you prefer? How much of an advantage is the larger screens of the 900 and the dr800 vs. A 6 in screen like the Boox (Neo)? Does the dr800 have dictionary support?

Thanks in advance for any information!

I only have experience with the Sony 900 and I returned it after 3 days. I just did not like the display. In my opinion the touch layer reduces the clarity too much. I've had both the 500 and 505 in the past and I just can't understand why Sony is making feature decisions that impact readability. If you typically read with a big font it probably won't be an issue, but if you read with a font closer to that of a regular book it is a pretty big difference compared to the 505 or the viziplex version of the iLiad. I expect the DR800 will use the same screen as the iLiad which puts in on par or slightly ahead of the Sony 505. I'll be picking up the DR800SG as soon as it hits the stores.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I don't get lots of the complaints about iRex. In my opinion, other units/manufacturers lack way more features and noone seems to care.

I think most of this comes from people violating the golden rule of "buy a device for the features it currently has", especially considering that the iRex devices tend to be on the upper end of the price range. People pay a lot of money for a device that they are assuming will get the promised features, and then get really frustrated/angry if those features don't get implemented soon enough, or at all. iRex, for good or bad, tends to be a lot more vocal than people give them credit for. The fact that we even know what features they are working on or thinking about working on is more information than we know with most companies. Sometimes knowing that information can be good, but sometimes it can be setting the users up for disappointment, especially if they are basing their purchase decision off of those future plans.

There have also been a few occasions where iRex has said that a device would have a feature, and it turned out that it didn't. Most notably some of their claims of battery life in the past haven't been backed up with real world results. This one isn't something that you can really defend, iRex should definitely not be making claims that it can't deliver. However, I still think that consumers should do their research ahead of time and not just take the company's word. I'm not excusing iRex here, I'm just saying that we need to be thinking about protecting ourselves as consumers and making sure that we research a product that we're going to be spending several hundred dollars on. I can understand people being frustrated/angry about this a lot more than the "promised features" above.

So far, it sounds like the testing being done by those who have already gotten a DR800S is pretty positive.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by FutureBSD

Because I'm living DIRECTLY at the dutch border I'll driving to my next dutch Media Markt on Saturday and try one of these devices.

Call them first. Whatever it takes only a few (hundred) kms, it's not a good idea to waste time and gas.
Here is the official retailer list.

[professzore]

Originally Posted by badbob001

Does epub offer any special support for footnotes?

Theoretically it's a question of two independent hyperlinks, one to the footnote and another back to the reference. It's theoretical as I've never tried or even seen any ePub with that feature.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Duplicate post

[drl]

Originally Posted by professzore

Theoretically it's a question of two independent hyperlinks, one to the footnote and another back to the reference. It's theoretical as I've never tried or even seen any ePub with that feature.

It has been awhile since my Cybook went south, but as I recall it had a "return" menu feature that took you back to you previous location. I would susptect this was a reader function rather than a prc versus epub function, but not sure.

[FutureBSD]

The Media Markt in the Netherlands is just 20km away.
And the City (Enschede) is quite nice so I'll drive to Enschede, have some coffee, meet some friends and check out the Media Markt. But yeah you're right. I've already written them this morning. Got no reply so far.

When I'm asking you guys about some specifications that are:

- Annotation
- PDF Zoom
- Fast Display
- 8-9 inch Display

Which reader would fit this best?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by FutureBSD

The Media Markt in the Netherlands is just 20km away.
And the City (Enschede) is quite nice so I'll drive to Enschede, have some coffee, meet some friends and check out the Media Markt. But yeah you're right. I've already written them this morning. Got no reply so far.

When I'm asking you guys about some specifications that are:

- Annotation
- PDF Zoom
- Fast Display
- 8-9 inch Display

Which reader would fit this best?

My recommendation: iRex iLiad.

[FutureBSD]

@mgmueller

You do have both devices.
How would you describe the speed of the display on both devices?
Do you may have a comparison video of that?

Because what impressed me most on the DR800S was the speed of the display. I don't know if I'd like to miss that :-)

edit:
And what I also like about the DR800S is the design. It's slim and nearly just display. That's a part that I don't like at the iLiad. It's to much "plastic" or "aluminum" (whatever it is). How are the DR800S + iLiad compared by thickness? A friend of mine (who has a Sony 505) told me that the first generation of iRex (I'm not sure if he was talking about the iLiad) have been pretty thick. Is that true?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by FutureBSD

@mgmueller

You do have both devices.
How would you describe the speed of the display on both devices?
Do you may have a comparison video of that?

Because what impressed me most on the DR800S was the speed of the display. I don't know if I'd like to miss that :-)

edit:
And what I also like about the DR800S is the design. It's slim and nearly just display. That's a part that I don't like at the iLiad. It's to much "plastic" or "aluminum" (whatever it is). How are the DR800S + iLiad compared by thickness? A friend of mine (who has a Sony 505) told me that the first generation of iRex (I'm not sure if he was talking about the iLiad) have been pretty thick. Is that true?

iLiad is no plastic at all. I always thought of it as the "engineer's unit". Very rugged and stable. It looks very "professional"; but it's clearly not als "elegant" as the Sony units. iRex 800 is closer to Sony, but not quite there yet (just talking about design, not about functionality).

Spec says: iLiad = 16mm; 800 = 10,7mm. This seems about right.
But I've never considered iLiad bulky.

In brief:

iLiad:
Pros:
- Extremely advanced OS (renaming files on the fly, adding comment on the fly, "intelligent" zoom, scribbling onto PDFs, ...)
- Dictionary support (via Mobipocket).
- Lots of 3rd party applications.
- Mine came with a very rigid pouch. Not sure, whether they still are available.

Cons:
- No more firmware updates, no ePUP support.
- Design a little bit less stylish than some others.
- No standby. Didn't trouble me too much, I never turned it off. But depends on reading habits of course.

800:
Pros:
- Very fast in turning pages.
- Stylish and efficient.

Cons:
- No intelligent zoom (yet?), no scribbling onto PDFs (yet?), no renaming or adding comments, no dictionary support (yet?).
- Stylus can't be inserted in the reader itself.
- "Ugly" cover (hoping for M-Edge or other 3rd party).

There are other "Pros" (no glare, flipbar, very responsive touchscreen, folder support, ...). But those apply to both units and I only wanted to compare to each other, not to other readers in the market.

iRex 800 is a bit faster. But iLiad's speed is okay, never did trouble me.

If I only compare readers at the momentary status, iLiad still would be my choice. But being the new reader and having full support and attention, I probably have to recommend iRex 800. Potential of iRex 800 definitely is way bigger.

[FutureBSD]

Thanks for the comparison mgmueller.

What is your guys opinion on the SDK and adding the missing features (zoom + annotation) yourself? Is it possible to create applications with the SDK to add those missing features yourself? Or is this part of application code missing and there would be no way to write those features yourself?

If it would be possible my choice will be the DR800S, not the iLiad.

[Jumpn Jack Flash]

I would wait for the 1000 update (it should have zoom) and then go looking at what is different between 800 and the 1000 implementation, it may only be a file entry switch such as the folder switch was.