Unboxing iRex 800 and first impressions

[professzore]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

Download and unzip it and under the help folder you'll find the manual.

Thanks, worked fine!

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by professzore

What about a public domain (for example, google docs)?

As I saw on your pictures, KDX seems a bit flurry/soft compared to the
iRex. Since Kindle have much better display than the "average", I tought
that iRex have something far over the competitors.

If you're interested to some "special" testing PDF-s (and hopefully ePub), just let me know. I'll finish a series of 5/6/8/10 inch optimized series of documents in a few days (possibly at the end of this week).

Considering that it's a touchscreen, iRex IS ahead of the competition, for example (slightly) superior to Sony 900 (but way more expensive on the other hand). But between all those units, it's minor differences.

[DeReader]

Here's a comparison of the text-rendering with a relatively small font on the Iliad and the DR800S. Both from the same PDF and without zoom. Done with the "kids USB microscope", 20x enlargement.

First picture is Iliad, second DR800S. You can also see again the "speckles" of the Iliads screen.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Considering that it's a touchscreen, iRex IS ahead of the competition, for example (slightly) superior to Sony 900 (but way more expensive on the other hand). But between all those units, it's minor differences.

Without annotation support, it's about even. If they manage to implement that again, it's leaps and bounds ahead of the Sony.. The pen is far more accurate than anything the competition has to offer WRT on-screen writing.. but without that it's just a "very clear screen" with no unique selling points at all.

Originally Posted by DeReader

Here's a comparison of the text-rendering with a relatively small font on the Iliad and the DR800S. Both from the same PDF and without zoom. Done with the "kids USB microscope", 20x enlargement.

First picture is Iliad, second DR800S. You can also see again the "speckles" of the Iliads screen.

This looks nice, btw. Can you also compare this to the prs-300?

[catharsis]

speaking of Sony, where can I but in Europe the PRS-900 ?

[Burliburd]

Originally Posted by DeReader

Here's a comparison of the text-rendering with a relatively small font on the Iliad and the DR800S. Both from the same PDF and without zoom. Done with the "kids USB microscope", 20x enlargement.

First picture is Iliad, second DR800S. You can also see again the "speckles" of the Iliads screen.

The font on Iliad looks thicker.

[DeReader]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

This looks nice, btw. Can you also compare this to the prs-300?

Sure, here is the pic for the PRS-300, same PDF document, but in this case in landscape mode, otherwise the text is not readable due to the lower resolution and screen size. I think the screen quality is very good on the PRS-300.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by catharsis

speaking of Sony, where can I but in Europe the PRS-900 ?

Haven't seen Sony 900 anywhere in Europe yet. Given the 3G issues, it probably will be a while - if ever...

[myprecious]

Thanks for all the info Anything about the battery?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by myprecious

Thanks for all the info Anything about the battery?

So far, it seems about average. But I haven't found any configurations, i. e. standby time or anything like that. I guess we'll have to observe some days.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I can't access the Micro SD card in Windows (doesn't even show). Neither the original one, nor mine. No idea, whether that's standard or a failure of my unit.
I have to check again, whether it's a feature or has been coincidence or an "accident": I've copied some books to the root of internal memory, just to check them out and make some pictures. Next time, when accessing them, they have been on the Micro SD card. Maybe content is copied automatically to the SD card? Anyway, I've copied the first part of my library manually via adapter to the card and then reinserted it into the reader - loaded with the first 400 eBooks of various formats.

I've made a stupid mistake. I've mistaken the SD card for internal memory. iRex 800 is showing the SD card. I've formatted it within the reader. For whatever reason it did format the 8GB card only to 1GB, that's why I've mistaken it for the internal memory. So I see the card within Windows explorer and can access it. I don't see internal memory though. Same for DeReader (the other DR 800 owner posting in this thread). I certainly won't need internal memory, but I'm a bit surprised. But probably it helps protecting the OS.
And on their website, iRex only states the memory of the SD card, no internal memory. So it makes sense...

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by myprecious

Thanks for all the info Anything about the battery?

From the posted photos, the battery is 2800mAh. For comparison:
iliad (v2): 2 x 1100mAh (2200mAh)
dr1000s: 1300mAh

Of course, battery size alone doesn't determine how long the device will run, since things like better performance (higher-clocked cpu?), faster / cleaner page turns (more voltage applied to e-ink), and new power management software can affect battery usage.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I've made a stupid mistake. I've mistaken the SD card for internal memory. iRex 800 is showing the SD card. I've formatted it within the reader. For whatever reason it did format the 8GB card only to 1GB, that's why I've mistaken it for the internal memory. So I see the card within Windows explorer and can access it. I don't see internal memory though. Same for DeReader (the other DR 800 owner posting in this thread). I certainly won't need internal memory, but I'm a bit surprised. But probably it helps protecting the OS.
And on their website, iRex only states the memory of the SD card, no internal memory. So it makes sense...

Assuming you re-formatted your 8GB correctly, can you verify that the device can see all 8GB of your card? I'm hoping it's sdhc compliant, meaning support for up to 32GB cards.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I believe it's FBReader.

You should be able to install FBreader on the DR800 as well. I don't expect it will take the developer community too long before they have it ported and ready, assuming that the one for the DR1000 doesn't already work on the DR800.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

You can install a non-DRM reader of mobipocket, no problem. You're just not allowed to install "the official" mobipocket reader, which will read DRM'ed books.

...

They didn't know what they're talking about, apparently... Or they think there's only a DRM'ed version of Mobipocket... Or how else would would all those companies with a Hanlin rebrand do it?

iRex used the "official" Mobipocket SDK to build their Mobipocket viewer, that's probably why theirs is not allowed to be used. It sounds like Hanlin, etc, are using FBReader for non-DRM Mobipocket support, which should also be installable on the DR800. I would assume that the version for the DR1000 would work "as is", or would be easy to port over if it required any small tweaks.