Pocketbook Era first look

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Deobulakenyo

https://youtu.be/1DuOPB5eKLs

video comparison of PocketBook Era against the Paperwhite 5 and Libra 2

The best way to post a Youtube video.

[rantanplan]

Arguably having a link that will open in a new tab is the best way to post a Youtube video.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

Arguably having a link that will open in a new tab is the best way to post a Youtube video.

I disagree because doing it the way I did it, you have two choices. You can watch the video here in this tab or click the watch on YouTube link and have a new tab opened to the video. You have choices. A link does not give you the first choice.

[tomsem]

Interesting, but I thought it was a little lazy. For something so focussed on the screen quality, and yet, no effort to even get the same font on all three.

Of course, with the font adjustments you have on Kobo and Kindle you can improve things. And the font adjustment on Era is just wholly inadequate and crude (Italic? Bold? really?). But you can always install a custom font to achieve the same result.

And some would say the PW5 falls short of Oasis in terms of screen quality, so that should have been included. (I just got Oasis 2, and really haven't developed an opinion myself.)

One thing that the video does well is point out the tradeoffs with anti-glare measures. Libra 2 seems to be at one extreme, PocketBook at the other, PW5 somewhere in between. It seems my Oasis 2 (like Libra 2?) has less anti-glare than PW5, which is less than Era. Era is more like PW4.

Whether the anti-glare measures are a plus or a minus depends on your typical reading environments. They all have sweet spots.

I also think that video cannot really capture real-life scenarios with fidelity. I take these with a grain of salt at least, cameras are filters and imperfect proxies of what human eyes actually perceive. And we don't typically read with studio lighting. So it can capture 'artifacts' that don't really happen in actual usage.

This lack of verisimilitude can be a plus if we are talking about making movies or taking photos. We can manipulate the lighting, camera placement and lenses, and apply any number of visual effects and editing to create a compelling experience. We really don't expect or want 'fidelity' except perhaps for security cameras and video depositions.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Interesting, but I thought it was a little lazy. For something so focussed on the screen quality, and yet, no effort to even get the same font on all three.

Of course, with the font adjustments you have on Kobo and Kindle you can improve things. And the font adjustment on Era is just wholly inadequate and crude (Italic? Bold? really?). But you can always install a custom font to achieve the same result.

And some would say the PW5 falls short of Oasis in terms of screen quality, so that should have been included. (I just got Oasis 2, and really haven't developed an opinion myself.)

One thing that the video does well is point out the tradeoffs with anti-glare measures. Libra 2 seems to be at one extreme, PocketBook at the other, PW5 somewhere in between. It seems my Oasis 2 (like Libra 2?) has less anti-glare than PW5, which is less than Era. Era is more like PW4.

Whether the anti-glare measures are a plus or a minus depends on your typical reading environments. They all have sweet spots.

I also think that video cannot really capture real-life scenarios with fidelity. I take these with a grain of salt at least, cameras are filters and imperfect proxies of what human eyes actually perceive. And we don't typically read with studio lighting. So it can capture 'artifacts' that don't really happen in actual usage.

This lack of verisimilitude can be a plus if we are talking about making movies or taking photos. We can manipulate the lighting, camera placement and lenses, and apply any number of visual effects and editing to create a compelling experience. We really don't expect or want 'fidelity' except perhaps for security cameras and video depositions.

The Oasis 2 had a noticeably worse contrast than the Oasis 3.

[JSWolf]

The PW3 should also have been shown as it's got a better contrast then the PW4. I'm thinking the PW3 may beat the PW5.

I do think using the same eBook and the same font would make a comparison much better.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The Oasis 2 had a noticeably worse contrast than the Oasis 3.

I would not know about that, or care that much enough about it to go out and buy one. I wasn't even planning to get KO2, but the price was right and I wanted to see how KOReader would run on it (having installed it on the Era). Contrast is more than adequate for me, and between it and the Era, I've gone from 'I don't need no stinking buttons' to 'Hey, this is kinda nice'. (I still don't understand why Amazon doesn't enable them in Kindle Store. Don't they want to make shopping as efficient as possible?)

KOReader is a LOT snappier on KO2 than Era.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I would not know about that, or care that much enough about it to go out and buy one. I wasn't even planning to get KOA2, but the price was right and I wanted to see how KOReader would run on it (having installed it on the Era). Contrast is more than adequate for me, and between it and the Era, I've gone from 'I don't need no stinking buttons' to 'Hey, this is kinda nice'. (I still don't understand why Amazon doesn't enable them in Kindle Store. Don't they want to make shopping as efficient as possible?)

KOReader is a LOT snappier on KOA2 than Era.

There's no such Reader as KOA2. A Kindle Oasis 2 is a KO2.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I would not know about that, or care that much enough about it to go out and buy one. I wasn't even planning to get KOA2, but the price was right and I wanted to see how KOReader would run on it (having installed it on the Era). Contrast is more than adequate for me, and between it and the Era, I've gone from 'I don't need no stinking buttons' to 'Hey, this is kinda nice'. (I still don't understand why Amazon doesn't enable them in Kindle Store. Don't they want to make shopping as efficient as possible?)

KOReader is a LOT snappier on KOA2 than Era.

The contrast was good enough for me as well when I used mine. I mentioned it because of the comparison video. When looking at comparison videos it should be taken into account whether it's the Oasis 2 or the Oasis 3 in the video.

Myself, I tend to watch comparison videos before making a buying decision, but not after. After buying a device I no longer care much about comparing either.

[JSWolf]

While in most cases, the reviews are rubbish, GoodEReader does shoot good videos in 4k so you can actually compare the screens when they do comparison reviews.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There's no such Reader as KOA2. A Kindle Oasis 2 is a KO2.

Brain fart. Fixed it.

[eMole]

As an end user I compared the Era's screen with my Touch HD (300ppi Carta from 2015?).
Now, there's an improvement I didn't expect.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Interesting, but I thought it was a little lazy. For something so focussed on the screen quality, and yet, no effort to even get the same font on all three.

Personally I don't think the screen contrast isn't that bad. And with a good, dark font like Constantia, it would probably look pretty good. I was never impressed with the built-in fonts on my HD 3 either. All of them seem too light and without contrast. You're right, the reviewer should have used the same font on Libra 2 and the Era. Without doing that you really can't tell much of anything about actual quality.