Thinking about the Astak

[PhishStyx]

I'm considering supplementing my DR 1000s with the Astak 6" device. A major part of the reason that I use the DR is that many of my PDF's are very large, 20+MB, some as much as 60mb; plus, they tend to have lots of graphics and often are complexly formatted roleplaying game books similar in size to tech journals and textbooks. Sometimes these e-books open slowly with the DR, but to date, I've only had 2 that would not open at all (1 of which was quickly fixed by iRex).

None of that counts the DR's note-taking ability that I often use at the game table.

Thus, I'm looking at the Astak to supplement what I can read over time using the DR.

Does my situation sound like one that would be assisted by having an Astak EZReader or Mentor?

[fjtorres]

With all electronic gadgets it is important to focus on your expected use.
If you are looking to the Astak 6" (rebranded Hanlin) for pdf use don't expect great things; no current ereader shines on PDF; you'd be better off putting the money into a cheap TabletPC like the Archos 9, Viliv, or Asus T91.
If you are looking to access actual ebook formats like ePub, lit, pdb, prc, fb2, etc, performance will vary from good to tolerable depending on the formats and what you're looking for in DRM supported formats. If DRM-support is not an issue, the availability of OpenInkpot on the EZReader might be significant to you.
For non-pdf use you may want to consider the PocketPro (5") as it has slightly better baseline firmware and added features (scroll wheel, TTS, etc).

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

I'm considering supplementing my DR 1000s with the Astak 6" device. A major part of the reason that I use the DR is that many of my PDF's are very large, 20+MB, some as much as 60mb; plus, they tend to have lots of graphics and often are complexly formatted roleplaying game books similar in size to tech journals and textbooks. Sometimes these e-books open slowly with the DR, but to date, I've only had 2 that would not open at all (1 of which was quickly fixed by iRex).

None of that counts the DR's note-taking ability that I often use at the game table.

Thus, I'm looking at the Astak to supplement what I can read over time using the DR.

Does my situation sound like one that would be assisted by having an Astak EZReader or Mentor?

Dear PhishStyx:

Either the Astak EZ Reader Basic 6 inch or the Mentor Lite 6 inch. Both are good choices.

Please read the review posted today on the Pocket PRO. You will note that this independant review said the Pocket PRO does a great job with reflowed PDF and numerous other formats.

The 6 inch EZ Reader Basic does a great job... but the Mentor Lite has the Epson Controller and 8 level grey scale!! So does the Pocket PRO.

Phish, you might want to go to my blog: www.robertbEZ.blogspot.com. I break out all the features of all three on there!! And... thank you!!

[omro]

Originally Posted by PhishStyx

I'm considering supplementing my DR 1000s with the Astak 6" device. A major part of the reason that I use the DR is that many of my PDF's are very large, 20+MB, some as much as 60mb; plus, they tend to have lots of graphics and often are complexly formatted roleplaying game books similar in size to tech journals and textbooks. Sometimes these e-books open slowly with the DR, but to date, I've only had 2 that would not open at all (1 of which was quickly fixed by iRex).

None of that counts the DR's note-taking ability that I often use at the game table.

Thus, I'm looking at the Astak to supplement what I can read over time using the DR.

Does my situation sound like one that would be assisted by having an Astak EZReader or Mentor?

I had a DR1000 and it broke and I now have a Pocket Pro, you can ask me anything about the comparison between the two. I don't have the 6" astaks, but I believe they have only 4 levels of grey as opposed to the 8 offered by the PP. I did have a BeBook which the 6" astak is related too and I went from that to the DR1000 because I couldn't cope with it. However, the firmware may have changed significantly since then.

The textbooks I have open fine on the Pocket Pro, they are practically unreadable on zoom level one, but when you zoom in and PDF reflow kicks in it's pretty awesome. The only textbooks that don't open well are those which were scanned into the PDF rather than those which were real PDFs.

If you have any PDFs you'd like to see on the Pocket Pro, PM me and I'll arrange to take some pics of it displaying them.