615, 615 Plus and Basic Lux

[rcentros]

I found an inexpensive 615 on eBay (it's supposed to arrive on Friday) and I'm having trouble finding information about it. But I think I've figured it out... the 615 is the same as the 615 Plus, except the Plus has an E-Carta screen instead of Pearl. The 615 Plus is the same as the Basic Lux (original one) except the Lux has WiFi, which (apparently) neither of the 615s have? If I'm wrong, thanks for any correctiions. I was looking forward to testing a PocketBook, but part of the testing was going to be downloading books directly from Overdrive. Ah well, at the very least I'll see if I like the PocketBook firmware and that might lead to upgrading to a PocketBook with WiFi.

Just out of curiosity, is the 615 mostly meant for the Russian market? Every review I found on the 615 and 615 Plus on YouTube was in Russian. Apparently, according to one English review I found (written by a Russian), PocketBook has a 70% market share in Russia?

Again, thanks for any information. The 615 was sold "for parts" because the "digitizer didn't work." I was looking at how I might be able to fix it, then realized... "hey, that "digitizer" isn't supposed to work." I don't feel too sorry for the seller because he's one of those dealers that gets devices left on airplanes and sold in cheap lots to resellers like him.

[rcentros]

It's looking like no one has really heard of the 615s — I guess that kind of answers my question. Probably a cheaper Basic Lux for the Russian market.

[rkomar]

The pocketbook-int.com site has some information on the various models in the Support section. The 615 was known as the Basic Lux. "Basic" meaning cheap, and "Lux" meaning that it has a front light. I believe that all models in recent history come with WiFi. The 615 Plus probably was released later when E-Carta screens became cheaper. The rest of the hardware is probably the same as for the 615. It's possible that the firmware version was also bumped up from version 4 to version 5 in the Plus model, but that's only a guess.

The non-touch models weren't very popular in the West. If you needed the cheapest ereader possible, you'd buy another brand. In Russia, however, it made more sense to buy a cheap PocketBook ereader than one of the other brands, since the latter were generally more expensive there and might have worse support for the Russian language. That's probably why you see almost all of the reviews being in Russian.

[rcentros]

You're right, the Basic Lux is also the 615 model (the Basic Lux 2 is the 616) but it appears (according to the specs) that the 615 Plus (which is otherwise the same as the Basic Lux) does not have WiFi. I managed to find the PocketBook page for the 615 Plus and Basic Lux (though not for the original 615) and the one (and only) difference in their specs is that the 615 Plus shows a blank "-" for Wireless Connectivity, whereas the Basic Lux shows "Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)". But I hope I'm wrong about this.

Here's the spec page for the 615 Plus...
http://www.pocketbook-int.com/ge/pro...specifications

Here's the spec page for the Basic Lux...
https://www.pocketbook-int.com/us/pr...specifications

I haven't been able to find the 615 page. The 615 Plus has a black "ring" (4 way switch), the 615 has a green "ring" and the Basic Lux has an orange "ring." Physically that and the Pearl HD screen on the original 615 (instead of E-Carta) seems to be the only outward physical difference.

Here is the English review of the 615...
https://sudonull.com/post/21890-Revi...-market-leader

...where the writer mentions that there is no WiFi but you get the the front-lit screen (he says backlit). Again, I hope I'm wrong about this. It seems odd that they would have the WiFi feature on the Basic (515?) but not the 615.

At any rate, tentatively on Friday, I should know. It would be interesting to see if the Basic Lux software could be loaded on the 615 and whether there was a WiFi chip onboard, just not implemented in software.

(Sorry to ramble. Thanks for responding.)

I should also write that the 615 and 615 Plus boxes don't mention Basic Lux, whereas the Basic Lux box (in its main title, at least) doesn't mention 615.

(Still rambling.)

[Lykke]

The description for those two products literally state they have built-in Wi-Fi.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Lykke

The description for those two products literally state they have built-in Wi-Fi.

I saw that, but the specs don't show it. (And the reviews seem to support the specs.) The 615 arrived today. It's time zone was set for Moscow, so it looks like this was a "Russian 615" (which seems to be a bit different than the Basic Lux 615 on Pocket's main site). I found the firmware and support for this model on pocketbook-int.ru (I had been looking at pocketbook.ru). Don't know the difference between this site and the non "int" one, but the int. is a Russian version of the regular PocketBook site. I went ahead and updated to the newest firmware available for this model (5.17.99) but I liked the way the old firmware displayed page numbers better. With 5.17 its either everything or nothing. But, for those who don't like page numbers or titles, the PocketBook displays a full page of text really well. The screen is nice and white, no digitizer probably helps there. Definitely a Pearl HD screen, not E-Carta. I don't mind the non-touch screen and PocketBooks's buttons seemed to be well placed.

But no WiFi, so I won't be able to test how PocketBooks handle direct downloads, etc. Maybe (down the line) I'll look into buying a Basic Lux for that purpose.