Color JetBook Color Review - by a Long-Time Kindle DXG User

[paperwastage]

Originally Posted by mod186k1

Please, see my post because this seems a false problem:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=295

well, how?

the power switch, if i just push and release immediately, nothing happens. push and hold, 5s, it turns off (i.e. starting the device requires a long boot time/screens)

in the settings/menu, there is a Auto-timeout value. If I set it to NEVER, then it uses quite a lot of battery (I forgot to turn it off, the device was on the "on" state, now its out of battery from 50% yesterday)... time to try the other values of auto-off when I recharge it today

[ProDigit]

What a pitty!
One thing I really liked about the Jetbook mini is it's INSTANT ON mode, and it's near to zero battery sipping in stand by.

Makes you wonder why they're not simply storing RAM data into flash before shutting down; and while booting just load it to memory?
Perhaps flash memory would serve better as RAM. I heard there are some interesting developments in RAM space, which will allow you to suspend RAM without consuming any power.

But it'll probably take a while before such technologies are adapted to devices like this.
Their main focus is to be used in cellphones.

Speaking of which,
It would be interesting to see these tablets being powered by current cellphone technology!
I mean, my cellphone can play simple 3D games, has only a 600mAh 3,7V battery, which is very low, and yet can remain on standby over 7 days!

Eventhough it's screen is a lot smaller,it appears to me, that my cellphone could outperform some of these readers!
I could be wrong though...

[mod186k1]

I don't understand your problem. They said me the JBC enter automatically in sleep when you don't use it for 4s. Eink doesn't need electricity to display the page so it make sense for me:

1) you turn the page
2) probably you stay on that page more than 4s and the device goes in sleep: the device informs you on the new state turning the blue light (led?) off above the "menu key"
3) you can read the page even one hour because the device is sleeping now while eink screen shows the page (no electricity needs)
4) after one minute (for example) you decide to turn the page pushing the button "V"
5) the device awakes, it turns the (led?) blue light on and then it turns the page.

If it's all true, you have no need to bother about pushing a special button or something else, just leave the device manage the power for you :-)

But I'll get my Jetbook Color only next wednesday. Then I'll try to solve this issue


P.s.: If you change the settings I don't know what it happens. I suggest you to contact the support for details

[paperwastage]

Originally Posted by mod186k1

I don't understand your problem. They said me the JBC enter automatically in sleep when you don't use it for 4s. Eink doesn't need electricity to display the page so it make sense for me:

1) you turn the page
2) probably you stay on that page more than 4s and the device goes in sleep: the device informs you on the new state turning the blue light (led?) off above the "menu key"
3) you can read the page even one hour because the device is sleeping now while eink screen shows the page (no electricity needs)
4) after one minute (for example) you decide to turn the page pushing the button "V"
5) the device awakes, it turns the (led?) blue light on and then it turns the page.

If it's all true, you have no need to bother about pushing a special button or something else, just leave the device manage the power for you :-)

But I'll get my Jetbook Color only next wednesday. Then I'll try to solve this issue


P.s.: If you change the settings I don't know what it happens. I suggest you to contact the support for details

I assume that they mean "sleep after 4s" as: if you don't move anything, the eINK doesn't change, so doesn't take any power maintaining the eINK screen(as is how eINK tech actually works)

I think that the CPU/RAM is still running, and since this is WinCE 6.0, the power optimization might not be as good as the Kindle's custom linux/unix or Nook's Android power...

I'll see when I keep the device on with AUTO-TIMEOUT at some value

EDIT: Also, the Kindle has an auto-time out (if you turn it on, leave it alone, eventualy it'll go to screensaver mode...... why doesn't Amazon keep it "on" always if eINK doesn't take any power to run? cpu/ram taking more power on "on-standby" vs "off-standby" mode?

[paperwastage]

^yeah, after the 1-minute timeout, it goes to "off" mode... it takes at least 10s to boot up (i.e. not the "instant" on with the Kindles)

Originally Posted by ProDigit

What a pitty!
One thing I really liked about the Jetbook mini is it's INSTANT ON mode, and it's near to zero battery sipping in stand by.

Makes you wonder why they're not simply storing RAM data into flash before shutting down; and while booting just load it to memory?

I think it's b/c of WinCE 6.0. If I understand the architecture correctly, everything is loaded into RAM?

http://www.jetbookcolor.ru/support

jbcupdate.bin (one of the links) for updating the device, is 1GB big... I don't think a ROM firmware would be that big even with WinCE 6.0, unless its just a directly load-into-RAM thing

[mod186k1]

Originally Posted by paperwastage

I assume that they mean "sleep after 4s" as: if you don't move anything, the eINK doesn't change, so doesn't take any power maintaining the eINK screen...

I hope they don't mean it. For the world sleep mode is for all peripherals of a device (something as "suspend on RAM")

NEWS: Something very very strange about this subject and I am a bit confused. On this site:
http://translate.google.ru/translate...2F%3Fp%3D11622

They say:
1) the battery capacity is 2350 mAh
2) when the device enter in sleep, it eats only 2mA

Then 2350mAh/2mA = 1175h => 1175h/24h = 48.9 days
So if I turn on JBC and I leave it without touch anything the charge should live for at least 1 month!!! :-O :-O :-O

[ProDigit]

Perhaps wifi and SD cardreader is always on.

[mod186k1]

They also said the JBC eats 200mA when it is active (I suppose/hope this is the maximum power consumption) => if you play around with your Jetbook color in "expensive" way you battery will empty in 11 hours.

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by mod186k1

They also said the JBC eats 200mA when it is active (I suppose/hope this is the maximum power consumption) => if you play around with your Jetbook color in "expensive" way you battery will empty in 11 hours.

I don't know what play around means for you. Some people request full web capabilty. Should you use the device for web surfing any given reader probably will not last much longer than a tablet.
I think one can expect the maximum operation hours only when restricting oneself to simple page turns ...

[ProDigit]

Yes, I hope they will disable animated gifs, and flash. The JBC has too little RAM as well as too little battery to support more advanced websites anyway.

[lorenzoens]

Yeah, DXG is a huge fail. I have it too, and despite a wondeful screen it has the most outdated firmware out there, with PDF it's a tragedy.

1 Wow, the DXG is really slow on pdf, are you saying that Jetbook is even slower?!

2 agree.

4 DXG's zoom is rough to say the least, and no reflow. Are you saying that Jetbook's zoom is even worst?

I'm starting to think this device will perish in two months.

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Like many DXG users, Amazon's apparent lack of interest in developing/improving the Kindle DXG
...
I am commenting on the "readability" of the color eInk screen.
...
1. The color Jetbook is glacially slow in loading books.
...
2. The color jetbook should never have been shipped with a white bezel.
...
4. When a book contains images, photos, etc. there is apparently no capability (yet) for switching to landscape view, for for magnifying or zooming in & out of the image. I've experimented with books whose images are "zoomable" on the DXG, but I've not found a similar capability when viewing book pages on the Jetbook.

[mod186k1]

Originally Posted by mod186k1

Then 2350mAh/2mA = 1175h => 1175h/24h = 48.9 days
So if I turn on JBC and I leave it without touch anything the charge should live for at least 1 month!!! :-O :-O :-O

I've just seen in
http://www.jetbookk12.com/comparison/
that jetbook color specification: duration 1 month of "standby time". This seems to confirm my calculation

[mod186k1]

I've got my Jetbook Color and I investigate about the sleep problem.

Gregg was right: the device goes in standby if you don't touch anything for about 4 seconds (infact the blue led near Menu botton turns off).

BUT (there is a "BUT") it works only when you are reading a document or viewing a picture. If for example you are on main menu and you leve your jetbook color on the table, you'll waste your battery's charge in about 12 hours!!!

I think this is a bug and as workaround you have consider a document as a standby button

Hope this help you

AM

[lorenzoens]

Nice, it's arrived. Keep us updated.

[mod186k1]

For this moment only in italian.
http://forum.simplicissimus.it/altro...ove-sul-campo/

But the summary is:

• I took the photo in a dark room with only a lamp 20watt (1200Kelvin)
• I compared triton-eink (first version)-eink pearl version to show difference in contrast and in resolution.
• I used Ectaco Jetbook color - Sony PRS-650 - iRex iLiad

the images:
pearl vs Triton: - pearl has bettere background but the black is the same

eink first version vs Triton: bakground is similar but black is more bold in Triton!

triton vs ALL: the power of (not so brilliant, but fair enough) colors