IQ your opinion on Pocketbook IQ 701

[luv2knit]

so i thought i was settled on a nook, although not quite happy with the lack of customization and the lack of open android apps... then someone mentions to me in passing about Pocketbooks... and about 8 hours of internet searching later i am thinking the IQ 701 is my machine.

so a few questions for those experienced with one:

1. how are you finding the screen experience? pleasant? i expect a very nice screen experience since it is supposed to be an e-reader, but i don't expect the most perfect non-glare experience since it is going to give me all the other goodies (and the price point!).

2. does the audio support other than mp3? i ask only because the specifications almost everywhere say only mp3, but if you pull up the PDF manual it says "mp3, wma, aac" - so that is much more but that is the only place i find it. would love to have all those formats, but will resort to noteburner software if i must...

3. battery life. what is your real experience with the battery life and reading? obviously turning wifi off will lengthen that, but wondering if it is a generous battery life or so short you just read while plugged in.

i'll probably think of 3 other things the moment i close this post.

my hope was to find an "e-reader" that would support both my ebook and audiobook habits, and this android seems the ticket. another desire i became concerned with when researching other ereaders was organization of my audiobooks, as many of them had nicely organized ebook areas but the audio area was just one large jumping ground and made me think my audio experience would be less than good.

[fjtorres]

1- The screen is fine. About what you'd expect from a 7in 600x800 LCD. Bright enough for daytime use in anything but direct sunlight. Easily readable at the very low brightness required for dark-room nightime reading.

2- Haven't tried its as a DAP but the Pandora and Last.fm apps work fine. Speaker volume evel is very low but headphone volume level is good. Quality of sound is very good with no appreciable distortion even at the highest volume level. I tried the audible app samples and the voices were clear and loud. Format support will be a function of the player app. WinAmp and Realplayer are options so you should have support for all major formats.

3- Battery life with WiFi enabled is on the order of seven hours. I find that acceptable and in line with expectations so I haven't bothered to measure it with the WiFi off. I've seen reports of 8-10 hours without WiFi and with minimal brightness.

[paww]

With WiFI being used on and off during the day with low brightness settings I was able to get 8 hours with 2 bars left on the the battery indicator (I think theres 7/8 bars?) This wasn't a battery test just the usage for that day.

[speedtouch]

Well, if you're serious about getting an IQ, please swing by my For Sale post in the Flea Market. I'm selling my IQ with a 32 GB SD card, you can see it by clicking the link in my signature. It's a good opportunity to get a discounted IQ that's been used very, very little.

[luv2knit]

thanks all! knew you would be a helpful group

i am going to lurk around longer and keep my options open, i've been there and back in just the last 72 hours so don't wanna make a hasty decision... i am starting to wonder if the e-ink experience would be worth it to me, so i am considering forgoing color..

lots of options, but its great that there are lots of options.

thanks again, and happy e-reading

[MmavisO]

luv2knit--taking your ID seriously--have you considered getting a reader that will let you store and read your knitting patterns? I don't know if you use your computer for this at all ( I do) but if you do, you could store patters and shopping lists, yarns, and all the goodies on your reader, and take it with you wherever you go and always have your knitting info with you in case you run into some irresistible yarn (how much do I need for that sweater?) or pattern (how much of that yummy yarn do I have at home? Is it enough?). Not to mention your reader could be a convenient place to keep your pattern while knitting.

Something to think about while you decide. And if you get an IQ or something else with Internet access, you can email yourself notes about yarn or patterns you some across in your travels.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

luv2knit--taking your ID seriously--have you considered getting a reader that will let you store and read your knitting patterns? I don't know if you use your computer for this at all ( I do) but if you do, you could store patters and shopping lists, yarns, and all the goodies on your reader, and take it with you wherever you go and always have your knitting info with you in case you run into some irresistible yarn (how much do I need for that sweater?) or pattern (how much of that yummy yarn do I have at home? Is it enough?). Not to mention your reader could be a convenient place to keep your pattern while knitting.

Something to think about while you decide. And if you get an IQ or something else with Internet access, you can email yourself notes about yarn or patterns you some across in your travels.

Those are great ideas, K to you ! (not a knitter myself, but a quilter, so there u go )

[luv2knit]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

luv2knit--taking your ID seriously--have you considered getting a reader that will let you store and read your knitting patterns? I don't know if you use your computer for this at all ( I do) but if you do, you could store patters and shopping lists, yarns, and all the goodies on your reader, and take it with you wherever you go and always have your knitting info with you in case you run into some irresistible yarn (how much do I need for that sweater?) or pattern (how much of that yummy yarn do I have at home? Is it enough?). Not to mention your reader could be a convenient place to keep your pattern while knitting.

Something to think about while you decide. And if you get an IQ or something else with Internet access, you can email yourself notes about yarn or patterns you some across in your travels.

i am a knitter, and have been thinking about that feature a lot. in fact, the reason i have gotten into audio books so much was that i was torn between knitting and reading - and alas, audiobooks came to the rescue. for someone who didn't really believe this was "real" reading a few short years ago, i have surely come a long way - and now about 1/3 of my "reading" is via audiobooks.

as i have gathered more and more info what i have decided is that e-reading screen and audiobook functionality are my top concerns, PDF and wifi next, and color and 3g at the bottom of the heap now... so still searching.

thanks for the info, much appreciated.

[luv2knit]

Originally Posted by MmavisO

luv2knit--taking your ID seriously--have you considered getting a reader that will let you store and read your knitting patterns? I don't know if you use your computer for this at all ( I do) but if you do, you could store patters and shopping lists, yarns, and all the goodies on your reader, and take it with you wherever you go and always have your knitting info with you in case you run into some irresistible yarn (how much do I need for that sweater?) or pattern (how much of that yummy yarn do I have at home? Is it enough?). Not to mention your reader could be a convenient place to keep your pattern while knitting.

Something to think about while you decide. And if you get an IQ or something else with Internet access, you can email yourself notes about yarn or patterns you some across in your travels.

i have to ask, noting that you have both a PB IQ and 360, if you could only have one which would it be? because i can only afford one, and not sure if the screen on the IQ would be hard on my eyes for a few hours at a time...

[fjtorres]

For audiobooks the IQ outranks the 360 because 360 has no audio.
The IQ also has apps from Audible and Overdrive.

[MmavisO]

Originally Posted by luv2knit

i have to ask, noting that you have both a PB IQ and 360, if you could only have one which would it be? because i can only afford one, and not sure if the screen on the IQ would be hard on my eyes for a few hours at a time...

It would depend on how I was going to use it most. The 360 has a small eink screen which is easy on the eyes, and is light enough to carry around without any problems. It has a hard cover for the screen, which also helps if you want to just drop it in your bag when you go out. It's non-reflective, so you can read in strong light. However, it isn't lit so you can't read in the dark. And as fjtorres pointed out, it does not have sound capabilities, so no audio books. But it's very easy to use, and has been sold for quite awhile, so it's pretty easy to get questions answered about it, and most of the bugs have been worked out or around. There's even a version of FBReader that will let you turn pages by flicking your wrist.

The IQ, on the other hand, is brand new, only having been sold for a couple of months, so it's still having growing pains. It's Android, which means you can use it to get online anywhere there's wi fi available, and you can get apps to do all kinds of things besides read. It has sound, so you can play music or listen to audio books with the proper app. The built-in Pocketbook reader still doesn't work well, so a lot of people including me have downloaded and installed various reader apps to use. It doesn't come loaded with a lot of apps, but you can really get into it and play around with making changes and installing different apps. After playing around awhile, I decided I really wanted it to be a reader and not an Android device loaded with apps, so I took off everything except the several reader apps I have loaded, and now I mainly use it as a reader and occasionally go online with it, but not much else. It's color, so that is nice for reading books with color illustrations, but I think it's kind of heavy to carry around. It's lit, so you can read in the dark. It will even let you change the background (the "paper" of the page) from white to black and the text to white to make it easier to read in the dark. The screen doesn't bother me even after several hours, but I don't have trouble with any type of screen, so I'm not a good one to ask about that.

In brief, if I wanted something to carry around, that was easy to use without too much fiddling around, I would get a 360. It can read most formats including DRM'd epubs, and is an all-around nice reader. Some of its fans here refer to it as Mighty Mouse. If I wanted a larger, color screen, and either wanted to play around with it, or didn't mind playing, I'd get the IQ. But I really can't recommend the IQ for anyone uncomfortable with downloading and installing apps using Android, or who doesn't want to have a device that is still a work in progress. That said, Pocketbook support both here and via the company, is awesome. So whichever one you choose, I know you will have lots of help available.

[Metal Mick]

Hi L2K, et al,

we have an IQ and a "conventional" PB in our house.

I gave my wife a choice of either at Christmas time, and I'd take the one she didn't want.

She loves the IQ and though it is not so fine to read as e-ink, I think its versatility and overall capabilities are outstanding. With a range of reading software, and a slightly larger screen that seems... well, disproportionately larger than a 6", it shows a lot of promise.

I say promise, because the software still needs work, and I guess Android to really shine. It can fill other roles as well, courtesy of the Android Market. The resistive touchscreen is less pleasant to use than the capacitive one on my phone, but for reading, I could live with it.

Connectivity is less powerful than the cheap 7" tablets on the market, but battery life and quality is probably higher.

The e-ink PB is a wonderful device and as I read with it, I quietly think that I have the better unit, but then my wife asks me to dump some books onto it, and then I have a little play...

My opinion on which is better? Tough call, but if my e-ink reader died or got stolen or destroyed... I'd make a choice, certain that whichever way I jumped, I'd have a hankering for the other.

Sorry I can't be more definitive.

Cheers,

[luv2knit]

thanks for the comments, i find the ones relating to how ones personal experience is help the most. thanks again.

[MmavisO]

You should also know that in order for Android Market to work on the IQ, you must perform an operation on it called rooting. I won't go into it here, especially since my attempts were unsuccessful. There is a rather long and detailed thread on it here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=111673 and then there's more hoops to jump through to get Android Market working here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=113048. But there are other places to get apps. So it really depends on how comfortable you are with Android and with digging around in your device. But IQ as is (with added reader apps) is still great; you would have to rip it from my cold dead hands.

[hiaig]

I notice that you are also thinking of the Jetbook.

For me, I love the Jetbook because I borrow most of my books from the library and love the "never expiring library books" (because the Jetbook has no clock).

The reason I got an IQ is because I read in bed at night and the IQ provides backlight for reading.

I was tempted to get the PB360 but in the end did not see the point of getting another dedicated ereader.

One question you should ask yourself is whether to plan to read in bed at night. I originally thought that reading in bed at night was not important to me but I was wrong.

Cheers