My initial thoughts on the Era Color

[VulcanRidr]

Due to an...incident (yes, I did something dumb) with my Era, I ended up purchasing an Era Color, and wanted to share my experience thus far.

I have had the device for 2 weeks, and so far, I love it. A few things about it, the PB700 that i had before was 16GB, and this is 32GB, meaning that on top of my books, I can stick more audiobooks on it without filling up the device.

The display is just as good as the PB700, at least to these old eyes, and the color is a nice addition. I'm not a reader of comic books, but it felt weird, after all these years, to see color book covers and especially to play solitaire in color...

The text-to-speech generally got quite a bit of improvement, which was a welcome change. For instance, instead of pronouncing the word Manticore, as mant-I-core (emphasis on the second syllable, long I), instead of MANT-i-core with the American voices, but the British and Australian got it right. Which, since the Honor Harrington books all mention Manticore 6 times per page, it seems, makes listening to books while doing meal prep or whatever much nicer.

I did lose my https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CCHR6GVG case with the original one, and this time I bought one of the pocketbook ones that snaps on to the hidden panel on the back. Not sure how I feel about that case. I like the size and lightness of it, and while the one above limited access to the top and bottom buttons, this one has a tendency to pop its locking bits to the back of the reader.

But over all, it was a good investment, especially since the color, with twice the on-board storage was $20 more expensive. I specifically bought it for that and the quad vs dual core cpu, and the color was just a nice add-on. I probably should have looked at some of the other Pocketbook models, but this one has worked for me since 2023...

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by VulcanRidr

Due to an...incident (yes, I did something dumb) with my Era, I ended up purchasing an Era Color, and wanted to share my experience thus far.

I have had the device for 2 weeks, and so far, I love it. A few things about it, the PB700 that i had before was 16GB, and this is 32GB, meaning that on top of my books, I can stick more audiobooks on it without filling up the device.

The display is just as good as the PB700, at least to these old eyes, and the color is a nice addition. I'm not a reader of comic books, but it felt weird, after all these years, to see color book covers and especially to play solitaire in color...

The text-to-speech generally got quite a bit of improvement, which was a welcome change. For instance, instead of pronouncing the word Manticore, as mant-I-core (emphasis on the second syllable, long I), instead of MANT-i-core with the American voices, but the British and Australian got it right. Which, since the Honor Harrington books all mention Manticore 6 times per page, it seems, makes listening to books while doing meal prep or whatever much nicer.

I did lose my https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CCHR6GVG case with the original one, and this time I bought one of the pocketbook ones that snaps on to the hidden panel on the back. Not sure how I feel about that case. I like the size and lightness of it, and while the one above limited access to the top and bottom buttons, this one has a tendency to pop its locking bits to the back of the reader.

But over all, it was a good investment, especially since the color, with twice the on-board storage was $20 more expensive. I specifically bought it for that and the quad vs dual core cpu, and the color was just a nice add-on. I probably should have looked at some of the other Pocketbook models, but this one has worked for me since 2023...

Is the actual body text any worse than on the original Era? I keep hearing rumours that the colour panels' B/W is notably worse than the B/W panels', but it's hard to be sure without someone familiar with both checking it. How convenient that you came along!

[VulcanRidr]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Is the actual body text any worse than on the original Era? I keep hearing rumours that the colour panels' B/W is notably worse than the B/W panels', but it's hard to be sure without someone familiar with both checking it. How convenient that you came along!

I don't notice much of a difference, honestly...Then again, the Era B&W was my first e-paper reader. I used to read on my LCD Nokia N900, but then decided to use an e-reader because "my eyes ain't getting any younger." I haven't seen any problems, and I read at a 9 point font. The background may be a little more, um, gray than bright white, but then again, I was reading paperbacks in the 1970s when the paper was pretty much brownish, not white.

Which is to say that pedants may call it "not perfect," but to me it is "good enough"...I didn't buy it for the color, because I don't read comics/graphic novels, I bought it because the cpu had twice as many cores, but more because it had twice the storage...If they were still available, I might have bought the 64GB B&W model, but alas, that was not to be.

[PocketBookUser]

Originally Posted by VulcanRidr

(...)
The background may be a little more, um, gray than bright white
(...)

Big image 1: https://i.ibb.co/whztQ9d2/era-1.jpg

Big image 2: https://i.ibb.co/Fk35mH1x/era-2.jpg

[PocketBookUser]

I can't edit my previous post, so I'm writing a new one.

The photos were taken freehand, so they aren't very sharp.
To me, the text on the color display seems a little less sharp. This may be due to the diagonal “grid” on the color display. You can see this “grid” in the large photos.

[PocketBookUser]

I'm sorry, I accidentally deleted the photos from the server. I can't edit my previous post, so I'm posting the links to the full-size photos again.

https://i.ibb.co/TBDcT33x/era-1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/gMKBXhhZ/era-2.jpg

The photos were taken freehand, so they aren't very sharp.
To me, the text on the color display seems a little less sharp. This may be due to the diagonal "grid" on the color display. You can see this "grid" in the large photos.


And here's a photo of the devices turned off: