IQ701. File thoroughly before use.

Hi% username%,
Today, I want to tell about the PocketBook IQ701 e-book based on android, finally, after long sado-maso prelude expectations, a new firmware for this device has been released (2.0.6). This pushed me to write this topic. Here I will talk about the device itself, as well as about the quests that the “happy” owner of this device has to decide. If it is interesting to you, welcome under cat. (A lot of pictures)

Preamble

A few months ago, after a 2-week market research of electronic readers, I purchased PocketBook IQ701. Looking ahead, I’ll say: that the device itself, before updating the firmware, was just lying on my shelf, because it was impossible to use it, you will learn the details from the second part of the article, but for now, let's begin.

Part one. Overview

Why IQ701

A reader who has an understanding of the market of electronic readers may ask:
“So what the hell is a Pocketbook IQ 701?” After all, there is a huge number of cool readers! "
I will answer in order:
1. There is a backlight (My wife reads at night, and the light annoys me).
2. The temptation of buns (Android with all the consequences).
3. Touch screen (I’ve been reading for a long time on various devices and just can’t imagine navigating the screen more than 2 "without a touch).
4. Quite vigorous processor (I am sure that the processor at 400 MHz will not be able to scroll properly to pdf with a size of 15 MB, maybe in vain).
5. Quite a decent manufacturer, there are no complaints about the product (or rather, it was not when I bought this “unit”).
6. Reasonable price.

Unpacking aka Unboxing

The packaging was prepared really decent, in the best traditions of famous manufacturers
')


But with the bundle pumped up:
Box, Pocketbook IQ701, Charging, cloth case, microSD 2Gb card and 500 books in fb2, as well as a guarantee and other pieces of paper. Yes, they saved on the USB cable.

Box inside:



The case is made of velvety, dense fabric and is quite comfortable.

Appearance

The standard form factor for the tablet / book, I must recognize the quality of performance at 4+, strong, no squeaks until I removed the cover, I broke 2 plastic cards, the infection is very tight. Good quality plastic. But the screen on the contrary - is not protected and is easily scratched, so you have to deal with it appropriately. A screen sticker is not an option. A rezhestivny tach and so not a fountain, but with a sticker, I think it will generally be bent.

Under the back cover you can see the internal memory slot and battery. I tried to see what was under the battery, but I could not, apparently the factory workers did not spare the glue.



Color ... With color I was not lucky when I ordered, it was blue and red (just some kind of matrix), in general, the red in the picture is closer to the cherry, and the blue was somewhat dirty. As a result, I ordered red, and it turned out to be dark pink.

At the top end: the power button, reset, mini-USB, memory card slot.



On the right: a volume rocker and a hole for hooking the lid (as you can see, I was already snagging).



On the left: Nefig.



At the bottom: a headphone jack, stereo speakers (and quite loud), a charging jack and a charging indicator.



Unfortunately, it is impossible to charge this miracle from USB, since the charge voltage is 12 V.



The screen is average for 4, the viewing angles are quite apart from the top view - on it there is a color inversion. The sun goes blind, like most TFT.

In the bright sun the screen looks like this (the pictures are clickable, the brightness of the devices is at the maximum):



In the shade, but near the sun's rays:





In a room with a fluorescent lamp and an average solar activity outside the window:

Specifications

Dimensions:	190 x 143 x 14.2 mm
Display:	7 "TFT, 800x600 px
Backlight:	Led, 3 Gradations
Light sensor:	not
Battery :	Li-Polymer 7.4 v (1600 mAh)
CPU:	Samsung® 800 MHz
RAM:	256 MB (~ 110MB available after downloading)
Flash memory:	Internal SD 2 GB (In firmware 2.0.6 1GB is available, the rest is reserved for TTS and A2SD)
ROM:	256MB (In firmware 2.05 available to user 50MB + 300MB A2SD) Connection interface: miniUSB (12Mb / s)
Memory slot:	SD, SDHC (Declared up to 32GB, 16GB checked by me)
Audio output:	3.5 mm
Book Formats:	Docx, FB2, "FB2.ZIP", TXT, PDF, DJVU, RTF, HTML, CHM, EPUB, DOC, TCR.
Image Formats:	JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Audio Formats:	MP3
Weight: 520 g	(If it calms someone, I got 515g.)
Gyro sensor:	there is.
Touch screen:	Resistive touch (medium quality)
Wireless connection:	WiFi b / g (n-only, but not connected)
Colour:	White, red, blue
Additional functions:	Text-to-Speech, Browser, Mail Client, Audio player, Video player
Body Material:	Plastic
OS:	Android 2.0 (I didn’t suspect the existence of such version). They promise to upgrade to 2.2, when unknown.

Part two

What are you complaining about?

After purchasing this device, I was very puzzled that the bundle did not include a multifunctional mega-file . after the first charge, it turned out that this unit absolutely does not fulfill the duties assigned to it. It was terrible to read books. he braked even when flipping through a simple txt file for 500kb. Surfing the Internet turned out to be a dubious pleasure, because it simply did not display some sites (lack of flash and fonts), and some of them dropped the browser. Calendar was absent altogether. Market was not, for him SAM. The video works, but one time (clearly encoded in mp4, 480p and less.). It was possible to listen to music (cool, I have a player with a touch screen of 7 'and a pound weight). Sometimes the device simply does not wake up, you have to juggle the battery. Yes, a couple of days later it turned out that this “player” sits exactly 10 hours after being removed from charge, whether you use it or not. (All of the above is true for firmware 2.0.2) Since the device was donated (and brought from another countries) I could not return it, therefore, I began to smoke manuals and solve step-by-step quests that Pocketbook firmly prepared for users.

Diagnosis

The main problems from the moment of purchase were:
1. Spontaneous turning on the device (which led to a rapid discharge of the battery).
2. A small amount of free memory for installing applications.
3. Not always when turned on, an external card is mounted.
4. Lack of market.
5. Sometimes the sound disappears, it is solved by rebooting.
6. Sometimes the launcher goes into reboot.
7. Rarely it happens, it does not wake up and does not even react to the reset. You have to juggle the battery.
Here is proof:


8. Video plays by mood.

What has changed with the new firmware

The first two problems were resolved after the Pocketbook released firmware under the number 2.0.5. (Before it was 2.0.3. And .2.0.4, but did not bring any significant improvements). Waking up the book stopped God bless Pocketbook! , as well as in the new firmware part of the memory (1GB of 2 on the internal microSD) is reserved for the system, and is available for installing applications.
And after the upgrade, the following improvements were noticed:
The screen has become more responsive to touch. Widget from Pocketbook has become prettier and faster.
WI-FI clings normally, there used to be sometimes cliffs. The browser has become more stable. Unfortunately, the improvements end there.
Some problems can be solved programmatically. You can put the market, however, you will have to tinker with your Android ID. For video, I use RockPlayer, after adding OpenGL it supports hardware acceleration.

Usability

Frankly, the device even after the firmware functions on the top three. Perhaps, I want too much from an unhappy reading room, but you see, devices with similar hardware under an android are quite capable of working without brakes, not only in book mode. Yes, I have to admit that if the book does not load with Internet and movies, then it can work without glitches , and it may not work at all. Here is how the chip will fall .
Charging time is about 3 hours after the update, the device works 10 hours in book mode and about 5 hours with an average load (wi-fi, youtube, internet, movies).
WI-FI is normal, works at almost the same distance as the HTC HD2. There is TTS (Text to speech, though accents are lame). Also, there is support for dictionaries and works correctly.

For clarity of the device, I made a few videos. All tests were conducted on clean firmware 2.0.6. From applications installed only Quick settings and Quadrant. Before shooting, the device was overloaded to free up RAM.

Reading books of different sizes and formats (details in the video),
and also a calendar, notes and a dictionary.


The Internet and Quadrant (almost a fable). More videos at the request of workers. Dropbox, gps-tracker.com.ua and asusmobile.ru

I tried to put a microSDHC class 6 4Gb card. Quadrant gave 231 points (against 285 with a native of 2GB.). So, there is no sense in faster memory.

Music, video, scrolling photos.

Conclusion

Why you can buy PocketBook IQ701

* Reading books, I must admit that the reader, which is tied to the widget - is very successful, because supports many formats and simple navigation
* View photo
* Listening to music (Truth sometimes there is some background noise)
* Surf the Internet via Skyfire or Dolphin HD (In moderate scale)

Why not buy PocketBook IQ701

* View video
* Games and heavy applications
* Work with documents is not very convenient due to rezhestivny tach

Pocketbook IQ701, according to the results of testing, is a very controversial device. On the one hand he has a pretty decent iron, but on the other hand he has very raw software. However, it should be noted that the pocketbook company often still finishes its devices (at the time of writing, 2 firmware was changed, the last one at the moment 2.0.6). But until that happens, I would not advise anyone to purchase this gadget. (Unless of course you are called Cyanogen and you don’t fix the core of the android in the morning, instead of breakfast.)

Ps: All of the above, is solely my subjective opinion. Therefore, I ask you to forgive if I have touched this topic, whose religious beliefs, or destroyed the fragile youthful brain. Thank you for your attention and good luck to us all!

UPD: Next to the video on the surf on the Internet added a link to the video with more heavy sites.
Thank you TARAKAN .