The latest e-book from PocketBook turned out to be a convenient, versatile and unstable device. I can advise it to those who will use it as a full-fledged tablet and will not be afraid of possible "glitches" and freezes. The rest should wait for the finalization of the software.
Image from the official site.Dear
UJey already talked about her, so for technical details refer you
to his review . I myself share the experience of close communication during the week.
')
I ask dear readers to correct me if I evaluate something incorrectly - this is my first Android tablet (before that I worked with iPad 2). I also warn you that I will praise the
Bookmate online book club because they deserve it. Under the cat lives about 600 KB images.
Why bought this particular device?
Because of the buttons :-) PocketBook A10 is the first device that responded to all my requirements: a large color screen, synchronization with the Bookmate, decent running time, a reasonable price ... and something else. Something that will convince the toad-greed, the nagging: "you have an excellent smartphone and netbook, why this gadzhetmaniya?".
This was done by an unusual 4 × 3 screen for tablets, “flowing” at the edge of the case, thanks to which the book is much nicer in the hand than the same iPad, and hardware buttons for turning pages.
Joy
Regulatory
Reading on the A10 is a pleasure! Hold it with your left hand, right or both, or even put it on the table or put it on your knees - on the big unlearned screen look great and books in fb2, epub and others like them, and full-color magazines in PDF, and the daily Sport Express for breakfast.
Small hitch with buttons for paging. They send the “cursor left” and “cursor right” commands, but not all reading programs support scrolling with these keys. Why are there - they saved everything except
CoolReader and the built-in "reader"
I wrote a tearful plea in Bookmate, they say, add a feature, good people. And they answer: the next version will be, would you like to test? I tested, I confirm: it works fine!
And this time I still finish reading "Game of Thrones"!
Built-in reader with a running dictionary (I apologize for the quality).The pre-installed program for reading boasts a good Text-to-Speech engine and Lingvo's built-in dictionaries (there are many of them, and they load slowly: at first I even thought that they were not working).
A sample of Russian speech (
excerpt from "Lefty" Leskov).
A sample of English speech (paragraph from the tenth issue of the
magazine "Productive!" ).
Supernatural
PocketBook A10 - a full and very smart tablet. In my opinion, Android 2.3.5 is quite convenient system, even for such a large screen. At least, he did not feel any discomfort in terms of usability, although he tried.
The gigahertz processor and the semi-hemlock RAM allow you to work with the office-Internet package (pre-installed
Dolphin Browser HD and
OfficeSuite , added to them by
Evernote ,
Adobe Reader ,
TeamViewer ) without “brakes” and departures.
By the way,
Baldur's Gate on the GemRB emulator at a resolution of 1024 Ă— 768 looks and plays excellently. In the classic
Angry Birds, the sound is just a little broken. But this is negligible.
Baldur's Gate on GemRB (sorry again for the quality, in fact, the colors are normal).The battery lasts 4 to 8 hours with the display on, fully charged from zero in exactly 3 hours. For some reason, the guide promises as much as 12!
TFT-display is not amazing quality, but the picture gives quite decent. The same can be said about the stereo sound in headphones and miniature speakers.
Pinch scaling works ... acceptable. But the touch with two fingers and “brushes” used in TeamViewer, for some reason, are not processed correctly.
The build quality and materials are pleasing. Simple white plastic, "soft-touch" under the fingers. Ergonomics, as I said, is the best tablet I know.
The kit includes charging with a detachable cord with micro-USB and nice to the touch, but tugovye suede case.
Disappointment
Incorrigible
The very last Nerd, having bought this device, will begin to monitor its hairstyle. Thanks to the glossy display! Well at least, decent viewing angles allow you to reflect the ceiling in it, and not your own physiognomy. And fingerprints make you think about saboteurs who put some kind of oleophilic coating on the display :-)
The camera does not shine with quality and is located in the same row with the buttons on the right side. Video chat (and no longer suitable for anything) will have to be carried out by sliding the tablet sideways and mowing it into the screen with one eye. How does Skype, has not yet been tested.
A snapshot of the camera (if you look directly at the screen).From wireless connections in my device only Wi-Fi. There is a version with 3G, but more expensive and neznamo where. GPS was also recognized as an unnecessary luxury, although maps on the big screen are pleasant.
Leaving much to be desired
Epic fail happened on the second day of use. Before him, he spontaneously rebooted a couple of times. But I forgave: Android, Taiwan, stress test ...
And here evening, dinner, I peacefully read PDF. Suddenly the screen goes blank. And that's all. Brick. It does not react to charging, or to attempts to turn it on. Reset micro buttons are not provided. It's scary to take off the back cover: it sits firmly, but it will not take the broken one back.
They did it for me at the service center, advising me to "pick up a plastic card." The master solved the reboot problem by inserting and pulling out the battery. The device came to life.
Already in the process of writing the article, it turned out that the reset can be started by holding the power key for more than 15 seconds. Neither in the brief nor in the expanded manuals does not say this.The next day, he decided to reboot while trying to turn on Wi-Fi by clicking on the corresponding widget. However, after a couple of such sabotage, he took up his mind and so far has not rioted.
When I first turned on, he uploaded an update (nowhere can I find what was in it). But put or not - the question. When you click on the “New firmware available” menu item, the “Firmware already exist and verify” dialog appears. Delete file and connect to server ”with options“ OK ”,“ Update device now ”and“ Cancel ”. What he does by clicking on one of the first two, it was not possible to find out for certain. There is a suspicion that it downloads an already installed update, but does not install it.
There are problems with video playback. That the built-in player, that the alternatives from Market (and there are not so many of them) periodically slow down and “fly out”.
Some recommend BSPlayer ; some, but not all.The program for reading has a built-in store of books and periodicals
Obreey , but its range is not yet impressive. As well as the interface. In general, on the "beautiful" and gloss in the company's software saved - perhaps this is right.
So far, there is no software for Obreey; instead, the site version for mobile devices is used.You can register your device in your Pocketbook account. To do this, even installed a special software, but it does not work. I had to use the site.
“Ruta”, of course, no. There is no possibility to remove unnecessary pre-installed programs like the
homework diary and the poor little notepad.
Conclusion
I am satisfied with the purchase: in spite of the annoying "jamb", even the thought was not to request the money back. I did not find complete analogs for him. For a week of active use Pocketbook A10 was useful both in rest and in work. Modify the software part, release a removable 3G-modem, add some grease repeller to the package - and you can sell not only geeks.
In a few words about Bookmate
If anyone does not know. Online library, you pay once a month or a year, you can read books from her collection and upload yours. Synchronizes them and the place to which read up, between the version on the server and programs for popular mobile platforms.
And no, they didn't pay me. :-) But I have to them: you need to renew your subscription.
Reference
Official device pageReview from Engadget (there is a video)Review from Mail.ruTopic on The Electronic Book forum... (personal) we can make
friends on Bookmaker .