LBook V3 Extended Review

Introduction

Greetings to you, oh habraedi! I will support a wave of interest in e-books with an article and a video review of the LBook V3 . The question of the acquisition and use of such devices became interested a couple of months ago. Working for half a day at Apple Cinema Display , I began to feel that when reading bulk materials, attention was partially distracted by the colorful elements of the websites and the OS interface. The temporary choice fell on the iPhone in a pair with the useful program ruBooks , but the interest in the ability to perceive information “as from a white sheet” was reinforced by chance. Good luck to buy a used LBook V3 for a sum much smaller than the counter-counter which resolved all doubts in favor of electronic ink technology.

Theoretical background

Electronic paper has been developed as an alternative to LCD displays. The main difference is that electronic paper forms an image in reflected light, like a regular printed sheet, without creating additional voltage for the eyes, and consumes energy only to update the image, which makes it possible to significantly increase the battery life. In recent years, technology has become widespread due to the popularization of electronic books.

Reality

The Internet is good because it allows you to quickly find and assimilate the necessary information. But there is one big “but” - besides the one that is necessary on the screen of our monitors, there is such a raging stream of pixels that quite a large part of the information is dissipated or is not digested to the extent that we wanted.
Figuratively speaking, we feed our [under] consciousness not just candy, but candy along with a candy wrapper.
The thirst for information leads to the fact that often, in different places a person picking up information, cannot create a complete and harmonious image of her in his mind.
The main advantage of the book is its way of perception. Reading the book, we are left tete-a-tete with it. Nothing prevents to perceive information.
I can relate the above with regard to myself, because I do not have the opportunity to enjoy reading, holding on to the rail of a bus / trolleybus / subway car with one hand. I try to read only in silence and solitude - that's the best thing.

New technologies

The paper book is good for everyone, but what if there is a need to read several books at the same time, making movements in space from time to time? Carrying at least a few books is quite expensive.
It is for these reasons that my attention turned my attention to e-books.

EBooks

The direction of devices operating with the help of e-ink technology is relatively young. This factor causes a fairly small number of models and their prevalence. Despite this, in the circles of users have already formed their favorites and hermits.
I will try to briefly describe most of them.
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Sony PRS-505

+ Aluminum case, good screen, Memory Stick and SD / MMC cards.
+ It's a Sony .
- Dislike of the national format fb2 forces users to use converters. Not officially shipped to Russia.
Sony PRS-505 review

Sony PRS-700

+ New model. One of a kind - has a touch screen and backlight.
- Judging by the first reviews, innovations for the worse have affected the contrast of the screen.

PocketBook 301 Plus

+ Full Russification.
+ Management of one multi-key (can be considered as a virtue, and as a disadvantage). + Direct support for PDF , DjVU and fb2 formats , the most popular among the people.
- Terrible quality cover standard. You can buy a complete set of " Premium ", but this is not the essence of the problem.
- Problems with memory cards. According to user feedback, the file system falls and the card is not detected by the device.

LBook V3 Extended

+ Cost is lower than competitors.
+ Full Russification. Reads all popular formats.
+ Works on a standard Nokia battery ( BL-5 ).
+ Good grade - quality cover, headphones.
- On the old firmware there were hangs. Periodically required to update the firmware.

Orsio b731 +

+ Full Russification. Reads all popular formats.
+ Management of one multi-key (can be considered as a virtue, and as a disadvantage).
+ Good grade - quality cover, headphones.
- High cost.
I recommend reading the review of Comrade Boomburum .

Explay TXT Book

+ Low price - from 8700 rubles.
- Mediocre quality of the screen and the device itself.
- Numerous breakdowns - just read the reviews.
- Problems with understanding many popular formats.

The objectivity of the overlying reflections is due to a visit to the sites reeed.ru , the-ebook.org , as well as the study of reviews in the Yandex.Market section dedicated to these devices.

E-book price

The average price of such devices is about 12,000 rubles . In my opinion, it is somewhat overpriced, due to the modest size of their market.
Price is the only factor deterring me from buying an e-book for the last time.
My joy knew no bounds when, when visiting a popular virtual Petersburg " flea market ", I found an advertisement for the sale of a used Lbook V3 .
The man selling the book was very close. Doubts plagued me until he uncovered the LBook V3 . The moment when it was given to me to see the device with my own eyes - they disappeared.
The first impression was surprisingly funny. I remembered the dummies of cell phones with colored pieces of paper instead of screens that have a place to live on the shelves of provincial shops of cellular communication.

Using the LBook V3

The device got me in very good condition. All that remained to be done was to transfer everything that I wanted to read to the memory card.
Over the past year, quite a lot of electronic literature has accumulated, which I really wanted to study - books on web development, web design, web technologies, video editing and much more.
Only one fact did not allow me to do this - I work at a computer. Considerations on the subject of dispersal of attention read above. Writing code and reading articles is excellent. To perceive large amounts of information is troublesome.
There is no limit to the joy of how useful a purchase has become. I read a lot, every day, those books that I have long wanted to read - as if I pay debts to myself.
The book understands all the formats I need - PDF , fb2 , DjVU , html , chm .
And fb2 , for example, easily reads from the archives.

Design and interface

The design is simple, but at the same time delicate. Buttons exactly as many as needed. 8 items (folders and files) are simultaneously displayed on one main menu screen - they correspond to numeric keys. 9 and 10 , duplicating navigation, allow you to navigate through the menu screens.
You can select the source of information - SD card ( SD / MMC / SDHC up to 16GB ) or built-in memory ( 512MB ).
Impressions of the device and work with it are the same - simple, easy and convenient.
Different programs are responsible for different types of files. For example, fb2 reads one, and PDF - another.



When reading formats such as fb2, you can select the font size, as well as recall the contents of the book and navigate with it. There are functions to rotate the screen ( 360 degrees in increments of 90 ), go to the next / previous chapters, browse 10 pages, manage bookmarks.

IPhone comparison

The first tangible difference in the transition from the iPhone to the LBook V3 is a reduction in eye strain.
Read freely easily. I also thought about the iPhone , but, going over, I felt the difference. Whatever you say, the screen backlight strains the eye.



The surface area of 6 " ( 800x600 pixels) of the e-book screen is almost three times higher than that of the iPhone .

Autonomous work

Working with any mobile devices, there was always an edge to the question of battery life. For example, the MacBook Air lives on a single charge for about 3 hours , and with the iPhone 'and without recharging, you can read about 6 hours .
The e-book in this regard is the first mobile device that greatly pleased.
Judging by the reviews, 5,000-6,000 page turnovers , announced by the manufacturer, are overstated, but the resource of one charge is more than sufficient. If you read every day and in large quantities, the Nokia BL-5 battery life (you can buy a spare one for a couple of hundred rubles) lasts for several weeks.
If you make a simple proportion of the ratio of the information received to the battery life, then the e-book is leading with a huge margin compared with laptops, PDAs and other gadgets.

findings

Over the past year, even a few years, I have read very little literature.
The Internet was filled with the entire channel of my information perception, but it was always accompanied by the feeling that something was missing.
Work at the computer - micro-stress for the body. In addition to the brain, the eyes tighten and the blood flow slows down. In this case, as you know, the work is divided into productive and unproductive.
Having filled the shining vacuum emptiness inside with the help of measured and calm reading, having stabilized the ratio of absorption (reading, studying) information and its compilation (work, searching for new sources), I decided to reduce the level of unproductiveness to zero.

Photo

Afterword

Before giving you a video review of the LBook V3 , I’ll share with you a secret.
More than a year ago, the movement of habraklones appeared - engines that preach the ideology of Habr.
BigStreet was the first.
Many people remember the post about my similar engine, published about ten months ago.
This was my first experience, which taught me a lot and put emphasis in the right directions.
Since November last year, I have been tirelessly developing a new site management system.
In April, there was a need to take a break - my love took a vacation. Back to the engine until recently could not. The site of the engine was almost ready, but inside there was no energy for the last step.
Two events happened that allowed me to get back to work - a meeting with Anton Isaykin ( oowl ) and reading the book Getting Real with the help of LBook V3 .
A blog on Habré will be opened very soon, and a series of articles will be published on my vision of a site management system.

Update: moved the video review to kata. I hope that in this way more people will be interested in the article.