TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Samsung and Iriver Story first impressions – direct from Korea

By a TeleRead Contributor

Editor’s Note: another user contribution today, great! This time it’s from Justin Loutsch who reports from South Korea. Paul Biba

Hi there,

I’m in South Korea, and figured I’d go check out the Iriver Story at the only bookstore that sells it and then tell you guys a bit more about it. Feel free to pick and choose what you want to post. I also found the Samsung papyrus there, but didn’t spend a whole lot of time with it.

First, the Story:

I was very impressed with the size of the screen (I currently have a sony PRS 300) and the keyboard is great. It has a search function, something I would love to have to help me find my place or find specific words. I tried it out, but it started typing in Korean and I didn’t know how to change the language interface.
There is a dedicated button to take you to your library, which I now think is kind of neat but I’m not sure how needed it is. The only use I can see for it is switching between many books while reading, which I would hate doing.

I had the text set to the largest setting in the pictures I took, it has 3 settings just like the sony reader. Turning the pages takes about the same amount of time as the Sony, and can be done from either the arrow keys or on either side of the bottom of the device. On the left and right side you see black slits. Above and below each slit are symbols that you can click to turn the page with either hand, however I found that it took a considerable amount of pressure to do this and it was easier to do the closer to the slits you press it.

The spacebar allows you to change the layout of the book as you read it, from portrait to landscape and back (that is the symbol you see in the bottom right corner of the spacebar). It was already in the book-like case (which I felt was a hindrance) so I couldn’t just pick it up and hold the device freely, but from what I was able to do it felt very light and easy to hold. However it is very creaky, as if the parts are not together very tightly. Sorry I didn’t get any pics of this, but the SD card slot and usb port are on the bottom of the device, and they have a cover about 1.5 inches long which is connected to the device by a little rubber cord. I felt that I would be annoyed greatly by having to pull this thing out to plug in the device and then replace it when done.
My main impressions are that I like it because of the screen size and the search feature and keyboard, as well as the SD card slot. It also seems to do all the main file formats. I hear the major korean publishers are going to work some deals with them, but I don’t know what will happen for the English speaking users (or others) when iRiver begins to market the device internationally.
According to your site, it will cost between $282 and $323 (I couldn’t ask about the price and there were no signs with that info) and at that price it most likely won’t beat the kindle as long as it has no wifi or other means of downloading books wirelessly. I think mainly it has the other features of the kindle while managing to be more open.

The Samsung: I found the model shown in this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124869467457883521.html I couldn’t stand using this thing. It has only 2 buttons on the entire device, left and right arrows. I tried touching the screen and nothing happened. I looked more carefully and there was a stylus dangling from a cord below it, but it wasn’t obvious that that is what I would need to use the device. I tapped an entry once and it opened the book, and I found the display to be annoying here too. I think the buttons at the top (back/forward arrows, home button, etc) really take away from the reading immersion experience, not to mention screen space. I hated it and put it down almost immediately.

I hope you find some of this info useful!