TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Astak’ Category

By Chris Meadows

I have spent the last two weeks reading e-books on the Astak, and am ready to give my first impressions.

The Screen

First of all, the 800×600-resolution screen. I love the screen. Of course, it is probably the same screen that any non-touch-sensitive e-ink reader has, but compared to the Sony I tested before the difference is like night and day. The touch-sensitive Sony had a huge amount of glare—but on the Astak, the glare is not there.

The words are ink-on-paper clear; if the background is greyer than normal book-quality paper, it is not much darker than the newsprint on which daily papers are printed.

The screen is quite legible for reading, as the photo at left should show. Even (especially) in bright sunlight, it is readable without screen glare. Of course, it does lack the sidelighting of the Sony, but so do “real” books. If reading in the dark was really important to me, I would invest in a clip-on booklight for the snap-on case.

Page-turn time is about comparable to the Sony; it takes a second or two but is not an undue burden (unless you suddenly need to flip back 3 or 4 pages to reread something you missed; then it is a slight hassle but only slight).

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By Chris Meadows

A couple of weeks ago I got an evaluation copy of an Astak 5” e-book reader. I’ve been reading books on it over the last week, when I haven’t been busy doing other things, and I’m just about ready to start writing my reviews.

But first of all, here is the unboxing video I recorded the other day, in which I take it out of the box and take a first look at it. Enjoy.

By Chris Meadows

Last night, Paul Biba startled me with an offer: he had received a review unit of Astak’s 5” Pocket PRO EZ Reader, but did not have the time to review it. Did I want to?

Did I ever‽ This will make a great opportunity to compare this competing e-book reader to what I remember of the Sony. With that in mind, I am starting a new series of columns: Two weeks with an Astak 5”.

I actually expect to have this reader longer than two weeks—Paul believed it was mine to keep, though I will try not to get too attached to it just in case—but I think two weeks is an ample time to do all the reviewing I need, and the similar naming will keep the categories together in the list.

(Editor’s note: Chris will honestly review the Astak no matter what happens. But for journalistic reasons, we’ll figure out another way to reward his much-appreciated efforts. – D.R.)

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By David Rothman

The five-inch Astak EZ Reader Pocket Pro is now shipping from New Egg.

Price on the New Egg site is about $250, which just happens to be the same as for Bookeen’s five-inch model, the Opus, sold elsewhere.

The Astak, more powerful than the same company’s previous five-inch models, comes with a 400Mhz CPU, 512M in memory and a screen with eight-gray scales.

Related: Engadget, E-reader-info, ZDNet review, other TeleRead Astak mentions, and the infamous Astak site, which in places assaults you with garish, Las Vegas-style graphics, including especially obnoxious blinks. Stop it, Astak. Now.

By Paul Biba

Here is part of Chamber 4’s review. Clearly it gives the Sony PRS-300 a run for its money:

Seeing as I never cottoned to the BeBook, I was skeptical of another Hanlin ereader. But I was quite impressed by the Pocket Pro. Its big advantage is that it doesn’t sacrifice any features of the 6-inch model, except an inch of screen size. It does music, pictures, and SD cards every bit as well as the 6-inch ereaders that cost $100 more.

It has a slightly clunky interface, and a few minor annoyances, but Sony will have its share of little headaches, too, and Astak will definitely be better on customer support.

If you want a cheap, casual ereader, the choice is basically between the PRS-300 and the Pocket Pro (the jetBook enters the picture if you don’t need DRMed ebooks). If you want music, SD cards, text-to-speech, or search—or you don’t trust Sony—the Pocket Pro is definitely the device for you. Otherwise, it comes down to how much you value the interface.

If you want a touchscreen or wireless-enabled ereader, check out our ereader comparison. Personally, I think the more expensive ereaders have significant drawbacks (no library ebooks for Kindle, low contrast for Sony Touch, huge price tag for iRex), so the PRS-300 and the Pocket Pro are the first two I think you should consider.

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ebook readers, ereaders, Paul Biba, Sony, Sony Reader, TeleRead, Astak

By Paul Biba

Lisa Gade has a review of this 5″ unit and she likes it a lot. I have one, as well as a 5″ Astak Pocket Pro and I’ll be comparing them for you as soon as I can get some free time.

… Enter the Sony Reader Pocket Edition PRS-300, Sony’s first 5″ ebook reader. It’s got nearly all the features of the PRS-505 (now discontinued) but it’s 20% smaller and a bit lighter at 7.76 ounces. We showed it around to a few folks and each and every one exlaimed “wow, I could put that in my pocket!”. Looks like Sony got the both the name and size just right for folks who prefer portability over fewer page turns. And at $199, Sony is reaching the sweet spot for a mass market reader.

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e-book, e-books, ebook, ebook readers, ebooks, ereaders, Paul Biba, Sony Reader, TeleRead

By Paul Biba

The EZ Reader site is showing updates for both the 6 and 5 inch units. These are:

Chinese, Japanese and Korean
Font increases of 100%, 200%, 300% and 350%
Support for hyperlinks, additional bookmarking and a new search function.

Nice to see that they are keeping on top of these units.