Wednesday
19Dec2007
Bookeen Cybook Gen 3 - First Impressions
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 5:17PM
Just got the Cybook Gen 3 eBook reader from Bookeen - a French company. This reader device uses the Electronic ink technology.
Was just looking up the Fedex tracking site and the Fedex man walked in with the box.
Cybook box.
I took it out for a bit of lunch time reading. Here are some first impressions.
The display is great. Even in bright sunlight. The text reads like as if it is printed on paper. I have never used an eBook reader before but have spend years reading on Palm and Pocket PC devices. Electronic Ink is way way better.
The device has a decent form factor. I was using it in the public transport and it was comfortable to hold with one hand while I was holding the hand grip with the other hand.
I felt the main keypad a bit too hard. I hope it loosens up after some use.
The flash and the delay while changing pages was not too big of an issue.
Copying books and files was very easy. I connected the reader to my computer with the standard USB cable that came with the box and the reader showed up as a drive. I was able to drag and drop files from my Mac. I inserted a SD card and it also shows up as an additional drive.
I tried some of the demo Mobipocket books that come with the reader. I also download PDF BBC News and The Economist downloaded from Feedbooks (Feed books can convert RSS feeds to PDF for easy reading on portable devices). Both look good. Hyperlink within the document does not work on the PDF.
Was just looking up the Fedex tracking site and the Fedex man walked in with the box.
Cybook box.
I took it out for a bit of lunch time reading. Here are some first impressions.
The display is great. Even in bright sunlight. The text reads like as if it is printed on paper. I have never used an eBook reader before but have spend years reading on Palm and Pocket PC devices. Electronic Ink is way way better.
The device has a decent form factor. I was using it in the public transport and it was comfortable to hold with one hand while I was holding the hand grip with the other hand.
I felt the main keypad a bit too hard. I hope it loosens up after some use.
The flash and the delay while changing pages was not too big of an issue.
Copying books and files was very easy. I connected the reader to my computer with the standard USB cable that came with the box and the reader showed up as a drive. I was able to drag and drop files from my Mac. I inserted a SD card and it also shows up as an additional drive.
I tried some of the demo Mobipocket books that come with the reader. I also download PDF BBC News and The Economist downloaded from Feedbooks (Feed books can convert RSS feeds to PDF for easy reading on portable devices). Both look good. Hyperlink within the document does not work on the PDF.
Reader Comments (12)
Preetam,
I'm your blog reader and glad to see your blog post after quite some time. Looks like you have stopped blogging(other than posting pictures).
regds
swami
[...] Original post by betterdays [...]
Thanks Swami for dropping by. Will start blogging again. Of course photos are easier to blog about.
Hi Preetam -
I've been telling David for years that I'm not the biggest gadget addict in the Global Voices community. Thanks for helping me prove it!
Hope you're well.
Best,
Georgia
Wow cool! I've always wanted an eBook reader! Is it hmm - HEAVY? I tend to get overly excited with gadgets and after buying, played for a while, they became too heavy to carry around.
Hi Georgia, been reading globalvoices content on it. Looks great. Hi Priscilla, it is not heavy at all.
Looks good. At $350, this is just below the average price of eBook readers out there.
I really enjoy going through Feedbooks site you pointed out.
Yes, seems the prices are going down. There are couple more Chinese and Korean guys bringing out e-book readers. Tharum, there is another site called manybooks.org with free ebooks.
hi hi... i'm a singaporean guy... and kinda looking around for dedicated ebooks for reading purposes... as i'm not gonna buy myself that 7 books of harry potter... (they take up a lot of space)
curious...
1.) how did you buy the bookeen? from their online website? and have it mailed to you?
2.) have you viewed pdf files on it?
3.) do you mind opening up some pdf files on cybook and post the images on ur blog? (hehe i'd really appreciate that, and you can let me know via my website or something if you do post up some updates.)
[...] friends, none of them forked out the $400 (same price as an iPhone) for the wireless book reader. (Preetam went for the sold-out Cybook [...]
Thanks for your review! I'm ready for my first eBook reader, and have it narrowed down to the Sony 505 and the Cybook ... leaning toward the Cybook for the ability to load my choice of fonts and more text-sizing options. Plus, I really love their leather covers! 8-)