Pocketbook Era new owner impressions

[graycyn]

I've always wanted to try out a Pocketbook e-ink reader, and I had the good fortune to find a 64GB Era listed on eBay and got it for the bargain price of $109 shipped. The seller purchased it in the summer of 2023, used it 5 times, went back to his Kindle. My gain, the device is in perfect shape, not a scratch on it! I've been using it for over a month now.

I love it! It does, compared to Kobo, have some flaws, but it's also got some definitely cool things going on as well and I hope it lasts me many years.

First, the Carta 1200 screen:
It is not quite as crisp and contrasty as the Carta 1200 on my Kobo Sage. With the Sage, I sometimes feel like the text is printed on top of the glass. With Pocketbook, it definitely feels like there's a layer between me and the text. That said, the screen is not by any means bad, it's similar in quality to my 2017 Kindle Oasis 2. My eyes are old and touchy, I'm in my late 60s, and I'm not having any trouble reading on the Era.

Front lighting:
I normally read with my Kobo set at around 25% during the day. To achieve a similar brightness with the Era, I need to set the light at 50%. Battery hangs in there in spite of this.

Ergonomics:
OK, but not as good as my 7" Kindle Oasis. Even though the device is slightly smaller, it often feels a bit heavy in my hand. The balance isn't quite right for me. Buttons are easy to use and feel nice.

Getting up and running:
Easy. It prompted me to update the firmware as soon as I turned it on and that went seamlessly. I signed up for the Pocketbook Store in order to have Pocketbook Cloud and get Dropbox and email-to-Pocketbook. I added my Adobe account. All very straightforward.

Loading books wirelessly:
I emailed a .acsm library book file to the Era and it downloaded my library book and even puts days left in the loan on the cover for easy reference! Unfortunately, I tried the same with a Kobo store downloaded epub .acsm ... and it did not download to the Era. I remove DRM from all my purchases, so not an issue. I've used the Era browser to download public domain books from Gutenberg.org, StandardEbooks.org, the MobileRead library, and even an audiobook from Librivox.org.

Loves:
Latest Adobe RMSDK. I get to see things like pseudo-classes or font-variant: small-caps if the publisher has used them. And it makes it easy to see what my own ebook styling will look like, without having to kepubify. I'm not a big fan of kepub.

The level of customization is nice! You can remove the Pocketbook store icon from the home screen! I particularly like that you can set the light slider for either side of the screen, AND, when you use it, you ALSO get a percentage number! Very easy to dial it in exactly as you want for say, night reading. And the same can be done with font, only you get a readout in points! I LOVE this, because I adjust my font-size often, and this is WAY easier than Kobo, as I know exactly what sizes work well for me. No slider guesswork!

Lots of nice library sorting options!

The PB Cloud has worked well, as has both Dropbox and emailing books to the device, BUT, I often experience a bit of cloud down time on Friday afternoons, which is a late night/early AM Saturday time overseas. I'm guessing maintenance? When sync fails, you do get a notification.

I'm a BIG fan of the onboard speaker! I'm not a huge audiobook person, but at night, my eyes are tired, and I decided to try listening to a book for a change. Being able to do this without wearing headphones or ear buds is lovely! I just hit play, close the cover, and tuck the Pocketbook with the speaker up between pillows and listen away until I'm sleepy. I'm doing the Librivox audiobook Treasure Island (version 2 by Adrian Praetzellis) presently and am immensely enjoying his reading!

TTS isn't bad either, should there not be an audiobook available, and you can download a voice of your choice.

Cons:
Speed can be a bit slow when first opening a book or getting back into a book upon waking the reader. Otherwise, it's a reasonably snappy experience. Similar to my Kindle Oasis 2 for many things, sometimes slower for others. I actually found I could type notes quicker and more accurately on the Era than on my Kobo Sage.

I miss being able to set left alignment, there's no option for it. Likewise for adding some weight to a font. I hope those features appear in a future firmware update.

English Dictionary ... ancient. 1913 Webster. I've downloaded, but haven't yet installed, a more recent dictionary. (Thanks, rcentros!)

The G-sensor. It works fine ... BUT, if you prefer to read in portrait mode, you cannot LOCK it only to portrait orientation, so if your hand wavers, you might suddenly be in landscape orientation! I keep it turned off. Under reading options, when shifting to holding the device in your left hand, you can change the rotation, but it is a slight annoyance to have to mess with a setting compared to the ease of just flipping the Kobo.

I prefer how my library looks on the Kobo, it just feels cleaner, less cluttered.

Indifferent:
I tried out the RSS feed, and easily added the feed for: https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/ But, other than fetching the basic story headings, to actually read an article means using the e-ink browser. I'd only do this in a pinch.

Onboard fonts are so-so. I found that PT Serif was my favorite of what was offered. I ended up side-loading Scriptoria (offered on MobileRead) and love that font on the Era. I could wish for a customization option to hide most or even all of the pre-installed fonts. There are a lot of Noto Sans/Noto Serif language options that I will never use.


Conclusion:
The PB Era won't take the place of my Sage/Forma combo, but I will use it very regularly. I'm thrilled to have it and feel it was money well spent!

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by graycyn

Loading books wirelessly:
I emailed a .acsm library book file to the Era and it downloaded my library book and even puts days left in the loan on the cover for easy reference! Unfortunately, I tried the same with a Kobo store downloaded epub .acsm ... and it did not download to the Era. I remove DRM from all my purchases, so not an issue. I've used the Era browser to download public domain books from Gutenberg.org, StandardEbooks.org, the MobileRead library, and even an audiobook from Librivox.org.

That's odd. I think I used to be able to move .acsm files from Kobo and the PocketBook would download the ePub, but I just tried it and it didn't work. So either I have a bad memory, or something has changed.

Originally Posted by graycyn

The G-sensor. It works fine ... BUT, if you prefer to read in portrait mode, you cannot LOCK it only to portrait orientation, so if your hand wavers, you might suddenly be in landscape orientation! I keep it turned off. Under reading options, when shifting to holding the device in your left hand, you can change the rotation, but it is a slight annoyance to have to mess with a setting compared to the ease of just flipping the Kobo.

I can see where that would be a pain. It's not an issue with the Touch HD 3 because the buttons are at the bottom and I never turn on the G-Sensor (no need to since I always read in portrait mode). I'm pretty sure I would prefer that the Era had buttons on the bottom, but I guess I'm in the minority there.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That's odd. I think I used to be able to move .acsm files from Kobo and the PocketBook would download the ePub, but I just tried it and it didn't work. So either I have a bad memory, or something has changed.

I can see where that would be a pain. It's not an issue with the Touch HD 3 because the buttons are at the bottom and I never turn on the G-Sensor (no need to since I always read in portrait mode). I'm pretty sure I would prefer that the Era had buttons on the bottom, but I guess I'm in the minority there.

I like side buttons, and switch hands frequently, so yeah, the G-sensor not being able to lock to either portrait or landscape mode was an aspect that really threw me, until I saw there was also a rotate option amongst reading settings. Whew! That solved the problem, but until I realized there was a different option to do what I needed, I was rather annoyed!

Why the Kobo .acsm didn't work, I have no idea. I can't think what would prevent it. I suppose I could go try a Google .acsm, see if that works. I don't have any other stores to try. It's not a big deal to me, I was mostly just curious to see what works, what doesn't.

I probably ought to look around on the Pocketbook store itself, just to see what's available and satisfy curiosity but I don't think I'll be buying there.

Mostly I plan to use the device for public domain books. Sometimes I just like a break from whatever modern author I'm reading, and public domain is just the ticket. While I've read lots of classics, there's also tons I haven't yet read and would like to.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by graycyn

Why the Kobo .acsm didn't work, I have no idea. I can't think what would prevent it. I suppose I could go try a Google .acsm, see if that works. I don't have any other stores to try. It's not a big deal to me, I was mostly just curious to see what works, what doesn't.

I have successfully used .acsm files from ebooks.com on my PocketBooks. I haven't tried a book recently, however, so I can't guarantee it still works. (I'm a little leery now because of my failed trial with a Kobo .acsm.)

EDIT: I'm happy to report that ebooks.com still works. I did a search for a sampler, and Endgame the Calling was the first in the list (and it was DRM protected), so I downloaded its .ascm file and was able to successfully retrieve the title via the PocketBook. (This book's excerpt is poorly formatted however, no first line indents so the paragraphs tend to run together. So, if I was going to read it, I would DeDRM it and reformat it in Calibre.)

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I have successfully used .acsm files from ebooks.com on my PocketBooks. I haven't tried a book recently, however, so I can't guarantee it still works. (I'm a little leery now because of my failed trial with a Kobo .acsm.)

That's good to know. At present, I've not yet purchased from ebooks.com, mainly because I've seen no need to establish yet another ebook buying account. If, at some point, a book is available at ebooks.com, but not elsewhere, then I might consider doing so.

Meanwhile, I went to Google Play Books, downloaded an .acsm file from an older purchase, and emailed it to the Era. That book downloaded just fine. So with luck, it's a Kobo quirk and other ebook store .acsm files will still work.

I'm now wondering if I should try visiting the Kobo website directly from the PB browser to see if the Kobo .acsm would work as a direct download rather than emailed. Maybe later.