Yiben p47L (new pocket reader)

[KStock]

Originally Posted by KStock

I have just bought one from Denmark...

My wife took it away from me (it's to be my Christmas present) so I only had time for a quick test. The screen is very clear and much whiter than my Kobo Mini (which the P47L is to replace, as the case is falling to pieces). It fits very nicely in my hand, and my thumb falls directly on the "next page" button.

Several people have commented that the buttons below the screen make a clearly audible click when pressed. That's true, but in my view it's a good point. It tells me that there is a proper mechanical switch instead of just a rubber pad.

More details in the new year...

[Quoth]

Mine came today. Only had to set time & date, which by default is in the format about 87% of world uses.

Is the shiny a peel off shipping layer?

The buttons are good and the GUI menus seem OK.

English by default.

Screen contrast-whiteness maybe slightly better than original Libra viewed side by side and much better and sharper than the Sony PRS-350 5″ model I have.

Manual has 4G as storage, but obviously updated version as there is 7.9G byte free.

Oddly has two Conan Doyle books in plain text format pre-loaded.

It seems to use USB Mass Storage mode rather than MTP as Calibre "Connect to Folder" works when open in Linux FileManager and the Y-Ben still mounts if the gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor is paused/stopped.

[rowe]

Sounds like they've updated a few things. Mine was Russian by default (and every time I reset it). Can't remember there being a peel off layer, but the surface was as typical for a bare e-ink screen (fairly matte).

[Quoth]

Margins:

Unlike Krazy Kindle the margins are Small, Medium, or Large.
Small: No margin!
Medium: Tiny margins.
Large: hardly bigger.

Epub Embedded Fonts & other CSS.
The embedded fonts work and images set with % on one axis and auto on the other work sensibly.

Default Font Size = Large, which isn't big. Next smalllest is about Mass Paperback size. A more pleasing amount of text per line and OK for my reading glasses (3.0). The line spacing can be set and the default seems OK.
The big buttons seem to do some strange navigation. Investigation needed. There is TOC option and < > on the four arrow keys turn the page.

I prefer an 8″ ereader now, but despite the Sony PRS-350 has touch and buttons this is a nicer pocket ereader.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by rowe

Sounds like they've updated a few things. Mine was Russian by default (and every time I reset it). Can't remember there being a peel off layer, but the surface was as typical for a bare e-ink screen (fairly matte).

It seems like a soft film, but not obviously easily removed.

[Quoth]

Cover view doesn't work with epubs, though it shows a sort of preview of first page of text files.
Unlike the Sony PRS-350 and Kobo, there are no collections.
Library view lists by Title and Explorer view by actual folder/directories & files, which by default are Authors on Calibre.
Calendar is a Month view. Doesn't seem to actually support notes or reminders.
Search is a bit tricky as you move arrow keys to select letters.
No series, but you could use Calibre plugboard thing to add it to title?

Given limited sort & search you probably don't want to put even 2G of ebooks never mind the almost 8 GByte.

The two text files already there are from Gutenberg.

I don't know what "pictures" supports.
The two games are called Sokoban and Jigsaw
Sokoban: It might be indeed a version of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokoban It does work like it and has maybe 12 levels. You move the character with arrow keys to push [X] crates on to dots in a maze-like space.

Jigsaw is the classic 3 x 3 jumbled tile puzzle with a free space.

[Quoth]

I should have looked at the short manual leaflet!
The two big buttons on either side are identical and are each two buttons, a prior and next for pages or items.

There seems to be no way to select internal links, so no hyperlinked footnotes, though there is a menu option called "set link".

There are bookmarks and one favourite category.

There is a white text on black mode which isn't sensible without a front or backlight. It suits OLED best though some are fans of it on LCD and eInk.

The supported picture (image) formats are in the manual, but no indication of size. It also claims to do 3 generations of Mobipocket: pdb (Palm), prc and mobi (Initial Kindle format as Amazon bought Mobipocket 2 years earlier). The Djvu is normally for scanned material as PDF alternative, so that and PDF unlikely to work well. Epub is maybe using the Adobe ADE package as there is a Digital Editions directory. Also claims to support RTF, Chm (MS Help?) and FB2.

[Quoth]

I added User Defined USB device in Calibre, though "Connect to Folder" works OK

USB Vendor ID (in hex): 0x2207
USB Product ID (in hex): 0x2818
USB Revision ID (in hex): 0x100

I added all the formats listed except djvu and PDF.

[Quoth]

Internal links (thus footnotes) do work:
You must be on a page with a link
Press M for menu and > for 2nd page of Menu
Select Set Link On, press OK
Then a link is selected. The Prior & Next of the big button moves to prior or next link on the page. OK button opens it.

The Return/Back button on the far right does take you back to previous position in book (normally it exits).

If "Set Link On" isn't set then pressing OK sometimes brings up the Font size menu or does nothing.

I don't understand why the ^ and v arrow keys between < and > are not always link navigation, like on DX, DXG and Kindle Keyboard etc.

[Quoth]

The "power off" image is a winter scene (always winter never Christmas?).

So I changed date to June to see if it's seasonal. It would be wrong for the Southern Hemisphere. No change, so it is always winter .

[Quoth]

The soft shiny film is part of a flexible eink (or similar) panel.


The back pops off in the typical fashion with a blade or plastic tool



The insides after going around under the top bezel gently with a thin craft blade as it's glued.



Rear of display and top of PCB with metal cover. As with all eink you can see a faint negative version of image on the rear.



A metal cover gives support to the PCB. It's not stuck or clipped, just trapped. Sorry a bit blurred. Anyway, I can see the 8 G byte Flash memory IC, so no SD card to upgrade like in some other ereaders.


No animals, humans, aliens or ereaders harmed in the taking of photos, i.e. it still goes.

Strange filenames due to using Rakunten's Viber chat to send photos via WiFi from phone to PC.

The JVC LiPoly battery (Cell really) plugs in, so easy to replace if you can buy one and have a small starhead screw driver (may be possible to wiggle in) and know how to pop off plastic covers. The cover snapped back on easily.


I put some medium size (150K to 700k) jpeg ebook covers in a subdirectory called Images. The Picture option on Home page shows list or thumbnails (unlike eBooks where you only get thumbnails of start of a text file). It won't display any full screen; briefly flashes white and very brief "Invalid Format" message.
Maybe they have to be size of screen or smaller?

However it does seem fairly well made and designed and certainly is the most portable eInk ereader. You'd want to only load working ebooks and then it renders fine. Probably using ADE for epub.

I've not investigated the other formats other than the text already on it.

There are TX, RX and GND pins. Maybe 3.3V serial console?

[Quoth]

Some ebooks (few) display cover when opened and then the thumbnail works. If the cover isn't displayed on opening, then the thumbnail is later blank instead of the Generic icon.

You don't seem to be able to add books to favourite from Search or Library but only when the book is open.

The "Back" button does return you to position on search list.

There are page numbers & total pages at the header. It's not per-screen so unaffected by font size or margins. So both system TOC and the logical page numbers (Goto Page) work to navigate. The "Back" button only returns to last page if a link was followed, otherwise it goes back to screen where you opened the book.

Images with no scaling are indeed 1:1, so QR codes work on my phone baode scanner even if set to native pixel size in the CSS.

This will be simpler and faster to test ebooks for sanity/compatibility than my ancient 4.3″ screen Sony-Ericsson Android 4 phone or the ancient 5″ Sony PRS-350 (Why is battery not dead yet?) as it's very fast to write to from Calibre.

[Quoth]

Phone photos

First Asleep


Waking is instant

That's medium margin and small text. Default Publisher fonts.
No annotation, but one Favourite category and bookmarks. Links are a bit clumsy, but Back button works, or exits book if you didn't follow a link.


Off


Starting


Home Screen

Browser is all the books you've opened, with most recent at top
Library is All Books or Favourites, by meta-info Title. You can search from Library. Cover View only works on some epubs and seems only after opening, List view is more use.
Search is same as Search from library. Finds entered string anywhere in title and returns all matches.
Explorer is file browser
Pictures shows thumbnails. It finds them even if in subdirectories. Only some open.
Games: Sokoban and 3 x3 sliding tile sort.
Calendar: Shows current month view. Doesn't seem to do anything else.
Settings: Power, Refresh (also can be per book?), Language, Format (Erases all books?), Set Date & Time, Set to Default.

The two big buttons have same function and are two buttons: Top is Next, Bottom is Prior

Power/Sleep button beside Micro USB port and Reset is a hole beside that. There is supposedly an LED on other side of USB.

[KStock]

Thank-you, @Quoth, for the notes and especially the photos. My wife would have shot me if I'd opened mine.

The photo of the battery clears up one point: the specification at https://ebookreader.dk/shop/y-ben-p4...ser-1121p.html indicates two different capacities: 350 mAh and 1500 mAh. The battery itself shows 800 mAh, which is the capacity stated by https://goodereader.com/blog/product...h-e-ink-screen.

[Quoth]

Well, correct to be sceptical of a certain blog!