my personal review of asus dr-900

repods · 12-18-2010, 11:28 AM

so I had the opportunity to play a bit with this device and I can say some things..

I'm an irex dr800 owner and the first thing I noticed strange is the screen ..
the screen is really plastic on the top, differently by e-ink ones that is glass-made usually..
it really seems the same plastic of the borders..
and the background color that is really gray..
much more gray than the dr800 for instance..
the device should do various things.. the most important one being to let read some documents..
it has a fixed zoom system..
I mean you can chose between 100% 125% etc..
or fit width, or fit screen..
unforunately when you display less than a page on the screen they did the usual big mistake that if you press to go on you show the next page top not the rest of the current page
in other words zoom is not usable at all.. or maybe if you pan with the fingers.. didn't test
the capacitatative screen does not work very well
it misses some touches etc..
the characters of a pdf file are showed in a very strange manner..
in the way that marcor showed in his video..
on the positive side I have to say that turning page (but only when not zoomed) is quite fast..

..now I have to go by now..
.. to be continued later..

Purple Lady · 12-18-2010, 03:11 PM

What color is the text - black or dark gray? If the text is black, for me a darker background would be ok - it would have better contrast than a lighter screen that has dark gray text.

Latinandgreek · 12-18-2010, 03:37 PM

Thanks for sharing your impressions with us, repods.

repods · 12-18-2010, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

What color is the text - black or dark gray? If the text is black, for me a darker background would be ok - it would have better contrast than a lighter screen that has dark gray text.

well I would say black.. but not all of them..
some seems defective in some way.. you clearly can see the pixels.. they seems traslucid..
I think it's some defect in showing the gray, not black, part of text..
it's not easy to explain
you should see it to understand..

CalvinL · 12-18-2010, 04:48 PM

It seems like a negative impression. I may probably go for the PocketBook 902 at this piont, but i like the design of dr-900...sigh...

repods,where is the video??

repods · 12-18-2010, 04:53 PM

so.. continuing the review..
there is, as Marcor said, some wrong behaviour when turning the pages..
it sometimes hangs.. if you press again it still hangs.. but after a while it shows the forth page next for instance..
the sketch pad works quite well..
I did not test the browser
the mp3 player should work but I didn't test
another issue I noticed could exist about the battery..
infact in just 20 minutes of continuous usage it went down from 40 to 30 %.. a bit too fast if you consider.. maybe it is just some "first charge" problem ?
so conclusively I have to say that the device shows a software in a very beta stage.. or maybe alpha to be honest.. that I think can be fixed with some (more than one I mean) firmware updates..
but if my tech eye is not wrong I suspect that there is an unfixable problem related to the power of the cpu..
I think they used an underpowered cpu that can't manage the screen touches etc.. efficently..
so at the moment I could say that the device can only be used just to read books if you don't zoom them..

btw
I did not test any large epub or pdf book.. only the pdf user guide of the device..

repods · 12-18-2010, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CalvinL

It seems like a negative impression. I may probably go for the PocketBook 902 at this piont, but i like the design of dr-900...sigh...

repods,where is the video??

look at eeepc.it

CalvinL · 12-18-2010, 05:49 PM

Found it.
Still not quite satisfied yet...
We got dr900, kindle DX and PB 902 in the market so far, repods, would you recommend this one?

Dulin's Books · 12-18-2010, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by repods

I'm an irex dr800 owner and the first thing I noticed strange is the screen ..
the screen is really plastic on the top, differently by e-ink ones that is glass-made usually..

thats from the capacitive layer being laminated to the top of the glass. it is glass underneath

repods · 12-18-2010, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CalvinL

Found it.
Still not quite satisfied yet...
We got dr900, kindle DX and PB 902 in the market so far, repods, would you recommend this one?

well.. I personally was unsure between dr900 and pb902.. thinking even of buying both.. but from what I saw personally the dr900 can wait.. at least till they make it usable..
the kindle dx has never been a choice for me for the closed software reason etc.. but I understand that maybe from the hardware side it can be maybe the best.. but hardware without software is nothing..

another device of what I'm curious of as a reader is the asus eee note 800 when it will be out.. but from the videos around it seems they used a glossy screen !

repods · 12-18-2010, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

thats from the capacitive layer being laminated to the top of the glass. it is glass underneath

good to know..
btw.. the anti-glare treatment seemed to me very good even because of this plastic layer..

Latinandgreek · 12-19-2010, 05:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by repods

well.. I personally was unsure between dr900 and pb902.. thinking even of buying both.. but from what I saw personally the dr900 can wait.. at least till they make it usable..
the kindle dx has never been a choice for me for the closed software reason etc.. but I understand that maybe from the hardware side it can be maybe the best.. but hardware without software is nothing..

another device of what I'm curious of as a reader is the asus eee note 800 when it will be out.. but from the videos around it seems they used a glossy screen !

Yes, the hardware of the Kindle DX is what's keeping me undecided. If the PB 903 had the new Pearl screen, I'd pick it up without thinking. As it is, I'm leaning toward the Pocketbook devices for a large screen reader.

AdamV · 12-19-2010, 11:21 AM

The video review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqyNq36hlJQ) the first retail one I guess, dos not do the real justice to the device.

I have several issues with that:
* There is no review of epub ebook (no info on font types, sizes, margin settings etc.)
* The statement about "very grey" background should be made based on other device's display (like VizPlex or Pearl) and not by comparing to whitened book paper
* The "strange looking fonts" mentioned while showing manual PDF file made me lmao! What the guy was referring to was a bitmap embeded into the PDF file! No wonder the standard compression made the pixels "looking strange" on it...
* No settings menu and its contents were showed - I really was very eager to see what kind of potential lies there (if any

)
* No info on how the bookmarks or import/export would work
* Search and tagging features were also skiped
* Maybe I'm wrong, but to my best knowledge Wacom pens do not work with capacitive displays - it is not a point against DR 900 the tested four of those wouldn't work...

Anyway, here's couple of things I managed to digg out meanwhile:

That is really uncool (the box on the left, the real device on the right)

There is a new nice feature in a recent FW - handwriting recognition!

I am really looking forward to more like the last

And for a really professional review/video

rhari79 · 12-20-2010, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by repods

so I had the opportunity to play a bit with this device and I can say some things..

Hi, is the DR900 available now? Is it released for general sale?

The device looks mighty slow. Possibly uses a 400mhz Arm processor.
My iliad was quite slow too and it used a similar processor.

repods · 12-20-2010, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhari79

Hi, is the DR900 available now? Is it released for general sale?

The device looks mighty slow. Possibly uses a 400mhz Arm processor.
My iliad was quite slow too and it used a similar processor.

I too would be curious to know what processor it uses..

12-18-2010, 11:28 AM	#1
repods Addict Posts: 225 Karma: 72 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: irex DR-800S, M92S	my personal review of asus dr-900 so I had the opportunity to play a bit with this device and I can say some things.. I'm an irex dr800 owner and the first thing I noticed strange is the screen .. the screen is really plastic on the top, differently by e-ink ones that is glass-made usually.. it really seems the same plastic of the borders.. and the background color that is really gray.. much more gray than the dr800 for instance.. the device should do various things.. the most important one being to let read some documents.. it has a fixed zoom system.. I mean you can chose between 100% 125% etc.. or fit width, or fit screen.. unforunately when you display less than a page on the screen they did the usual big mistake that if you press to go on you show the next page top not the rest of the current page in other words zoom is not usable at all.. or maybe if you pan with the fingers.. didn't test the capacitatative screen does not work very well it misses some touches etc.. the characters of a pdf file are showed in a very strange manner.. in the way that marcor showed in his video.. on the positive side I have to say that turning page (but only when not zoomed) is quite fast.. ..now I have to go by now.. .. to be continued later.. Last edited by repods; 12-18-2010 at 04:58 PM.

12-18-2010, 04:48 PM	#5
CalvinL Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 466 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: nook	It seems like a negative impression. I may probably go for the PocketBook 902 at this piont, but i like the design of dr-900...sigh... repods,where is the video?? Last edited by CalvinL; 12-18-2010 at 04:51 PM.

12-18-2010, 04:53 PM	#6
repods Addict Posts: 225 Karma: 72 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: irex DR-800S, M92S	so.. continuing the review.. there is, as Marcor said, some wrong behaviour when turning the pages.. it sometimes hangs.. if you press again it still hangs.. but after a while it shows the forth page next for instance.. the sketch pad works quite well.. I did not test the browser the mp3 player should work but I didn't test another issue I noticed could exist about the battery.. infact in just 20 minutes of continuous usage it went down from 40 to 30 %.. a bit too fast if you consider.. maybe it is just some "first charge" problem ? so conclusively I have to say that the device shows a software in a very beta stage.. or maybe alpha to be honest.. that I think can be fixed with some (more than one I mean) firmware updates.. but if my tech eye is not wrong I suspect that there is an unfixable problem related to the power of the cpu.. I think they used an underpowered cpu that can't manage the screen touches etc.. efficently.. so at the moment I could say that the device can only be used just to read books if you don't zoom them.. btw I did not test any large epub or pdf book.. only the pdf user guide of the device.. Last edited by repods; 12-18-2010 at 09:41 PM.

12-19-2010, 11:21 AM	#13
AdamV Censored Posts: 105 Karma: 20724 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Warsaw, Poland Device: Kobo Aura HD (brown), Asus DR 900	The video review (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqyNq36hlJQ) the first retail one I guess, dos not do the real justice to the device. I have several issues with that: * There is no review of epub ebook (no info on font types, sizes, margin settings etc.) * The statement about "very grey" background should be made based on other device's display (like VizPlex or Pearl) and not by comparing to whitened book paper * The "strange looking fonts" mentioned while showing manual PDF file made me lmao! What the guy was referring to was a bitmap embeded into the PDF file! No wonder the standard compression made the pixels "looking strange" on it... * No settings menu and its contents were showed - I really was very eager to see what kind of potential lies there (if any ) * No info on how the bookmarks or import/export would work * Search and tagging features were also skiped * Maybe I'm wrong, but to my best knowledge Wacom pens do not work with capacitive displays - it is not a point against DR 900 the tested four of those wouldn't work... Anyway, here's couple of things I managed to digg out meanwhile: That is really uncool (the box on the left, the real device on the right) There is a new nice feature in a recent FW - handwriting recognition! I am really looking forward to more like the last And for a really professional review/video Last edited by AdamV; 12-19-2010 at 03:41 PM.

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12-18-2010, 03:11 PM	#2
Purple Lady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,698 Karma: 16542228 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Pennsylvania Device: Huawei MediaPad M5, LG V30, Boyue T80S, Nexus 7 LTE, K3 3G, Fire HD8	What color is the text - black or dark gray? If the text is black, for me a darker background would be ok - it would have better contrast than a lighter screen that has dark gray text.

12-18-2010, 03:37 PM	#3
Latinandgreek Warrior Princess Posts: 5,038 Karma: 9724231 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: PRS-505; PRS-350, PRS-T1, iPad, Aura HD	Thanks for sharing your impressions with us, repods.

12-18-2010, 05:49 PM	#8
CalvinL Enthusiast Posts: 32 Karma: 466 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: nook	Found it. Still not quite satisfied yet... We got dr900, kindle DX and PB 902 in the market so far, repods, would you recommend this one?

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