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Why the IREX DR800SG is the best e-reader yet
After IREX unveiled its unimaginatively named DR800SG e-reader this morning, I spent an hour or so futzing around with it. Based on this preliminary playing, I'm ready to say it: The IREX is the new master of the admittedly miniscule e-reader universe.
How did such a blasé-looking device with an unwieldy name win me over so quickly? My hands-on assessment after the Continue jump.
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First off, with its 8.1-inch diagonal screen, the IREX is literally twice as good as the Amazon Kindle 2 and Sony Reader Touch. Even though the screens on those two competitors use the same E Ink technology and are just two inches smaller diagonally, the IREX has a total screen area of 48 square inches vs. 24 square inches. You can easily see the difference in the photos. With more screen area you get more words; with more words, you get fewer page turns.
What you may not be able to tell from the pictures is IREX's starker and more readable screen contrast (12:1 to be exact). That's thanks to its proprietary e-paper electronics. The "white" background is lighter than the Kindle's or Reader Touch's, which makes the text jump out more crisply, in turn making reading easier in less-than-ideal ambient light. At 16 shades, the IREX also has twice the gray scale as the Reader Touch and the same as the Kindle.
And, as you can see from the picture of the three readers, the DR800SG's screen (the one in the middle) isn't as reflective, which means you won't be constantly angling it to avoid the shine from overhead lighting.
Getting Around
While you get lots of screen, you get little of anything else — like, say, buttons. IREX is a touchscreen… sort of — you need the special IREX stylus if you want to touch-navigate. But we were able to get along quite nicely without touching e-pen to e-paper, merely using the controls on the side.
Why not a full-on touch screen that works with your fingers? Because it's a compromise: Sony's Reader Touch adds an additional layer on top of its screen to enable capacitive touch capabilities. But that same layer lowers the E Ink contrast while adding to its reflectivity, making readability difficult in anything but solid room light. IREX is working on adding capacitive touch ability to a 2010 version by laying the touch layer under the E Ink layer, eliminating the loss in contrast.
But I'm not sure adding finger-touch is necessary. To get around sans stylus, there are just two buttons. A long vertical "flip" bar toggles right to page forward/scroll down (in menus), toggle left to move back/scroll up, and presses in to select. A small Menu button below the flip bar produces a small pop-up menu. This is a far simpler arrangement than on either the Kindle, whose screen is surrounds by buttons, or the Sony Reader Touch, which has a row of physical buttons below its screen.
The IREX's flip bar is on the left, and can easily be operated with your thumb while you hold something more important in your right hand (like a cup of coffee or subway handlebar — get your mind out of the gutter). If you're left-handed, though, you're SOL. In any case, you can view content — say, a wide PDF file or newspaper — in landscape mode. No accelerometer, though; you need to manually switch modes.
On the bottom of the IREX is a USB jack and a power button, and that's it. The microSD slot is packed with the rechargeable battery on the rear of the unit. It looks like you have to screw off the battery cover, which is unfortunate.
Content
Like the Kindle, the IREX offers 3G connectivity (via Verizon) to download content. Unlike Kindle, and like every other current and future e-reader, the IREX is an open device using a standard e-book format called EPUB, embraced by all publishers.
Like the Kindle and Reader Touch, you can change the font size on the IREX. Unfortunately, unlike those e-readers, the IREX doesn't save your font-size preference. You'll have to adjust it from the tiny default text size each time you open up a new book.
By the time the IREX becomes available, this glitch may be fixed if I accurately read the "wow, that's interesting" response I got from company executives to my complaint about this.
IREX also doesn't include the ability to add notes, at least right now. The company promises a free upgrade to add this necessary function, especially for students, at some future date. But it's based on a Linux platform, and the company indicated there'd soon be a plethora of apps of unknown capabilities available.
Instead of Amazon's bookstore, IREX (along with future readers from Sony and Plastic Logic) will wirelessly access Barnes & Noble's e-book store. William Lynch, president of bn.com, says there are 800,000 titles available with thousands added every week; there are "just" 350,000 e-books available for Kindle according to the Amazon website.
The Barnes & Noble people said its content would sync with both the IREX and the Barnes & Noble iPhone app. But it was unclear if both would keep track of where you left off when you move from reading a title on the IREX to the iPhone or vice-versa, something the Kindle handles seamlessly.
You also can side-load your own content such as Adobe PDF files, something the Kindle doesn't enable.
Should I Wait or Buy a Kindle Now?
The IREX is $400 and won't be in stores until the end of October. That's $100 more than the Kindle 2 and $50 more than the Reader Touch. If IREX could have lowered the price by removing the touch capabilities, this would be a no-brainer. But given the DR800SG's broader compatibility with open-platform technology, you may be better off spending the extra $100.
By Al at 7:48 PM ON 09/23/09
"but" a kindle?
By Theophrastus at 7:53 PM ON 09/23/09
What was the answer to the question: "does this IREX permit Barnes&Noble to delete books/content remotely?". *someone* asked this, they must have!
By murc at 8:09 PM ON 09/23/09
I like it except on thing.
Who wants a blue LED blinding them while they are trying to read?
By neckhurts at 8:13 PM ON 09/23/09
would it kill you to rotate the pictures properly so that i don't have to crane my head into a 90 degree angle? kthx
By Lord_Jereth at 8:45 PM ON 09/23/09
I was just thinking the same as 'murc': Just from the picture I can see that the blue LED would be disruptive and blinding. Who "designs" these things, a third-grader?
LJ
By BobbyBaby at 9:43 PM ON 09/23/09
My main beef with my Kindle 2 is the absence of folders to organize my books. What's the value of having a bunch of books if you can't find the one you're looking for? Does this unit support folders?
By PeterPachal at 10:09 PM ON 09/23/09
Sorry about that typo and the screwed-up pics, guys. They should be fixed now.
By Spaceresearcher at 10:11 PM ON 09/23/09
It's marvelous. What I'm most drawn to is that impressive screen, even from these photos it literally looks like paper.
I agree with murc that the blue LED is a turn off and should have been located on the back or at one end of the unit where it will not distract from your reading. (Still if I purchase one, I'll be putting a metal film sticker on it to blank it out).
The issue of the storage card being inside the unit is a little dissapointing as mentioned. Device is spot on about that. It would be much handier to have the capability of being able to swap cards on the fly. Still with MicroSD starting to push upwards of 8Gigs, that's a lot of books to read.
All in all, this looks like a quality reader and as I'm in the market for one, this article was very nice in enticing me.
Thanks Device,
Sean A. Curtin
By M at 10:16 PM ON 09/23/09
I have to agree with those who brought up the extremely annoying bright blue LED. It'd give me a headache trying to read with that on. You'd think -someone- would have pointed this flaw out during testing?
By Insomnic at 10:30 PM ON 09/23/09
@Theo - They made a mistake - they apologized and fixed it by replacing all the pulled books and stated it won't happen in the future. It's time to let it go...
@Bobby - I agree that folders would be nice but the search feature is pretty quick. Still... it's nice to browse by catagory and "Collections" is what I liked about the Sony readers.
Kindle CAN read epub files (and many other formats); it's just the AZWs purchased through Amazon that are locked PRC files. I'm not sure why people keep saying the Kindle is a DRM device when it is the FILES that have DRM. You can purchase your books from other places and they will still work on the Kindle - but that is a large reason for buying the Kindle.
All that being said - this device looks really cool and definitely a huge kindle competitor. Except for that blue LED. That's really got to go.
If my Kindle ever dies or it's time to buy an eBook reader for the wife I think this one will be high on the list.
By Adrian at 11:25 PM ON 09/23/09
My constant question is, does it have a highlight feature that will carry over to my computer when i want to print it? Because without this, it's still useless to students.
By ptricky at 12:05 AM ON 09/24/09
Of course the blue light won't always be on. That's why they made sure to show at least one picture with it off. Feel free to infer away about what causes the light to turn on, but it is not constant. that would defeat the purpose of e-ink anyway...
By Norge at 7:11 AM ON 09/24/09
I'm wondering how good it displays PDFs? To make a E-reader useful for Universities it must be capable of displaying whole pages of PDFs in a readable manner. Or at least have a useable zoom. So, what about this with the new IREX?
By phigment at 7:53 AM ON 09/24/09
Acutally, i responded to the first reference to this ebook reader when it was in dvice yesterday. But I have to conclude your math is wrong. The sony touch reader is $299, and this thing is touted to be $399 (aka 400) there for the difference is around $100. NOT $50, as stated in the article. And I STILL prefer my Sony touch over this bohemouth. And even if Sony were to hand back my $300 (rounding up a penny). i still wouldn't shell out an extra $100 on this thing. $300 is hard to justify for any reader, and $400 is way to high. There's nothing there to justify the cost. And Bigger is not always BETTER. It would be less convenient to carry around compared to the Sony touch or the prs-300.
By Worker bee at 9:05 AM ON 09/24/09
I'll tell you what is worth the price, the Verizon network accessible over seas. You could get all your newspapers delivered in other countries which is a huge help for some professions, let along add books when you are out and nothing is in English where you are.
By Kash at 9:44 AM ON 09/24/09
This market is only going to get crowded and the more we have the better. I really liked the Kindle 2 just because it did everything right but IREX looks pretty good, one that I might have to give a try. Most people will be turned off by the $400 price tag. That blue light would annoy the crap out of me. They need to get rid of that blue light from the front of that device. http://ZiggyTek.com/
By Shakefire at 12:23 PM ON 09/24/09
seriously, what is DVICE's obsession with eReaders? Any time Amazon announces a new book for eReader, they have 30 posts about it. eReaders aren't exactly the "coolest" or newest technology. This is already blog THREE about this unknown one. ugghhh
By Concord at 1:11 PM ON 09/24/09
To all who complain about the blue LED:
IREX is not that stupid to let them always on. The blue LED was on during the demo to show that it was connected to a network (verizon). And of course it is configurable in user preferences.
By tracer at 5:11 PM ON 09/24/09
Sorry for the non-tech lit question. Does it also do "audia boks" like the kindle. and does it have a audio mode to "read" the the book you r reading if in a car?
By night reader at 8:08 PM ON 09/24/09
Somebody add a backlight so I can read without another light on.
By hsnopi at 10:59 PM ON 09/24/09
I like the idea of having all my tech references right there as I do stuff. Weather it be lawnmower repair, fixing the sinks or some tech manual while programming or gaming. How does the backup of all this work? I assume I can back it all up to my hard drive?
By Al at 1:54 PM ON 09/25/09
I'm glad comptition is on the rise, I only wish someone would come up with the obvious design concept book lovers would rush out to buy: A book shaped e-reader. Make it look like a book you open and go from there.
It would be nice to open a "book" and have your entire e-library at your disposal, rather than a thin and fragile reader you can never feel comfortable holding in your hands as you kick back to catch up on the lateset literary works.
My two cents.
By Slevin at 3:10 AM ON 09/26/09
Сайт очень качественный. Вам награду бы за него или почетный орден. ;)
By Andrys at 6:52 AM ON 09/27/09
Adrian, re highlights, the annotation feature for the iRex isn't ready yet. No date was given, but once it is ready then they won't charge $100 extra for it the way they do with the IRex DR1000s, their mgrs said the other day.
The Kindle does have easy highlighting. And a copy of that highlighting and any notes is sent to a text file that you can edit and print on your computer (after you move/copy it to your computer via USB cable. There are limitations on some books on how much you can copy. But no limits on the highlighting and ability to see them on the Kindle book itself.
Better, though, for students or people who just like to highlight and take notes, you can 'enable' backup of your highlighting to the Amazon servers and there you get a personal private webpage that shows all your notes for each book, and with the option to see all of any book's annotations on one scrolling page on your computer screen.
The question whether PDFs are easily readable on an 8.1" screen mentioned is fairly key. The Kindle DX is 9.7" and even that is smaller than the model 8.5 x 11" paper a PDF is meant to emulate. Sometimes rotating it to landscape gives a much better width/size and it'll be interesting to get a review of PDFs on this device.
I would miss having the Kindle web-browser for lookups when on the street and away from my computers. It's okay with mobile-optimized site-pages and Amazon's options for any search include Google and Wikipedia (24/7 free cellular wireless included).
I took a picture of my DX screen at an ice cream place today, which I'm linking as it gives a better idea of what the DX display is like than some I've seen.
http://andrys.com/mImg_0101-1024.jpg
- Andrys
By Katheryn at 2:53 PM ON 09/29/09
Interesting belly button story. Is that on the Kindle by any chance? I only have a Kindle 2 which I got from here: http://www.computersncs.com/rd_p?p=191614&t=9544&a=27619-skindle&gift=27619
By Aza at 3:45 AM ON 09/30/09
Whats the resolution of the display?
By Question at 4:03 AM ON 10/10/09
Thanks for your enthusiastic review of this ebook reader. I just have a few questions about features that are important to me.
-Does it show the "real page numbers"?
-Are the margin adjustable?
-I saw many good review about the contrast of the 5 inches Sony (number 300). Anybody could compare both?
Thanks!
By Robert Nicholson at 8:20 PM ON 10/14/09
So, when will these be available for purchase? I want to purchase now having owned a Kindle DX and been disappointed by it.
By jboardman at 2:57 PM ON 11/04/09
I tried to preorder this device at Best Buy, but I got an email saying that it was being discontinued "temporarily" on the site. My credit card was not debited. Where can we get this device and when?
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jboardman:
I tried to preorder this device at Best Buy, but I got an email saying that it was being discontinued "temporarily"...More »