Several things you need to know before buying an eink e-book

Source: Internet
Author: User

I. Advantages and disadvantages of the eink product are as clear as they are. Make sure that the product is suitable for you before purchase.


Advantages: 1. The display effect is close to printing, the definition is high, no reflection, and reading is not fatigue for a long time.
2. power-saving, one-time charging can read thousands of pages to tens of thousands of pages continuously.
Disadvantages: 1. the refreshing rate is low, and a black screen will be displayed within one second during page turning.
2. The light itself does not emit light. You must have enough sunlight or light to read.
3. The screen is fragile, so you may be afraid of being overwhelmed or flushed.
4. Currently, no mature color eink products are available, so you don't need to consider videos.
If none of the above shortcomings are a problem for you, let's look at it.

2. Electronic Reading technologies such as eink are still improving. Don't expect you to buy the perfect product.

Private electronic reading technologies such as eink are still in its infancy and long-term development. Well-known brands such as Amazon and Sony entered the market only in year 34. At present, domestic and foreign manufacturers are entering the market, new products are constantly emerging, even if you do not have bad money, it is difficult to buy perfect products, of course, do not expect 3-6 months later your product is still the latest and most powerful. If you want to buy a product, find the product that best suits your needs based on your needs.

3. e-books are suitable for reading habits.

There are often netizens in the Forum who have just started to publish e-books. It is a pity that some people have read several books two years after they have bought them. As an electronic product, the function of e-books is to make it easier for bookworms to read books. E-books are specialized devices for book fans, a bit like hifi audios for music enthusiasts. At present, e-books are expensive, and the cost is 1000 or 2000 yuan, and the cost is 4000 or 5000 yuan. If you do not have the hobbies and habits to read, this investment can be used elsewhere, or purchase a multi-purpose device such as an iPad or netbook.

Before buying an eink e-book, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
1. What is the budget?

Taking imported brands as an example, the current price watershed is that most 6-inch screen products are priced at less than $300, or less than RMB 2500 in China; most 8-inch screen products are priced at more than 400 US dollars, and more than 3300 in China. You can pay for the silver in your pocket first.
Currently, the 6-inch screen of Chinese brands is the mainstream configuration, ranging from the cheapest Newman 6206 to the t61 of Hanwang, with a price span ranging from 900 yuan to 3000 yuan.

2. How big is the screen required?

The ancient saying "one inch long, one inch strong" is no longer correct in e-books. Currently, the e-book screen has different sizes, such as 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10. The 5-and 6-inch screen product can be used to read text-only books, it's also portable. It's light and easy to see on subway planes. A 10-inch product is a little cumbersome, but it does not seem like a large-size, small-sized font, text-and-text mix of documents, or a scanning book that is not clear enough. Currently, only Xinbo G10 provides a 9.7-inch screen. Amazon Kindle dx is abroad.

Iii. Do you want to read English documents?
If you never read English, congratulations. Because the answer is "yes", the problem has to be broken down into several questions:

1. Do I need to buy a new English book?

One of the major advantages of e-books is to be able to buy the latest books published abroad in the first time. If you need to buy English books, you should consider Amazon Kindle products or products supporting Barnes & Noble bookstores such as nook and dr800. Amazon and B & n both have complete online bookstores, the difference is that the total number of B & N is large, while Amazon has many new books. Of course, Sony's online bookstore also has a certain scale, but it cannot compete with the previous two in terms of variety and price. Another advantage of B & N and Sony is the free download of books from the Google Books Project.

2. Do I need the dictionary function?

Foreign Brands generally have built-in English-English dictionaries. Kindle can be equipped with many English-English dictionaries. However, please note that sometimes the dictionary functions are limited, for example, kindle does not support word dictionary for PDF files (Sony does not have this problem ).
Many Chinese brands have built-in English-Chinese dictionary functions. Here, onyx and Shinbo can install dictionaries on their own, but according to my attempt, there is no problem with onyx.

3. Do I need to read data from an English machine?

This is the strength of the Kindle series. Unfortunately, PDF is not supported.

4. Do you want to read the scanned book?

Some difficult-to-find books, especially old books, can only find scanned versions. The definition and contrast are not high enough. In this case, you can use a large screen device to read the books to ensure the basic reading effect. Of course, if you only have a 6-inch screen device, you may also use PC software to pre-process books to improve the display effect. In this regard, Onyx is very powerful, you can drag any area to zoom in, while the scale-in function can zoom in at most 400%. With its original slide pages, you only need to use an electronic pen to easily flip the page on the screen.

5. Do you want to select a touch screen?

E-books installed with touch screens are usually more convenient and convenient in terms of handwriting, notes, and word translation. Some touch screens only support the electromagnetic pen, while some products support both the electromagnetic pen and finger touch. However, the latter requires an additional layer of glass, which will affect the definition and contrast of the eink display, this is unacceptable for some users. Sony Reader 700 and 600 have caused a lot of controversy in this regard.

6. What file formats need to be supported?

Common e-book formats include txt, PDF, Epub, etc. Among foreign brands, Sony and irex support a comprehensive range of formats, but Sony waits too long to open TXT and other formats, irex has recently declared bankruptcy, so I will not mention it any more. Amazon's Kindle native only supports PDF and MoBi, but the performance of the Kindle has improved significantly since the domestic team launched the system. Currently, Kindle is selling well in China. The nook of B & N is rare and does not support the TXT format.
Chinese brands generally do not have any copyright considerations. They are very generous in this regard. Basically, various formats, including office documents, are well supported. Some models even support CHM, PDB, and other formats.
It should be noted that e-books are not only used to read books, but also to read cartoons. Therefore, you should also query the supported image formats and display methods in detail.
Almost all e-books on the market support MP3, and some also support other audio formats, but I don't think many people care about it.

7. How high is the gray scale required?

It is represented by the number of levels from full black to full White. If the gray scale is more than 16 levels, the image transition is natural. If the gray scale is only 4 levels, the color map will display some color blocks on the ebook. This is useful to cartoon fans, and can be ignored by friends who only read text books.

8. What are the learning and hands-on capabilities of it?

Currently, playing with e-books (especially foreign brands) is still a technical task. You have to learn Chinese, upgrade firmware, create books, convert book formats, and get in touch with a lot of new knowledge and software, this requires some IT learning and hands-on capabilities. Of course, this forum can help you a lot, but if you are a legendary computer blind, you may still encounter many difficulties if you don't even know what network disks and RAR are. In this case, you can choose a domestic brand with better technical support and after-sales service, at least you can save the trouble of Chinese and reduce the format conversion.

9. Do you pay attention to warranty?

As mentioned above, the eink screen is relatively delicate. At present, there is no warranty for the imported brand in China. In case of any problem, it is troublesome to send it to a foreign country via friends or sellers for repair. If you think that using things is sloppy, you can choose the State goods that can provide after-sales service. Of course, the service levels and charges of each brand are different. Please select the sellers with stores as much as possible, in this way, after-sales service will be more convenient.

10. Are there other special requirements?

Other factors not mentioned above can also affect your purchase decisions, for example: appearance, color, workmanship, human engineering design, firmware upgrade frequency, network support, notes and comments, machine reading, extended storage, etc. These are wise things.

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