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mayfayre “mayfayre” (New Jersey USA) –

  

  

I’ve had the Libre for a few weeks now and I’ve been very impressed with it. I chose it over the Kindle and Nook for a number of reasons: available formats, lower cost, and the fact that I don’t need the instant purchase capability. The Libre comes with a 2GB SD card with 100 classic books loaded in the .txt format. 100 books takes up almost no space on that card – there is room left for hundreds and hundreds of others. Loading the books onto the Libre is simply a matter of connecting it to your computer and dragging-and-dropping the books into the pre-set folder or into folders you set up. There are plenty of sources out there for ebooks that you can load up your reader with whatever genre assortment you like, so the immediate gratification of instant purchases is unnecessary, IMO.

I chose the white color over the black, and I am happy with my choice. Frankly, I’m sick of black-colored electronic gadgets – I have way too many of them already. I find the white frame doesn’t intrude on my focus. The “e-paper” of this reader had a slightly gray-greenish tinge to it, from the LCD design, as opposed to the whiter backgrounds of the e-ink type readers, but I’ve found the difference to be negligible. The letters are crisp on the background, and I’ve had no difficulty in reading it in sunlight, twilight, and incandescent light. I haven’t had any problem with eyestrain, and I find it much easier to read than reading on a computer back-lit screen. I like the fact that the page-changing is seamless, without the flashing of the e-ink type readers.

The controls are easy to use. There’s a up-down slide switch on the left side, left-right buttons on the left front, and left-right buttons on the right front that allow you to turn the pages. There are also alpha-numeric tabs on the right side that allows quick choices, but the same can be done using the directional buttons on the lower right front. So there are a number of different ways to accomplish the same task if you are right-or-left handed, or if you have some physical infirmity. I have had no problem adjusting font sizes from very small to very large, and there’s an auto-page-turn function for fast readers or people with a disability.

I would say that the weight of the reader is probably comparable to that of a 500-600 page paperback book, without the book’s bulk. I’ve found that strange at first, but now I’m used to it. One thing that I think is probably true for all ebook readers is that the user has to get used to a different way of holding a “book” to read, because you’re not opening a book wide and you’re flipping pages without having to lift your hand.

It should be noted that most of the ebook readers out there today – even if they say they handle .pdf formats – have problems with that format due to its basic nature and the smaller size of the eReader screens. Reading a .pdf exactly as formated usually results in tiny text. Expanding the font size sometimes has some odd results. The Libre allows you to change the view from portrait to landscape mode for better viewing, and it also has the reflow feature to allow .pdf formatting to resize itself for the smaller screen.

I haven’t noticed any difficulty with the battery life. There are auto-off settings that allow the eReader to turn itself off after set periods of inactivity. I’ve had no problem reading complete books on a single charge.

Another thing I like about the Libre is that it comes with a USB cord to connect to the computer for file transfers and/or charging, an AC adapter for charging, earbuds, a 2GB SD card, and a protective case. So there’s no extra accessories that you have to spend extra money on.

I’ve found that I prefer to use the .epub format for my books, though individual tastes might vary. The good thing about the Libre is that it gives you a nice number of formats to choose from. And if you happen to find an ebook that’s in a format that the Libre doesn’t natively handle, it’s very easy to convert almost any ebook format to one you prefer by using the freeware program Calibre (an extremely useful and well-designed program).

To date, I haven’t tested out the MP3 player functions of the Libre, or its feature that allows you to play background music while reading. Since it does handle the MP3 format, I would think that it is possible to download audiobooks to it. And with the capacity to use even larger SD cards, to store a number of them on the device. So in addition to having the ability to read books, you should also be able to listen to them; and using the headphone output plug, should be able to connect it to the MP3 input in your car (if you have one) making this a really handy device for traveling. I’ll have to try this out. =)

Note also that the Aluratek Libre and the Etaco JetBook are physically the same eBook reader but sold by different…

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D. L. Shields (Sagamore Beach, MA) –

  

I just got this reader a couple of days ago and have done some reading in several of the different formats. With the latest firmware update from Aluratek, you can read Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) epub and pdf files, which means you can download new releases from stores such as Sony, and soon Barnes and Noble. I have downloaded one ebook from Sony, and it displays well. The downside is that it doesn’t seem to have as good a variation in font size as do the books that came on the SD card and the few books I downloaded from free sites. To be more specific, the fonts go from tiny, to still slightly too small if its a bit dim in the room, to outrageously huge. I don’t know if its the particular book I bought, the Sony store, or coincidence or what. I have looked at pdf, fb2, and epub, and listened to mp3. I would like the ability to keep a few audiobooks on it, but overall I am satisfied.

However, I don’t like the white color that I got. I would recommend the black one, or if you don’t want black then maybe one of the different colored jetbooks. The plastic casing is better quality than what I was afraid I would be getting, and the reader feels solid and well made. The white casing makes the greenish gray tint of the background a little more apparent than what some of the other colors probably do, however. The screen is very nice, and the words are very nice and crisp.

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