The 5-Inch e-Book Readers are Coming– I’ve Already Got One
The activity level in the e-book world has picked up frenetically since the Kindle landed from Amazon. New e-book readers are getting announced right and left, and even bookselling giant Barnes & Noble is getting its feet wet. It is exciting that big players are taking e-books seriously, which is a good thing for those of us who like them. Sony recently announced a smaller version of their own e-book reader, the PRS-300, that will have a 5-inch screen to provide a more portable solution over their larger models. I believe that a 5-inch e-book reader is a perfect size, one that can provide a good reading experience while retaining a highly portable form. I should know as I have been using a 5-inch e-book reader for over a year.
My little e-book reader is old school, but it shows perfectly well how good a 5-inch screen can serve for e-book readers. It displays enough of the page to provide a good reading experience that approximates that gotten from a dead tree book. It is also small enough that it can easily be carried around- far easier than carrying a real book.
I have read countless e-books on phones, I don’t have a problem with small screens. I have read e-books on a BlackBerry, iPhone and even the Palm Pre. Using a phone for an e-book reader is convenient because the phone is always with me. As much as I enjoy reading books on the phone, the slightly larger screen HTC Advantage (pictured above) is even better. It displays more of the page than the phone and is highly mobile. I find myself coming back to the Advantage with the 5-inch screen over and over.
HTC Advantage (5-inch screen) vs. iPhone
The Advantage is a great e-book reader but there are improvements that can be made, and this is something the new readers could address. The 5-inch reader needs to be very thin and light. The Advantage is not heavy by any means, but it is still too thick. I often leave it at home and fall back on reading on the phone because the Advantage is just a tad too clunky to carry.
Pictures I have seen of the new Sony 5-inch reader are exciting, as they show a reader that it super thin and light. I can easily see myself dropping it in my shirt pocket when I head out the door. That may not work if OEMs put big bezels and giant controls on the little readers, something I hope they do not do. They may have to though, as they are e-Ink readers which generally means no touch screen. That leaves the need for other types of controls for reading, and those usually add more size to the reader.
The perfect 5-inch reader for me would be a thin and light device that is all touch screen. Make the device as small as possible so it’s as portable as can be. I don’t need fancy controls nor keyboards. The touch screen can handle all of those duties. I don’t need any connectivity other than Wi-Fi either, no 3G for me. I don’t mind grabbing content via Wi-Fi when it’s available and being offline the rest of the time. I’m willing to sacrifice that to keep the device as small and cheap as possible.
I’m on the fence about e-Ink. I like my books to appear with black text on crisp white pages, and so far I haven’t seen e-Ink able to provide that. Most displays I’ve seen have dark gray text on light gray backgrounds and it’s not enjoyable for long reading sessions, at least for me. That screen flashing on page turns with e-Ink bugs me, too. I would be happy with a traditional screen, or better yet OLED, to provide a super crisp display. I understand that e-Ink is easier on battery life, but if I can go all day with a good display, I don’t mind charging the reader every night. Color displays would be better than e-Ink anyway.
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DOH!! And I was just in J&R yesterday and made it a point to look in the cellphone area. Shockingly, they are still(!!!) carrying the HTC Shift(!!!), but not the Advantage. I’d forgotten all about its 5″ screen!
And, of course, a fiend like you could not wait to remind me of it!
Ah, here we go, just for you:
HTC Advantage: 5″ screen at 5.25″ x 3.85″ x 0.62″ – 12.6 oz
Sony PRS-300: 5″ screen at 6.2″ x 4.2″ x 0.2″ – 7.76 oz
Sony- bigger (1″x.4″), thinner and lighter. Too bad it’s e-Ink. Why can’t someone just make a simple OLED reader that is all screen for smallness?
I’ve never used one of these readers but isn’t e-ink supposed to be easier on the eye for extended periods? I thought that’s why it’s used instead of lcd or oled screens.
E-inks primary claim to fame is not using power except for page changes, so it’s more power efficient than any other technology. Problem is that it’s still not black on white, it’s gray on gray, and the resolution isn’t the greatest either.
OLED turns out to be battery-inefficient. What we really want is for the Pixel Qi screens to get going. It does full color, grayscale, and a special e-paper mode. Has looked promising in video previews, but I’d need to see it for myself. Remember, an eInk screen is actually *turned off* until the page is *refreshed* (“turned”).
I’m using the the Sony PRS-505 and where the screen excels is in bright light, and I’ve got used to the page turn ‘flash’. Battery life is superb and I’m currently enjoying wading through the Aubrey-Maturin series (Master and Commander).
I still fall back on the iPhone for those moments where you have some unexpected free time or on short commutes.
What content do you share between the Sony and iPhone?
And of course therein lies a big issue with ereaders. I can’t share content and so have to make do with reading different books. I am reading a load of classics on the iPhone and keep my purchased books on the Sony.
I also use an App called Wattpad, which leads us into another thorny issue. For years I’ve owned all of the James Bond series by Ian Fleming in paperback and never got around to reading them. I’ve found a few of the titles on Wattpad. Now, here’s the issue of copyright, illegal sharing etc. we’ve grown to love about video and music. Just because you own a physical format of music doesn’t entitle you to a license on any device for that music. Same with books. And it’s a pain!
I certainly don’t have an answer but I’d love to have one! Maybe an online repository that allows you to upload and then ‘check out’ your content for any device in existence or yet to be invented. We can dream. :-)
I personally would prefer to see a nice and thin and light (and reasonably priced) letter/A4 size screen solution with PDF support. Any ideas of such a reader?
Ah, the HTC Athena/Advantage line. I mostly overlook it because 5″ is too big to be pocketable, and at that point I’d want to go much bigger, say 10″. (I mean, my HP iPAQ hx4700 and its glorious 4″ screen already fills up a good-sized pocket, and that’s with loose, large-pocketed pants!)
I’d personally prefer something that’s hx4700-size, but possibly thinner and lighter, and with the ENTIRE FACE of the device being pure touchscreen. (The hx4700 has roughly an extra inch above and below the screen. Extend it so that it’s WVGA, and that should be plenty of screen real estate without going totally out of the realm of pocketability.)
Then again, maybe a 5-6″ screen is the sweet spot for other people-people who may not mind carrying such a device in a separate bag. (We still have people who clearly don’t mind carrying Apple Newton MessagePad 2000/2100s around, and they have 6″ screens with extra unused space above and below!)
Is the Advantage still being made and have their been any improvements to the first ones?
HTC updated it with a 16Gb flash drive but removed the front camera. I believe it is still being made.
Ahhh, your making me miss my Old advantage :(
Oh, the benefits of never actually disposing of my old tech purchases. I still have my Advantage. In fact, I just pulled it out of the drawer on Friday and topped off the charge! I agree that the battery life on the Sony Reader makes it much more enjoyable to me as a reader.
thats the best thing about eink, going on holiday for a week and i didnt even have to recharge the sony reader, plus reading in sunlight is superb.
The iPhone or any phone is the only device I can read a book on. For some reason I can’t keep steady when I hold a real book, I start daydreaming. but I can read stuff on a phone for 2 hours without issue. Sadly the kindle app is not available in Canada.
I thought the real benefit to eInk was/is not necessarily the battery life (which is more of a bonus) but rather than it is a lot better (less stressful) for peoples eyes.
Tell me James – why not just use your Viliv S5 as the ultimate ereader?
I mean for people who do more than just read, and as you mention for those who would like to also surf – S5 is the perfect screen size with the mega power.
What am I missing please? Why spend so much money when you can get the full package by a bit more?
Tal
I have used the S5 often, but the Advantage is easier to carry and has longer battery life. I am not spending any extra money, I already have all of these gadgets.
The Advantage is ok, but that extra inch doesn’t really give you a lot. In absolute terms, that screen is still VGA – which is less sharp than the screens on the latest HTC phones.
Meanwhile, carrying it is more of a chore than carrying a HTC Touch HD (iPhone size) or Pro2. And you can fit as much text on the more modern phones as you can on the Advantage due to longer screens, making reading very pleasurable.
Not sold on that extra inch being such a big deal, in other words. But then I never have been, to be honest, I’ve pooh-poohed the Advantage before.
I use the Jetbook which has an LCD and can read almost any format including PDF. The fonts are a little jaggy but that’s fine. I don’t like e-ink because of the flash. I get about 20 hrs on it. For more ebook info check out mobileread.com (if it’s ok to include an url. I don’t work there but it’s about the best ebook forum I’ve found).