The UMPC- Perfect E-book Reader?

Font size increased for the photo

I read a lot of e-books, if you follow the Mobile Tech Manor column I do weekly, you know just how much I enjoy reading e-books. I have long been an advocate of reading books on my mobile phone, and I still read a lot on my phone, as it’s the one gadget that is always with me. Having recently picked up the Viliv S5 Premium UMPC, I can tell you that this handheld computer is becoming my favorite device for reading e-books. Let me tell you why.

I should first tell you what kind of reading I do. It is almost exclusively purchased content, novels specifically, either in the Kindle format (for the iPhone) or in eReader format. This content is DRM-protected, as all paid e-books tend to be, and as such, it requires the particular publisher’s program to read the books. I know there are tons of public domain e-books available that don’t require a special reader, but those aren’t the types of books that I read, so this is written from that POV.

Actual font size

I have no qualms reading on the phone; it’s a good reading experience, and both the Kindle and eReader programs on the iPhone are pretty darn good. But once I started reading a lot on the S5 UMPC, I quickly came to appreciate how much better the experience is, given how much reading I do. The high-resolution display can put a lot of text on the page, and I can read it in any lighting condition, which is crucial. The UMPC is handheld, and while it is obviously heavier than the phone, it is not uncomfortably so, and reading in portrait orientation fits the hand nicely. I find I can read for long periods without any adverse vision effects, probably due to that big screen.

There is no Kindle program for Windows computers, which means I am restricted to eReader from Fictionwise on the S5. I hope that Amazon will produce a Kindle app for Windows, but I am not holding my breath to get one as the UMPC is really the only type of Windows PC that would likely be used for e-book reading, and it’s a small market for Amazon. Tablet PCs are also good readers, although not for extended periods due to the big size and weight, but even so, that market is small, too.

I enjoy eReader on the UMPC, although Fictionwise hasn’t really updated the program in a long time. I understand its concentration on the phone platform with the iPhone, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry versions. It’s also hard at work on an Android version of eReader which is nice, too. Because of this big push onto the phone, the company hasn’t updated the Windows version in a long time, and it shows. The reader itself is as full-featured on the UMPC as the phone versions, but it falls behind in the area of interacting with the online bookshelf. When I purchase a book from Fictionwise, the next time I access my bookshelf on the iPhone all new purchases are automatically pushed down to the phone and available with no action on my part. That is not the case with the Windows version — I must manually go to the Fictionwise site with my web browser, manually download any new purchases, and then manually add them to the UMPC bookshelf. Not a big deal, but not nearly as nice as the iPhone version.

Bookshelf access aside, I am thoroughly enjoying reading books on the UMPC for the reasons I’ve mentioned. It is a common site in my home or in local coffee shops to see me sitting in a nice, comfy chair with the UMPC in my left hand reading away. I will tell you that I get totally engrossed in the reading of the book on the UMPC and likely will be oblivious to everything around me. That’s the sign of a good reading experience.

You’re also likely to see me with earbuds in place, as I like to listen to music streamed by Pandora One while I am reading. I turn the volume down low enough that it doesn’t distract me from the book but provides a pleasant background to the reading. The Pandora One desktop app is great for this, and once it’s started, I minimize it out of the way and get down to the reading business.

I can tell you that reading e-books is the top usage I get out of the UMPC at this point. It’s not the only thing I do by a long shot, but I spend many hours reading. This has added great value to me with the UMPC purchase that I didn’t expect, quite frankly. The UMPC was worth the $600 I spent given the online work I do with it, and the many hours of reading I do is just icing on the cake. I am not suggesting that anyone should run out and spend hundreds of dollars for a UMPC just to read e-books; that would be silly. I am simply pointing out how I use mine, as it is not a use that most people think of when they start considering a mobile device purchase.

The fact that the UMPC is a full Windows PC is very important to me as I often take breaks from the reading to check my email and other online things. I like to take a break from time to time, and since I always have Firefox running, I just minimize the e-book and pop Firefox back up. I have four or five tabs open all the time with the web sites I access most frequently at my beck and call. I stop reading, check my email, check out jkOnTheRun to see if any interesting comments have been left by readers (of course, they’re ALL interesting), and I generally do anything I need to do. A few minutes of that, and I’m back in the book enjoying another great story.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks