Mobile devices »Electronic books
Once this e-book came into our hands, we immediately arose slight feeling of deja vu. However, confusion quickly passed. The fact that the appearance of the device is almost identical design reader Amazon Kindle 5 (down to the increased length of the lower page turning buttons).
Initially we assumed that TB-146SE – it is a regular reader of popular clone Amazon, but it later became clear that the first impression is deceptive, and differences between these devices are quite a few. Unfortunately.
box is made in the standard colors of teXet. Such a box on a shelf is easy to learn, but with the move to see which device is stored inside – more difficult. To this end, the box contains icons icons reflecting specifications book. But for the most attentive to the back of the device settings are complete. They are also in a slightly abridged form present on “the splash” screen reader off.
Product Features
| Manufacturer | teXet |
| Name | teXet TB-146SE |
| Dimensions | 172 × 125 × 8,5 mm |
| Weight (cover) | 196 g |
| Memory | 4 GB |
| Display | 6 “E-ink Pearl, 600 × 800 |
| Processor | unknown |
| Interface | Micro-USB |
| Memory Expansion | microSD / SDHC (up to 32GB) |
| Formats text | DOC, DJVU, PDF, EPUB, FB2, TXT, MOBI, HTM, HTML, RTF, PDB, CHM, DJV |
| Audioformats | MP3, WMA, AAC, APE, WAV, FLAC, OGG |
| Graphic formats | JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG |
| Battery | unknown |
| Wireless Modules | – |
| OS | Linux |
striking that teXet traditionally silent on the processor model, as well as on the capacity of the installed battery pack, saying only that it is powered by a lithium-polymer technology.
Supply and appearance
On opening the box
, we find:
- eBook;
- leatherette cover;
- cable Micro-USB;
- AC charger;
- headphones
- user manual;
- guarantee;
- gift certificate for 10 books from the electronic library LitRes.
As can be seen, teXet not greedy and manned the book to all that may be required when using it: the future of the reader does not have to go further to shop for headphones or a network adapter.
device control buttons are located on the front panel. Left and right are buttons turn pages (lower bit over the top). In the bottom row are buttons for zooming, “Back” button, four-button joystick with the confirmation button in the center button to go to listen to music mode and the button changes the orientation of text.
worth noting that the page turning buttons and even look almost like the Amazon Kindle, but the buttons are much easier (the fact that they are not located Kindle plane main surface and require pressing slightly offset laterally). And here at TB-461SE, unlike many other books published under the brand teXet, buttons are pressed gently and triggered every time.
Cover supplied with the device is made of synthetic leather. The book is attached with two corners and one gum that acts as the third corner. Cover itself is equipped with a magnetic latch.
enjoy books in a convenient cover, although perfectionism and compels us to note that the corners were somehow different size and look asymmetrically.
lower edge located: headphone jack Micro-USB, card slot microSD, on / off button of the device. Other faces do not contain any elements.
On the back of the book is a speaker and a recessed button Reset, to press that will need to use a needle or wire.
Screen
This model uses the display size 6 “technology with E-Ink Pearl with a resolution of 800 × 600 pixels. Visually screen looks less contrast than the Kindle 5, but this impression is mainly created by the greyish outline (at Amazon reader case black).
Working with device
Before you start with the book, we needed to update the firmware, the latest version of which is available for download from the official website of the manufacturer. The update was without surprises, exactly as described in the instructions.
on and the main menu
At boot device
took about 8 seconds, which is small enough for a device with such functionality.
main menu contains the following items Books:
- «History” – a list of recently opened books;
- «Books’ – a library with all the books loaded on the device;
- «Photos» – view images;
- «Music” – go to your music;
- «Files” – view of the file system;
- «Calendar” – calendar view;
- «Applications” – go to the Additional applications;
- «Options” – device settings.
In this menu, you can fully understand what can a book that’s just hidden in the radio section “Applications”, although in our view it would be logical “Music” include, for example, “Audio”, and combine player with a radio in one section. Maybe this observation and vkusovschina looks like, but not seeing any radio “music” or as a separate item, we have already begun to doubt his presence – in the “Applications” usually look in the last turn, expecting to see there is no more than what something useless Tetris :)
After exploring the menu our attention was drawn to the fact that the device does not automatically start with the last open book. Moreover, if you turn off the book without first closing it manually, the device does not even remember the page where you left off. Both – serious flaws in the software.
Audio and radio
Though they are in different sections describe these functions together we traditionally grouping “within the meaning».
opened “Music”, we find ourselves in a file browser from which you can choose to browse our files and include them play. In the context menu while you can specify exactly how we want to listen to the files (no repeat / Repeat one / all no repeat / repeat all). In the same menu you can turn random play (shuffle), and choose one of eight equalizer settings (one of which can be set independently).
device perfectly coped with playing files with different formats stated bit rate (including a variable). Also the book could read tags version id3v24, but with id3v1 tags it fail (apparently this format developers considered obsolete).
With regard to section “Radio”, then there came first incident: an application was to display messages in Chinese and flatly refused to shut down. However, after a reboot all the errors are gone, and we were able to test the operation of the receiver.
The first thing we noticed – the fact that the radio is able to work even without headphones. The user can manually add the station to your favorites, or search for stations to charge a device that will scan all frequencies (for Russia – in the range of 87 to 108 MHz).
disappointing inability to stations familiar names in Russian, or at least English. So we have to remember yourself, under what numbers are stored stored channels.
Headphones, supplied not hit us anything special. Headphones – play, okay.
View photos
images displayed in the “Photo”, the device is able to show in two modes: as a list of files, or showing thumbnails for previewing. Speed ??display thumbnails (thumbnails) seemed to us to be quite adequate for this device: not very fast, but not too long.
With
display images of different formats eReader coped fine. All declared formats (JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG) are read and displayed correctly.
Settings
settings section “Options”, unfortunately, can not please us great opportunities. The user will find there are only seven points, of which the reading process affects only one.
- «Updating the Screen” – select the refresh rate (at each new page, every 3 pages every 5 pages);
- «Food” – setting auto-off device (without auto off / 1, 2, 3, 4 hours), as well as setting the economy mode, ie automatic screen lock – (no lock / 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 minutes);
- «Time / Date” – the time and date;
- «Language” – language selection interfeyska (Russian / English);
- «Formatting” – cleaning the data stored on the device;
- «Reset” – a return to factory settings;
- «Information” – information about the software version, device model, and free memory.
As can be seen in the “Options” there are no settings related to display text. The fact that the developers decided to put them in the context menu that appears directly when reading a book.
Working with the library and reading books
Library
Library in this device supports two types of mapping files in list mode or in thumbnail preview mode covers. As often happens, the long file names do not always fit in the limited space. This is especially noticeable in the display mode covers: several consecutive titles like “AS Pushkin “in conjunction with a standard” plug “for the missing covers do not leave the reader no chance to guess at what lies right of the miniatures work.
Newsroom does not differentiate between files stored in different folders, and displays them in one list that somewhat difficult to find the right book. To some extent, the situation can save opportunity to add a book to “Favorites”, but this is not enough in the case of a sufficiently large library.
Reading PDF and DjVu
course, 6-inch screen was a little for comfortable reading scanned magazines and other documents designed to format A4, but with the ability to increase font size and scale a document reading can be made more or less comfortable.
PDF files perfectly scaled (in total there are 6 degrees of zoom), which allows us to consider even the smallest font. Supports work with the content of PDF-files, and view footnotes and turning pages in a slide show.
As for the format DjVu, then our test file reader did not manage: to zoom in, we did not succeed.
Moreover, the context menu, which must meet including scaling, at some point in general ceased to appear as files in DjVu, and in PDF. Had to reboot the device, but soon error appeared again. Presumably, the error in the software.
Reading FB2/EPUB
Newsroom supports all common formats in which distributed literature. The exception is perhaps that format ZIP: his device refused to “see”, despite the declared support.
default settings quite suitable for comfortable reading. If want to change something, then this feature is present in the context menu containing the following items, the names of many of them speak for themselves:
- «Bookmark»;
- «Open bookmark»;
- «Contents»;
- «Add to Favorites” – a book to add to your favorites list;
- «Back to” – go to the page by its number;
- «Search” – text search;
- «Font Size” – a choice of one of six sizes;
- «font type» – Arial, Times New Roman or Verdana;
- «Intervals” – small / normal / large size;
- «Fields’ – a small / normal / large size;
- «Swivel»;
- «Inverse mode».
The top line shows the reading service information: name of the book, page number and total number, as well as the current time and battery level. As described above, a book can select one of three fonts. These settings can hardly be too flexible. But the choice of font is automatically applied to all the books, so to customize the look for each file separately do not have to.
itself passes completely comfortable reading: page flipping with sufficient speed, work with content in FB2 format is also not satisfactory: nested sub displayed correctly, only missing page numbers relating to the chapters. But in MOBI format content displayed at the beginning of the book, but it is impossible to use it. It’s funny that when outputting content FB2 nesting levels are displayed on separate pages and need to make a choice to go to the next level – the first time we see such an organization working with a table of contents.
text search also implemented quite convenient. Use the joystick to navigate through the search results and quickly find the right place. Comments on the text and footnotes check bottom of the page, so they can be read without turning pages back and forth.
Question
hyphenated developers decided to gracefully: they simply do not. Due to this, the maximum size of the font can often find half-empty string.
Screen Rotation is working properly, it is responsible for a separate button located on the front of the book. Time to turn the device spends a bit, so that if necessary, rotate the image does not have to wait long.
Among other features worth mentioning seen inability to change font format ePub. In addition, this format is present in the context menu option “View footnotes”, the only result of which is the impossibility of further context menu until the device is rebooted.
Power
developers claim that the device is able to withstand up to 9,000 page turns on a single charge.
