Touch Screen Tablet: Comparison of e-book Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and Pocketbook Touch 2

Printable version Bloggers

Introduction

idea of ??this material was born spontaneously. It so two events coincided: a trip to New York, where I brought Kindle Paperwhite, and the presentation of the company Pocketbook, which showed the second generation Pocketbook Touch. At the moment, the backlight in an eReader on the E-Ink is relatively new and not yet very common, but it is now clear that such a reading room where it is more convenient and more comfortable for users.

Pocketbook – one of the largest companies in Russia, producing e-books and Amazon – a famous book (and not only) online store, also famous for its high-quality E-reader at a very humane prices. Of course, there are other books with backlight, however, in my opinion, it is Touch 2 and Paperwhite are the best known of them.

Options

traditionally begin with a complete set, although there is nothing special to say. Both books are available in compact boxes. For both set to put only USB-cable and an instruction that, in my opinion, a huge minus.

Contents >>>

appearance, materials, assembly

Kindle has long been praising for simple yet elegant look to their e-readers, and I can not disagree with that. Like, look at Paperwhite and nothing special about it do not you, but it is subtly different from most Chinese faceless newsreaders.

I Pocketbook has already formed its corporate design: first of all, this is the back cover is made of plastic-coated soft-touch. Toward the bottom of it is slightly thicker, it is also part of the design Pocketbook.

Both books are made of plastic. Speaking of the rear cover, then and there, and it uses a coating soft-touch, however, was a bit more Paperwhite velvety, but to cover Touch 2 more resistant to fingerprints.

As for the frame around the screen, here superiority Touch 2 visible to the naked eye, on her part of the prints are not visible, while on the Paperwhite frame material very easily soiled, it’s not glossy. Unfortunately, the photos can not see it, but when used on a soiled box once you pay attention.

Both books are collected on the “5 -” At first glance, it seems that the assembly is ideal, but an eReader popolzovavshis longer, I noticed that the Paperwhite by strong pressing lightly pressed in the center of the lid, and the Touch 2 is slightly creaking under strong compression. The key word here – “strong”, that is, in everyday usage, you probably will not notice any problems in both an eReader.

Contents >>>

Screen

screen quality – a key parameter in this comparison, because it was he who distinguishes these two reading room. Brief characteristics: both models have a 6” touch screen with a resolution of 1024h758 points made by technology E-Ink Pearl. Also, both models feature a backlit screen. Since we’ll start.

At maximum brightness can be clearly seen that the backlight Touch 2 gives the blue and more faded than Paperwhite. In this case, Paperwhite true to its name and the pages of this book look as white as a sheet of paper.

By reducing the brightness up to 50% background color Paperwhite goes to gray-yellow tones, and here at Touch 2, it just becomes a pure white.

And finally, at a minimum luminance PaperWhite have almost no visible light, while the Touch 2 is still discernible. However, this is not a plus Pocketbook, since there is a term “minimum brightness threshold”, and the lower it is, the better for screens, as in the dark lacks even the faintest light, and strong contrast blinding.

second parameter, which I would like to compare – the clarity of the text. Despite the (supposedly) identical or at least similar to characteristics of the screen, the text displayed on them quite differently. When you read on the Touch 2, it seems as if the text is written badly a pen, and PaperWhite – moderately thick black marker. This is especially noticeable when reading with large fonts. If you use a small font size, the difference is almost not visible. This is largely due to the fonts used, but I could not help noticing this kind of behavior.

possible that inexperienced users will not notice, but when the transition with Paperwhite for Touch 2, it takes some time getting used to.

According to my subjective feelings, read from the screen Paperwhite pleasant than with Touch 2. However, after a couple of hours longer see the difference.

Both models work with a touch screen, furthermore, Paperwhite touch screen is, in fact, the only way to interact with a book, while the Touch 2 is the usual buttons. The screens of both books covered the glass with a special coating rough. When you have your finger on the screen, then there is a feeling that the usual page before you book. To work the touch screen there are no claims in both models, the rate of mining is almost the same keystrokes. The only thing that Paperwhite little faster practiced pressing on the touch keyboard, while the Touch 2 is slightly faster than turning the pages.

Contents >>>

Paging and reference work with the book

Personally, I

– a supporter of the good old paging buttons: left arrow – back arrow to the right – go ahead, but now manufacturers are more likely to prefer the usual touchscreen controls. And having a separate button in the modern newsreader such as Touch 2, I think it is a clear advantage: for comparison, my friend after using the Paperwhite complained about the lack of buttons, touch-screen for her unusual and uncomfortable, yes, we are talking about a man in age, but we do not always buy E-reader myself, I often see in the subway and buses of people over fifty, reading with Amazon Kindle, I think everyone understands that the reader that they are clearly not sales consultants have recommended.

As for turning the touch screen, there is the use of both e-readers almost identical: tap on the right side turns the page forward, tap on the left – back. Swipe right to left scrolls forward, left to right – back.

Both E-reader support adjustment font with pinch with two fingers. However, the Touch 2 you can adjust the font size in increments of one, also available in the Kindle only about 6-7 size and you can not define your own.

In both E-reader can easily navigate through the content, leave bookmarks and move on footnotes, but the devil is in the details, so smoothly pass to the enhanced functionality.

Contents >>>

Settings reading

Paperwhite you can choose only one of several font sizes, font size can not be set independently. As for the fonts, you have six different fonts. In addition, you can change the margins and line spacing, only available three “preset».

In Pocketbook Touch 2 users are an endless number of options: you can adjust the line spacing more accurately, you can configure the step to change the font by using the gesture “pinch” when using small fields, pages, almost the entire screen is text. In addition, Touch 2 supports hyphenation, and given that the producer still Russian, then complete the book is a huge set of words to support transfers. By the way, the same type font settings in the Touch 2 is also much more.

Contents >>>

Additional Features

One of my favorite all users of Kindle feature is the ability to remotely transfer files using the application Send to Kindle. Use it to send the book, pictures, or even a link to an article that will be converted for easy reading.

Another feature of the Kindle line is the tight integration with its own bookstore from Amazon. This is primarily true for the United States and anglochitayuschih users, but you’d be surprised how many people read Russian literature in English and wants to be able to buy it.

In Pocketbook Touch 2, in my opinion, have focused on functionality. You can do with books practically anything. You need to quickly search for a word – no problem (for Kindle initially no Russian keyboard, and custom firmware I will not be considered). Translate a word? Easily. By the way, the book supports multi-tasking, that is, you can quickly switch between books, browser and other applications.

Contents >>>

format support and work with PDF

Kindle Paperwhite supports the following formats: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, PRC, Mobi, HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP.

Here’s a list of supported formats in Pocketbook Touch 2: PDF, PDF (DRM), EPUB, EPUB (DRM), DJVU, FB2, FB2.ZIP, DOC, DOCX, RTF, PRC, TCR, TXT, CHM, HTM, HTML.

As you can see, Touch 2 is much larger formats is really necessary here and FB2, and EPUB, and support archives, and even exotic DJVU. In addition, the Touch 2 did everything for maximum readability of these formats (and the same for PDF), I discussed in detail in this review, the first Touch.

As for working with PDF, then on the Paperwhite you can read these files, you can zoomed them, that’s all the functionality.

While Touch 2 can trim blank frames into PDF, which improves reading. In addition, cutting the frame on a page, the book does this automatically in the whole file, while on each page to Paperwhite zoomed manually.

Contents >>>

Autonomy

Both manufacturers claim their devices while working to three months, even with the backlight. In my mode of use Paperwhite charge is approximately 10 days (I read on a couple of hours a day), but the Touch 2 lasted much less. Due to time constraints on the test I could not test its running time from 100% to 0, but I can say that 25% charge left 4 hours of reading with backlight at maximum brightness.

Contents >>>

Conclusion

know, I drew attention to the fact that in the world of e-books, as well as in the world of smartphones, users can be divided into two categories – using the book “as is” with minimum font size settings and want to fully configure the device for themselves ( font, footnotes, translations, translation of words).

And if very briefly, the first suit Paperwhite, and the second Touch 2.

I often see comments on our review of e-books from the category “All the Kindle is better,” etc. Commentators are always talking about how great the device from Amazon. This, incidentally, was one of the reasons I bought them a book in the U.S., it was a bit too curious, what is the Kindle so wonderful. Indeed, Paperwhite many strengths, and it’s build quality, and a great screen, and unique services. But the paucity of options in reading, the inability to search for Russian words (we’re talking about the drain firmware), lack of vocabulary, and much more do not allow us to call this book ideal. Let me remind you that the cost of the book in the U.S. is $ 120 for the version with ads, but here it is sold at a price of 5500 rubles. In my opinion, Paperwhite is good for people, who just want to buy a high-quality low-cost device that will read regular books, converted to MOBI.

another matter – Pocketbook Touch 2. Then you and the huge number of supported formats, and Russian dictionary and Russian keyboard, and transfers, and a lot of settings, and easier to read PDF. There’s even a slot for memory cards and the ability to use the device as a music player. This is a multifunctional machine for those who like to “tune the device for themselves.” For those who want to not only read, but also to use the interpreter as you read, change the font size for easy on him, etc. And of course, for those who read the specialized literature that is available only in DJVU / PDF.

Separately

I was pleased with the physical buttons paging good that Pocketbook they are not abandoned. Not without its drawbacks, such as battery life and screen backlight to me more like in Paperwhite. As payback for this functionality is and the higher the price, Touch 2 is currently sold at a price of 7000 rubles.

Comparison the best product is always difficult to make definite conclusions. Typically, one device is better in one another – in the other. Similarly, in our comparison, choose the device to fit your needs: we need a simple and easy reader with backlight – take the Kindle, want to completely control the process of reading up to transfers – look in the direction of Touch 2.

discussion in the forum >>>

Contents >>>