Portable Ebook Reader

The Astak 5-inch Pocket PRO eBook reader is an inexpensive and compact device produced by a leading provider of customer electronics, Astak Inc. The Astak 5-inch Pocket PRO is set to work with Adobe Digital edition and bring customers a new way to turn their digital pages. The device is very compact sporting 5-inch screen and weighting 6 ounces.

It is a sharp 8-level grayscale E-ink screen with 600 x 800 pixel resolution. On the bottom of the device there is a 3.5mm headset jack and along the top there is the power button, miniUSB port, and SecureDigital card slot. For high speed page turns, Astak Pocket PRO comes with a 400 MHz processor and an internal Epson controller. Along with these, the integrated handy Scrollwheel makes page-turning even smoother.

The device is capable of supporting more than 20 DRM-free formats, including ADE (Adobe Digital Edition), PDF, TXT, PDB, DOC, HTML, FB2, LIT, MP3, EPUB, PRC, WOL, CHM, PPT, TIF, PNG, GIF, RAR, ZIP, DJVU, JPG, and BMP. As collaborating with Adobe Digital Editions, the gadget is powered with Adobe firmware allowing users to read DRM-protected PDF files in addition to public domain titles and copy-protected PDFs.

The manufacturer seems was very serious about users’ reading experience, as it comes packed with PDF reflow and text-to-speech functions. The first feature will make your documents more legible while the second will read them aloud. With Astak’s 5-inch PRO eBook reader on your hands you won’t ever suffer from eyestrain after hours of reading. While reading to enhance your reading experince the EZ Reader Pocket PRO can also play mp3 music.

The device comes with 512MB of internal storage space, while an SDHC card reader will add up to 16GB of capacity. The EZ pro’s removable 1000 mAh Li-Polymer battery will deliver up to 8,000 page turns on one full charge. The Astak 5″ EZ Reader Pocket PRO is available in six different colors, including Alpine White, Onyx Black, Slate Blue, Classic Maroon, Powder Pink, and Metallic Purple. The device is now available for preorders and will cost as low as $199 putting it at the small end of eReader continuum.

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If you haven’t heard of Astak, they are based out of San Jose, CA and manufacture cameras, DVRs…and now lucky for us…ebook readers!

The Astak 6″ EZ Reader is the North American name for the Jinke Hanlin V3 (a Chinese company).

My favorite feature of the EZ Reader is the fact that it has native support for an enormous list of file formats: PDF, TXT, RTF, EPUB, LIT, PPT, WOLF, DOC, CHM, FB2, PRC/MOBI, HTML, DJVU, MP3, TIFF, JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAR, and ZIP.

Box Contents

The 6″ EZ Reader comes in a well-designed box that is covered with all the jazz you’d expect from a portable ebook reader.

Inside, you find an instruction manual, an AC adapter with USB input, a USB cable, earphones, and of course the device itself in a nice leather case.

Already I’m happy to see that Astak hasn’t decided to use any proprietary cables or adapters (cough…Apple…cough) and has made everything as simple as possible.

Charging

As soon as I unpacked the EZ Reader I plugged it into a wall socket. There’s a small indicator light on the top left that indicates how charged the battery is (either yellow or green). It turned to green (full charge) quite quickly (less than an hour), but I’m guessing that the battery was pre-charged when it was manufactured so it likely had some life in it already.

Design

As you can see from the picture above, the EZ Reader has a black frame with buttons along the bottom and side. The USB port is in the bottom and there’s an SD card expansion slot on the top. Without even reading the user manual I could easily figure out what all the buttons did. Astak really did a good job making the unit simple and easy-to-use!

The screen uses eInk technology so that means it’s easy on the eyes and can be viewed in direct sunlight, unlike many other electrical devices.

At 7 ounces and (7.2″ x 4.7″ x .4″), the EZ Reader is of average size and weight for it’s class of 6″ devices. The battery can reportedly handle 8,000 page turns on a single charge, which is also pretty average. However, the battery is removable / replaceable, which is great!

There’s 512 MB onboard storage, which the average reader should find adequate, but if you want more you can plug a 4GB SD card into the expansion slot. Very handy!

The leather case that it comes with is well built and there’s magnets to help the ebook reader snap into place. Clever!

My only complaint about the design is that the body of the EZ Reader looks and feels a bit “cheap”. It’s not as polished and “flashy” as the Amazon Kindle. But it seems durable enough - I imagine it could withstand being repeatedly dropped or generally just treated poorly.

Navigation

The buttons of the EZ Reader are well thought out. The menu system uses a folder system to organize ebooks, and the numbered buttons at the bottom of the unit are used to navigate through the folders and select files. To turn pages, there’s two buttons on the side, but if you’d prefer two of the bottom numbered buttons can also function as page turners.

The “zoom” functionality is quite powerful and has 4 or 5 different settings. Unfortunately images don’t zoom but that’s not entirely important for the purposes of a portable ebook reader.

The time between page turns leaves a bit to be desired (approx 3 seconds). Hopefully Astak improves the hardware for the next model.

Computer Interface

Hooking up the EZ Reader to a computer is simple! It’s just a matter of plugging in a USB cable. No extra software or drivers necessary (at least not with Windows XP). A new removable drive gets automatically mapped in “My Computer”, and then all you need to do is copy your ebook files into it.

I tried a PDF ebook because those are the most common. It copied quickly and looked great on the screen of the EZ Reader. As I said before, I’m a huge fan of devices that use standard cables, formats, and interfaces, all of which the EZ Reader excels at.

Conclusion

The Astak EZ Reader is priced fairly competitively ($235), is easy-to-use and navigate, and can handle nearly every ebook file format known to man. It’s not the prettiest, fastest, lightest, or most feature-packed portable ebook reader, but for the price it’s hard to beat!

If you want the flexibility of being able to read any type of ebook you find online, give the EZ Reader serious consideration.

Plus, did I mention that you can get it at Buy.com? How convenient!

Rating:
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