A review of a cheap e-reader because I bought one
Hello again, my internship finished a few weeks ago (hooray) and the new semester just started last week (not hooray). I got some experience out of the intership, but that’s not really something I would like to write about today (besides, that’s more for professional blog).
So, you know the urge to spend when you got the allowance? Yeah I succumbed to it during my internship :P Thankfully it’s not over the allowance I got. Just some QoL (quality of life) stuff, like an e-reader I just so happen to get my hands on (I bought other stuff but it’s nothing home to write about).
Unfortunately, it’s not the mainstream options like a Kindle or a Kobo, those are sold where I’m from, but the price really doesn’t justify it. To paint a picture here, they’re sold at the same price as a mid-range smartphone. Probably not much to some people, but that’s a hefty price to pay for something that doesn’t have the specs to boast about.
I got my hands on a no name branded e-reader. Well, an internet search seems to point to a brand called Veidoo courtesy of a YouTube video, though the one I got is branded with a different company name. It’s practically the same as shown in the video, a 5.8" inch e-reader with laughably low spec (a 32-bit arm CPU, for the record. I got 32-bit Koreader to install, but the screen refresh doesn’t work on this e-reader). But hey, at least it’s got a usb-c port (that doesn’t work with some cables, but thankfully the one’s I have work) and 32GB of storage, with a micro sd slot. A Kindle could never. I also bought it a price of just over $30 USD once adjusted for currency exchange. That’s cheap!
It sounds too good to be true. Well, probably because it is. The main cons for this e-reader is it’s display and battery life. The display can only show black or white, nothing in between. Even grey is either black or white depending on the shade of it. To be fair, on my part I don’t really mind it, as I don’t mind in particularly care on how the illustration is displayed as I read, I can power through how bad it is. Oh, and also it won’t render properly if the screen is exposed to sunlight directly. It’ll be half rendered with some words like how a pen which is about to run out of ink would write (I don’t know how to explain this and I don’t have photos of it sorry). It’s still readable, so yeah.
The battery doesn’t last as long as mainstream e-reader’s, only lasting around several hours on a single charge. Far from the multi-week charge from Kindle and Kobo. For what it is, I don’t mind. If the charge is low, I’d just charge it with a powerbank. What am I expecting for something so cheap anyway.
Almost forgot the part about transferring the books into the device. It comes with an app called ‘Book Transfer’ that uses the wifi network to create a website hosted on the e-reader to transfer files wirelessly. I used it a few times, but it’s pretty absymal due to the device not getting the best signal reception. Instead I just transfer the files with a usb-c cable. Unlike a normal android phone which will display a prompt to confirm whether to only charge or also expose the filesystem to the connected computer, this e-reader automatically does it. Pretty neat if I do consider it myself.
I’ve used this e-reader for a few weeks by now, and it’s a pleasant use even with the aforementioned cons. I used it during my internship, home, even out at a shopping mall (I’ve read >10 volumes of various light novels on it). I bought this e-reader specifically because my eyes are strained if I read on my phone. Back then, when I’m in the mood, I would read for several hours straight (almost everyday if it’s a semester break), finishing a light novel volume a day at the fastest (yeah I read at a slower pace than I’d like). I would read until I literally can’t focus on the screen anymore, so it’s a nice change to stop reading only when my brain can’t process more words :P
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