The Iriver company is well known to domestic consumers. Starting with CD players, and later moving to the production of MP3 players and multimedia devices, the company has firmly established itself in the market due to the good quality and excellent design of its products. Since 2009, Iriver has also been releasing e-books. Today we will get acquainted with the third model of this manufacturer - Story HD EB07.
Packaging and delivery set
The device is packed in a box made of ordinary thick cardboard, on which there are only text labels. Not a single image of what is inside was found on the box. It is good to give gifts in such packaging - until the very moment the box is opened, the person being presented will be in the dark as to what was given to him.
The delivery set is very meager. In addition to the e-book itself, the box contains only:
- - USB cable for PC connection;
- - Brief instruction manual;
Particularly upsetting is the lack of a cover for storing and carrying books, a very necessary thing in the household. Of course, you can buy a cover separately, but these are additional costs that somewhat darken the joy of a very affordable price for the device itself.
Specifications
- Dimensions: 190.4 x 127.5 x 9.3mm
- Weight: 207g
- Processor: Freescale i.MX508, 800 MHz
- Operating system: Linux
- Screen: 6 '' E-Ink Pearl, 768x1024 resolution, 16 grayscale
- Keyboard: QWERTY (38 buttons), navigation and additional buttons
- Interface: multilingual (17 languages, including Russian)
- Built-in memory: 2 GB
- Memory card support: SD, SDHC (up to 32 GB)
- PC connection: USB 2.0
- Text file formats: PDF, EPUB, TXT, FB2, DJVU
- Picture Formats: JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG
- Office formats: PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, DOC, DOCX, HWP
- Dictionary: Collins Dictionary
- Battery: built-in Li-Pol, 1800 mAh
- Runtime: up to 14,000 pages
Construction and design
Iriver has always worked carefully on the design of its devices. The Iriver Story HD EB07 example shows the result of this work - the design of the book was a success. The body is made of matte plastic, fingerprints do not remain on it and the device retains a neat appearance during use. The front side of the case is white, while the back is made in a very pleasant beige color. Due to the shape of the case, the book seems thinner than it actually is - the real case thickness is 9mm, this is an average figure.
The bezel houses the book's most notable detail - the new 6-inch E-Ink Pearl HD screen. It has an increased resolution compared to previous models of 6 '' E-Ink screens - 768 × 1024 pixels and can display 16 shades of gray. Pearl displays high resolution and contrast for a reading experience never seen before. In addition, this screen has a slightly faster refresh rate. In combination with a fast 800 MHz processor, this saves the user from delays when flipping through the bookshelf interface.
Navigation keys are located under the screen, and a block of QWERTY-keyboard buttons even below. The buttons are narrow, made of transparent plastic and emphasize the overall style of the device. The central navigation key is a four-position rocker, with the help of which you move through the menu items and turn pages while reading. It has a silver coating and is comfortable to work with. A separate Enter button is used to confirm and enter the submenu. There are also 3 more control buttons - Home, Back and Option. The scrolling buttons are duplicated by cursor buttons located at the bottom of the keyboard block.
The buttons on the QWERTY keyboard are small in size but comfortable. The responses are clear, there are no mistaken clicks.The designations are printed on the body of the book on top of each button. The implementation of the keyboard is generally good, but you won't have to use it often - it is only used to find information.
On the back side of the case there is a slider for turning on / off the book, as well as a slot for memory cards covered with a lid. Supports SD and SDHC cards up to 32GB. The book itself has 2 GB of internal memory, so you may not need to increase it additionally. At the bottom there is a standard mini-USB connector, which pleases me, there will be no problems with connecting to a computer. The book does not support playback of audio files, so it does not have a 3.5 mm headphone jack, as well as built-in speakers. Any other frills like wireless modules, games, etc. also missing.
The book is compact even with a full QWERTY keyboard. The dimensions are 190.4 x 127.5 x 9.3 mm, and the weight is only about 200 g, this allows you to comfortably work with the book, holding it in one hand.
Functionality and operation
By and large, Iriver Story HD EB07 is designed to perform only one function - reading. She simply cannot do anything else. But the manufacturer tried to provide the best conditions for reading, and the main component here is the screen. It noticeably outperforms the 6-inch solutions currently on the market in terms of smoothness of fonts and contrast of text. Reading from such a screen is very pleasant and not tiring for the eyes. High resolution allows you not to lose clarity of the image when using small fonts.
The book's interface is pleasant and generally user-friendly, although there are some non-obvious points. For example, on the main screen, the list of books is limited to four items and in order to go to the general list, you need to be smart or read the instructions. By the way, the complete instructions are written into the memory of the book itself. The book is equipped with a G-sensor, and automatically rotates the image on the screen when changing the position of the body from vertical to horizontal and vice versa.
The device boasts support for the following formats: TXT, FB2, EPUB, PDF, DJVU. The most fully supported formats are EPUB, PDF and TXT. Other formats are supported with restrictions, for example, text selection and embedded illustrations are not supported for FB2 format. True, this does not interfere with reading fiction. For those who need to completely preserve the original formatting of the text, it is advisable to convert it to EPUB format. Support for this format is excellent. The function of wrapping text by syllables is not supported for any format. When you move on to reading another book, the current position is remembered, so you never lose the place where you finished reading. It is very convenient, you do not need to worry about bookmarks.
In addition to the main function of reading, Iriver Story HD EB07 can display photos and images in JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF, and presentations in office formats. There is also a built-in English Oxford Dictionary, and a book search function. As you can see, the device cannot boast of great capabilities, but this is not required for the reader.
All functions of the device work quickly, thanks to the nimble processor. Regular books open in a few seconds. "Heavy" formats such as PDF take longer to process, but not critical. Scrolling is also fast, and no artifacts from the previous page remain on the screen. In general, although the book does not hold a record for speed, it doesn’t make the user wait a long time for a reaction to his actions, this is good news.
When copying a large number of books to the device's memory, it simultaneously indexes and adds information about new books to the internal database. This process can take quite a long time. In this case, the book will update the screen with a certain frequency.Thus, recklessly trying to fill your entire library with several thousand books at once, you can completely drain the device's battery. It is better to add books in small portions, or fill in only those that you are directly going to read. Alternatively, you can prohibit the use of the database in the settings. Then the user-created folder structure will be used to organize the books. For owners of a large library, this mode will be preferable.
PC connection and charging
When connected to a computer via a mini-USB cable, you can select the operating mode - charging or connecting as a removable storage device. In the second case, the device looks like a regular flash drive in the system, and allows you to copy / delete files using Explorer or a file manager. There are no compatibility problems with different operating systems.
The battery is charged within 4 hours. The operating time from a single charge is quite long, and is very close to the declared 14,000 page turns. The book can automatically, after a specified time, go to sleep. The exit from this mode is much faster than the normal inclusion. You can also set the time (up to 24 hours) in the settings, after which the book will automatically turn off completely.
conclusions
Advantages and Disadvantages of Iriver Story HD EB07:
Pros:
- - Great design;
- - Screen E-Ink Pearl HD;
- - Long working time;
- - Low cost;
Minuses:
- - Modest delivery set;
- - Incomplete support for the FB2 format;
- - Some shortcomings in the interface;
As you can see, there are clearly more advantages than disadvantages, and they are much more significant. We can say that Iriver has created an almost perfect reader. Great design, the latest screen, long battery life, no unnecessary features - this is the portrait of Iriver Story HD EB07. This is a device for those who want to exclusively read, and do it with maximum comfort, while not overpaying for unnecessary music, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, games, an Internet browser and other functionality not directly related to reading. It is best suited for reading fiction. The low price and the renowned manufacturer suggest that the device will be successful in the market.
You can buy Iriver Story HD EB07 in our store at a bargain price.
