Introduction
The PocketBook Touch HD is a nice and handy e-reader with plenty of options. Thanks to the long battery life, you can go for quite a while.
An ideal e-reader! In this review, I go deeper into why this is a great thing.
Specifications
Let’s start with the specs!
Display: 6″ E Ink® Carta™ (1072 × 1448)
Front light: + (SMART light)
Protection: HZO Protection™ IPx7
Text-to-Speech: Reading function (Text-to-Speech): English (15 additional languages can be downloaded free of charge via pocketbook.nl)
Touch screen: Capacitive (multi-sensor)
Size: 161.3 x 108 x 8mm
Grayscale: 16 shades of gray
Color: Spicy Copper
Battery: Lithium-ion polymer battery, 1500 mAh. Up to 1 month of battery capacity, depending on usage, connectivity, and selected settings.
Processor: Dual Core (2x1GHz)
Functional memory: 512 MB
Flash memory: 16 GB. Actual available internal memory size may vary by software configuration.
USB connection: Micro-USB
Expandable Memory: None!
Audio output: MP3 (with Micro-USB audio adapter)
E-book formats: PDF, PDF(DRM), EPUB, EPUB(DRM), DJVU, FB2, FB2.ZIP, DOC, DOCX, RTF, PRC, TXT, CHM, HTM, HTML, MOBI, ACSM
Image formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Audio Formats: MP3, M4B
Weight: 155g
Speakers: None
Camera: None
Wireless connection: Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)
Additional Features: Store, Library, Dictionary, Browser, Audiobooks, Music Player, Gallery, Calculator, Note, RSS News, Solitaire, Chess, Scribble, Sudoku. PocketBook Cloud, ReadRate, Dropbox PocketBook, Send-to-PocketBook.
Screen material: Plastic
Dictionary: ABBYY Lingvo® Dictionaries (24 language combinations), English-German, Webster’s Dictionary 1913
Unpacking
I received the Touch HD 3 and the InkPad X from PocketBook. In this review, I will, of course, take a closer look at the Touch HD 3!
With the Touch HD 3, several manuals and extra reading material are of course included. In addition, you get a USB-A to Micro-USB cable and a Micro-USB to female 3.5mm jack. This allows you to listen to books/audio files with earphones.
First impression? Nice thing! But almighty, how light the tablet is with its 155 grams!
The back is gold, and that looks pretty good!
On the front (bottom) there are four buttons. One for the main menu, page forward/back, etc., and settings.
At the very bottom are the micro-USB port and the power button.
The other sides of the tablet are ‘clean’. No connections or the like.
Then the screen itself. The 6-inch (15.24 cm) multisensor screen has smart/backlighting and is also glare free. The HD 3 is so solidly put together that you can safely use it in the bath. With IPX7-rated water protection, the tablet can take a drop.
The screen is 300DPI and has a resolution of 1072×1448.
During the start, several things can be set, such as language, WiFi, etc.
When no WiFi is available, it will take the latest installed firmware version.
While updating, the PocketBook HD 3 boots up several times!
PocketBook has an option in its OS to send books via email to your e-reader. When it is connected to the WiFi, books that are received in the mail (on the e-reader) are immediately added to your library.
Once started up and finished with the installation, you will end up in the main menu. And the great thing about the PocketBook OS is that it is pretty uncluttered. At the bottom are three buttons with ‘Library’, ‘Store’, and ‘Settings’. The top shows what has been recently opened, and the latest (added) books are displayed at the bottom left.
It is easy to browse through the library. And with 16GB you can still store a fair amount of books!
When opening a book, you can either switch pages on the right and left (middle or bottom) by clicking on the screen, or the physical buttons at the bottom.
The texts look clear, but should it still not be to your liking, this too is completely customizable. For example, every 90 degrees you can choose a different angle to read from.
If the texts are too small, you can set them up to 40pt. This can be ideal for comics, for example.
In addition, the borders can be adjusted, text spacing, font, etc.
The cool thing about such an e-reader is that the text is just tremendously sharp/clear. I initially had a feeling that it would look like you could count pixels, but that’s NOT the case!
Of course, you can also open the menu, so that the sound can be turned down louder (yes, the books can be read aloud should you listen to the e-reader with Bluetooth headphones). There is also a possibility to disable or adjust the wireless connections (Bluetooth/WiFi).
Via this menu there is also a possibility to leave a note on the page, open the dictionary or enable/disable voice (read aloud). Of course, the options to see the book’s table of contents (top left button) and search options (top right) are not missing.
By downloading a voice (in this case Kendra) the book can be read aloud. There are quite a few languages and voices available!
Sorting the library is also easy. You can sort by authors, genre, collection (created yourself), folders, favorites, etc.
The settings menu has quite a few options (I had set the e-reader in English, I like it better!);
– Wi-Fi
– Bluetooth
– Accounts and Synchronization
– Personalize
—- Frontlight
—- G-Sensor
—- Boot Logo
—- Power-off logo
—- Complete page refresh (Never/Always/Every 3/Every 5/Every 10 pages)
—- Open at startup (last opened book/menu etc.)
—- Led indication (on/off)
—- Key Mapping
—- User Profile
– Languages
—- Language
—- Keyboard Layouts
—- Available Dictionaries
—- Speech Synthesis
– Date/Time
– Saving Power
– Maintenance
—- USB Mode
——- PC Link
——- Charge
——- Ask when connected
—- Privacy
—- Format internal memory
—- Factory Reset
—- Demo mode
—- Screen calibration
– Software
– About Device
—- Device Model
—- Memory
—- Legal Information
And then the best part about the e-reader, playing with the backlight! 😉
The backlight has two options that can be adjusted; Frontlight or SMARTlight. By playing with these settings, the screen can be set to your liking.
Of course, there is also the option to set it to automatic.
“This is a chart of the default automatic Frontlight mode. The solid line shows the brightness of the Frontlight and the dotted line shows the color temperature (SMARTlight). These settings cannot be changed but you can create your automatic Frontlight mode settings by selecting “New settings” in the menu one level up”
In addition, there is also a store that can be used via the PocketBook HD3. Through BookSpot, for example, you can easily buy books so that you can travel again in a nice way!
When not using the e-reader for a long time, it goes into sleep mode. When clicked again, it turns on again!
I think it’s a cool thing!
There is quite a big difference between the Pocketbook X and the HD 3 in this case. The Pocketbook X is also a 10-inch e-reader, ideal for home, and the HD 3 is ideal for traveling!
Use
How is the PocketBook HD 3 in use? I can be pretty short about that! Great… It’s just a small but handy e-reader. Should you ever find yourself on the train and want a quick read, you can pull out the e-reader in no time. And because it is not such a gigantic tablet as the PocketBook InkPad X, it can also be tucked away quickly.
In terms of options for such a small device, I am impressed. The possibility to send books via the cloud/dropbox/email etc. to the PocketBook is really cool. Suppose you have just bought a book and want to upload it to your book, then you put it in your DropBox and it will appear on your e-reader via WiFi (if this is of course set up). That saves continuous connection to the PC!
There are plenty of options in that regard! I’ll just list the options: Store, Library, Dictionary, Browser, Audiobooks, Music Player, Gallery, Calculator, Note, RSS News, Solitaire, Chess, Scribble, Sudoku, PocketBook Cloud, ReadRate, Dropbox PocketBook, Send-to-PocketBook.
Conclusion
For the past few months, I’ve been able to use both the Touch HD 3 and the InkPad X almost daily. And I must confess that I understand both devices. One is small and handy, easy to take with you and the other is nicer to sit at home on the couch and just devour books.
I think the HD3 is a very nice e-reader. It is a handy e-reader with plenty of options. The OS of PocketBooks works fine and there are also plenty of options.
In addition, the battery life of the HD3 is also just very good. I still haven’t even tapped 40% in the months I’ve been using the HD3. So in that respect, you can go a long way. This is of course especially nice on holidays.
What is also a given is that so many types of files can be read. And if you don’t feel like reading, the HD 3 can also read to you (the languages can be downloaded for free from the PocketBook website) – via the micro-USB to 3.5mm jack. Of course, you can also play books and even music (MP3, M4B) wirelessly with headphones via Bluetooth.
On the one hand, I miss the option to add extra memory, on the other hand, 16GB is enough for only books. On the other hand, adding SD card features also increase the price, which in turn affects the price/quality ratio.
With 155 grams, the Touch HD 3 is also really lightweight! And that is certainly nice. If you lie in bed, you will notice less of the weight of the HD 3 than a heavy tablet. Even when holding it normally, or even holding the tablet above your head… you won’t drop the e-reader on your head as quickly because of this. 😉
In addition, the 4 buttons at the bottom also work fine. Switching is easy and the options/menu can be called up quickly.
The screen is also clear and, above all, tremendously sharp. The backlight options are also nice. The ability to turn on a backlight at all is already nice, but to also be able to adjust the color scheme (warmer or not) through the SMARTlight, that also makes for quite an addition. At certain times you don’t feel like staring at a blue/cool screen and reading a book. Then it is nicer to set the screen a little softer and warmer.
That it’s not all that smooth, well… that’s just e-readers. That’s not a 120Hz screen. You get used to that pretty quickly.
According to PocketBook, the IPX7 certification allows the HD 3 to be immersed in fresh water up to one meter deep for up to 30 minutes, without any harmful effects! This is of course especially nice if you want to read a book by the pool, or in the bathtub.
At the time of writing, the PocketBook Touch HD 3 is for sale for 149 euros. And I must confess that I don’t even think that’s such a crazy amount for an e-reader with these options and possibilities.
In fact… I am truly impressed with the e-reader. And with that, in my view, the Touch HD 3 deserves the full 5 stars!
