PocketBook Era Color E-Reader | Eye-Friendly 7'' E-Ink Kaleido 3 Touch-Screen | Audio-Book & E-Book Reader | Waterproof | Text-to-Speech Function | Built-in Speaker | WiFi & Bluetooth | Stormy Sea

If you're in the market for a color e-reader, this is a great choice. Colors are muted (as with all color e-ink), and the screen is darker than the monochrome version, which necessitates more backlight use, and thus battery power. This is inherent to all color e-ink displays, so understand that before buying. If color is not critical, buy the monochrome version.The build quality is top notch. I was a little concerned that with the buttons on the side would be prone to accidental clicking. They are not, and in fact the shape of the buttons actually improve single handed grip considerably. Holding the Era in one hand, and using the right arrow button to advance pages is comfortable. The device is fairly light (about the same as a the Kindle Paper White). It will just fit in a wide pant pocket. The back side's grooved surface looks OK, but did not improve grip the way I expected.PocketBook's software is a breath of fresh air. There are a plethora of customization options. Every physical button can be customized to do whatever the user wants. Screen tap, and gesture actions can also be fully customized. The store can be hidden; Something I appreciate as US customer. The library can be sorted many ways, including by genre and series, and it can also be searched. Books can be marked as favorites, and users can make their own collections. There is a task manager (which can be mapped to a physical key like most every other feature), which makes switching between apps effortless. There is a nice browser, allowing about as good a browsing experience as possible on e-ink. Voice integration is better than I expected. Multiple voices are available for download to suit most tastes. Playback is relatively smooth, and playback speed is adjustable. There is voice playback in the dictionary tab, which is very helpful with foreign word pronunciation.It's a modifiable device too. If you want to use KOReader, installing it is a snap, and file associations can be set so clicking on a book opens KOReader automatically. If you want to dig deeper, all kinds of other changes can be made. Like changing the application menu, changing app icons to whatever you want, Changing the app menu categories, sorting, and hiding apps altogether, and the developers even included helpful comments in the devices config files to make customization easier.What's not to like? It would be nice if bookmarks had a dropdown context menu like Kindle. The dictionary/translation feature opens as a tab; A window like on Kindle or KOReader would be better. If PocketBook entered the US market, quite a few things could be improved, but it's understandable why they have not.

This is my first color e-reader, and I absolutely love it! It's compact enough to always be on hand, plays audiobooks, features built-in TTS, backlight, and tons of other functions.But the best part is the color screen, which my daughter also loves – she's a huge fan of comics and manga, by the way. Those calm, not-too-bright colors are perfect for her eyes. The device supports comic and PDF formats, so now we don't have to buy new printed comics nearly every week – they're all stored in the reader.I also appreciate the text-to-speech feature, especially as a multitasking mom. While cooking, I can simply listen to my book through the built-in speaker.To sum up, my daughter and I are absolutely thrilled with our new e-reader!

Color e-ink just isn't there, still. It's OK, but not contrasty or clear enough, for me. Others might be OK with it. I also don't like having to convert every book I buy on Amazon to ePub or whatever. I found a free eBook - turned out to be a PDF - and tried to change the font, and there doesn't appear to be any way to do this. The manual also doesn't mention the ability to change fonts or even font size(!!). I have to assume it's possible, but... I didn't want to have to create an account, and buy an eBook from the Pocketbook Store to find out. But seems to me it would be in the manual.I also didn't like the buttons. They're flush with the device and there are 4 of them. Easy to press the wrong button. I also thought the overall speed of the device was a bit slow compared to my Kindles.On the plus side, the screen was nice and bright at 100%.Personally, I will be waiting for the new Kindle Color coming out in 2025 in 6" and 10" sizes. Supposed to be great color. Next Gen kind of thing. And fast. Hopefully, they just take the Oasis and make it color and faster, at least tfor the 6" version.

This is my first non-Kindle ereader as well as first color e-ink device. I was offered this as part of the Vine Voice program - please realize I am trying to be as unbiased as I can with these reviews.The Good:- Color E-ink is a nice addition to the reading experience. I do not read many comics and imagine this may still seem limiting depending on the type of comics or graphic novels one enjoyed. Still nice for PDFs in color, etc.- Linux based: fonts are easy (somewhat) to install, reads multiple formats, looks like you can kind of organize books however you like.- Some preinstalled books. Actually, a lot of books in many languages - it may actually be nice if they offered a cleanup tool.- Fairly customizable- Nice form factor and customizable buttons. Can be setup for right or left handed use. I do find I sometimes press the wrong button, but haven't dove into changing it's use yet.The Bad:- Converting books is going to be a thing if you buy from other stores. I have not purchased anything from the PocketBook store. Converting books from some retailers (ahem....) seems to be getting more difficult, which annoys those of us with large libraries.- It's a little sluggish. Not terrible, but it is "slower than a Kindle" when changing pages, etc. I am not sure if this is a Linux/processor thing or a color e-ink thing yet.- Color e-ink is pretty muted. Just worth knowing in case you expect super vibrant colors.Overall I really like the device but I do wonder if the average user would be happy with the trade off of managing content and a semi-sluggish device to move off of the more popular platforms in exchange for the use of more open file types.