Customer Reviews

Well HEY! Off to Oz at the end of the week. Looked all about for these & finally found these guys selling them. I wanted reader, MP3 & photo storage. All on this machine, I am lead to believe.

The purchasing was straightforward. The speedy delivery was by courier.

First impressions were how large and clear the screen appeared. The optional Case is worth the investment, although - the lamp is rather disappointing. All relevant leads etc were supplied and I might add that because I raised a question with regard it's use abroad - Steve Jones of Pixelar added an additional adapter plug FOC.

I wanted an ebook reader for my wife, so it had to be easy to operate. Like anything else electronic (like mobile phones for example) it can be quite simple to use, or as difficult if you want to take advantage of every feature.

You switch it on - select a book - turn the page. Your Granny could use it.

The manual is a different matter - it's all there but I know it will take time.

It needs the firmware update before using really as there is need of it to remove reference to deleted books. The firmware needs unzipping plus the SD card requires formatting, best done with Panasonic SD Formatter 2.0.0.3.

It does require some computer knowledge (or in my case, someone I know) to get started.

If this had been bought from A N Other company, I would have been worried, but - I cannot speak too highly of Steve Jones of Pixelar who gave me guidance and help with such speedy replies, it was personal service at it's very best.

The ebook reader hardware competition might seem more polished, but I really was against being locked into a particular sector of (over priced?) ebooks.

Apart from the couriers sending it to North Wales via Scotland the e-reader arrived promptly.

I'd already prepared a number of books ready for transfer. These were in Mobi, Plain Text & Adobe Digital Editions (DRM), it handled them all superbly. The zoom facility especially useful after a long day!

I updated the firmware with no problems, & went on my trip.

The-reader proved a 'godsend'. To date it's given no problems, & has lived up to my expectations.

I hope I don't have any problems but from the very prompt & helpful response to my question regarding its location,(I was given the tracking number, so I could follow its progress round the country), I feel happy that any further questions will be dealt with in the same efficient manner.

A few comments that may be useful for you answering customer's queries. In summary --- I am EXTREMELY HAPPY with the device and already referred two friends of mine to your site (and will continue to refer my friends/students unless I see it elsewhere cheaper).

On Fri, 4 Sep 2009, steve jones Pixelar.co.uk wrote: >> 3. Does mp3 player support directory browsing or only the tag-based >> linearly ordered list? > > Our V3 device doesn't support MP3 directory browsing.

It does support it perfectly!

Before I updgraded the firmware to the latest on your site (V2.10) I was horrified by the low level of quality (no anti-aliasing) of PDF viewer. However, after the firmware upgrade I confirm that it is actually BETTER than Sony PRS-505.

While it is fresh in my memory here are the pros and cons compared to Sony PRS-505 (you are free to publish these comments on your website if you wish):

1. Support for more formats (most importantly to me djvu and chm)

2. Natural view of storage by means of directories, subdirectories and files. No need to waste time creating "Collections" --- managing data by means of directories (aka "folders" in non-Unix world) is much more convenient. This works for all file types, including mp3 --- this means no need to bother with the mp3 tags (I only hope that they (Hanlin) do NOT break this by adding support for mp3 tags).

3. PDF reflow works as good as in Sony (looks like exactly the same software licensed from Adobe).

4. The only feature lacking in Hanlin V3 (but present in Sony PRS-505) is support for the hyperlinks on a page of PDF file.

5. More zoom levels for PDF.

6. Supports 8GB SDHC just fine (I am using Transcend 8GB SDHC Class 6 card with no problems whatsoever). Sony's claim of 16GB support is a LIE (no, their firmware upgrade for SDHC > 4GB doesn't solve this). Sony PRS-505 actually corrupts (silently!) all data beyond 4GB (i.e. wraps around writes beyond 4Gb to the blocks at the beginning) so the real maximum of both devices is the same (4GB + 4GB for Sony PRS-505 and 8GB single SDHC for Hanlin V3). Unfortunately 16GB cards don't work for Hanlin either BUT unlike PRS-505 the data is NOT corrupted --- it just refuses to read it and displays the message "No SD card".

7. Table of contents elements (aka "PDF bookmarks" and "DjVu outlines") can be in any language, not just English. I tested Russian and Armenian and they work just fine.

A few days later I asked my local computer shop in Tenerife if they supply Sony eBook readers but was told they aren't available in Tenerife but they could get me a Papyre eBook. The Papyre they told me was better than the Sony as it had double the internal memory and supported a huge number of different formats, the price, however, was 398 Euros, substantially more than the Sony. They suggested that I look up Papyre on the internet which I did. It turned out that the Papyre is made in China for the Spanish market by the Jinke Company who OEM eBook readers under a number of brand names including, Papyre, BeBook and Hanlin.

I looked up the Pixelar web site and was impressed with the quality of the web site and the information on the Hanlin eBook reader. Pixelar are a British company who claim to have years of experience at determining the best audio visual products at competitive prices. I liked the idea that Pixelar was a relatively small British Company which made me think that they would consider after sales service important which as it turned out I was right.

I remembered seeing that PC Pro magazine had done a review of eBooks in their January edition. The Hanlin was not one of the five eBooks reviewed but the BeBook was and is the same as the Hanlin.

The two brand leaders are probably Sony and the Amazon Kindle-2 which is not yet available in Europe. The problem with the Sony and the Kindle is that to a great extent you are tied into buying ebooks from their own sources. Format support for the Sony is limited to their own format BBeB, plus, EPUB, PDF, DOC and TXT and according to PC Pro it struggles to display PDF's “on occasion”. The Kindle is even more limited with format support available for Amazon's own proprietary AZW format plus Mobipocket and TXT. Three other formats, HTML, PDF and DOC have to be converted to AZW using a free email service. The Hanlin on the other hand supports, PDF, MOBI, DOC, WOLF, MP3, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, Djvu, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, JPG, PPT, EPUB, LIT, and PRC.

According to PC Pro the BeBook is let down by only rendering pages in four shades of grey against the Sony's eight as a result, they say text appears slightly pixellated. PC Pro also goes on to say that the BeBook has a “real bargain-basement feel to the device” and “The matt-black plastic case feels cheap”. The last two comments somewhat put me off but on reading other reviews from users no one else had made similar comments.

My experience of the Hanlin is that there is no pixellation at all in text in any of the formats that I have tried so far, Mobi, TXT, WOL, PDF and Doc even at the highest magnification. As for bargain-basement feel, as far as I am concerned the Hanlin feels robust and well made. Aesthetically it is perhaps not as good as my impression of the Sony but the keys are well spaced and well positioned and it is perfectly functional.

One of the best features of the Hanlin apart from its 512MB memory (double that of the Sony and the Kindle) is the number of formats that it supports. As a novice to eBooks It would be useful if there was some information on formats and Digital Rights Management (DRM) and guidance as to what formats are the best for downloading eBooks.

As most free eBooks are available in multi format I have been downloading free eBooks from various eBook web sites in different formats as a learning experience. The first free eBook that I tried to download was a Lee Child novel from Fictionwise www.fictionwise.com. After logging in for the first time I had to set up my preferred and alternative secure eBook formats. As Fictionwise recommend Secure eReader format as the preferred selection I went along with that not realising that that was one format that the Hanlin did not support, however, an email to Fictionwise got a speedy response that they had changed the format to Mobipocket which installed without any problems. As mentioned, I have since tried TXT, WOL, PDF and DOC format downloads without any problems and I have also experimented with JPG and HTML. It should be noted that not all of the formats available with the Hanlin support DRM (Digital Rights Management).

I recently upgraded the Firmware in my Hanlin to the latest version. The update download has first to be unzipped and copied onto a 1GB SD card and only a 1GB card as any other size will not work. 1GB SD cards appear to be going out of fashion here in Tenerife, 2GB and above, no problem but nowhere could I find a 1GB card. Fortunately my digital camera had a 1GB card in it and the upgrade went off without a hitch. It might be a good idea if you decide to buy a Hanlin to order a 1GB SD card from Pixelar at the same time as I suspect that 1GB cards may soon be a thing of the past.

After ordering a Hanlin it finally arrived in Tenerife after a somewhat protracted journey. Through no fault of Pixelar my eBook went from the UK to Barcelona then to Madrid then to Tenerife and then back to Barcelona and finally back to Tenerife. All the time I was able to follow the travels of my Hanlin by entering a tracking number into the couriers website. Although it took nearly three weeks to arrive I have nothing but praise for the way that Steve Jones of Pixelar dealt with my cries for help. The problem was Spanish Customs and it was unfortunate that it was the first (and perhaps last) order that Pixelar have exported to Tenerife.

Communication is such an important aspect of dealing with customers especially regarding complaints and on this I could not fault Pixelar's Steve Jones who always dealt with my email queries promptly and efficiently – full marks.