AT A GLANCE
- Touch screen
- Full browsing capability
My initial excitement at trying out Bookeen's Cybook Orizon was cut short for a variety of reasons.
The specifications for the device look great on paper and some of them even stand up to the hype but overall I was left feeling very let down.
I will start with the positives: The touch screen was great. It made turning pages quick and easy and was far more comfortable that constantly clicking a button to turn pages.
In good news, the box had just about everything I needed to start reading (150 free ebooks) and more, such as a lack protective neoprene sleeve. At first I had issues connecting the device to my laptop, it would not read the device as a drive. But once I tried again, it picked up the device quickly and transferring existing eBooks onto the Cybook was a breeze.
I was really impressed with the multitude of formats that the device can handle - Adobe ePUB/PDF, txt and html files as well as many image formats including JPG, GIF and PNG file make the device very user friendly.
Unfortunately for the Cybook Orizon those are the only real positives I could find - I found it very difficult to navigate the device, it is not intuitive and I had to read the manual to try and figure it out. Unfortunately, the manual is also not that great (perhaps due to being translated from the French?) and it didn’t really help me all that much.
One of the features that had me excited to use the Cybook Orizon was the full browsing capability. The browser connects to your local Wi-Fi network and once I had figured out how to input my password I thought I would be ready and raring to surf. Small problem. The browser is incredibly slow, taking minutes to open new pages and not being able to open "pop-ups" or additional widows that some sites require.
I found myself increasingly frustrated and eventually gave up trying to purchase a book on the device preferring to purchase the book using my laptop and then transferring it across to the device manually.
Overall, for me, the cons far outweigh the pros of the Cybook Orizon. I think I will stick to my Kindle...
Turn Ons:
- Slim and lightweight
- Multiple eBook and image formats
- Choose from 12 font sizes, add highlights, bookmarks, notes
Turn Offs:
- Browsing is slow and limited
- Not user-friendly - even the manual is hard to understand
