2 weeks ago
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The Amazon Kindle range may rule the roost when it comes to e-readers but UK bookworms finally have another competitor they can consider if they prefer not to read on a device from Jeff Bezos and co.
Swiss-based tech firm PocketBook has been producing e-readers for more than a decade but they’ve been tricky to get hold of on these shores until now. Brits can buy a number of PocketBook reading devices online in the UK.
This means you now have three solid e-reader brand choices, with Kobo also making some of the best devices in the business.
The recent colour screened Kobo Libra Colour (£199.99) and Kindle Colorsoft (£269.99) have impressed, but PocketBook has several colour options including the new compact 6-inch screen £149.99 Verse Pro Color or the high-end £27.99 InkPad Color with 7.8-inch display. They both use the latest E Ink Kaleido 3 colour screen tech and promise two months of battery life between charges.
These models plus several more from PocketBook’s wide range of e-readers are now available in the UK from trusted retailer Laptops Direct, offering you another alternative to the Kindle.
Though it has its own built-in store on its e-readers from which to purchase e-books, PocketBook differentiates itself from its rivals with its PocketBook Cloud service.
“PocketBook Cloud is a cross-platform service that combines your e-reader, Android or iOS smartphones, tablets, and PC, linking all devices into one single ecosystem,” the company says on its website.
“It allows you to synchronise e-book files, your reading positions and personal settings. In other words, you can start a book on the e-reader, continue on your mobile phone, and then again return to PocketBook, without wasting time searching for the right page, changing the font or any other settings for that matter.”
You can plug your PocketBook into your PC and drag a number of e-book file formats onto it, however it will still be tricky to do this with Kindle e-book files as Amazon locks them down so you have to read them on Kindles. But there are clever people out there on Reddit who have probably worked out how to do it.
PocketBook claims you can buy e-books and audiobooks “from any store”, so if there are online e-book marketplaces you use instead of e-reader stores, you should be good to go. The company appears to stand for freedom of choice, and for that it should be commended.
Many of the devices support text-to-speech which can read books out loud to you when you’re driving or cooking, for example, plus the built-in speakers can play audiobooks, which can also be listened to via Bluetooth headphones.
Most of the range comes with IPX8 waterproofing for worry-free reading in the bath or by the pool, and they offer front lights for reading at night as well as a dark mode to go really easy on the eyes with white text on a black background.
If you have a huge Kindle or Kobo library you might be hesitant to switch e-reader brands, but given the openness of PocketBook, the new UK entrant could be worth a look, especially if you are into downloading free e-books from various sources.
With support for 25 different e-book formats, the colour devices could also be a good choice if you want to read comic books or graphic novels in colour. The aforementioned colour Kobo and Kindle models are great, but their colours are a little washed out and the displays too small to truly enjoy most comics. Express.co.uk hopes to test a PocketBook soon to see if these e-readers can truly compete with the more established brands.
English (US) ·