We had recently written a comparision of Apple iPad vs Infibeam Pi last week following which i ordered both of these gadgets one by one. While the Infibeam was delivered at free of cost to my address within 3 days through Fedex in a excellent package, here are more details on the same.
Infibeam Pi Photos :
Infibeam Pi Video :
Again the product costs 9990Rs in India with free shipping to any location within the country. The product is sold by Ahmedabad based company called Infibeam which runs a eCommerce Store through which you can buy more eBooks for reading on the Pi. The product is decent enough though i would give it a rating of 7/10 because of the looks vs pricing factors. The display is Black & White and to be frank i felt it was very Dim, hence it would strain the eyes if you read for many hours on it. The Music player function does not having any Volume Increase or Decrease option, hence you have to either listen the Mp3 songs on high volume or else just stop them.
There is no SD Card provided with the reader which is a Big Disappointment because any buyer would expect a minimum card of maybe 256mb or 512mb, but for me i own a Canon G9 Camera, hence i could easily use its SD Card of 4GB Memory to try out this eBook Reader. The slot for inserting this card is available in the top left while the Power ON & Off is on the top right section. The overall weight of the reader is seriously very less which makes it a device which you can carry anywhere and also continuously read through it for hours without getting pain on your hands.
Will try to transfer a few photos and then update you guys on all the other features of the Infibeam Pi eBook Reader.
Thanks for the review Amit.
The +/- buttons on the right side will help you increase / decrease the volume.
Based on the view / application you are in, the 4 buttons on left & and 2 on right side of Pi will perform different functions. Once you start using it, you’ll quickly get a hang of it and it kinda becomes intuitive.
Hi Amit,
Even I feel the display is very dim.. Is it the same case with the Kindle 2?
yes its the same because that also uses the same display technology.
Hi Amit,
I am also interesetd in Infibeam Pi. I want to know whether it supports Sientific journals in two-column pdf format with graphs, tables and and other figures ?
I bought Infibeam Pi from local (Bangalore Picsquare.com) on 5th May, 2010.
Pros:
1. First Indian ebook reader (although I later found out that this is not totally Indian designed !)
2. Very light (180 gm) and good form factor both of which give tireless readability.
3. With leather case, the whole unit is very compact and can easily be carried wherever one goes. It really looks like a small diary.
4. With music on the background, reading becomes a pleasurable pastime.
5. The letters are crisp, and well readable, although not jet black like printed books.
Cons (points for improvement):
1. Booting is slow, it takes more than 40 seconds
2. Loading any file is slow even for files of about 100 kb
3. Fairly high price for Indian market.
4. Although it is claimed that it will support many formats, in reality prc, html are not possible.
5. Some pdf files created by utility software are not fully usable. Increasing font size or even zooming doesn’t help in making the text big enough to read. I am not sure if this is inherent problem.
6. As someone pointed out, it hangs sometimes ( I had to reset at least 5 times during my short usage)
7. The user manual version is V2.0 but the unit I received is V2.2.1. But nowhere I can find out what are the improvements of V2.2.1. Even for a product costing Rs. 1000, like mouse, version details are provided for users to know the improvements done.
8. The manufacturer has to assure that any future firmware upgrades are available either as CD or downloadable from your website. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.
9. Files with diagrams are not properly positioned and formatted. So, this is ok for novels, history, biography etc. but is very poor for books on engineering, medicine and other scientific books, where diagrams are always part of the text.
Overall it is a good product and I hope further improvements will be provided by manufacturer by way of free upward firmware to the present users.
Raja Ramalingam
Thanks for you review.
Thanks for your review Amit.
What has been your experience while reading PDF files on the Infibeam Pi? To show an entire PDF page on the screen, the reader will resize the PDF and that will make the text on the document very small to read. So do we zoom and scroll sideways to read?
Also, as Mr. Gopakumar had asked, how does the device tackle Sientific journals in two-column pdf format with graphs, tables and and other figures?
It’s good Products
dear friend
my pi is unable to read the contents of the card
please help
hi Amith, thank for providing useful videos.