Best PD compatible device for reading

[thph2006]

Any users have an opinion on which device would be easier to read without pulling out the reading glasses? HTC Advantage looks like the biggest screen but REALLY expensive. Touch HD looks promising on paper but not coming to USA. HP ipaq 211 4" screen size sounds good but does VGA make it harder to read than the smaller ipaq 110 if you already need reading glasses? My biggest frustration is most of these devices aren't stocked at stores where you can go have a look at them in person.

Can anyone (willing to admit they're over 40) offer a first hand opinion on any of these for use without the reading glasses?

Thanks a lot! tom

 

[thph2006]

I'll reply to my own post for anyone who might find it useful. I finally found the IPAQ 111 and 211 on display at Fry's Electronics and although the display models weren't working I was able to convince the clerk to get them up and running. Here are my findings:
The 211 screen has significantly larger area than the 111. Even at VGA vs. QVGA resolution everything's still larger on the 211 VGA screen and more readable than the 111. If I change the windows screen font size to largest on both the text is barely readable on the 111 without glasses and a just slightly blurry but usable on the 211 without glasses. My reading glasses are 2.50 for reference. If you're not in reading glasses mode yet none of this will mean anything to you but for those of you like me I'd say you might be able to get away with using a 211 without reading glasses. Hopefully that'll remain true while running Pleco. The 211 is $150 more than the 111 but for me the ability to read it without pulling out the glasses is probably worth the bucks.

There was one other comment in the forum about vga possibly being slow with pleco. Anyone know if that's really an issue? If not I think I'll go with the 211.

BTW, IPAQ 110=IPAQ 111, and IPAQ 210=IPAQ 211. Exactly the same.

Cheers, tom

 

[ipsi]

No idea about speed, but I can say that you have a lot of control over the font sizes Pleco uses. You'll probably need to pull out your glasses for adjusting the preferences (unless Pleco adjusts size based on the system-wide settings?), but once you've got those how you want them, you shouldn't have a problem with reading stuff in Pleco. Maybe really complex characters?

I've got it set to the smallest font size (10), but I wear glasses all the time (I'm 22). If I take them off, I can't read 10pt font on my Treo Pro (320x320 screen) with it about a foot (maybe 2) away from my face.