E-ink and Pleco?

Kaimi

进士
I would love to use the new reader function but the phone is too small for me. I want to get an ebook for this, and use pleco on it. Is it possible with e-ink? Otherwise what's the best alternatives for reading? Just a regular tablet? Thanks.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Depends on the device - it's never been a fully officially supported Android feature so we can't really make any promises but I know a number of users have reported this working OK. A regular tablet is certainly a safer bet, though.
 

Kaimi

进士
Thank you, I will reconsider getting a tablet, but I hope someone who has a good experience with e-ink and Pleco can show here how to do it (I just want to avoid the eye strain I get after reading long hours on LCD screens). Also, any opinions on Kindle HD? These are regular tablets, right?
 

Bvo

探花
@Kaimi ,
hi, recently I bought a device specifically for use with Pleco (and Chinese learning in general).
It's Xiaomi Mi Max 2 phablet with 6.44" display (my first "totally Chinese" device :)). Its size is enough for comfortable use for the purpose, it's lightweight, has very good performance and costs just about 200$-300$ (depending on the seller and support package).
For eyes protection you can use Pleco's night mode or Xiaomi's Read mode, wich reduces blue-light emission and is very comfortable (making a screen looking like a real paper). Though display itself obviously is far from high-end, but is not bad. And the device has outstanding autonomy - several days of usual tablet-mode usage with more than 20 hours of active display. It has quick charge function (full charge = 2 hours, 60% = 1 hour).
Today Xiaomi announced Redmi 5 Plus with 5.9" display and with the same SoC - it will be even cheaper and should be enough for learning purposes, though I don't know all details.
Just a tip :) I think phablets are best devices for learning purpose - they're big enough but still compact and lightweight. And you still can use them for making a call!! :)))
 

Kaimi

进士
@Kaimi ,
hi, recently I bought a device specifically for use with Pleco (and Chinese learning in general).
It's Xiaomi Mi Max 2 phablet with 6.44" display (my first "totally Chinese" device :)). Its size is enough for comfortable use for the purpose, it's lightweight, has very good performance and costs just about 200$-300$ (depending on the seller and support package).
For eyes protection you can use Pleco's night mode or Xiaomi's Read mode, wich reduces blue-light emission and is very comfortable (making a screen looking like a real paper). Though display itself obviously is far from high-end, but is not bad. And the device has outstanding autonomy - several days of usual tablet-mode usage with more than 20 hours of active display. It has quick charge function (full charge = 2 hours, 60% = 1 hour).
Today Xiaomi announced Redmi 5 Plus with 5.9" display and with the same SoC - it will be even cheaper and should be enough for learning purposes, though I don't know all details.
Just a tip :) I think phablets are best devices for learning purpose - they're big enough but still compact and lightweight. And you still can use them for making a call!! :)))
Thank you so much for your suggestions!
 

Miguel

状元
I use it in a couple of ebook e-readers: Onyx C67ML Carta2 and Boyue Likebook (Paper). Both have Android 4.2 and it works fine, just the animated transition from page to page seems a little odd since Pleco is not designed for e-ink devices where this transition is deactivated. The response is also slower, so as Mike has indicated a tablet is a safer choice.
 
Last edited:

Bvo

探花
Btw, after use above-mentioned Xiaomi Mi Max 2 phablet for a couple of weeks I do not recommend it - good on a paper, bad in a real life. I think all Xiaomi's products have the same low-quality hardware and buggy/inconvenient OS extension (MIUI).
Though some people like it.

PS: but 6.44" in size gives a really wonderful experience.
4:3 form-factor would be more preferable than 16:9 but it seems there's no such Android devices in this size.
Waiting for 6" E-ink displays with a quick refresh rate... :)
 
Last edited:

Miguel

状元
I've tested the C67ML for a few weeks, and find it quite satisfactory.
If this can help some of you to make a choice, I included photos and two short videos in my little review.
Excellent review. I'm sure many people will find it very useful. But I couldn't install Pleco 3.2.57 which is the one with epub support. So with the 55v I have to convert the ebooks to txt. If I want to use epub I use Alreader or Moonreader with Goldendict for the dictionaries
 
Last edited:

shaluig

举人
My Pleco on C67ML is also 3.2.57, but for the moment it's not as satisfactory as using O Reader :
- you cannot use the left & right buttons to turn the pages, it's only by touching the screen with your finger
- the Kaiti font I did install is not handled....
 

Bvo

探花
BTW, what Pleco reader offers that you cannot use with external reader + OCR?
I still cannot get why someone needs Pleco's reader.
 

shaluig

举人
@shaluig ,
do you mean using it with texts that're longer than a screen height?
Or something else, e.g. 100MB text files?

The green neon-light that appears when you use OCR is not that pleasant, the texts are far more readable using Pleco's reader, but that's only my opinion.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
FWIW, you can change that color or hide the recognized characters altogether in Settings / OCR. But yes, reader is definitely more pleasant.
 

j3w1

Member
Please can someone tell if the "Do Screen OCR" notification button works on an e-ink android compatible device?
 

Miguel

状元
Sorry for the late response. Nope, it doesn't no OCR button. Just Screen Reader option
Still I don't use Pleco that much in my reader. I just ended buying a cheap tablet because it is much faster and works much better than my Onyx or another Boyue that I have.
 

Alca

Member
Does anyone have any experience with recent products from Onyx, their more powerful devices: max book 3, nova pro, nova 2? Their E-ink card is also supposed to be faster.
Would be awesome to be able to read long text on ereader with pleco!
 
Top