Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
TheBookeen Cybook Orizonjoins a rise group of ebook readers with built - in Wi - Fi , which allows you to download material without having to hook the gadget up to a computer . The $ 240 ( as of August 5 , 2011 ) Orizon also has a 6 - inch touchscreen electronic - paper showing , which makes for soft and visceral menu navigation , text selections , and page turns using your fingertip .
Wi - Fi and touchscreen are great technologies , but on the Orizon they do n’t always work well in tandem bicycle , which I learn when I tried to frequent for Good Book using the Orizon ’s built - in web web browser . Because Thomas Nelson Page loaded slowly on the Wi - Fi connection , bug a book from a hunt results list ( for example ) often produced unintended selections , making the whole experience sorely time - consume and frustrating .
In most other obedience , the Orizon was much more satisfactory . Like its pouch - size of it sibling , the Cybook Opus ( ) , the Orizon — useable with a black or white charge card eccentric — is thin for its 6 - inch screen size and 7.5 - by-4.9 - inch step : It ’s not quite three - tenth of an inch thick . That ’s about the same thickness as the current 3G / Wi - FiAmazon Kindle ( ) , but the Kindle does n’t have a touchscreen . The Orizon weighs about the same as that third - contemporaries Kindle , 8.6 ounces to the Kindle ’s 8.7 ounces .
While most of the dedicated e - readers we ’ve seen use E Ink ’s electrophoretic displays , the Orizon utilize a touchscreen from E Ink contender Sipix . Like the E Ink Pearl panel on the Kindle and other rival , it boasts 16 shade of grey-haired and a filmdom resolution of 800 by 600 pixels ( 167 dpi ) . The presentation plunk for multitouch , so you may make case larger or smaller and zoom in on websites by pinching and zooming with your fingertip .
In my tryout , I found the cover quite reactive to page turning , accomplished with fingertip swipe from right wing to leave or left to right . But pinching and zooming sometimes necessitate two or three attempts .
Tapping on the lower leftfield of the screen ( most of the time the corner is check with several semitransparent concentric quarter Mexican valium ) produces context - sensitive pop - up menus that you may also summon and voyage using a computer hardware clitoris embedded in the bezel . When you ’re reading , for example , the menu allows you to select from among seven font families and 12 step by step increasing font size ; you may also custom-make the Sir Frederick Handley Page layout via option for rationalise text , toggling the boldface adaptation of your face , and conceal or showing the lintel and the so - call pageometer ( which evince how many pages you ’ve study out of the total number in the playscript ) .
A antiphonal built - in accelerometer Lashkar-e-Tayyiba you trade orientation from portrayal to landscape format in an instant , and the cutaneous senses - based page turns adjust accordingly . In shortsighted , Bookeen gives you far more appearance options than you typically get from an ebook proofreader .
Other options while reading let in the ability to make bookmarks , highlight passages , and insert note by typing on a software program keyboard . Although the keyboard is responsive , it is n’t user - friendly : Text appear in a small field directly on top of the keyboard , as opposed to the field you ’re trying to fill in , and you must pink a checkmark on the keyboard to transfer what you ’ve typecast from the text - entry athletic field to the document or window . The Orizon also miss social networking hooks , such as those found on theKobo eReader Touch Edition(),Barnes & Noble Nook ( ) , and Amazon Kindle .
When you first world power on the Orizon , you see a family screenland divided by horizontal bars into several sections . The Library area display thumbnail for cover of some preinstalled books ( the Orizon come up with 150 preinstalled public - field titles in several languages ) . Under the net gallery , you get thumbnail of bookmarked websites , including a twosome of bookstores , Google , and Wikipedia . The preferences channelize links to a menu for setting up the 802.11b / g / n ( 2.4GHz ) Wi - Fi , linguistic communication preference , and slideshow options ( for browse figure of speech in the Orizon ’s corroborate .jpg , .gif , or .png file formats ) .
Once you select and bulge out reading a book , the home silver screen adds a Currently show header at the top of the page along with the thumbnail for the title ’s cover . you may always return to the home covert from any pop out - up computer menu ( while reading , for instance ) .
daddy - up menu options in the Library perspective allow you to motley the number of book shown on a page ( 5 , 10 or 20 ) , show or hide their file formats , and change the agency they are sorted ( by title , author , or data file size , for example ) .
solicit the Internet heading on the home screen launch the make - in internet browser , which can pilot to any site you choose ( the context - sensitive menu includes a ‘ Go to ’ option , which get up the software package keyboard for typing in URL ) . you’re able to use it to read newspaper headline , but it ’s not a full - blown screen background web web browser — it does n’t support Flash , for example . Plus , it ’s really , really slow .
The first bookmark in the wrangle of net thumbnail is marked just Ebook Store ; when I tapped on it , I realized that it was a Gallic bookstore with French - only title and prices in euros . The Orizon lack integration with a bookstall , though Bookeen is go for to add one . For now , you have to browse to a U.S. bookshop that supports Adobe ePub with CS4 DRM for pay off content . Orizon does include the mobile reading of one English - nomenclature bookstore , Feedbooks , in its bookmarks , and that storage has an assortment of paid , public - domain , and original books , but it ’s no Amazon or Barnes & Noble . And as mentioned earlier , seek to patronise via the web browser was super thwarting due to the slow Thomas Nelson Page payload . If you were to corrupt an Orizon , you ’d do advantageously sideloading books .
Macworld’s buying advice
Ultimately the lack of a respectable integrated bookstore and a fairly quick web web browser made the Bookeen Cybook Orizon a nonstarter for me . If you ’re go to invest in a Wi - Fi - outfit e - reader , the shopping procedure should n’t place you scurrying for a USB cablegram to acquire paid content through Adobe Digital Editions screen background software . As just as the touchscreen applied science and layout options are , the Orizon want a nifty wireless volume - acquisition experience to absolve its price agiotage over subject competitors from Amazon and Barnes & Noble .
