Pocketbook Touch HD 3 review

We have been testing the PocketBook Touch HD 3, a device that wants to compete with the best sellers of the 6 ″ . It comes loaded with everything. Keep reading and you will see what the ereader looks like to us.

To talk face to face with such established devices as the Kindle Paperwhite and the Kobo Clara HD, in addition to matching the quality at a similar price, it has to offer something else. And the Touch HD 3 gives us many features and details that although they may seem essential, the truth is that once you have them, they are appreciated.

Before starting with the analysis I would like to comment on something that they always ask me later. Yes. You can listen to audiobooks.

We go with the list of characteristics that make up the device.

Features

Device and display

• 6 ″ E Ink® Carta ™ Display (1072 × 1448) 300 dpi
• Frontlight+ (SMARTlight)
• 16-level grayscale
• Dimensions 161,3 x 108 x 8mm
• Weight 155 g
• Dual Core Processor (2 × 1 GHz)
• Capacitive multi-touch screen
• 512 MB of RAM
• 1500 mAh battery (Li-Ion Polymer).
• 16GB hard drive

Connectivity

• Wireless connectivity Wi-Fi (802.11 b / g / n)
• USB-interface Micro-USB
• Bluetooth

Others

• HZO ProtectionTM protection (IPX 7)
• Text-to-Speech
• RSS News, Notes, Chess, Klondike, Scribble, Sudoku.
• Formats it reads (PDF, PDF (DRM), EPUB, EPUB (DRM), DJVU, FB2, FB2.ZIP, DOC, DOCX, RTF, PRC, TXT, CHM, HTM, HTML, MOBI, ACSM)
• Audio formats MP3, M4B

Packaging

The presentation is very good. A small rigid cardboard box that can later be used to store the device.

Although it may seem like a minor issue, the small details of quality that we see from the beginning say a lot about a brand.

In the box we will find the device. A usb - miniusb cable for charging the device and a mini-usb to jack cable for the entire audio part.

Impressions and appearance

The first impression I had when I saw him was that he was small too small for a 6 ″ and pretty. I really like the way it looks. The size, the touch of color, those tiny frames make it a cucada.

Tiene physical buttons at the bottom. The first to go directly to the home page of the ereader, the second to go back, the third to go forward and the 4th to display configuration options wherever we are.

The home button is very useful when you are a bit lost and want to quickly go to a landmark. While I have tested the ereader I have used it a lot. The configuration button is also very useful, because it is always more uncomfortable to be displaying menus on the touch screen.

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I like the pass buttons better on the sides. It is where I have gotten used to using them and I find it more comfortable perhaps because of the shape and grip of the ebooks. And that's another point to keep in mind.

Get such a nice ereader, with such a small frame, is achieved at the cost of sacrificing grip. Sitting there is no problem because we can take it from the bottom, but if you try to read in bed you will see that it is not that simple. And the material with which it is built does not help transmit security either.

Software and functionalities

The list of things that the Touch HD 3 includes is very long and I wanted to try everything. The only thing that I have not tested has been the water protection to see that IPX7 that would allow us to submerge it in water.

The PocketBook has its own Linux-based operating system. And it is packed with very cool features. The most interesting:

Audiobooks

ÉThis is an ereader to listen to Audiobooks. Even if you don't see the jack port, it comes with a miniUSB to jack adapter that allows you to connect headphones and enjoy the increasingly consumed audio books. You can buy them elsewhere or on the Pocketbook platform itself, although there is no catalog in Spanish, but it will surely arrive

You can also use the wireless headphones by pairing them via bluetooth and thus enjoy all the audio options without cables.

Audio Player

Continuing with the audio functionalities. We can use the ereader as an audio player previously uploading the files we want to listen to.

Of course, you can not listen to music in the background while we read. Or we read, or we play, or we listen to music, but not several things at the same time.

I miss any option to listen to the podcasts of the main platforms. I have managed to do it by entering through the browser. You can enter iVoox for example, choose the chapter of a podcast and listen to it, but if there was a native solution in the ereader it would be impressive.

Text to speech

It has a functionality text to speech, with which it transforms any format it reads into speech. So you can take an epub, mobi, a pdf and have it read to you.

It works well I tested it in 2 languages, English and Spanish and although it does not have the cadence like an audiobook it can be useful in certain situations or for people with visual difficulties.

Games, notes, calculator and calendar

I have always defended that an ereader has a very clear functionality. It is a hyper-specialized device for a specific task. That is why it works very well and there is no point in comparing it with a tablet.

We find various functionalities, such as various games including chess, solitaire and sudoku, a note pad, a calculator and a calendar. But I don't think anyone uses it with a smartphone at hand today. It only occurs to me that they use it to detoxify and not be bombarded by the constant calls for attention from the phones.

Ecosystem and connectivity

It has its own ecosystem, its store that is integrated into the ebook, from where you can buy the ebooks. It has an aapplication for android and iOS that allows us to centralize everything.

Cloud. We have certain storage space in the cloud that is used to synchronize all the devices that we have connected to our account.

dropbox, we can synchronize our Dropbox account with our device to be able to read and manage ebooks

Send to PocketBook that allows you to send files in any of the formats that the ereader reads via mail and that will appear in our ereader when it syncs via WIFI

News RSS

It has an RSS reader, we can follow the feeds of the blogs that interest us, but the articles are read through the reader's browser and I don't like this very much because there are pages that do not load well, that put many strange elements, etc.

Lighting design

At this point where many devices fail, the Touch HD 3 passes it with ease. Uniform and Smartlight illumination.

Also allows us to increase and decrease the intensity of the light and the smartLight from within the ebook without abandoning the reading. For this you have to slide your finger vertically across the screen. If we do it on the left we will control SMARTlight and if we do it on the right the front light. Very useful the truth.

What is missing?

Possibly the main deficiency is the lack of DS. There is no card slot.

Something that I use a lot is to go surfing the internet, see an opinion article, on a website, in a newspaper, magazine, etc. and send it to the ereader to read it later. In Kindle it can be done with several plugins that are send to Kindle, in Kobo we can synchronize this content with Pocket but I have not found anything to emulate this functionality in the PocketBook ereader.

It is true that there is the news RSS but it is not the same, because as we have said it opens in the browser and because you have to enter a feed beforehand, of which you may not be interested in everything and what I propose is to send any web that you It is interesting when you see it so that you can read it quietly later.

Finally a bullshit. I have not seen any option to share the underlined or opinions of the ebook on social networks. It is not that I see it necessary, I do not use it but I do know that many people use it.

Assessment

The conclusion is that I would buy one and use it in my day to day. And I do not say that of many ereaders. I have used it for many hours, feeling more and more comfortable and without it crashing even once, or having any problem.

As I have commented throughout the review, its weak points I think are the grip when lying down and not being able to send me the articles from the web as a read it later (but this is a use that many people do not do).

It does not have a microSD slot and that is something that always comes in handy for people who have their library mounted in this format.

I see an ereader for people who are interested in audiobooks and all audio in an ereader. And I think I should further exploit this aspect by adding the ability to listen to and follow podcasts.

It moves at a high price compared to what we consider its competition, they are € 159 compared to the 129 of the Paperwhite or the Clara. And someone who does not value all the extras they have because they do not need them has the Kobo Libra at € 179. So I see it halfway between ranges. 

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