I have been reading my books almost daily on my iPad via iBooks for about 5 years now. However, the iPad is not suitable to take with you if you want to relax in the bath with a good book. So I went on the hunt for a watertight ereader where I can read all my books that I already own.
Been to several stores, but they almost all promote the Kobo and I had my doubts about that. I read several reviews and soon came to the conclusion that a Kobo is not something I would want at all. I further researched this and saw the Pocketbook Aqua 2 as the ultimate solution for my needs. According to the reviews, you could put all your older books on it without messing with DRM and other security conditions. And yet I continued to doubt. The model has been out for a while and was not yet equipped with SMARTlight. This led me to the somewhat more expensive version, the Pocketbook Touch HD 3. This does have SMARTlight, which Kobo also boasts a lot. In addition, as far as I could find, this is the only one that has 16GB storage option.
This e-reader has additional features. You can also play (pre-programmed) games and listen to music on it. Pocketbook also has the option to have the books read aloud. You do need earplugs for this, or you can connect to a suitable speaker via Bluetooth. An adapter is included that you connect to your micro USB connection and where you can use your traditional earplugs. But let's face it, it's an ereader, not a tablet or something.
Spicy Copper is the official name for the color, but bronze is also possible. After starting up, you first have to go through a number of steps. You must provide your email address, but I did not realize that it had to be an email address that you also use. I have an email domain so that's why I assigned my own email to it. However, you can also email your books to your eReader from your own computer. For this you will be assigned a pocketbook email address. If you send your books to that email address, Pocketbook will also check whether the sender is correct. If not, you will receive an email about this and you can still have the relevant email address linked. It does take a while (hour?) before your book arrives on your eReader. Oh well, there's a first time for everything.
Linking Pocketbook to laptop (MacBook) also caused no problems at all. No retarded programs to install. Easy to consult in your explorer/finder. Then you can easily copy your books to the relevant folder and the books are also immediately on the ereader. Nice and simple.
By default, 7 books per language are included. Not that my Polish or Russian is that good (not at all really), but if you "speak" your languages, you immediately have a large library. Are you a member of the Library and are you also allowed to borrow ebooks? That is not a problem at all. Go through the steps for Adobe and you can read your books. So you don't need such an expensive Kobo subscription for this.
Various settings are possible, but too many to mention. You can set the background when you have the eReader off, fonts/sizes too, you can turn the pocketbook a quarter turn, your book just spins nicely. Loading the book takes about 5 seconds, but after that you can continue effortlessly. Couldn't find any hiccups. You can proceed to the next page or go back to the previous page both with the buttons and on the screen itself.
I have not yet tested the pocketbook for its water resistance, but that will certainly happen. Anyway, I'm very satisfied for now.
