Pandigital Novel Ereader--an Expensive Mistake.
For Christmas, I bought myself a Pandigital Novel, 7" ereader. It's a tablet style ereader, running andriod (with a skin) that downloads books from Barnes and Noble in Nook format, but can do other epub and pdf books as well. It also has built in wifi, and does color webbrowsing.
Out of the box, the wifi did not work. It took 2 calls to customer service and a downloaded firmware upgrade before it did. Then I was able to download books, and test the webbrowsing, which I liked. The touch screen (resistive rather than capacitive) was less responsive than I'd like, and I sometimes had to touch things repeatedly to get the to work (better with the included sylus than with a finger), and I sometimes had to try several times to get a page to turn. But overall, I was happy with it. I took it along to Step Spritely, and it was nice that the screen was backlit and had a night reading mode, so I could read myself to sleep even after everyone else had gone to bed and turned out the lights, and could read when I woke up too early.
Yesterday, it got bumped off a very low table, while in it's closed padded case, and landed lightly on the floor. And the screen cracked in two places.
My ereader is now a $180 paperweight (with a $30 padded case). Touch screen behind the glass seems fine, but won't work right with glass cracked. Called the manufacturer, and they don't bother with a repair service because they say it would cost more than a new reader. And of course, a broken screen isn't covered by the 1 year warranty. Tried a couple local computer repair places, and they can't do it either. It's considered a disposable device, apparently.
Looking online, there are lots of folks complaining that the screen cracks very easily on that model, and can't be fixed, including at least 2 other people who had it happen after just 2 weeks, and one who had the screen crack just by him pressing the touch screen with his finger. And there are tons of them with broken screens on sale on ebay for parts, so it looks like this is a very common problem.
I could get another one (open package but unused) on ebay for about $100, but given the other issues (had to often try repeatedly to turn pages, unresponsive screen, slow wifi) which many others have also reported in reviews, I don't want to throw good money after bad.
I'm considering replacing it with a NookColor instead, which does pretty much the same things, but has a metal case instead of plastic, a much more responsive type of touch screen, turns pages much faster, and has far better reviews overall. It's still a backlit LED screen, so I could read it at night while sharing hotel rooms without a separate book light (unlike the Kindle), and still has wifi and color webrowsing, which I liked. The NookColor is $250 instead of $180 for the one I had, but I think it's worth the price difference. I'd also absolutely pay extra for an extended warranty that covers accidental damage!!! Oh, and the books I've already bought are in Nook format, so they'd work on the new reader without having to mess with freeware conversion software.
Might hang loose for a bit, since I want it mainly for when I travel, and don't anticipate traveling again until KWDS. I'm considering waiting a couple months to see if prices come down or features improve.
Meanwhile, does anyone want to buy a really expensive paperweight?
Out of the box, the wifi did not work. It took 2 calls to customer service and a downloaded firmware upgrade before it did. Then I was able to download books, and test the webbrowsing, which I liked. The touch screen (resistive rather than capacitive) was less responsive than I'd like, and I sometimes had to touch things repeatedly to get the to work (better with the included sylus than with a finger), and I sometimes had to try several times to get a page to turn. But overall, I was happy with it. I took it along to Step Spritely, and it was nice that the screen was backlit and had a night reading mode, so I could read myself to sleep even after everyone else had gone to bed and turned out the lights, and could read when I woke up too early.
Yesterday, it got bumped off a very low table, while in it's closed padded case, and landed lightly on the floor. And the screen cracked in two places.
My ereader is now a $180 paperweight (with a $30 padded case). Touch screen behind the glass seems fine, but won't work right with glass cracked. Called the manufacturer, and they don't bother with a repair service because they say it would cost more than a new reader. And of course, a broken screen isn't covered by the 1 year warranty. Tried a couple local computer repair places, and they can't do it either. It's considered a disposable device, apparently.
Looking online, there are lots of folks complaining that the screen cracks very easily on that model, and can't be fixed, including at least 2 other people who had it happen after just 2 weeks, and one who had the screen crack just by him pressing the touch screen with his finger. And there are tons of them with broken screens on sale on ebay for parts, so it looks like this is a very common problem.
I could get another one (open package but unused) on ebay for about $100, but given the other issues (had to often try repeatedly to turn pages, unresponsive screen, slow wifi) which many others have also reported in reviews, I don't want to throw good money after bad.
I'm considering replacing it with a NookColor instead, which does pretty much the same things, but has a metal case instead of plastic, a much more responsive type of touch screen, turns pages much faster, and has far better reviews overall. It's still a backlit LED screen, so I could read it at night while sharing hotel rooms without a separate book light (unlike the Kindle), and still has wifi and color webrowsing, which I liked. The NookColor is $250 instead of $180 for the one I had, but I think it's worth the price difference. I'd also absolutely pay extra for an extended warranty that covers accidental damage!!! Oh, and the books I've already bought are in Nook format, so they'd work on the new reader without having to mess with freeware conversion software.
Might hang loose for a bit, since I want it mainly for when I travel, and don't anticipate traveling again until KWDS. I'm considering waiting a couple months to see if prices come down or features improve.
Meanwhile, does anyone want to buy a really expensive paperweight?