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Overview

The Pocketbook 912 PRO has been released in Eastern Europe and may be introduced in the US next year. This latest generation 9.7-inch electronic reader features some really surprising new options. The device can be regarded as a step in the right direction for the manufacturer and undoubtedly elevates its game through delivering touch screen displays that customers want. In addition, the Wi-Fi and web experience is also a welcome addition to the lineup – the reader even supports HTML5.

Hardware

The Pocketbook 912 PRO features a 9.7 inch touch screen, having a resolution of 1200*825. As we can see, the big selling point on this reader is its touch screen interface, coming with a bundled stylus, which is necessary for interacting with the device. Indeed, you will soon find out that the fingers don’t register with the device, and you need Stylus anyway to take advantage of the new interface. In case you lost it or do not want to use the touch screen, there’s still an option of using D-PAD and manual page turn buttons.

Meanwhile, interacting with the touch screen on this edition is very fluid and fast – it is about hit or miss when using the stylus, trying to turn the pages of a book. However, it’s very quick in launching applications and browsing the web. This device is one of the few released by the manufacturer with full wireless access to the web. Pocketbook 912 PRO has a switch on its top allowing the user to manually switch it on or off. This is useful for extending the battery life of a single charge if you aren’t connected to the web.

The device boasts a 533 MHZ processor, 256 MB of RAM, and 2 GB of internal storage, which can be easily increased up to 32 GB through the MicroSD card. However, it seems that the hardware sometimes fails to keep up with the touch screen. Considering the fact that this device’s rivals are usually running 800 MHZ CPU and at least 512 MB of RAM, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the hardware feels a bit sluggish.

A touch panel adds some extra weight to the ereader, though the item still isn’t super heavy. Pocketbook introduces the device with two speakers offering you stereo sound, with solid volume levels. You can also plugin some headphones through the 3.5 mm headphone jack. One may be surprised to see a full 360 accelerometer switching from landscape to portrait mode really quickly. Most of the electronic readers usually suffer from a long delay during switching orientations, but Pocketbook 912 PRO does a great job. Virtually all menus and programs can switch up your prospective, except for the built in Internet browser and applications menu.

Software

The Pocketbook 912 PRO runs on the standard Linux OS the company is known for. Its homescreen is well designed and features a clock, dictionary, list of last read books and your most popular applications and features. Usually the consumers prefer using the dictionary, Internet browser, music and photo applications. In addition, there are a lot of games bundled on the ereader.

Dictionary support is quite extensive, featuring about a dozen of different iterations depending on your language – the company is known for marketing their devices to an international audience. Pocketbook 912 PRO supports English, French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, German and many other languages. There are also about a thousand of books shipped on the reader, which lets you get reading right away. If you want something else to read, you are free to tap into the Bookland store the company has partnered with. In fact, there isn’t a huge selection of content on the device, which can’t be an advantage. There aren’t many bestsellers or popular books, but you can still find a fair number of classic books that are optimized for this device.

The Pocketbook 912 PRO provides access to lots of book formats, which is also a big selling point on the device. It seems that the company is aware that the users are tired of having to endlessly convert their collection to a certain format to be able to read the books. Those are easily organized through the Library application, which does a great job telling you what format the books are. Although it makes it easy to find out what content presents in your main library, there’s still no way to sort books into collections right on the device. To do so, you will have to open up Windows Explorer and create directories by hands. You are also free to use the third party applications like Calibre to sort books by authors or other factors.

The consumers will choose a giant electronic reader despite the fact that the 6-inch devices are much cheaper, because 9.7-inch editions shine reading PDF files, various technical documents and newspapers. Indeed, the device offers lots of re-flow and zooming options to optimize reading experience. For example, the newspapers look exceptionally well, as the device features minimal configuration warranted to see the best display. As for, say, scanned books, they take a bit longer to flow properly, but it may help if you have them show up in landscape mode. Meanwhile, before getting PDF files show up properly, you have to thoroughly configure zooming options on each individual file.

Wrap-up

Consumers looking for a device designed for PDF reading and preferring E-Ink to backlight readers like Apple iPad are recommended to try the Pocketbook 912 PRO in regard to multimedia accessibility and content display. This electronic reader is a really solid device that looks very slick. Although it is a bit heavy, a large 9.7-inch screen reader isn’t supposed to be held in a single hand for long.

Pocketbook 912 PRO is recommended for users that need such device for work or presentations, as the market craves for a good large screen E Ink-based electronic reader optimized for PDF files and newspapers. The disadvantage of the device is that it’s from an independent company, whose products are a bit expensive. However, Pocketbook boasts a great track record of making ereaders within the last years.