I've been contemplating buying an Ebook reader and recently I got a promo email from MPH about the new iriver Story which is retailing for RM1,199. When I went to their website I also saw the Hanlin V5 which is cheaper but not by much. I'm leaning towards the iriver given the fact that it supports up to 32GB external memory while the Hanlin's maximum is 4GB.

However, the Hanlin supports more formats: PDF, MOBI, DOC, WOLF, MP3, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, Djvu, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP, JPG, PPT, EPUB, LIT, PRC. The iriver can support: EPUB, PDF, TXT, DOC, PPT, XLS. I'm guessing that in future the format of choice would be EPUB? So really I'm not missing out on much if I go for the iriver right?

Does anyone have any experience with either devices? I'm open to other brands provided that its available locally and is in the same price range.

Thanks in advance.

Does this mean you can use the Hanlin as an image viewer? eg shoot some photos with your digital camera, put the sd card into the hanlin, and it becomes something like a digital photo frame. Of course it is not colour. Most of the extra formats listed are graphics files.

I don't have any experience though. I have an old Dell Axim. 4" screen. Full colour. 600MHz CPU, wifi, bluetooth, webbrowser, games, etc. Price was about RM1300. It's a PDA instead of a book reader, though there are lots of software you can add, including book reading software. I haven't used it much for reading though. Tried it for a while when new. The screen is a bit small, but my main problem was I didn't go around looking for ebooks to read. This was many years ago, and there weren't that many websites with ebooks then. Not as many as today. Another small problem is the backlit screen isn't too comfortable to read for very long periods. That sounds worse than it really is. It's just less comfortable than a regular paper book.

The new e-ink screens might be better, but I haven't seen any myself up close. These new readers have slightly bigger screens, but are not colour, and the CPU isn't much faster. I'm waiting for the prices to drop much below RM1k.

BTW: my PDA is now mostly an MP3 player. The Hanlin can play MP3 too, as well as text-to-speech. Come to think of it, the iriver can view images and play mp3 as well.

http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/4528/iri...k-reader-review

Bought myself an iRiver Story today from the Subang Parade MPH store. Price RM1199.

Some hassles I experienced:

Connecting to USB port for first time is a bit of a pain. My notebook took sometime to recognise it. After transferring my files, the next time I connect it keeps going into charging mode instead of USB connection. Have to reset to factory settings before it connects to the USB port again.

Have to get used to ON/OFF switch. Have to slide to the RIGHT and hold for 2 - 3 seconds each time to turn it on or shut it down. Sometimes the device turns back on after I shut it off. Don't know why. Maybe I didn't hold the switch long enough in the right position?

Charging is via USB cable only. No charger available as an accessory. Cannot tell how much of the the battery remains to be charged. A slid image of the battery appears only when it is fully charged. After that when it is being used, the battery has broken bars..don't know how much charge is left.

Battery cannot be removed. If after 1 - 2 years and I don't use it miuch, what happens to the battery? Will it still be usable or go flat and leak inside the device?

Reading comic books is ok provided the zip file doesn't have too many gray scale/coloured JPG, giff or BMP images. Zip files archived by 7 zip is not recognised. I used Al zip and it seems OK.

Have to get used to enlarging font size, i.e. by going to options > Reflow On and then press key with magnifying glass symbol and choose size. Can install other fonts according to websites but haven't tried.

Some plus points:

Build quality is not too bad. Plastic feels and looks well built.

Was given a black leather (I think it's leather) cover in place of the original white one shown on their website. Looks great.

The SD card slot is a great plus. Transferring files via copy/paste or drag/drop from PC explorer menu. Music is not too bad if you use a good ear phone. Page turning is fast enough unless file is very large.

The built in memory of 2 GB is not bad. This 512 MB RAM is sufficient for my use. But if more music files are uploaded..it maybe not enough. Added memory is in the form of micro SD card. A wise choice to reduce the size of the device.

Battery capacity is apparently 1800 mAh according to the MPH website. That is the same capacity as an iPhone. That's why reading time can be extended.

The Atom N450 processor makes the device reasonably fast.

Additional features like Memo, Diary, Audio recording feature, Date and Alarm settings.

This post has been edited by Tookia: May 11 2010, 10:56 AM

I'm wondering does anyone have any other ereader brands to recommend other than Hanlin and iRiver?

kindle 3 is the best and cheaper than iRiver... checkout in forum for those selling/bulk orders, ebay malaysia also got

I'm selling kindle 3 wifi at RM650. Will cod at klang valley if you are interested.

Hi guys, check out iriver story promo at MFI Bookstore

This post has been edited by t-lexus: Nov 18 2010, 07:22 PM

I'm very much interested in my kindle 3. Please e-mail to me at alathyyf@gmail.com if you have the stock and willing to sell.
Thank you