While eBooks are gaining enormous popularity, it still is a gadget reserved for the well to do. While Sony’s PRS 600 Reader Touch and Amazon’s Kindle managed to achieve reasonable success, a majority of people would rather read real books or eBooks on a PC. For those who are interested, there is good news as loads of eBook readers being launched with the latest one being the iRiver Story. This is the first eBook reader from the South Korean electronics company that is widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices.

The iRiver Story ebook reader seems to be a serious contender too, for unlike the army of rebadged, cheap feeling clones like the Cool-er and Elonex, the Story is an attractive piece of kit. Sleek, lightweight and attractive and with a full QWERTY keyboard and speaker built in, it is different from most eBook readers in the market. The device dubbed as clone of Kindle features a six inch screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and has a memory slot for cards up to 32 GB. It also features an mp3 player, voice recorder and personal organiser. Does the presence of all these justify the price tag? Read on to find out.

Design:

Resembles Kindle:
When we opened the well designed smart gift box, we saw a device that resembled Kindle. Alas, it is not quite a carbon copy, there is no lustrous aluminium panel at the rear, for instance, and the build quality is not up there with the Kindle’s either. Made up of matte white plastic, it has a QWERTY keyboard right under a six inch display. There are 2 sets of forward and backward buttons, the presence of which makes it feasible to use the device in portrait and landscape modes.  At the bottom of the device is a headphone jack, a power/lock switch, a mini USB port and SD Card reader. The back of the Story is a thin slit, inside which is an integrated speaker meant for listening to audio books and recorded memos created using the integrated microphone.

Build:
It measures 203.5 x 127 x 9.4 mm (H x W x D) and is roughly the size of the Kindle. But the Story seems large when compared to the more compact offerings from Sony. The reason it seems slab like is due to the presence of a keypad under the screen; but it still feels comfortable to hold. When it comes to build quality, the Story seems to be inferior when compared to the Kindle. When you flex the case, it creaks and generally feels hollow and flimsy. If you treat it well you are unlikely to have any problems, but it is a far cry from the metal Sony readers and iRiver does not include a carry case in the box, instead selling it separately.

QWERTY Keyboard:
The iRiver Story has a full QWERTY keyboard with a row of navigation buttons and there are the large page turn buttons that are a part of the case. The keys are well spaced and have a firm and pleasant action and resemble the keypads of HTC devices. The keys are labelled clearly rather than cryptic symbols. While the presence of a QWERTY keyboard is something appreciable, it largely felt superfluous. The Amazon Kindle’s keyboard was useful considering the fact that it had a 3G connection and an online shop that needed one to type the names of authors etc.  But here we were not sure. The dedicated keys and arrows were useful but most of the time we regretted its presence for it added 2 inches to its length.

Sharp Display:
The iRiver Story electronic Book Reader has a sharp and clear display. It uses electronic ink which is not only easy on the eyes but also on the battery life. While the 6 inch E ink screen cannot match the Kindle’s 6 grey levels, its 8 levels make it as good as Sony’s non touch readers. It still suffers from the familiar refresh issues. Although this is not much of a problem, the fact that the screen flashes for about half a second is distracting.

USB 2.0 Connectivity:
While the hardware of the iRiver Story is impressive, it was the connectivity that let us down. It has a USB 2.0 connection alone. No Wi-Fi or 3G that other eBook readers in the market offer. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack that allows one to plug in earphones to listen to music or audio books. At the back of the Story, meanwhile, is a thin slit inside which sits an integrated speaker for listening to audio books and potentially recorded memos created using the integrated microphone.

Ease of use:
There is no separate desktop application for transferring files. One needs to simply plug in the device and drag the files to an internal volume. The device is both PC and Mac compatible and unlike other most other systems dragging files from a Mac does not leave invisible files on the system. One can also copy encrypted files using Adobe’s digital editions software. Ejecting the disc is a pain as it remounts instantly, just like the Interread COOL-ER Reader.

Features:

A sloppy Interface:
The interface of the iRiver Story eReader is well designed and has responsive, easy to navigate menus. Updates without the screen flashing are great visual updates. The time and date on the home screen is welcome. There is also a small bar above each book that show how much one has progressed. Scanning through pages by holding down on the page turn button seemed realistic. The highlighted options button that pops up a menu in the right corner of the screen allows one to bookmark a page or move a page. While the basics have been covered well, the problems begin later. In spite of having a QWERTY keyboard, one cannot type a page number to go to that particular page. Using arrow buttons is alarmingly inefficient. Another drawback is that, the options menu does not rotate when in landscape mode. Even in the Books menu, the books are simply listed and are not classified according to the title/author. If you would want a more organised layout, you can organise all your books in the folder structure and navigate via the My Folders menu. This is one of the very few times when the keyboard seems useful.

Surprisingly Decent Music Playback:
One of the several features of the iRiver Story is Music Playback and it, however, is a very worthwhile feature. While the Story itself is a little too large to replace a portable media player/MP3 Player and its music player a little too basic, lacking a library system and meta tag support, it is perfect for listening to audio books. We were surprised by the audio quality of the Story, because we never really considered an eBook reader to be an mp3 player. If you enjoy listening to music or podcasts, you would be pleasantly surprised. The function buttons include volume and shuttle controls, so, one can easily control audio while reading. But, it was a tad bit too basic and lacks a library system. Too bad there is no bookmark function for audio files, had it been there it would have been perfect.

Extra Features:
There are also some extra features such as the diary, memo, scheduler and voice recorder. The features such as memo pad and scheduler were nothing beyond basic functionality. Voice recording is possible thanks to the internal microphone available within the device. We are not against such additions per se, but since there is no way to synchronise these with any other service (Outlook, Google etc) or device, it is hard to see anyone using them seriously.

Memory:
The iRiver Story Digital Book Reader has an internal memory of 2 GB which is sufficient to store about 1500 books. Thanks to the SD Card slot, one can expand the memory to 32 GB thus catering to users who enjoy listening to audio books or music while reading books. Data on the Storage card and the on board memory are kept separate, but the main menu has a folder view which gives a picture of what is where.

Wide range of File Support:
Remember how much Amazon’s proprietary format on the Kindle caused problems, we felt glad that the Story falls in to line with others in the market. The iRiver Story eBook Reader supports the ePub format as well as formats PDF, DOC, TXT, PPT and XLS formats.  On the image side it supports JPEG, BMP, GIF and music MP3 and OWG format.  The Story did struggle to display PDF files unless they were specially formatted for resolution of the display. The Story’s ability to support XLS and PPT files does interest business users. Streaming through PowerPoint presentations in landscape mode was impressive though the Excel files were not handled appropriately. It is possible to read comics as the device supports JPEG and BMP files contained within ZIP files.  We suggest you stick to ePub files as far as possible as the text is clear, and refresh rates are almost instant.

Performance:

Reading:
The main purpose of an eBook reader is to read stuff, and how good it actually is, depends on how it has been able to replicate actual reading.  The iRiver Story is comfortable and easy to read in good lighting. The text is crisp and is easy on the eyes, thanks to e ink. But the device lacks backlight making it a pain to read in dim environments. It has a poor refresh rate making it lose points when one is reading for enjoyment or there is a need to skip a lot of pages. One slight problem, however, is that very strong elements on the page, for instance, bold text, dark shaded images and menus, can sometimes linger even after they are no longer present on the page. It is not a serious problem and does not really distract from the overall experience, but it is noticeable nonetheless.

Interface issues:
Of greater concern are some of the navigational shortcomings. Basics are covered perfectly well: all of the page turning buttons are responsive and fall neatly under your thumb. A helpfully highlighted 'options’ button, pops up a menu in the right corner to allow you to bookmark a page or 'move to page’. It is the latter element where the problems begin. Despite having a QWERTY keyboard with numbers available as alternate actions, you cannot enter a specific page number! Instead you must use the arrow buttons to scroll through them, which strikes us as alarmingly inefficient. Another annoyance is the said options menu does not rotate when you are in landscape mode, a fact that is true of the zoom dialog box as well.

There are all sorts of similar small niggles. Titles in the ‘Books’ menu, are simply listed, rather than being sorted by author or title. Fine if you have only got a small selection of books, but hardly ideal as your collection grows. If you do want to view your books in this fashion you must organise them yourself in the folder structure and then navigate to them via the 'My Folders’ menu. iRiver does, at least make use of the of the keyboard here, allowing you to search your collection to find the book you want, but it is one of the few times when said keyboard comes in useful.

Audio performance:
The audio via the headphones is very good and the mono speaker was surprisingly loud. So, listening to audio books even at full volume is not as painful as it is in the case of most eBook readers.

Battery Life:

The most notable fact about the Story is its impressive 100 hour battery life or roughly about 9000 page turns making it one of the best in the market when it comes to longevity. A full charge can make the device play 20 hours of music and 5 hours of voice recording. Not surprisingly, we did not make much of a dent in these claims, even after two weeks of daily use our unit is still showing a full set of bars, but assuming these claims are correct the Story is among the longest lasting readers on the market. The screen itself is inert and power is needed only to refresh the ink or turn a page. Playing music will drain the battery in a lesser time.  The box does not feature a power adaptor so, the only way to charge the device is through the USB port.

Warranty:

The iRiver Story has a warranty period of one year on service and support.  The iRiver website and other forum resources are not really that informative and if you have a problem with the Story, getting advice would be a challenge.

Verdict:

The first attempt from iRiver is certainly merit worthy, but it has got that unmistakable air of a work in progress. It looks good and the built-in audio playback and speaker is nice. The keyboard was perhaps not necessary and note taking was nothing great, but the multiple control buttons on the top and the page turn buttons were lovely. Reading anything other than text is slow and would test your patience. The poor control layout and refresh rate are dampeners too. The Story’s generous feature set and excellent battery life are not enough to eclipse its somewhat flimsy interface, which hints at a product that is still in the experimental phase. All the basics are here and most of them executed well enough, but the Story lacks the finer details to bring them together.

Moreover, iRiver appears to have taken a lot of inspiration from Amazon’s Kindle without truly appreciating why it’s a good piece of hardware. This work in progress is a great product but that still does not justify its hefty price tag. If iRiver’s record in the MP3 player market is anything to go by it will get it right sooner or later, but until then Sony’s range of devices remain the benchmark to follow. A cheaper and better looking alternative is the Sony PRS 505. Another alternative is the Sony PRS 600, a touch screen reader retailing about 1.5 times the cost of the PRS 550. Either of these options are a better product than the iRiver Story.

iRiver Story eBook Reader - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	iRiver
Model Name	iRiver Story
Colour	Silver
Dimensions (H x W x D)	127 x 203.5 x 9.4mm
Weight	284 grams
Display technology	E Ink® “Electronic Paper”
Display Resolution	600 x 800 pixels
Screen size	6 inch
Grey scale	Eight level grey scale
Navigation type	D-Pad
Keyboard	Yes
Built in memory	2GB
Memory slots	Mini USB and SD Card Slots
MP3 playback	Yes
Compatible unsecured audio files	MP3, OGG, WMA
Compatible formats	JPEG, GIF, BMP, TXT, DOC, PPT, PDF, ePUB, XLS and PPT
Speakers	Mono
Compatible Operating systems	Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.Mac OS X.
Ports	1 x USB 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
Battery type	Rechargeable lithium-ion
Battery life	Approx 9000 page turns
Warranty	1 year