Pocketbook has put their full line of ereaders on sale for Black Friday on their official Amazon store, and some of the Pocketbook covers are on sale as well.
Unlike Amazon and Kobo that only put some of their ereaders on sale for Black Friday, all of Pocketbook’s current and previous generation models that are on Amazon are on sale, including the new Note Color that was just released.
If you’re looking for a color model now is a good time to get one. The Pocketbook Verse Color is now cheaper than the Kobo Clara Colour, and it has a nicer design with page buttons.
Pocketbooks aren’t a well known brand in the US, but they’ve been around for a really long time and they’re a good alternative to Kindles and Kobos. Most models have page-turn buttons, and several have microSD card slots, and the designs are a bit nicer than the cheap plastic on the basic Kindle and Kobo models.
Generally speaking, Pocketbooks are a bit slower than Kindles and Kobos, and the onboard store is rubbish, but they support a wide range of formats, including ebooks from public libraries through OverDrive. They’re a good option for those that like to use Calibre to sideload ebooks.
PocketBook eReaders Black Friday Sales List
Here’s the link to full list of deals on the PocketBook page at Amazon. I’m not going to link to the covers but they’re easy enough to find on Amazon.
PocketBook Basic Lux 4 – $94.05 ($14.95 off): This is Pocketbook’s basic model. It has a 6-inch E Ink screen with 212 ppi and a regular frontlight. It has page buttons, a microSD card slot, there’s 8GB of storage, but it has an older microUSB port.
PocketBook Verse – $109.25 ($19.75 off): Another 6-inch model with 212 ppi and 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot. It has Pocketbook’s newer design and a USB-C port, and it has a frontlight with adjustable color temperature.
PocketBook Verse Pro – $141.55 ($17.45 off): Same as the one above except it has a 300 ppi screen, it adds audio support, and it’s waterproof, but it lacks the memory card slot.
PocketBook Verse Pro Color – $144.99 ($24.01 off): Same as the one above except it has a color E Ink screen with 300 ppi for black and white content and 150 ppi for color.
PocketBook Era – $189.05 ($29.95 off): A Kindle Oasis clone with a 7-inch screen, the Era is available with either 16GB of storage or 64GB, but the latter is currently unavailable.
PocketBook Era Color – $224.99 ($34.01 off): A color version of the Era model with a 7″ Kaleido 3 screen and 32GB of storage. It’s waterproof and has TTS.
PocketBook InkPad 4 – $239.99 ($29.01 off): The latest generation 7.8-inch model using Pocketbook’s newer design. It has a Carta 1200 screen with 32GB of storage space and it’s waterproof.
PocketBook InkPad Color 3 – $289.99 ($39.01 off): This has a 7.8-inch color E Ink screen and it is the latest InkPad Color model with a Kaleido 3 E Ink screen.
PocketBook InkPad Color 2 – $227.05 ($51.95 off): This is the previous gen model with an older color E Ink screen with lower resolution for color, but it’s otherwise nearly identical to the newer model.
PocketBook InkPad Lite – $189.05 ($29.95 off): This has a 9.7-inch screen with only 150 ppi. But it does have page buttons, unlike most larger ereaders, with 8GB of storage, and it has a frontlight with temperature control, and there’s a microSD card slot too.
PocketBook InkPad X Pro – $264.99 ($34.01 off): This is a 10.3″ model with a flexible Mobius screen, and it has a Wacom touchscreen for taking notes. But it runs a really old version of Android and it only has 2GB of RAM.
PocketBook InkPad Eo – $484.99 ($64.01 off): This is a new 10.3″ model with a color E Ink screen. It has a Wacom touchscreen for taking notes, and it runs Android 11 and can install apps. It has an octa-core CPU with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, plus there’s a microSD card slot.
PocketBook Color Note – $525.99 ($73.01 off): This is Pocketbooks latest 10.3″ model with a color E Ink screen, and it uses a flexible Mobius screen. It has a Wacom touchscreen for taking notes, and it runs Android 12 and can install apps.
Nate-
The ability to side load books onto Pocketbook simply is very appealing and I was going to buy either the basic or color..
But there were some negative comments about pocketbook.quality/longevity and lag when turning pages.
Was this your experience? A lag in page turning can be annoying.
Thoughts?
Pocketbooks are slower than other brands. It can take several seconds for a book to open, but to me page turn speed is fine for ebooks, although it can be slower with stuff like comics and PDFs. I haven’t had any quality/longevity issues, other than the screen being cloudy on the Era when I reviewed it, but I don’t use Pocketbooks very often because I’m too lazy to sideload. I have the basic and the design is nicer than the cheap plastic on the basic Kindle and Kobo Claras, and it adds page buttons and a microSD card slot, but the lower resolution screen is a big negative for me.
I was comparing my Pocketbook Era to my Kindle Oasis 2 at one point, I found some things slower, others, quicker. So it’s a bit of a mixed bag with the Pocketbook, but overall, I’ve quite liked the device. If I recall correctly, page turns were either similar or quicker than the Kindle, however, the Kindle is some 6 years older than the Era (2017 vs. 2023).
However, I’ve been happy with page turning quickness on every e-reader I’ve ever owned, all 14 of them since 2010, LOL! And I’m a fast and voracious reader. Perhaps I’m just not that picky, as long as my eyes feel comfy and I can read on.
I have Pocketbook InkPad 3 Pro. It’s excruciatingly slow. It takes up to 30 seconds to open a book! Page turns once it’s open are okay, but way slower than on Kindle or Kobo. Their cloud is a joke as well. I delete a book and next day it’s back, that’s very common. And my collections between IOS app and Pocketbook don’t sync properly… To-read, Reading Now, Is Read just doesn’t sync. Plus the app on iPhone had been crashing any time I opened it for almost two years. Anytime the reader would fall on the ground from like 40 cm (from bed) the entire casing opened up so I don’t believe it can be waterproofed anymore. I would never buy any Pocketbook again ever. Plus their design is very very cheap feeling in real life (but thats just my opinion).
Kobo is the way to go for sideloading in my opinion if you don’t need sideload sync with iOS/Android app. If you need that, then go for Boox with Book Fusion app connected to Calibre. That’s the most comfortable setup. You just click one button in Calibre and your entire library is magically in your ereader and smartphone app.