When the first electronic paper book was launched in 2019, the product staff who watched by Xiaomi knew that there would be a Xiaomi Mi Reader Pro Version, so many interested fans did not choose to buy the basis for a smaller screen. Version, but continue to wait for the release of the Pro version.
But whoever thought, this wait is one year. The 2020 epidemic has repeatedly delayed the release plan and waited for a long time. At the end of 2020, Xiaomi Mi Watching Electronic Paper Book Pro finally made its debut.
Compared with the first generation, Xiaomi Mi Reader Pro has made sincere upgrades from the outside to the inside to support its Propositioning.
The most intuitive change for Xiaomi Mi Reader Pro is the screen and thickness in terms of external design. The screen has been upgraded from 6 inches to 7.8 inches, which is larger and more delicate at the same time. The resolution reaches 300ppi, which is enough to ensure that more text is displayed, and the details of the text strokes will not be lost. It retains the 24-level backlight adjustment and adds the adjustment settings of cold and warm light to meet various reading light habits. Besides, the body is 1.3mm thinner than the previous generation, and it is more comfortable to hold with one hand.
In terms of core configuration, Xiaomi Duokan E-Book Pro still uses the Allwinner B300 SOC chip specially designed for e-book products as the main core. Still, a new hardware EPDC controller is added to make the page-turning operation smoother while lowering consumption. Both memory and storage have been doubled. The combination of 2GB+32GB can ensure the smooth operation of the entire system of e-books, and can also store more e-books locally.
In terms of software, Xiaomi Dukan Electronic Paper Book Pro still has the built-in custom system of Dukanshucheng. However, this time an additional reading application of WeChat Reading was added. The latter has a wealth of book resources, and can also read books for free through various tasks. For those users who have the habit of reading and clocking on WeChat, Mi Reading Electronic Paper Pro’s practicality is greatly improved. Besides, it also supports the installation of third-party applications. There are some special needs for reading comics and books. Xiaomi Mi Kan E-Book Pro can also be satisfied by installing third-party apps.
Appearance
Unlike the first generation, the packaging of Xiaomi Dukan Electronic Paper Book Pro has become dark blue. The product’s font rendering is printed with the famous sentence “Anything in the past is a prologue” from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”.
Please take out the main body; the overall design is no different from the first generation except that it turns black. The screen size has been upgraded from 6 inches to 7.8 inches, so the frame also looks smaller accordingly.
As the screen becomes larger, the resolution improves even more. The screen’s PPI has also been increased to 300, and the effect of displaying text is more delicate, without worrying about burrs, not to mention the unclear situation in small fonts.
There is an only one-touch button at the bottom of the front, which doubles as a return, home page and other functions. The side thickness of Xiaomi Dukan Electronic Paper Book Pro is only 7mm, there are not many physical buttons, and a set of volume buttons on the right. The power button on the top is used to switch the machine, turn off the screen and turn on the screen. The bottom data/charging interface is a Type-C interface, which supports up to 10W input.
Display and experience
First of all, let’s talk about the improvement in Xiaomi Mi Kan Electronic Paper Pro’s display effect. Needless to say, the advantages of larger screens, also, higher PPI and more advanced backlight system can bring a more comfortable reading experience.
With a large screen and a PPI of up to 300, even when reading pdf files, it can ensure the clear display of small fonts without causing too much difficulty in reading.
The lighting increases the number of adjustment levels and provides cooling and heating adjustment options to meet users’ preferences for various reading lighting conditions.
Also, in terms of page-turning effects, Mi Duo Kan Electronic Paper Book Pro provides two options for normal and fast modes. The fast page-turning mode has a faster refresh speed, which can greatly reduce the inertia when turning pages, but the fast page-turning mode also has a certain price. It will be more than normal mode when switching between a large area of black pages and white pages—many afterimages.
In terms of book resources, this time, the built-in Duo Kan Bookstore provides all the book resources of Duo Kan + Dangdang and a customized WeChat reading application built-in. A complete resource library and unlimited reading cards can be obtained for free through tasks, which is more practical for ordinary users.
If you want to transfer book resources by yourself, this time, in addition to various WLAN direct connections and USB copy, this convenient way of synchronization with Baidu network disk is still retained. It is very convenient to see that the book resources of interest are directly stored in the network disk, and then synchronized online.
Xiaomi Duokan Electronic Paper Pro also supports the installation of third-party applications. In the About column of the system settings, click on the WLAN MAC information multiple times to enter the application management window. Use the file manager to install third-party applications and open third-party applications without any problems. However, third-party applications are not adequately adapted to the ink screen of electronic paper books, so be prepared for abnormal grayscale display, power consumption, and freezes on the page.
Battery
For Xiaomi Mi Reader Pro, many people think that the Allwinner B300 is weak, and the 28nm process will have a certain impact on the overall battery life. But in fact, the performance of Allwinner B300 is sufficient for reading e-books and simple system settings. And, thanks to the help of the hardware EPDC controller, while the fluency of page-turning is improved, the processor itself will only work at deficient power consumption when reading text.
Therefore, unless it is to turn on the high power consumption functions such as Wi-Fi networking, Xiaomi Mi Watch Pro’s battery life performance will still not let us down.
First, let’s test the battery life in the networked state.
When the network connection is turned on, and the brightness is maximum, reading a page every 25 seconds for 50 minutes, the power consumption is 8%, and the final battery life is expected to be about 10.4 hours.
After closing the Wi-Fi network, battery life has been doubled. Please turn off the network, we test again, under the same conditions, the power consumption within 2 hours is 10%, and it is expected to reach 20 hours of battery life easily.
If you want longer battery life, you can turn off the backlight to reduce the reading speed. Daily reading of books will not last for 20 hours. Actually, after reading for a period of time every day, I will wait for a few days without any problems.
Read Also: Xiaomi’s First Ink Screen Reader: 579 yuan ($82.35) to Ppen Crowdfunding
Verdict
A 7.8-inch electronic ink screen with 300ppi. With this screen alone, Xiaomi can take advantage of the 1,299 yuan price of e-paper book Pro. At the same price, all products are 6 inches. For reading, the difference in size determines the content that can be displayed on a page. And naturally, it will also have a fundamental impact on the reading experience.
Other improvements such as backlight, storage, and built-in storage are all normal upgrades on the Pro version. A larger screen naturally requires a lot of effort in system fluency. After all, expansion storage is not supported…
The Allwinner B300 processor equipped with Xiaomi Mi Read Electronic Paper Pro is completely sufficient for daily reading. And other operations in terms of performance. Unless you crack the system and install a third-party APP, or drag PDF documents with complex content and large volumes. You will not feel the existence of the performance bottleneck of Allwinner B300. What’s more. There is a hardware EPDC controller’s assistance, which will make daily operations such as page-turning smoother.
In terms of software, the biggest highlight of Xiaomi Dukan E-Book Pro is that it has added the WeChat Reading application to the native system. After all, its own resources are already vibrant, and it supports convenient WLAN, network disk and other local file import methods. With the WeChat reading application, it is a powerful supplement to the book resource library. The various tasks of unlimited card reading for free also save a lot of buying books and become more dominant in the software ecology.
Xiaomi Mi Reader Pro is 1,299 yuan, and it can be purchased for only 1,099 yuan during the first release and various activities. The 7.8-inch delicate large screen, rare at 1,000 yuan, and the ecological environment led by WeChat reading, are included.