INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Last year I had a good time comparing Sony DPT-RP1 with the home-grown reMarkable
They both had their strengths and weaknesses, and one of the Sony was that the thing was just plain big
They&ve remedied that with a much smaller sibling, the DPT-CP1, and it just as useful as I expected
Which is to say: in a very specific way.
Sony e-paper tablets are single-minded little gadgets: all they do is let you read and lightly mark
If that sounds a mite too limited to you, you&re not the target demographic
But lots of people — including me — have to wade through tons of PDFs and it a pain to do so on a desktop or laptop
Who wants to read Amazon Antitrust Paradox by hitting the down arrow 500 times
For legal documents and scientific journal
articles, which I read a lot of, a big e-paper tablet is fantastic
But the truth is that the RP1, with its 13.3″ screen, was simply too big to carry around most of the time
The device is quite light, but took up too much space
So I was excited to check out the CP1, which really is just a smaller version of the same thing.
To be honest, there not much I can add to
my original review of the RP1: it handles PDFs easily, and now with improved page jumping and tagging, it easier to navigate them
And using the stylus, you can make some limited markup — but don''t try to do much more than mark a passage with an &OK& or a little star
(one of several symbols the device recognizes and tracks the location of).
It incredibly light and thin, and feels flexible and durable as
well — not a fragile device at all
Its design is understated and functional.
[gallery ids="1687652,1687655,1687656,1687657,1687653,1687654"]
Writing isn''t the Sony tablets&
strong suit — that would be the reMarkable territory
While looping out a circle or striking through a passage is just fine, handwritten notes are a pain
The resolution, accuracy and latency of the writing implement are as far as I can tell exactly as they were on the larger Sony tablet, which
makes sense — the CP1 basically is a cutout of the same display and guts.
PDFs display nicely, and the grid pattern on the screen isn''t
noticeable for the most part
Contrast isn''t as good as the latest Kindles or Kobos (shots in the gallery above aren''t really flattering, since they&re so close up, but
you get the idea), but it more than adequate and it beats reading a big PDF on a small screen like those on your laptop LCD
Battery life is excellent — it&ll go through hundreds of pages on a charge.
A new mobile app supposedly makes transferring documents to
the CP1 easy, but in reality I never found a reason to use it
I so rarely download PDFs — the only format the tablet reads — on my phone or tablet that it just didn''t make sense for me
Perhaps I could swap a few over that are already on my iPad, but it just didn''t strike me as particularly practical except perhaps in a few
situations where my computer isn''t available
But that just me — people who work more from their phones might find this much more useful.
Mainly I just enjoyed how light and simple
There almost no menu system to speak of and the few functions you can do (zooming in and such) are totally straightforward
Whenever I got a big document, like today FCC OIG report, or a set of upcoming scientific papers, my first thought was, &I&ll stick these on
the Sony and read them on the couch.
Although I value its simplicity, it really could use a bit more functionality
A note-taking app that works with a Bluetooth keyboard, for instance, or synchronizing with your Simplenote or Pocket account
The reMarkable is still limited as well, but its excellent stylus (suitable for sketching) and cloud service help justify the price.
I have
to send this thing back now, which is a shame because it definitely a handy device
Of course, the $600 price tag makes it rather a niche one as well — but perhaps it the kind of thing that fills out the budget of an IT
upgrade or grant proposal.
