Bookeen Cybook Opus: adorably cute, but buggy

I've spent a lot of time on eBay purchasing gently used electronic reading devices, and when a Bookeen Cybook Opus came up with a cheap Buy It Now, I figured, why not? Not common on this side of the pond, Bookeen is well-known in its native France and is sold throughout Europe, but there are US resellers offering it online. The Bookeen Cybook Opus is $199 new for the latest edition, and comes in fun colors. The original white edition is available used on eby for about $100-130 right now. It comes with a pleather slip case in the box.

My take on the Opus after using it for for several weeks:

Design:
I do like the design - the perfect centering/balancing of the navigation buttons, the ability to rotate and still use the page forward buttons, make it a joy to hold and use. But the plastic also feels a bit creaky, the buttons are noisy and lower quality compared to the fine finish of the Sony models and the heft of the Nook or Kindle. But it's diminutive size and light weight are selling points that differentiate it from the pack. And plastic weighs less.

Touchscreen:
Sorry, no touchscreen on the Opus. Navigation is accomplished with the 5 way center button on the bottom, and the two menu buttons on either side.

Contrast:
The contrast is lovely on this screen. It's not quite as white a background as the Nook, but not as murky as the Sony Touch or PRS-700. Highly readable in any lighting. Both letters and artwork appear very crisp, and there is no glare. It supposedly only has 4 shades of gray, but that is only noticeable on the book cover previews.

Lighting:
There is no built-in lighting, which is standard for an e-Ink device. I haven't been able to find a suitable light to clip on to its narrow bezel, and the slip cover doesn't work as a case to clip a light to. I may try the Kandle or fashion my own case to use with the M-Edge eLuminator2.

Speed:
Page turns are exactly the same as the nook, but a bit slower than the speedy Sony Touch. There is a noticeably, but quick, screen flash as the e-Ink refreshes, and ghosting is non-existent. Turning on the device is nearly instantaneous, since it really goes into sleep, not off (unless you force it off by holding the power button for longer). I love being able to flick the switch and start reading in less than 2 seconds - something that becomes more annoying about the Nook every time I wake it up.

Connectivity
No WiFi or 3G on the Opus either, which is unacceptable given the price of the device. I kind of missing the convenience of impulse purchasing, but for the tradeoff of Calibre/folder organization, it might be worth it.

Software:
I would rate the Opus as average, for the eReading device market. It doesn't do everything I wish it would do, but it does a heck of a lot more than all the others do in terms of organization. Books can be sown in List view, or Cover view. Books can be sorted by Title, Author, in folder or list view. The best feature remains the folder feature - the ability to work with Calibre to use my meticulously tagged series from Calibre is awesome.

It does not include a dictionary feature, or a go to page feature. I miss the latter when I'm switching between readers or referencing something in a different book in a series. The dictionary isn't critical for me anymore, since Google on my iPhone is nearby. My only real complaint is that there is no clock (gotta have something to remind me when I'm caught up reading until 2am).

The reading software reads ePub and PDF DRM formats, although there is alternate firmware that allows Mobipocket or PDF. The standard font is a serif and is attractive. There are 12 sizes - some useless, but the majority very readable.

There is no desktop software. The Opus loads as a mountable USB device, and items can be dragged and dropped, or loaded via Calibre.

There do appear to be some bugs in the latest firmware (2.1). Four times now, the Opus has frozen. Twice it froze on a book page, a required a reset. The other two times, it went into UBS connect mode, even though I was nowhere near a computer. That took multiple reset pushes and holding the power on/off button. This was highly annoying, as the reset slot is inside the back cover, next to the battery, which flops around anytime you slide the back cover off. and the back cover is very slim plastic, which feels fragile and has to be forced back on, as its a tight fit. I worry that I'll snap one of the tabs off if resetting becomes a habit. Hopefully the next update fixes this bug, and doesn't introduce a different one.

Ergonomics:
I really enjoy using the Opus one-handed. It feels great in hand, so incredibly light, and with perfect placement of the buttons. I find it easy to hold and navigate using the bottom buttons without my wrist getting tired, and the placement of the page forward button is great - thanks to the accelerometer, it can be used in either hand by just rotating. It weights 5.3 oz according to Bookeen's website, and that seems about right - just a hair heavier than my iPhone.

I did try to use it in a propped position in an easel-style case, and didn't find that doable. The Opus is so light, that pushing the page forward button requires enough force to almost knock it over.

Storage:
The Opus comes with a standard 1GB of memory, and a microSD card slot that makes it essentially limitless. Perfect for my 500+ ebook library.

Conclusion:
I read in bed, I read in the car, I read at work, I read on the couch. All told, I think I have spent 40 hours reading on this device over a several weeks. My major complaint is the noise of the bottom buttons. `another problem is the lack of accessories like a case to slide my favorite book light into. It is almost a perfect reader to entirely replace my iPhone in all situations. Instead, I have to look elsewhere. `i like it so much, I'm thinking about keeping it as a secondary reader.

So now, I'm pretty much out of devices to try. I don't have an interest in the 9.7" screens. I've considered the Sony PRS-500 or 505, but they are getting long in the tooth and don't look particularly ergonomic. So for now, I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep the Opus and Nook. The Nook will hold my library downloads and the occasional impulse purchase, and the Opus will store my library of purchased books, particularly series books that I need to reference or re-read. And then I'll keep my eyes open for the latest and greatest, as always :)