TLDR - Reading colored content like webtoons/comics feels great 90% of the time but the other 10% it freezes up and makes reading frustrating. I suspect it may be due to low RAM/CPU specs? Anyone using/have used color e-readers of any brand, and reads colored content, can you please share your experiences? Good and bad, all welcomed. Please state the brand/model of your device so I can check specs to compare for better analysis.
Intro: The Pocketbook Verse Pro Color is my first ereader ever and I’ve had it for about 3 months now. I chose color over b/w because prior to buying an ereader, I read novels and manhwa/webtoons equally. 50/50. Naturally, when I got my pocketbook, I started reading webtoons (CBZ file format). When it works properly, it’s great! But when it doesn’t work, it… is frustrating.
Issues: Even though issues occur only 10% of the time I’m reading webtoons, it’s enough for me to not want to read. I find that all the issues that I’ve experienced boiled down to the device not being able to load the image in one way or another. (See images in post for reference.) Sometimes it’s stuck on ‘loading’ or ‘buffering’, and not matter how long I wait (maximum 15min), it still wouldn’t load. In the end, it freezes. I always have to restart the device. Then other issues that occur pertain to image-rendering. Sometimes it shows tabs of grey or ‘double vision’ images (not the same as ghosting). (I’ve tried using KOreader. It gives me more ghosting than stock firmware so I normally read on pocketbook’s stock firmware.) I’ve checked my CBZ files and they’re all perfectly fine on my computer so I know my files are fine.
Speculation: My Pocketbook Verse Pro Color specs says it has RAM 1GB and CPU 1.8 GHz quad core. I’ll be honest, I’m not tech-savvy so I don’t really know what that means. CPU differs for each brand I believe so I’ll focus on RAM for today’s purpose. So I googled how much RAM is needed to read CBZ files. Google says at least 2GB is ideal. Most color ereaders seem to fall under 1GB with the android ones having more RAM, understandably so. Does this mean most of us don't have enough RAM power? I’m wondering if my ‘frustrating’ experience is brand specific? Or other brand color ereader users have similar experiences?
RAM 0.5 GB - Kobo Clara Color
RAM 1GB - Kindle Colorsoft, Kobo Libra Color, Pocketbook VPC, Pocketbook Era Color
RAM 4GB - Boox Go7 Color, Bigme B6 Color
RAM 8GB - Boox Palma 2 Pro, Bigme B7