The holidays are the best opportunity to catch up on the books we have pending, but nobody wants to take a “mountain” in their backpack. The best option, of course, is to move to the e-book format, with small and light devices like the SPC Dickens Light.
It’s hard to talk about an e-book reader without mentioning the most popular in the business, Amazon’s Kindle. Priced at €99.90, the SPC Dickens Light goes head-to-head with the entry-level Kindle, but can it hold its own against such an industry titan?
Light and very fine
Weighing just 168 grams, this extremely light reader can accompany us anywhere without being a bother. That’s the big advantage it has over other readers, including the Kindle. This reader is much easier to transport, and especially, to carry in the hand; it’s much thinner, to the point where it surprised me, and holding it for several hours hasn’t proved to be a chore like thicker, heavier devices can. It is striking that this is achieved with 8 GB of internal memory, and even includes a microSD card slot if that is not enough for you.
Spc Dickens Light
The screen’s edges are thinner, too, and that allows the six-inch e-ink panel to stand out more. The 1024 x 578 pixel resolution is more than adequate for all kinds of content, and the letters render perfectly regardless of the font.
The “Light” part of the name comes not because it’s light, but because of the backlit screen, the feature that really makes it stand out from competitors like the Kindle, which in this price range still use front lights that don’t offer the same result. When we turn on the light, we will immediately notice the improvement if we are trying to read in dimly lit areas, although it is not annoying unless we increase the intensity to the maximum. Of course, the lighting will “eat” more battery, something to take into account.
With buttons, not touch screen
In return, SPC has had to make the sacrifice of the touch screen. It is something that will annoy you more if you are coming from a Kindle and the exceptional response it has. The Dickens Light is controlled with the bottom buttons, and the experience is patchy. Sometimes they respond perfectly when we change the page, and at other times it is as if they suffered from deafness. But especially, the biggest problem is that there are too many buttons, and their functions are confusing.
SPC Dickens Light
There are functions, such as turning pages, that have two dedicated buttons for no apparent reason; while there are other buttons that fulfill various functions depending on how long you hold them down, and that is not evident or explained in the manual. It is clear that this interface requires a bit more work, as do the menus. It doesn’t matter which section of the main menu you choose, they all lead to the same view of internal folders which isn’t friendly at all (who needs to see a system folder?); the only difference is the type of file that will appear.
Too many additions?
Because this e-book reader is not only capable of reading that, electronic books. We can also play music files, and we have a 3.5mm audio output to connect our headphones. It may be fine if we really don’t have anything else to play music with, that is, we don’t have our mobile on us. It will be especially useful for enjoying audiobooks, which are becoming more and more popular.
We also have a photo viewer, something that is more useless because, obviously, they will all come out in black and white due to the limitations of electronic ink.
SPC Dickens Light has some strange decisions, and others I fully understand. Once you get used to the buttons, and set the font and size to your liking, the experience is good, or at least similar to other readers. If we read at night, or outside the home, it is even better thanks to the backlit screen.
SPC Dickens Light
It gives the feeling that SPC has bet too much on the additions, such as the music player, when perhaps they were not necessary; although that’s the kind of feature that “saves your life” when you least expect it. Instead, the user experience needs some adaptation on the part of the user.
The SPC Dickens Light is available at the.
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