You would be foolish not to buy the iReader Smart 4

April 30, 2023 By Michael Kozlowski 3 Comments

The iReader Smart 4 is their first digital note-taking device with an E INK screen of 2023. This product has a large 10-inch screen and comes with a stylus. This is designed for users to freehand draw, edit PDF files and do translations. A robust e-reading app is compatible with most major formats; you can use this by sideloading your favourite titles. A digital bookstore is preloaded on the device. However, it is mainly populated with Chinese books. Despite this, the Smart 4 has English support for the UI and all the menus. IReader has made a big push into supporting English, even going so far as to update their older devices from 2019 to 2023 to support this new language.

iReader was one of the few companies to adopt 256 levels of grayscale on their most recent products. There is no magical e-paper technology that has a higher level of grayscale. They use simulation to do it via dithering algorithms on a pure software level. This is how they can bypass the 16 levels of grayscale and instead use 256 levels. Instead of having 256 levels of grayscale on specific applications, such as the PDF rendering engine or the ebook reading app, it applies system-wide. Every navigation entry, text, or image will look sharper without fuzziness or antialiasing issues. On a basic level 256, it smooths over any pixelated sections caused by gradient scaling. iReader told me they made it happen in two ways: the SOC and software algorithms.

The Smart4 e-note comes with a 10.3-inch E-Ink display with a resolution of 1404×1872 with 227 PPI resolution. The tablet is designed with a new process that reduces the thickness of the front panel by 30%, making the screen display more transparent. At the same time, the paper-sensitive soft light screen can reduce 97% of interfering light and simulate the damping feeling when writing on paper, bringing a more realistic writing feel. The screen is flush with the bezel and protected by a layer of glass. The colour scheme around the bezel is black and has a strip of blue on the back of the device and the left side. One of the most compelling aspects of this product is the manual page turn buttons. Quickly turn the pages of an ebook when reading; the page turn buttons can also be mapped to do different things, such as full page refreshes or acting as a home button. There are dozens of mappable aspects, which makes it very unique. This device has a front-lit display with 28 levels of warm and cold lights; you can read at night or in low-light conditions.

Under the hood lies a 2.0 GHz dual-core MT8113T processor with 1GB of memory and 64GB of onboard storage. There is a USB-C port, WIFI, and Bluetooth 5.0. You can connect Bluetooth headphones and listen to audiobooks, music or podcasts. There are two stereo speakers that you can use instead of Bluetooth. There is, of course, WIFI, which provides access to the internet browser and also the bookstore. It is powered by a 4000mAh large battery with up to 60 days battery life on standby. The dimensions are 226.4 by 193.4 by 6.3mm, weighing 379G.

One of the big selling points is the real-time translation features as well. Also, the integrated dual silicon microphone lets you record proceedings during meetings or a classroom lecture. You will also have the option to mark critical points of the recordings for easy comprehension later. Screen mirroring feature allows for real-time sharing of screens for enhanced workspace efficiency.

The main reason why you would want to buy this is to take notes. It all starts with the stylus. It comes bundled with one of the best on the market, the X-Pen SE stylus, which supports 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and a sampling rate of 360 times per second. The stylus utilizes a spine body design making it comfortable to hold. The stylus also has a physical page-turning key that flips the pages with a single click. The pen can magnetically attach itself to the side of the e-note; this might cut down on misplacing it and looking under every nook and cranny of your home.

The iReader Smart 4 runs Android as the operating system, but it doesn't have an app store, and you cannot sideload your apps. The main UI is on the left side and has several options such as Home, Notebook, Daily, Bookshelf and Settings. The home screen is an amalgamation of all of the different UI elements. The first is your schedule, a to-do list, and pictures of your notes. If you create messages, it will show you what is on the first page. If you have sideloaded any books on the device, it will either show the last few books you added or are in the process of reading, along with a percentage. Hot Books offers three or four books from the iReader bookstore. Tools comprise a file manager, import, translation, Baidu Network and Record.

There is a top bar that can be dragged down, providing even more options. This is where you can establish a WIFI network, pair Bluetooth devices, take a screenshot, lock the orientation or adjust the brightness of the warm and cool lighting system via slider bars. If you don't want the light on, drag them to the left, and the entire lighting system will be shut off.

There are a few notable settings options. You can make your background for the wallpaper and standby screen. You can also remove things from the home screen and navigation bar, so if you don't want the store showing up or book recommendations, you can turn them off. I also like their refresh system, making navigation snappier. The one drawback is the store, at least for an English-speaking audience. It is 100% all Mandarin books, and everything is in Chinese, even if you use English on the device. I wish iReader at least had a small English section of royalty-free books.

The primary reason to buy the Smart 4 is for writing. It is also the only 10-inch e-note in the world with page-turn buttons. The UI and sheer amount of writing options are simply mind-blowing. You can just navigate to the Notebook and create a new one or open up an existing one. There are over 150 different templates, so there is something for everyone.

The entire UI has a tool for selecting your pen type and line thickness. You have a pen, brush, ballpoint pen, highlighter or marker. Select different colours such as black, grey, and white. Red, green and blue are also options, but since this is a black-and-white e-note, you will only see the colours if you export the note to your PC or MAC. One feature on this menu I like is called Blackboard. It will invert the display's colours so that the background will be black, and the pen will default to white; it's like writing on a chalkboard.

Different eraser buttons, such as area. I like Shaping, which is unique and exclusive to iReaders. You can draw a circle, which will change it to a perfect process, a square or rectangle, and convert it to a geometrically correct one. There are also options to insert shapes, which can be adjusted to be larger or smaller. Handwriting to text is also helpful, so you can use it with voice notes and insert them into your drawing. Importing images from the file manager is also excellent; you can sideload your PNG files.

The writing experience overall is seamless and fluid. There is no lag when putting the stylus on a screen, which makes it easy to jot down your train of thought or listen to a lecture and transcribe everything with handwriting. The 4096 degrees of pressure sensitivity will make lines thicker or lighter the harder you press down on the stylus.

The iReader Smart 4 supports a myriad of ebook and audiobook formats. It can read TXT, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, and XLSX. Audiobook or music formats can also be sideloaded; it supports MP3, MP4A, AAC, WAV and FLAC, among the most well-known lossless files. You can read books in portrait or landscape modes or set an orientation lock. You can turn pages of an ebook or PDF file by swiping or gesturing on the screen or using the page turn buttons. However, the real power of the Smart 4 is being able to edit all book formats and PDF files.

So, while reading an e-book, you will have the palette available along the side tapping, giving you access to several writing options. Those include five pens – Pen, Pencil, Ballpoint, Brush, and Marker – to choose from, three thickness levels, and half a dozen colour choices. The Smart Air is monochrome, but you will get to see things in colour after you have exported your writing to a suitable device that supports colour. Also, while the pen has three thickness levels, it helps different pressure sensitivity to arrive at the desired thickness levels. Also, yes, you can write or take notes on the e-book itself, something that even the Scribe does not support yet though Amazon said that would be taken care of in a future update.

Returning to the topic on hand, the Highlight option is also available on the palette that can be used to highlight something. For that, you only have to strike through the portion of text that gets underlined automatically. If that seems too insignificant for highlighting texts, there is the Marker option that will smear the entire piece with black but reverts to a lighter shade of gray to reveal its highlighted status while still being fair enough to show the text within. There is also the Eraser option, something that you are likely to use often, considering that the pen, which is the 3rd generation i-Reader X-Pen, lacks an eraser.

Tapping on the display will also reveal several options at the top. Several are redundant here; you get the Highlight and Marker options. However, you also have other options, such as TTS, Bookmark, etc. With TTS, you also have the opportunity to choose from a few male and female voices, along with a child option available too. While all of that is great, there still are issues with the accent as people of Chinese origin still lend their voices. There is nothing wrong with that, but people with English background or higher English fluency would have done a better job.

At the bottom, you have the options Content, Notes, Learning Mode, Progress, and Settings. The Learning Mode is interesting as it splits the screen into two halves, with a notebook on the right and an e-book on the left. You can continue to read the book on one half and jot down your notes on the other half. Of course, you don't have as much space as, say, the Fujitsu Quadreno, but it still offers decent space for taking notes and reading e-books.

All of what I have said so far applies to PDFs as well. That means you can highlight texts and use the marker option, along with everything else you could do on e-books can be done on PDF as well. In any case, PDFs load quickly and look nice too. The pen speed is also among the best in class, with almost zero lag times. That makes using the pen a delightful experience.

iReader has officially secured its place in the meta as a viable line of e-readers. What started as an unknown Chinese company unwilling to play ball has become a full line device lineup with Wacom support; in English. The Smart 4 brings the latest note-taking technology to the party. They even have exclusive note-taking features that even Amazon or Kobo have yet to dabble in, such as blackboard mode, shaping and workflow charts.

Michael Kozlowski has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Filed Under: e-Reader News, Reviews