Test Vivlio Light HD Color : notre avis complet –

On the e-reader market, Amazon Kindles and Fnac Kobos are the ones that come up most often. However, other manufacturers are also good in this area, such as the French firm Vivlio. If this doesn’t mean anything to you, this Lyon company has already existed for 10 years.

Like its competitors, Vivlio takes care to offer a complete catalog to satisfy the different needs of readers. Two new models have also been added: the InkPad Color 3 and the Light HD Color. These are two e-readers featuring a color screen, to appeal to fans of comics, manga or comics. There are few of them on the market, although very recently, Kobo also released two new color e-readers, just like Amazon which has just announced its Colorsoft.

After testing the Libra Color model from Kobo, we wanted to discover the new Vivlio range, by testing its entry-level model, the Light HD Color. Let’s see what it’s worth…

Technical sheet

This test was carried out with a Light HD Color loaned by Vivlio.

Design: lightweight, practical to transport and robust

This is the first time I’ve used a Vivlio e-reader, and it’s similar to other e-books I’ve already had. Its format is also quite close to Amazon’s classic 2022 e-reader, but with less rounded and more rectangular edges. Its dimensions 156 × 108 × 7.6 mm and its weight of 182 g make it particularly pleasant to use.

It fits comfortably in one hand, making it an ideal companion for long reading sessions. Its back has a non-slip coating, which simplifies handling, but quickly catches fingerprints and dirt with the grooves. It is also very easy to carry and will take up little space in your bag.

And while many e-readers use touchscreen to navigate the interface, the Light HD Color offers a practical alternative with four physical buttons under the screen. They allow you to go to the home page, change pages, but also turn the e-reader off or on. This is a good way to quickly access the main functions of the e-reader.

The lower edge accommodates USB-C, practical for everyday use. The set is IPX8 certified, which allows you to use it without fear in the bath or by the pool. According to the manufacturer, it can withstand depths of up to 2 meters for 60 minutes.

We also appreciate the ethical side of Vivlio which chooses simple recycled cardboard packaging. It contains the bare essentials, namely the e-reader, the charging cable (USB-A to USB-C), and a quick start guide.

A nice limited color screen…

Unsurprisingly, the Light HD Color screen uses an e-ink screen, but which has the particularity of displaying colors, thanks to E Ink’s Kaleido 3 screen technology.

Although color e-ink looks promising, it is not yet perfect. The colors are washed out and do not reflect the reality of the book displayed. It’s not the fastest display technique either… When displaying a new page, the rendering becomes pixelated and hampers visual comfort. To remedy this, you need a second press, whether with the physical button or by touch, to obtain a clearer display. The e-reader then “reset” the screen by making it flash briefly.

It’s difficult to fault it, because these color screens do not aim for the same precision and color saturation as those found on an LCD or OLED screen of a smartphone or laptop.

They still bring a real plus, especially on illustrated books. Comic books, some manga pages, cookery and travel books, magazines and graphic novels come to life on this screen. The colorized cover of the books is highlighted on the home page and catches the eye.

On the other hand, its small diagonal of 6 inches is not suitable for color books which are generally in large format. For reading comics, for example, the text bubbles are slightly cut off… You will therefore have to zoom in on the drawing to completely read the text. This can quickly become boring, especially since the action is quite slow when it comes to moving a page. For manga, illustrations will be better displayed.

For the technical part, in color, you benefit from 150 pixels per inch, and in black and white, from 300 pixels per inch, which complies with the standard for monochrome e-readers. When testing the Vivlio Light HD Color in black and white mode, without brightness activated, the rendering is darker than on a classic black and white e-reader. It’s not really annoying, but it’s better to activate the lighting which offers different levels of brightness.

It can also be adjusted automatically and adapts to the light in the environment. The temperature is also adjustable, manually or automatically, and allows you to go from blue lighting to yellow or even orange lighting. This provides better eye comfort. The e-reader also includes a dark mode to reduce glare. Result: the light is less aggressive for our eyes, when we read before going to bed, but also to avoid disturbing someone who is sleeping near you. Please note, this mode is only suitable for novels, and not illustrated books which will keep their colors.

A customizable e-reader open to many formats

This Vivlio e-reader offers a Linux-based operating system. An OS that focuses on personalization and gives the freedom to “tweak” the functionalities a little in order to better adapt the interface of the French e-reader.

The row of buttons under the touch screen can be modified as desired. For my part, I programmed the Home button so that it gives me direct access to the book library when I long press it. Other options are available, such as accessing the time and calendar, putting the e-reader to sleep, taking a screenshot, etc. It is entirely possible to configure touch gestures, if you are not a fan of physical buttons. You can assign other actions to it, such as adding a bookmark, a new note, and more.

Like all good e-readers, customization is also done on the font. There is the possibility of adjusting the size of the characters to your vision, of choosing from a wide variety of fonts (16) including three suitable for dyslexics. You can also make color annotations and even draw manually on the screen with your finger. Concerning navigation, I encountered some bugs during my use. As soon as you push the Light HD Color a little to its limits, it has difficulty getting by. Download a pretty hefty book and you’ll have a hard time navigating the library at the same time. To avoid this, it is better to do one thing at a time so as not to encounter any bugs and to enjoy a smoother experience.

To return to the main menu, the page reveals the cover of the different books currently being read, but also 5 buttons. They provide quick access to the main functions of the e-reader, including one that is not found in competitors: “Applications”.

In this category, we find an audiobook reader, a calculator, a browser, a coloring application and several small games, such as Sudoku, Solitaire or even a game of Chess. Whether for children or adults, it’s a pretty nice addition, especially when you’re going on a trip. It also offers the reading of audio books in MP3 format in addition to color books. On the other hand, it does not have a built-in speaker, which requires pairing it with a wireless headset or a Bluetooth speaker to take full advantage of this functionality.

Last but not least, its ability to read different formats. It supports the most popular formats, from classic EPUB to PDF to CBR/CBZ, it is capable of reading any type of digital file: FB2, FB2.ZIP, TXT, DJVU, HTM, HTML, DOC, DOCX… It also supports Adobe DRM, but also DRM CARE. The list is long, but that’s not bad, it means you don’t have to go through conversion software like Caliber. Accumulating books will not be a problem, because the model has 16 GB of storage, or around 8000 e -books according to the brand.

Battery: weeks of reading

E-readers are rarely criticized for their battery life. So yes, gauging the battery life of an e-reader can be complicated… It varies depending on your uses and the brightness settings you choose, but you can be sure that it will last you several days or even weeks before falling out. stranded. Fortunately, since this is the main attraction of e-readers compared to tablets.

According to Vivlio, it offers up to a month of battery life, depending on how much you play and use the features. In my case, I was able to use the Light HD Color for 2 weeks for half an hour of reading per day, with the backlight at 70% and the Wi-Fi on constantly. At the end of these two weeks, I still had 30% battery left. As for charging, it is possible with a supplied USB A to USB-C cable.

Charging, however, is not its strong suit, since it took me a little over two hours to refuel. An acceptable concession when you realize that weeks go by between each recharge. It is therefore ideal for frequent readers who will be able to take the e-reader on a trip without having to worry about recharging it frequently.

Price and availability

Available since September 2024, the Vivlio Light HD Color with 16 GB of storage is sold at 179.99 euros.

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