Customer Ratings & Reviews

I got two white Literati eReaders from somewhere else for less than what BB is currently selling the black versions for at $120. The black and white units I’ve told when I called the Literati help desk are same units underneath. If you read other people’s reviews it appears that BB was selling the black units on sale for $49.99. I missed that sale and lowest I saw BB sell them for was $99.99. They were only two white units so I bought both one for my wife and one for me. You could see one them was either returned/used, while the other was brand new. I would have passed on the used one but I didn’t think they would be getting more of them at their low selling price below $99.99 that BB had the black units on sale for at the time. It appeared that it was a close out of their left over XMAS sales stuff. During XMAS there was a lot of activity on eReaders and they always seemed to be more that $100 depending on the brand. I did later go back a few weeks later and they were now selling them $249.99 at retail value, which I think is way over priced for a Literati. I didn’t know much about eReaders in general or the Literati. Everyone I talked to said get a Kindle but they were in the $150 range and didn’t have color so the Literati seemed to be a good deal. I normally research before I buy, but I didn’t in this case. After I bought it then I researched them and found in general that most reviewers didn’t like them and basically said stay away from Literati eReaders. One thing I did learn is the depending on what eReader you buy you maybe tying yourself to a single book seller. Kindles are tied to Amazon, Nooks are tied to B & N and Literatis are tied to KoBo (Borders). The Android eReaders may allow you more flexibility in where you buy your ebooks and you might be able to get them from more than one site, but I would check it out first. I decided give it a try and searched on the internet for “free” ebooks. I found a lot, both in epub format and in PDF format. I already had a lot of documents in PDF format, so I thought the Literati would work well to read them. While you can read PDF documents, PDF format by nature really isn’t a good way to read them on the Literati to take advantage of the eReader capabilities. Now epub format is what I believe what the Literati and eReaders in general are designed to work well with. They format to fit within the screen size and you can adjust the text size easily. PDF’s on the other hand are good for large computer screens but don’t format well in the smaller screen sizes. With PDF’s, after you get the text to a readable size the document scrolls off the screen and you have to use the pad to move the document to read it. Not really what the eReader was designed for. Epub format documents are the way to go and that’s the format that Kobo and other sell their books in. I loaded up an 8 GB SD card with PDF documents I had, and by doing so I overloaded the Literati. The Literati’s memory, I guess keeps a database of the documents and there were too many documents to list for the memory it has. I maxed out the 210 MB (with ver 2.0 of the firmware update) it had available. I couldn’t add anymore PDF documents or ebooks. It left me no choice but to reset it to start over again using less PDF documents. However, the Literati, would not reset and clear the system using the built in function. Called the help desk both at Kobo and the equipment manufacturer and they were no help. The Literati was stuck saying it was full of documents that I didn’t want and couldn’t delete. I even tried deleting the files in the memory attached to a PC and there was an error when I tried to delete them. It wouldn’t allow any erasures. I was stuck and Literati’s support recommendation to return the unit and get another one. Since I didn’t think there was any more left where I originally bought it, that just meant I would return it and get my money back, but get no reader in return. I didn’t want to do that and I thought that there must be a way to restore the firmware again another way. Sure enough, on the internet I found how to restore your Literati. You need a “KoboRoot.tgz” firmware file and the firmware can be loaded from an SD Card by holding down “Q” while powering on. I tried it and it worked!! The Literati was now working again only back to firmware ver 1.9 which was the latest I could find. As soon as I restarted and had WIFI access, it automatically found that there was an update (2.0) and asked if I wanted to update, which I did. Everything is working again. They knock the Literati, because it doesn’t do more, like the Android models like Cruz and Pandigital. While the Android models have come down in price, and are more than an eReader, I think the Literati does its function well. It sized to fit comfortably in your hand and works well as an eReader for epub documents. If you don’t need all the other capabilities, which may or may not work well at anyway, and eReading is all you want to do, the Literati fits the bill. They only thing is I would wait for a sale to get the best deal.

Just bought the Literati for my wife who is an avid book reader. This review is based on the 1.9 Firmware update released 12/3/10. Pros: - Color screen is clear and bright - Fast (page turns, keyboard usage, configuration changes, etc.) - Page turn touch-sensitive controls - Reads ePubs (available through our local library) and PDF (including color); can convert many other formats with 3rd party application - Magazines are now implemented and look very good in color - Night reading mode and back-light display - Free cover--makes the unit easier to handle and is very secure - Free books - Easy to copy/transfer books to the Literati - Optimized as an ebook reader; if you are looking for a tablet PC--look elsewhere - Not a touchscreen (most we have tried leave a lot to be desired, including the Nook Color) - Rapid firmware updates adding new and improved functionality (my unit was manufactured late August and there have been at least 4 updates with another promised in January 2011 or thereabouts) Cons: - Smallish keyboard (manageable, just not ideal) - Tall; awkward to hold in one hand (cover makes it easy to use) - Not a touchscreen (would have been a nice feature so both a Pro and a Con) - Currently can't connect to other book stores--supposed to be addressed in the next firmware update - Support is very limited (website is bare bones); one of the main reasons I can't give the device 5 stars. Summary: If you want an eReader the Literati is designed to do just that. My wife and I looked at the Nook and Nook Color and she wanted a color eReader. The Nook Color touchscreen was hit or miss for her and there is currently no adjustment (as of late November) to improve sensitivity. I like the fact the Literati tries not to be too many things and with the latest updates is super stable and fast. The price is also very reasonable at $100.

i received the literati for christmas but i got it early it work great for the first 2 days i had it on the thrid day i went to turn it on and it would not come back.on for the amount of time i got to use it it seemed to be a good product it was easy to use the screen is 7 in which was good it has wifi and downloads books or magazines all within about a minute it would be well worth your money if it didn't have this problem so if your looking to by an ereader your probably better over spending the extra money for a nook or kindle thats what i'm gonna do

The Literati is my second ereader. I own a Sony, but was given this as a Christmas gift. First off for the price of $79.99 this is an extremely affordable product. I'm a IT professional so the initial setup was very easy for me. I took it out the box, plugged it up, enabled the wifi and downloaded the two updates. Then I bought two books to test it. I synced my library, but my new books would not show up. Also, the initial 25 free books only showed as 15. I thought maybe I had a bad reader based on some of the reviews, but that wasn't the case. I simply had to do a factory reset by pressing the menu button and then going to settings, advanced which will bring you to "Reset to Factory Defaults" then press reset device now then press ok. This resets the reader completely. It will come back on and ask for time/date settings, enable wifi and log on to you wireless network again, and it will redownload firmware. Resynced to the Kobo store and everything came up properly. My books I had purchased synced to the device. The device works as promised. I looked at the News & Mags tab and was dissapointed there really isn't much of a selection which I hope will increase soon. Battery life isn't great but can be worked with by changing brightness on screen. Overall for the price this is a great affordable addition to the ereader market.

I just purchased this from the store after researching and comparing other ereaders currently out and on sale. I chose this one due to the thin size and the decent quality color screen as most of the other ereaders only have a b/w screen. I purchased for my daughter as a Christmas present and thought I better open it and inspect the quality and see how it works before she opens it on Christmas. Out of the box and that is if you can get it open without harming your self or the product. It comes in a nice book looking box but it is sealed inside in a very hard to open hard thick plastic that is heat sealed shut. After finally getting it out of the box and turned on I discovered it was actually a pretty nice looking ereader, and the case that is included is also pretty nice quality. It runs a little slow but the screen does have nice quality and color and it comes preloaded with books. The book pages look good on the screen. The keyboard is a little small but of decent quality and ease of use. The pages turn fairly quickly and the page turning keys on the side of the screen also worked nicely. I thought I would try to get it connected to my wi-fi and did so with no problems, due to the advice of another reviewer about selecting "show characters" when entering your wifi password or code. Although I did find I was unable to connect to the Kobo bookstore after trying to download a free book as a test and did not have time to figure it out, hopefully on Christmas morning.

maybe at a price point of $120.00, I might say, "check out all the other e readers because they are in that range", but at $50. I figured I'd give it a try. So far, really glad I did! I had read a couple reviews about it not having bookmarks. This is ridiculous since you don't have to do a thing to bookmark! When you close a book, it marks your place and when you come back, it opens to that page even if you have read from a different device (iphone, pc, etc) it syncs your bookmarks. I had no trouble connecting to wifi and it automatically updates your software when you connect. Reading on it is pleasant. You can adjust font and screen brightness to your liking. The case that comes with it would probably cost at least $20 or more, so for this price, I just don't see how you can go wrong. It's simple to use right out of the box with millions of books to chose from because not only is it linked to Kobo bookstore, you can import books from other sites and libraries. I'm sure some of the others have more features and better software (according to reviews) but they also cost almost 3x more than this. So, if you're on a tight budget, but want an e reader, I don't think you can beat this for value.

This product was purchased for my 11 year old son for Christmas 2010. It is better than I expected. I am able to upload books/magazines onto an 8GB SD card and read them on this device. Initially I wasn't impressed until I updated the Literati software and that's when the magic began. *The update is important to maximize the use of the Literati so please turn on the wifi and update first.* I have not used the online bookstore with this device because this reader can read just about any digital book format so I can download books/magazines from Books A Million and Barnes and Nobles and place them on this Literati via the SD card. Not to mention it came with a great number of collectable books that we have all read as children in school and all the books were worth reading again as an adult. I told my friends about the Great Literati reader and that Best Buy had them on sale after Christmas but they were sold out everywhere. Please don't sleep on this quiet, successful ereader. It has a night reader option which turns the screen black and the type white...genius...no strain on the eyes because of the backlight. I wouldn't say the Literati is flawless (slow page turning & no speakers for read aloud mode) seems to be the only problems I have with the device but it's cheaper than most readers with more options expandability which is missing from all other readers.

I bought my Dad a Kindle; didn't have the $ to buy another for myself so picked the Literati up on sale for $49.99 this past Sunday, recognizing that the reviews were not good to begin with. There is scant user information provided and the website is not very helpful although I did download the more detailed user manual from the website. Nice that the device comes with a case; but, the power button is hidden behind the elastic strap on the upper right once you put the device in the case which makes it kinda awkward to power on and off. No trouble charging it up, no trouble figuring out how to set the date and time, device had no trouble recognizing WiFi signal once I put in the correct password. : - ) There aren't a lot of bells and whistles on this thing, strictly a book reader and it doesn't support many EBook formats, just EPub and .PDF from what I can see; but it seems to be reading books fine. I downloaded some that I purchased on EBay onto an SD card and inserted into the device and it reads them with no problems. It responds slowly to commands, so you have to wait for it. It did get "stuck" once. I inserted a paperclip into the back and restarted it as recommended. Its fine now. Battery life is not very long, especially when WiFi is connected. Overall, I expected a basic reader and that's what it is! I would recommend it to a friend who didn't have a lot of money to spend.

I have had it less than a week, but I have worked with it a lot, it has been somewhat intuitive and somewhat a mystery at times. But I now have two borrowed library books on it, and a sixty-book library that I mvoed from ADE on my computer once I figured out how to authorize the device which I think is authorized now for epubs that I have purchased and that I have borrowed. I like the eReader. Even in the case it is not overly heavy. I like backlighting, have read books on handhelds before and it did not bother me. The only negative I have found is that it is slower than my other eReaders, but I also am transferring in multiple books. I don't know how slow it will be with a direct purchase, but my suspicions are that a color device is slower than the eink devices. I would have no problem recommending this to friends or family. I am glad I bought it.

I bought the Literati because I wanted a color e-reader (so I could read at night w/o a light on) and I couldn't afford an Ipad. I mostly read in bed so it works well for me. I don't like the battery life - it will say you are a little down from full and the next time you try to turn it on it is completely dead. I have had it a few months and still haven't quite worked out how long I need to charge it, or use it to fully drain the battery. A lot of times I end up just having it plugged in while I am reading, but it doesn't seem to charge during that time. I like the size of the screen and the day/night options as well as the different font and font size options. It is probably the heaviest e-reader, but I don't find the weight to be a problem. It has wi-fi capabilities which is nice if you are purchasing books from KOBO. I usually download them from my library and have to connect it to my computer to transfer the file. Not a big deal once you figure out the software your library uses. In summary it works well for reading, but has unreliable battery life.

I bought my very first eReader yesterday. I walked four miles in twelve-degree weather in order to obtain it. It's been twenty four hours, and the thing was such a complete and utter waste of money that, for the first time in my life, I felt the need to warn others against it. Well, maybe not a complete and utter waste of money. It has a nice, sleek design, and its extremely pretty to look at. It allows you to adjust the font size, and comes preloaded with several extremely interesting books (Alice in Wonderland being my favorite). The problems, however, wholly outweigh its appearance. Its sluggish (which I myself don't particularly mind, as I tend not to be a picky consumer); and worst of of all, its nearly impossible to upload anything on it. I tried just about everything. As a matter of fact, my very first upload was a two page P.D.F. poem, in plain font --- just to see the thing in action, really. I was extremely excited when it began to "Process the new content." Hours later, however, the progress bar was still only about 15% complete. It was only half charged, so I assumed that was the issue. I charged it, and tried to upload the small book of poems "Ariel" by Sylvia Plath, also assuming that maybe it simply wouldn't allow custom content that had only been converted to P.D.F. The problem persisted. Hours later, I was in the same predicament. So last night, I tried one page from a book, and kept the eReader charging over night, the entire time it processed. I took the opportunity to sleep in as well. When I woke up, nearly ten hours later, it was at 15%. I tried literally every method listed in the accompanying manual for uploading and still no custom content. So what happens when the preloaded books are all used up? What then? I checked online and this issue seems to be quite common. Do a little research for yourself though to see the comments. Feel free to buy the product, just make sure you don't need anything uploaded immediately, as they may indeed take years to process.

I had this reader for two days before I gave up, and returned it. First off, as I have a Sony reader I have a good collection of ePub books that the Literati is supposed to support, however, once I put them on the SD card, the Literati could not find them. I did some research and found this was a common issue, and no fix as of the time I returned the reader. What is also common, is the sluggish software, especially page turns. Sometimes the capacitive buttons would work, others, I would have to press it more than once. The last straw was the keyboard. Since there is no web browser on the device, the only thing the keyboard can be used for is seaching the Kobo store. You cannot make annotations, nor can you bookmark. I have never seen a reader where you cannot make a bookmark!!! Color screen is nice, but in this price range, you are much better off with a Kindle. How often does color come into play when reading a book? E-ink screens are much easier on the eyes than backlit LCD's, and you get weeks of battery life vs. hours for the Literati. Please check other reviews on the web before deciding on this reader! Note: The issues with the Literati could be fixed with a firmware update, but as of yet, none has surfaced.

i had it for a week: My computer couldn't detect it at first, so i had to work on that. Then it "lost" some of the books from my personal library that i thought i succeeded in loading. It was incredibly slow when it came to book transfers from a computer, boots, and loading the MANDATORY updates. It was fine turning pages but the little touch keys on the side sometimes got unresponsive, and the button that also turned the pages was awkward and small. It also froze a lot. I ended up returning the thing because it froze, and when i tried to turn it off by holding the top button down it gave me THE WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH after about four seconds. If you buy it, keep your receipt.

I was nervous after reading majority of the reviews. But I found the updates via WiFi and adding additional books from Kobo was a breeze. It took me just 30 minutes including the initial hiccup to complete the WiFi setup, add a book from the additional 125 via Kobo store, add a PDF file to SD card. If you have a Kobo account and have not added or bought any book through them, don't hook up your PC with Literati (just my opinion) Use the Online store to add the free books via Wi Fi. Literati is great (2 hours use :)) so far except for the speed. Little bit of trial and error before you can master this. Did shutdown or do anything to indicate that it will die soon.

I had some doubts about this reader when I bought it, but overall it has been a success for me so far. PROS I wanted an ereader. Success! I wanted to be able to download books from the public library. Success. I wanted to be able to read a book comfortably, without being distracted by the reader. Success. It turns pages quickly, the side buttons work, I can control the font and the font size, the screen is easy to read. For me, the UI is not intuitive, and the support manual (use the on-line version, which is more up to date than the one in the box) wasn't well constructed, and made getting help kind of a scavenger hunt. But (here's the pro) I called the help number twice, and got a representative very quickly both times. CONS The UI and the help manual (see above, in Pros). For reading a book, it is fine, but during set up I had trouble getting where I wanted to go in the menu (or getting back to where I was before). The battery life is shorter than the black and white readers. I read in the evenings, and have never run out of power. I treat it like my netbook. Bottom line: I was frustrated when setting this up and downloading my first few books from the library, but now that I'm over that hurdle, I look forward to using it. I find it well worth the $60AR or so that I paid for it -- a bargain.

I wanted a kindle for Christmas and my husband found this item on sale for $99 at Best Buy and bought it for me. I love the full color and the ease of use. My daughter even wants one now too! This is lightweight and has great image quality. It is easy to connect to wi-fi and has lots of great free books. The books do seem to cost a small margin more than say kindle books or nook books but given the added value to me of the full and vivid color I can overlook that! I do wish there were a car charger (and maybe there is but I haven't seen it) and the battery life could be better but overall I still LOVE my literat!

I purchased two units for my kids and so far haven't got major issues. It took some time to do two software updates via wifi. One unit initially refused to connect to my XP laptop with the provided usb cable but once I tried with other cabIe I already have then it was connected without any problem. The display is looking great for both color images and text. It would be nicer if the left and right margins of text displays are smaller as the screen is fairly long already. And I wish it had an option to change the background color to light grey or sepia like ones. I guess these can be done through software upgrade. The setting menu shows only 256M of memory unlike best buy's saying it's 512, not a big deal though as it can be expanded using a sd card. The unit was also capable to show epub files with embedded fonts, which were created using a free epub creating software. This means it can also display ebooks with different font styles or with foreign fonts once you know how to do it. I guess the reasons why BB had to lower the price this much in short period have something to with bad reviews from the customers and high return rates, but ironically some people like myself take advantage of it. My kids also enjoy reading with Literati. I wish future software update just gets it better.

I recieved this as a gift and was excited to put it to use! My excitement fizzled quickly...The response time between pushing buttons on the keyboard and the reception from the literati is frustratingly slow. Also, I cannot get my purchased book from kobobooks.com to download correcly to my device. It will say it is downloading the correct title, take 6-7 minutes...but then the book is nowhere to be found on my device!! The color screen is nice, and the size and shape seem adequate - but since I can't read the book I want (...the purpose of the gadget!...) those things mean very little! After researching this product on MANY sites I have read one bad review after another after another...I was going to try to exchange the one I received and see if a different literati would actually work - but now I think I will try another eReader completely.

I boought 2 to give for Christmas. I gave one to my wife and father inlaw. My wife loves it. We can download from the Adobe Digital Reader using from KOBO or the Literati site. You have to know what you are doing on a computer to realize that the directions they give in the package are not the best. The best way to really enjoy the Literati is to just use the wifi to download the books you want at KOBO site. Just enjoy and yes , this is a basic ereader, but a very nice one to use if you do not make a big deal out of it and just do the wifi, relax, and enjoy a good book with a good cup of coffee. Happy new year to all who read this! Matt :)

First I bought a major name brand ereader, where it had no navigation buttons for $149. Had to drag my fingers on the page to flip pages, on the other device. Saw this unit on sale, at $79 grabbed it. Has 3 different buttons to flip pages, by simply tapping on touch sensitive areas. This really helps you focus on the book (ie. zonning in on the reading). THE KEY HERE IS TO UPGRADE 2X, once you connect to the WIFI you upgrade the firmware then it resets and when you get back to your WIFI network upgrades again. The second upgrade makes this thing fly. The firmware OS. makes it responive. Also It uses just a regular SD card not mini sd, that is a plus because mini SD's are more expensive. Every household has a few regular SD cards lying about, so you can add extra books on the sd card. Recognizes epub and pdf, using the free application of ''calibre'' (free but donate if you like it) you can convert any book into ebooks. Recognizes up to a 32 gig regular SD card. Looks really professional with the leather book cover it comes with, it flips closed. I work for a major bank where any device that can record data is not allowed, this is due to security reasons. So this device is discreet, and professional looking. The other feature I like about this is that if you go back to home menu, it automatically creates a bookmark. The book purchases and the free ebooks works of the KOBO books network, which is affiliated with Borders books. But really with ''calibre'' book coversion software you can convert any ebook format to any ebook format (even allows you to import jpeg book covers). Anyways I thought this was great. I don't want to drop 5-6 c-bills for buying a fancy pad. Wait for fixed costs to drop, as prices will come down on the new pad devices. This will cover my reading needs. I have found that I am reading more and flip more pages, reading much faster, then even paper based reading. Anyways as a famous chinese saying goes ''QUANTITY (price) is a quality by itself''. I think this unit got some bad reviews, as people did not upgrade the firmware twice as it is very easy to do , just log on to a wifi area. Lastly the brightness on this gizmo is very strong, great for lunch time day reading at work. I run the brightness at the lowest level 1 at night, as any higher hurts my eyes. With level one brightness lasts 7-8 plus hours of reading time. As a summary can't go wrong with this. Grab these at $79