Customer Ratings & Reviews

First, this is not a Kindle, Nook, Sony or other e-reader that has all the bells and whistles. It retailed $50 when I bought it so I expected it to not perfect but... if you use it to read online fanfiction like I do its perfect. I use this very basic e-reader device to lull me to sleep at night because the TV was banished from my bedroom. I've enjoyed many great nights of reading using the night reading feature where the background is black and the letters are white and I adjust the brightness level so it doesn't blind me and it works great. I too noticed the books disappearing after you upload a new set of books and discovered that you have to open each book you download and bookmark it - even if its just the first page so it doesn't disappear. If you want to charge it - you must turn off the device and it charges just fine. Any fanfiction e-books you upload, you have to use Sigil to create a cover page with the title so you know what book you are reading. So yeah - it takes a lot of work but what do you expect for a cheap e-reader? If you don't mind doing any of this it works great. If you want the e-reader do the work for you buy the more expensive e-readers.

I enjoy using my Literati I have had it for about 2 weeks. It was great while I was traveling. The only down fall was the battery life is very short, and I pride my self in being technoligically savvy, but I did need to read the instructions. Pros: Light weight Attractive Color Screen wireless Kobo book store Cons: short battery life no accessories

Demo looked perfect. Backlit and night reading ready. Got it home, after charging and following the enclosed directions I could not load books from pc--usb attached got error messages driver couldn't be found. As per directions, downloaded calibre software to transfer books...books transferred, but don't appear because calibre puts them in folders...then thought to add books via SD card...which took 15 minutes for the card to load into the device===called tech support and after navigating through their push 2 if push1 if...found out the tech support number included in the box is incorrect. So its frustrating... Feels like a beta version was released and its just not up to speed, pardon the pun.

I've used the Kindle for a couple years now, and I think this Literati is a great device! The bookstore is easy to navigate, the screen is bright and sharp, AND COLOR!! Not much content yet but what I've viewed looks great. Best thing is it works flawlessly and page turns are very fast. Overall great reading experience on this device.

I really love my Sharper Image Literati!! The large color screen sold me instantly. The picture is gorgeous! The selection of free books is fantastic, and the library of books that are available for purchase seems endless. I have already taken it on a road trip with my family....we started very early in the morning when it was still dark outside and the adjustable brightness of the backlighting was perfect for the car ride. As the sun came up, I re-adjusted the brightness and kept on reading. The battery life was great too.....I read the entire 6 hour drive with no battery issues. Hands down the best Christmas gift I'll give this year!

I received this as a gift and absolutely LOVE IT!!! It fits in my purse and comes with a nice carrying case.. Great color screen, lightweight, and it's extremely easy to use! Would definitely recommend!

Received this as a gift. First thing, connect to my home wi-fi network, and it prompted for software update which I did. Two updates were downloaded (two restarts required) after which the software version 1.9 dated 12/03/2010 was installed. I accessed the kokobooks site from the Literatti device wirelessly to setup userid and password, then browsed and downloaded one of the free books. It came preloaded with 25, so now I have 26 books. Now, functionally the Literatti provides a good reading experience. I rated it 4 as it is not easy to navigate as I would like. All in all, price/performance considered, the Literatti is a keeper. Next test was to connect via USB to a Macbook. I easily 'dragged and dropped' a PDF file onto the Literatti device. Then after disconnecting the device showed my document in the 'DOCS' tab. I tried the free opensource Calibre application and found that did not work -- it only converted the coverpage of the PDF doc to the EPUB format. But I do not consider Calibre bad performance a mark against the Literatti as Calibre is a third party application. I also tried Adobe Digital Editions software -- also a third party application. That works seemingly OK, but again the Literatti does not ship with Adobe DE software, so I do not use ADE in my rating. My next test (over the next two weeks) will be to check with my public library to see if I can check out e-books from them and read the e-books on my Literatti. Recommendation: Yes, a good buy -- with limitations. The buyer needs to understand the context and limitations. The Literatti works with Koko Books via wi-fi, and it also works with PDF and EPUB files copied from your computer (in my case a Macbook Pro). I did not run any Windows variant (XP, Vista, 7) tests so I cannot speak of the Windows experience.

I got this as a present for Christmas. I was so excited to finally get an ereader. Although I really wanted a Kindle, I was happy with what I got. After using it for several weeks, I decided I'm going to return this item and get a Kindle instead. The battery life is awful. I plug it in every night to charge and the next day I get to read for about 3 hours before it goes dead. I had to reset the ereader 3 times because it would not respond at all. If I download books using wifi, I get charged 16 cents everytime for a currency exchange...this is do not understand at all. Kobo must be based outside the USA. So I will be returning it and buying a Kindle instead...it may cost more but everyone I know who has one loves it!

I read the reviews on the Best Buy site for this e-reader prior to purchase and almost didn't get it because of them. The other e-reader was out of stock so I purchased the Literati to try and am so glad I did! I LOVE this e-book! When I first turned it on, it prompted me for two seperate updates, which didn't take very long at all and it is now super fast! I connected to my wi-fi in seconds and have not had any connection problems or disconnects. I had two e-books on my computer and simply attached the e-book to my computer with the cable that came with the Literati. I simply dragged and dropped the two books onto the Literati and they saved over in seconds and I have already started reading one of them. The book cover that comes with it is really nice and the screen quality is amazing. I couldn't be happier!

The Sharper Image Literati Digital Reader is the best ereader that I have used in the last several years. Color screen is sharp, and is easy to read. Ereader also has backlight so it can be used in low light. Device takes 44 seconds to boot, but once up, it is very responsive. Interface is easy to use, design is great. Memory is expendable to 8GB by using SD card. Price is hard to beat too. 39 books take up only 29MB of space. You can load PDF files and several other file formats. Battery lasts 6 hours with WiFi enabled and 8 hours without WiFi. Easy to navigate the store and buy new books.

I have read all of the bad reviews here and I was half scared to get this reader even at $49. I purchased it and everything has gone flawlessly. I got it basically to load my pdf manuals on. The first time I loaded them on I put them in the adobe folder and this didn't work. So I removed them and just added them right where the device shows whats on the drive. After that it was no problem. Now I can view my manuals away from my computer at my leisure. The only thing I consulted the manual for was how to switch on the wi-fi. Of course I watched some of the youtube videos on the literati and saw how to navigate around on it. My experience has been pretty much flawless. If you don't get this for $49 your really missing out, it is a steal. Maybe all the bad experiences are just from people being confused what to do to get it going. It found our wireless network with no problem and added the updates with no problem. Now just one thing when I plugged it into my Vista Laptop it didn't load the driver the first couple of times so I powered off the Literati and after that it loaded the driver and was smooth sailing from there on. It truly is drag and drop your files onto this device. I'm glad I took the chance with this thing.

I too was nervous about purchasing this device after reading the reviews. But, having no eReader experience I decided to go with this one because the price was unbeatable and the functionality seemed compatible to if not better than some of the other eReaders. Given the unfavorable reviews I figured worst case scenario, I would return it for a refund. Well it’s been 10 days and I am VERY PLEASED with this purchase. I had no issues with setting up the Wi-Fi connection to my home, downloading free ebooks (10 so far) to add to the pre-loaded library, subscribing and receiving the Wall Street Journal (14-day trial), syncing the PC and Literati to read the Adobe Digital Editions files (.acsm files used by libraries), or adding ePUB and .pdf files to the Literati (via PC or SD memory card). The dictionary works, and the reader is working with my laptop (Windows 7 which is not listed as a supported OS). I am REALLY impressed with this eReader. Overall, GREAT buy!

I thought the product was really pretty and nice color screen. It IS run by the kobo website which is part of Borders which influenced my purchase.the website is great and easy to use. BUT the device when connected would never sync the book I bought the KOBO site never recognized it I took it and my Laptop to best Buy's geek Squad they said it was NOT my laptop it was the e reader I did everything right. I even exchanged it for another one and that one never worked either. I gave this product 2 chances and even took it into borders and hooked it up to they're PC's and it NEVER loaded the new books I bought. I bought a KOBO in the end and it works perfectly. Thanks for the Help Best buy and Geek Squad you were more than patient with me and the device.

Got this Literati for Christmas as a gift. It took forever to figure out how to download on to the computer. Once I figured it out it took like 10 minutes for all updates. However, what they DO NOT tell you is that you have to have the Literati turned on while it is charging. I had been using and reading with it for a day after it was charged. I bought a book and downloaded it. Then turned off the Literati and plugged it in to charge over night. Then next day-nothing-DEAD. I called the Technical support line, and I even tried to reset it on the back, and nothing DEAD. The rude woman goes.......you can't have it turned off when you charge it. I said, "Then maybe you should have that important information in the directions!!" Regardless all they can do is send me an empty box, and I have to mail it in, and then they will send me a new one in 5-6 weeks. Are you kidding me!!!! This is a horrible device and I would suggest that you buy a Kindle or something else. I mean if the whole system fries out just by turning it off to charge.....then you would think that they would tell you this to begin with!!! DO NOT BUY THIS!!

I like the size of the Literati but many times, it has a hard time hooking up to the Internet. It also has a short battery life. I'm still liking it enough to keep it but am disappointed.

At first i thought this would be a good product to use but i soon learned otherwise. In six days i had two of these ereaders and decided to go to a kindle. The first one that i had lasted about three days before i couldn't turn it back on and the second Literati that i had only last about five or six hours it shut off and won't come back on. This looks like great product and a great deal but don't waste the time on returns. Good luck!

We bought 2 of these (one for husband & me, one for son) and have been using both for about 2 weeks now. I returned the Kindle I had just ordered when we found this at less than half the price. We have had no problems with either of the 2 Literatis we bought. We had to charge them and then do the 2 updates but after that it was ready to use. No problems with loading books, etc. We have even gotten books from our library on them. I guess the only complaints I would list would be the occasional page turn delay and the battery life could be longer. But just remembering to charge it each night seems to provide enough battery time each day. For the sale price we paid, we are more than happy! The ability to get library books on it was the main advantage that we saw to pick this ereader over the Kindle.

Had to return the first one. However, Best Buy offered a fantastic price, so I exchanged. I decided to buy the extended 2-year warranty for 10 bucks in case I had any other problems. All in all, price--even with warranty--was great and it does what I need as a starter device, getting my feet wet in the whole ebook thing. Make sure Kobo is where you want to buy your ebooks. It reads epub, doc and pdf.

Has a nice keyboard and clear screen. Had trouble getting it to remember to house wifi settings. Hard to make sure it's really off. You have to really look at the highlighted word to navigate around since it isn't a touch screen. Wish it was a different color of a box instead of a light blue underline. Sometimes the books don't show up until you reboot it. Battery life is good. SD card slot is a plus.

I purchased the literati because I couldnt afford a name brand e-reader. It is slow, but, not unbearably so. I can't down load from the computer, but it is wifi and up until KOBO merged with Borders I was able to download ebooks without too much trouble. Since KOBO and borders have merged trying to download ebooks is a nightmare. I would seriously look at a NOOK or KINDLE before I went with KOBO.