TrekStor eBook Reader Pyrus review

While most of TrekStor’s eBook readers have colour LCD screens and can double as media players, the six inch Pyrus is a more traditional reader with an e-paper display and few extras. There’s no integrated MP3 player for your audiobooks, for example.

We’ve seen much better-quality e-paper displays than the Pyrus’s 6in version. We don’t seriously object to the slightly yellowish background colour, but the soft edges to text and slow refresh rate don’t compare well to most rivals. The reader’s design isn’t brilliant either – it’s a little too wide to hold comfortably with one hand, particularly if your hands are small. The page turn buttons are well positioned, though – there are forward and back buttons on each side of the display, so you can easily reach both buttons whether you have the reader in your left or right hand.

There are four labelled control keys at the bottom of the reader, which take you home, open the settings menu for whichever screen or document you currently have open, go back a step and open the search box. In the centre is a four-way navigation pad with a centre button with an uncomfortably spiky nubbin in the middle. These controls let you move around your library, select letters in the text entry matrix for the search box and navigate menus.

Like most readers, the Pyrus comes with its own software – you’ll find Windows and Mac OS X installers on the reader’s internal storage. The software gives you access to TrekStor’s branded bookshop and let you authorise your reader for eBooks encrypted with Adobe Digital Editions DRM. The first time you run the program, you’re prompted to download and install Adobe Digital Editions. If you already have an Adobe account, you can log into it via the Digital Edition software to gain access to all the titles you’ve bought previously.

Once you’ve logged in to your Digital Editions account, you’re promoted to authorise your reader. You’ll then be able to use Digital Editions to view books already on the reader – all the sample books are in German in this case – and manage the titles present on your PC. Once your reader is authorised you can also manage Digital Editions books using powerful third-party tools such as Calibre.

TrekStor’s software may look slightly clunky, but it gives you an easy way to view the books present on your reader and lets you open them in Adobe Digital Editions for reading on your PC.
The software’s Shop tab opens up the Eason online bookshop, which lets you buy physical as well as electronic books. We had no problems registering for the service and there seemed to be a reasonable selection of books available.