PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro

PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro: At a Glance

With the InkPad 3, PocketBook hit a home run in 2018. The device was praised by both reviewers and users alike, standing out with one of the best lighting systems in the 8-inch segment. However, those interested had to accept some compromises, as the device lacked water protection and was thus a bit less well-equipped than some competitors.

That changes now with the PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro: the newest addition to the InkPad lineup comes with two major upgrades. First, the eBook reader now features built-in water protection with HZO nano-coating (IPX8). This means the electronics are safeguarded against water, allowing the eReader to withstand up to 60 minutes at a depth of up to 2 meters (in fresh water) without damage.

Second, the InkPad 3 Pro comes with Bluetooth. This makes it possible to play audiobooks and other MP3 files not only through a suitable micro-USB-to-headphone adapter with wired headphones, but also wirelessly via Bluetooth on compatible devices.

There is, however, a minor trade-off: due to the water protection, the internal storage is no longer expandable. In return, it has been doubled to 16 GB, so for most users—even those who listen to audiobooks—storage space should rarely be an issue.

Aside from that, the Pro version of the PocketBook InkPad 3 offers the same trusted features and technology: the screen is 7.8 inches, just like before, with a resolution of 1872×1404 pixels (300 ppi). The screen lighting is as reliable as ever, including the option for blue light reduction.

Once again, it features a dual-core processor (2x 1 GHz) and 1 GB of RAM, ensuring smooth everyday performance.

Somewhat surprising compared to the regular InkPad 3 is the small weight increase of 15 grams. The PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro tips the scales at 225 grams—still not much, but when it comes to long reading sessions, every gram counts. The extra weight is due to component changes that aren’t visible to the user, as the InkPad 3 and InkPad 3 Pro look virtually identical on the outside.

The PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro also comes bundled with a matching sleeve. The sleeve fits the eBook reader perfectly, is robust, and is definitely useful for transporting the device.

Other than that, the InkPad 3 Pro offers exactly the same advantages as the regular model, so potential buyers can look forward to the same extensive software suite.

Conclusion

For several years now, PocketBook has been seen as a source of innovation in the eReading market. The company already had E-Ink Fira and Triton devices in its lineup and was even the first to launch the asymmetrical design with its InkPad series.

Although the InkPad 3 took a different direction with a redesign of its design language, it earned plenty of praise thanks to its excellent execution. With the PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro, innovation continues—not necessarily with the device itself, but certainly in the company’s product lineup.

Selling different storage versions is nothing new—Amazon has been doing this with the Kindle models for quite some time. What’s new, however, is that an eReader manufacturer now offers a choice between water protection and expandable storage. Since both features are mutually exclusive when using nano-coating, it’s refreshing to finally have a choice—especially since storage expansion slots are getting harder and harder to find.

Of course, this comes at a price: the InkPad 3 Pro with these new features sells for 269 euros. The “regular” InkPad 3 is available for 229 euros.

PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro: Full Review

In testing, the PocketBook InkPad 3 already proved to be an excellent device. No other 8-inch model blends extensive functionality with such polished execution. The small drawback of the missing water resistance is now addressed by the PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro.

The new Pro model follows the “regular” InkPad 3 with small but decisive changes. Both devices are being offered in parallel at the time of writing (October 2019). Let’s take a look at who should consider the pricier InkPad 3 Pro.

Note: The review unit was supplied by PocketBook, sealed and in its original packaging, with no conditions attached.

Build and features

The PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro follows the design language of the company’s current e-reader generation: slim bezels all around and buttons below the display. In terms of shape, the InkPad 3 Pro doesn’t differ from the standard version.

PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro (left) and InkPad 3 compared

Although it’s 15 grams heavier (225 g), the Pro version is just as large and slim as the regular variant (195 x 136.5 x 8 mm). The weight gain presumably comes from changes to internal components. As a user, there’s no perceptible difference that would otherwise explain the higher weight.

At 225 grams the InkPad 3 Pro is by no means heavy, but it doesn’t quite match the InkPad 3’s relatively light 210 grams for an 8-incher. No matter— the Pro also feels great in the hand.

Just as slim as the regular InkPad

“Pro” for water resistance and Bluetooth

The big advantage of the PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro—mentioned at the outset—is its new water resistance. A nano-coating compliant with IPX8 protects the electronics from (fresh) water for up to 60 minutes at depths of up to 2 meters. That puts the InkPad 3 Pro alongside the smaller Touch HD 3, which also boasts water protection.

This update does, however, cost the memory card expansion. It isn’t compatible with a nano-coating and therefore had to go. To prevent a storage crunch, PocketBook doubled the internal storage to 16 GB (13.7 GB available). That’s ample for audiobook users as well, though after a while you’ll likely want to tidy things up now and then (if you use audiobooks). For pure e-book use, the capacity should be more than sufficient for most users.

Familiar button layout below the screen

Speaking of audiobooks: The InkPad 3 Pro also has Bluetooth. That lets you listen to MP3 files wirelessly on compatible devices. That’s also an important difference from the Kindle Oasis 3. Amazon’s reader can play audiobooks via Bluetooth too, but only if they were purchased and downloaded directly from Audible.

The PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro plays standard MP3 files, so you can use audiobooks and music from a wide range of sources. It’s essentially the same difference as with e-books (AZW/KFX file formats vs. the open ePub format).

It sounds like a small detail, but it can quickly pay off in everyday use: I was on vacation in Italy with the Kindle Oasis 3 and had to bring my phone to the beach just to listen to music (which I’d actually have preferred to avoid), because the Amazon e-reader can’t play MP3 files. With the InkPad 3 that wouldn’t have been necessary; I could have simply copied my music onto it. True to its overall philosophy, the InkPad offers more flexibility here as well.

Excellent features

Aside from those two points, I can only repeat what I said in the InkPad 3 review: both the build quality and the choice of materials are very good. The matte soft-touch surface feels pleasant. Unlike the regular InkPad, however, the surface isn’t rubberized, so it feels a bit softer and, to my taste, more comfortable. On the flip side, smudges from your fingers are a bit more visible due to the deep black color.

The buttons below the screen—which are no longer as rare as they were a year ago thanks to the Tolino Vision 5, Epos 2, and Kindle Oasis 3—have a clear, crisp click wherever you press and are easy to use without looking. Unlike the competition, the InkPad 3 Pro doesn’t just have two page-turn buttons, but a total of four freely assignable keys.

Back

PocketBook again uses the now well-established dual-core CPU (2x 1 GHz) and 1 GB of RAM. It doesn’t make a dramatic difference in everyday use, but having performance headroom is always welcome. This setup is especially helpful for multitasking (e.g., listening to music while reading).

A 1,900 mAh battery ensures sufficiently long battery life, and it’s larger than many competitors’ units, which are often only around 1,200 mAh. In practice, that means noticeably longer use on a single charge.

Audio output is possible not only via Bluetooth but also through the included micro-USB adapter. And thanks to the orientation sensor, the screen rotates automatically to match how you’re holding the device (can be disabled).

Sturdy sleeve included

As a small bonus, PocketBook includes a sturdy sleeve with the Pro model. The e-reader fits snugly inside and is well protected in gym bags, travel bags, and handbags. The exterior is slightly rough with a bit of sheen. The interior is microfiber. There’s a faint smell, but it’s neither strong nor bothersome.

PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro sleeve

Note: The sleeve that came with my unit had a white residue along the edges. At first I thought the sleeve was damaged and disintegrating. In fact, it appears to be residue from manufacturing. I was able to scrape this white deposit off with a fingernail.

Display and lighting

The PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro features a 7.8-inch E Ink Carta display with a resolution of 1872×1404 pixels. That yields a pixel density of 300 ppi—or “Retina” resolution.

Very easy-to-read display

In other words: text sharpness is just as high and contrast just as good as on the InkPad 3. With the naked eye there’s no noteworthy difference between the devices and also not compared to other manufacturers in this respect.

Readability on the InkPad 3 Pro is flawless.

Lighting quality and night light

Like all higher-end PocketBook models, the InkPad 3 Pro offers blue-light-reduced illumination. You can switch it on in steps and set the color temperature to your liking.

Coolest light color

The built-in light’s color spectrum ranges from cool white (bluish) through neutral white to orange-yellowish. Compared to the InkPad 3, the color temperature skews more towards yellow and less towards red. In numbers: at the coolest setting the LEDs shine at 7,300 Kelvin, at the warmest at 2,600 Kelvin.

The differences are likely due to manufacturing tolerances and shouldn’t be seen as representative of the product line. Aside from that detail, the color tones are still very close.

Lighting uniformity is virtually identical to the regular InkPad. Evenness is very good. In photos you can make out a minimal vertical brightness gradient (brighter at the top, darker at the bottom), which isn’t distracting in person. With a screen this size that’s probably hard to avoid completely.

Very good lighting uniformity with minimal brightness gradient

With the InkPad 3 Pro, PocketBook also offers the best night-light customization. You can adjust the Smartlight schedule to your liking using a simple 24-hour line chart.

There’s also a brightness automation. That is, brightness isn’t adjusted via a sensor, but according to preset times. If the automatic lighting doesn’t fit at some point, you can also set brightness and color temperature manually.

Night light at about 50 percent

Brightness

As with lighting quality and color temperature, there are only minimal differences in brightness compared to the InkPad 3.

At the highest setting, the InkPad 3 Pro reaches a maximum of 85 cd/m² with the cool-white light. With warm white, the peak brightness is a bit lower at 73 cd/m².

The lowest light setting measures 0.7 cd/m², the same as on the regular InkPad.

Minimum screen brightness in cd/m² (lower is better)

• Tolino Shine 3 (warm) 2.7
• Tolino Vision 4 HD (cool) 2.2
• Kobo Aura One 2.1
• Tolino Shine 2 HD 2.0
• Tolino Vision 4 HD (warm) 1.9
• Tolino Shine 3 (cool) 1.8
• Kindle Paperwhite 4 0.9
• PocketBook Inkpad 3 0.7
• PocketBook Inkpad 3 Pro 0.7
• PocketBook Touch HD 3 0.7
• Kindle Oasis 3 0.6
• PocketBook Touch Lux 4 0.4
• Kindle Oasis 1 0.4
• Kindle Paperwhite 3 0.2

In other words: there would certainly have been room for more at maximum brightness (see the Amazon competition). More important, though, is the minimum brightness so you’re not dazzled when reading at night. Here the PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro convinces with a sufficiently low level. Even light-sensitive people should have no issues with it.

Night light at 100 percent

Touchscreen and ghosting

The capacitive touchscreen works as usual—fast, responsive, and accurate across the entire surface.

Ghosting isn’t completely perfect. That means that after a page turn, if you look closely, you can make out faint fragments of the previous page. The effect is less pronounced than on the Kindle Oasis 3 and doesn’t disturb reading, but other devices have shown it can be better. I therefore recommend setting the automatic full refresh to every fifth page.

Interim verdict: screen

The InkPad 3 Pro’s display holds no surprises. It works exactly like the sister model. That means readability is excellent, illumination is even, and the touchscreen is precise. Ghosting could be a bit lower on the Pro as well, but it never truly gets in the way.

All told, the InkPad 3 Pro offers one of the best 8-inch displays on the market.

Reading and usability

To learn more about the full feature set while reading, see the InkPad 3 review and the Touch HD 3 review. Most of the points apply in the same way to the PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro, since the same interface is used.

That said, I’d like to briefly touch on two key changes that have come to PocketBook’s software since those reviews.

Disable touchscreen

The first change is the option to disable the touchscreen. When an e-book is open, you can turn off the touchscreen by double-tapping the menu button. Control is then only possible via the hardware buttons.

The touchscreen can be disabled

At first you might wonder what that’s good for. After all, touchscreen operation is always sold as the most important advancement in device development.

That’s true to a certain extent for e-readers as well. But because you often hold these devices in your hand for many hours at a time, you want the most comfortable grip that doesn’t require much effort. In that situation a touchscreen can be impractical if you’d like to rest your fingers on the screen. With the new function, that now works without unintended inputs.

It sounds like a trivial detail, but in everyday use it’s a huge comfort gain. You can’t help but wonder why such an option wasn’t built in earlier.

Better note-taking

The second change concerns the note-taking function we’ve been criticizing for years. PocketBook previously took a not-very-intuitive approach to notes. That finally changed with firmware 5.20.1010.

New note-taking

Instead of offering two different note-taking modes, there’s now a single mode. It lets you write, access, and edit notes. The marking/drawing mode that was removed some time ago has also been reinstated. This lets you draw and make other annotations directly within a book with your finger.

The input field is now multi-line and provides a better overview. All notes are indicated by an icon on the left edge of the screen. If you write notes frequently, it’s a good idea to increase the text margin, as these (semi-transparent) icons overlap the text ever so slightly.

Highlighting mode

Bottom line: with the InkPad 3 Pro, PocketBook again offers very comprehensive software, and note-taking in particular has taken an important step forward.

Thanks to the wealth of customization options, there’s still no better e-reader software for customization-minded users.

Conclusion

With the InkPad 3 Pro, PocketBook adds a device to its lineup that we didn’t expect. The Pro model is unexpected because the changes compared to the regular InkPad are fairly modest.

That’s not a bad thing, though, because the InkPad 3 remains one of the best large-format e-readers on the market: features and build quality are as good as the screen’s illumination and the implementation of the night light. The same holds true for the InkPad 3 Pro.

The added water resistance is a welcome bonus that’s definitely advantageous for certain use cases. If you often read in the bath, near a swimming pool, or around water in general, the InkPad 3 Pro is a good choice. What matters isn’t so much that the reader can survive a dunk to 2 meters, but that you don’t have to worry when you grab it with wet hands or when water drips from wet hair onto the display.

Personally, I could do without the Bluetooth connection. But in times when wireless headphones are becoming ever more popular, adding this wireless option is certainly a sensible investment in the future.

The PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro shows hardly any weaknesses and clearly earns a recommendation

This time, however, the InkPad 3 Pro doesn’t take the value crown, because with a recommended retail price of 270 euros, the price increase over the regular model is a bit too steep for my taste. The latter is already available for a significantly lower 230 euros. To be fair, the 8-inch competitor Tolino Epos 2 is even more expensive at 300 euros (no audiobook support, but with a Mobius display).

In closing, you can draw almost the same conclusion as with the regular InkPad: in all the key areas the Pro e-reader convinces, and for water-loving bookworms it easily earns a buy recommendation.

PocketBook InkPad 3 Pro: Technical Specifications

All information provided without guarantee.