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Choosing an ebook reader

cyanide64cyanide64 Registered User new member
Anybody have any recommendations for an reader? I know that i could use a tablet but we just became home owners so that budget is really tight. One thing I would like it to be able to do is also use it to display PDF's properly. Cut down on lugging some of the gaming books.

Posts

  • naporeonnaporeon Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited July 2013
    If you are planning to use it for gaming, a tablet is your only real choice. I have experience with many e-ink readers (nook, Kobo, and Kindle), and several tablets, and while the former are definitely my hands-down recommendation for reading, the latter are the only thing I can recommend if you intend to game. Most modern e-ink readers have no problem with the PDF format, but they are emphatically not designed for the kind of quick navigation and resizing needed for game-related PDF navigation. B&N and Amazon both have tablet options in the $130-$150 range, so they are also not super costly.

    In terms of expense, it's much worse to buy a device that actually doesn't meet your needs than it is to save for a little while and get one that does.

    naporeon on
  • AkilaeAkilae Registered User regular
    You can't beat e-ink for e-readers. That being said, yes, tablets work better for your intended use.

    However, your eyes will thank you for e-ink if you plan to do any lengthy reading.

  • QuantumTurkQuantumTurk Registered User regular
    Yea, I loved my kindle keyboard, and love my kindle paperwhite now, but they are NOT kind to any pdf that you want to me moving around quickly, zooming in and out etc on. They are good for straight reading only.

  • ThunderSaidThunderSaid Registered User regular
    Akilae wrote: »
    You can't beat e-ink for e-readers. That being said, yes, tablets work better for your intended use.
    However, your eyes will thank you for e-ink if you plan to do any lengthy reading.

    In my experience, the eye-strain thing varies greatly from person to person (potentially because of differences in reading habits moreso than any biological differences).

    That said, e-ink does provide insane battery life. Unfortunately, it's an absolute no-go for games.

    You might want to look at the kindle fire. It's not terribly pricey, and it seems like a pretty capable tablet for most people's needs. A friend of mine has it and loves it.

  • EggyToastEggyToast Jersey CityRegistered User regular
    E-ink is great if you're reading novels or basic straight-text in ePub/Mobi format -- a reflowable format that's explicitly for electronic books.

    If your books are not in ePub/Mobi format, or they're not reflowable, or they're textbooks, or they have color images or complex tables, you'll want a tablet. At that point, you may not even want an e-reader, but instead a tablet PDF-reader.

    As for tablets on a budget, the Nexus 7 just had a new version drop so the previous versions are cheap. I think the Galaxy Tabs are also cheap at Staples right now, and Costco. It's far better to spend a little more now on something that will actually work rather than save a little money on something that frustrates you and doesn't fill your needs, leading to it not being used and you eventually buying the more expensive thing anyway.

    || Flickr — || PSN: EggyToast
  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    Nook HDs are crazy cheap now and I believe they support the google play store now.

  • CabezoneCabezone Registered User regular
    Just keep in mind battery life, for traveling, a e-ink is going to be a lot easier to deal with. It will basically last all of your vacation on a single charge, whereas you'll need to charge your tablet device at least once a day.

  • DeShadowCDeShadowC Registered User regular
    Akilae wrote: »
    You can't beat e-ink for e-readers. That being said, yes, tablets work better for your intended use.

    However, your eyes will thank you for e-ink if you plan to do any lengthy reading.

    I find night-mode takes care of eye-strain when I do any reading on my phone or tablet.

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Yea, I loved my kindle keyboard, and love my kindle paperwhite now, but they are NOT kind to any pdf that you want to me moving around quickly, zooming in and out etc on. They are good for straight reading only.

    The main problm I have with the paperwhite is... 2Gb internal storage? Really? Come on guys, just put in a SD Card slot and let me choose my own ludicrously huge, hilariously cheap storage capacity size of choice. What is this, 2004?

  • taliosfalcontaliosfalcon Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    Yea, I loved my kindle keyboard, and love my kindle paperwhite now, but they are NOT kind to any pdf that you want to me moving around quickly, zooming in and out etc on. They are good for straight reading only.

    The main problm I have with the paperwhite is... 2Gb internal storage? Really? Come on guys, just put in a SD Card slot and let me choose my own ludicrously huge, hilariously cheap storage capacity size of choice. What is this, 2004?

    on one hand i can kinda agree but..i mean, in my experience your average 700 page, kindle formatted novel is about 3-400 KB, that's enough for 5000 novels, how much do you really need?

    steam xbox - adeptpenguin
  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    Yea, I loved my kindle keyboard, and love my kindle paperwhite now, but they are NOT kind to any pdf that you want to me moving around quickly, zooming in and out etc on. They are good for straight reading only.

    The main problm I have with the paperwhite is... 2Gb internal storage? Really? Come on guys, just put in a SD Card slot and let me choose my own ludicrously huge, hilariously cheap storage capacity size of choice. What is this, 2004?

    on one hand i can kinda agree but..i mean, in my experience your average 700 page, kindle formatted novel is about 3-400 KB, that's enough for 5000 novels, how much do you really need?

    Depends on what all you're using it for. I've seen dictionaries that take up 500-600MB. Reference type stuff can add up quick.

  • MichaelLCMichaelLC In what furnace was thy brain? ChicagoRegistered User regular
    Older Nexus 7 might be a good buy now, if you're looking for a tablet.

  • HadjiQuestHadjiQuest Registered User regular
    If you're going for a tablet, there are a bunch of good budget-conscious options out right now.

    Walmart's carrying a Hisense 7" tablet that has been getting solid reviews, comes in $99 and $150 variations, and has microusb and MicroSD. The $150 model also has HDMI out, and specs that fall between the original Nexus 7 and the new one.

    There are also a ton of other solid tablets it the $129-$150 range, and if you can hold out a couple more months, Amazon will likely announce their new Kindle Fire updates in the Fall. I wouldn't be surprised to see the regular Fire drop down to $99, with another model claiming a space in the $150 range.

  • Inquisitor77Inquisitor77 2 x Penny Arcade Fight Club Champion A fixed point in space and timeRegistered User regular
    If PDFs are your thing, then I assume there are graphics and diagrams and the like that you are concerned with. If that's the case, then you are probably better off going with a real tablet that has a PDF viewer in it. Otherwise, any e-ink e-reader will essentially reformat the PDF so that it fits within the view space. This may or may not really screw things up in terms of resolution, formatting, or aspect ratio. Also, there are no color options available right now.

    If you're really serious about PDF viewing and you don't want to deal with having to zoom in and out to read things on a tablet, then you probably want something on the "large" end of the tablet spectrum (see: the Galaxy Tab 3), and those generally aren't very cheap...

  • CptKemzikCptKemzik Registered User regular
    edited July 2013
    I have, and enjoy, a nook HD. Since it has the google play store now, chrome as the default web browser, etc it's basically a budget android tablet now moreso than a B&N machine, and probably a better deal than the kindle fire now (since you can use the kindle app by way of google play).

    Of course there are rumors that B&N plans to discontinue the whole line entirely, so that may or may not influence the purchasing decision. If that's the case, I'm hoping for at least some legacy support in the event that I would ever need it (probably unlikely), or a firmware update that would literally turn it into a straight android operating system.

    Also yes, the "night" mode (or any dark background, light print mode) does wonders for reducing eye strain when reading long term.

    CptKemzik on
  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    I read that B&N will be branding third party tablets as nooks from now on.

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    Yea, I loved my kindle keyboard, and love my kindle paperwhite now, but they are NOT kind to any pdf that you want to me moving around quickly, zooming in and out etc on. They are good for straight reading only.

    The main problm I have with the paperwhite is... 2Gb internal storage? Really? Come on guys, just put in a SD Card slot and let me choose my own ludicrously huge, hilariously cheap storage capacity size of choice. What is this, 2004?

    on one hand i can kinda agree but..i mean, in my experience your average 700 page, kindle formatted novel is about 3-400 KB, that's enough for 5000 novels, how much do you really need?

    Everything.

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    I mean come on seriously now I can buy a 8Gb Micro SD for a fiver. If there's one computer cliche that is still true after all these years it is that you can never have too much RAM. Even if it's Flash.

  • hsuhsu Registered User regular
    E-ink readers don't really handle lots of e-books well, or at least the Kindle Paperwhite does not handle lots of e-books well.

    I have thousands of free e-books on my hard drive. I could easily fit a thousand on the Kindle, but you cannot organize books on the Kindle before downloading them, and organizing them on the Kindle is a pain in the butt, so I only keep about 30-40 books on the Kindle at any given time.

    The Kindle app for my iPhone and iPad handle lots of e-books better, but you still cannot organize them, so in practice, you only keep a few hundred e-books in the app.

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  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Huh, that's good to know I guess.

  • naporeonnaporeon Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    I'm not sure what you mean by "organizing", but in the interest of informing the OP, I do want to say that if you mean editing the metadata of your ebooks (such as author, title, etc), it is very possible to do that before you put the files on the Kindle.

    If you mean something else, I'm not sure I follow. I would definitely not say that e-ink readers have trouble handling large numbers of books, so I don't want the OP to be scared of in thinking so.

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