e readers

Elin · November 2010

I'm looking for personal opinions from people that own the devices. I am looking at buying an e-reader, specifically the Kindle. I have the Kindle app on my phone and enjoy it, I'd just like a bigger screen. There's the Nook though, and I hear that some people like it. Do you like it? I've used to Barnes and Nobel app and I didn't like it all that much, but it's been a year or so ago, I'm going to re-download it and try it again.

Other than the stores which I can run trial of on my phone, I'm looking for opinions of the hardware. Specifically the WiFi only Nook (non color) and the WiFi only Kindle. How good are the batteries? How prone are they to crashing? Are the screens going to get ruined easily? How are they with PDF files?

Foomy · November 2010

ereader thread: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=106342

Sentry · November 2010

That thread will give you the best info, but I have to say, I love my Kindle. The battery lasts a long, long time, it has never crashed on me, it's fantastic.

That said, reading PDF files on it makes me want to gouge out my own eyes. So if you plan on doing a lot with pdf, I'd probably recommend an iPad.

badpoet · November 2010

I have a Nook and I really love it. They recently updated the firmware and made the page turns much faster (they were fine before, but it's noticeably faster). I actually like the touch screen below and don't really feel like I need a keyboard. Also, you can lend friends books (though I haven't done that yet).

The Nook Color is out but it's an LCD screen. Personally, I prefer the e-ink, it's like reading a book instead of being like reading a computer screen.

I hear good things about the Kindle too, so I don't think you can go wrong either way. Also, check out the e-reader thread in Moe's Technology Tavern (I'd link it but it looks like that forum is down).

Elin · November 2010

I wade through the thread at Moe's every now and again, but I'd rather have people telling me about their devices. I thought about throwing this question in that thread, but I thought here would better for person opinions.

Improvolone · November 2010

Most people in that thread own one or several of these devices.

MushroomStick · November 2010

I have a Nook because I like epubs. I do wish it had the battery life of a kindle though.

shadydentist · December 2010

I have a nook and I really like it. The new kindle really appeals to me, though, except for the fact that they don't read epubs for some bizarre reason.

PolloDiablo · December 2010

I'd also recommend you look at the Sony eReaders. I think they're the best of the current gen. They use ePub, and work the best with PDFs of the three big manufacturers.

Aurin · December 2010

I have a Nook and the battery life is just fine. However, I constantly have it in airplane mode, because there's really no point in me connecting it to the net except for when I'd like to download books.

Lending books is great, I'm only sad that I can only lend the book once.

PDF files, if you transfer to epub using Calibre work rather well. Things with pictures don't do so great on the e-ink screen though. I do love that my Nook has a lot of space as well, for a while I was using it to play music in the car with its MicroSD card.

starmanbrand · December 2010

Another for the Nook Camp. Got it because I think the keyboard on the Kindle makes it look like a little kids toy, while the Nook looks like an actual piece of tech. I really like the 1.5 firmware they just sent out. Page turns are so quick. Don't really think you can go wrong with a Kindle or Nook. When I was looking for an e-reader, when the Nook came out, the Sony ones were by far the bottom of the barrel. Maybe they are better now?

aperlscript · December 2010

A vote for the Kindle 3. I went with it because the page turning was just a *little* faster than the Nook I compared it to, and it was a little thinner and lighter.

I agree that reading PDFs is misery, but (as noted above) Calibre does a great job converting PDFs into .mobi files. In fact it does all the format conversions I need to do, *and* it does a good job managing books between my laptop and Kindle. I imagine it does just as good a job with the Nook.

dlinfiniti · December 2010

go for the nookColor
it has a beautiful screen and its limitations are only in its software which shouldnt be an issue very much longer as it has just been rooted

Wedge! · December 2010

I just got a kindle 3 a few weeks ago, so far I love it. The battery life is amazing since e-ink doesn't use power to keep the text displayed ( I think it has something ridiculous like a 30 day battery life )

Spoit · December 2010

dlinfiniti wrote: »

go for the nookColor
it has a beautiful screen and its limitations are only in its software which shouldnt be an issue very much longer as it has just been rooted

As far as I could tell at the store, it doesn't have any physical page turn buttons? I don't know about anyone else, but that's practically a deal breaker for me.

Plus, an order of magnitude less battery life and eink readers

Powerpuppies · December 2010

i love my kindle... superb battery life, great connection. I bought a book while riding the light rail, which seemed pretty cool to me.

Bionic Monkey · December 2010

If you've been reading the eReader thread periodically, you should know 99% of people seem to be very happy with their purchase, regardless of which device they ultimately went for. If you really want to know which to choose, look through the store for each device, specifically for the authors and genres you usually tend to read. The one that offers more of the books you prefer should be the way you go.

That said, to answer your specific questions: I have the Kindle 2, and my battery life is fantastic. I read on the smallest font, and only have to charge the battery approximately once per book. But I also leave the 3G turned off. My understanding is they've doubled the battery on the Kindle 3, so you can safely extrapolate that out to at least one charge for every two books.

I've had my Kindle for about a year and a half now, and I don't recall it crashing on me a single time. It will occasionally (very rarely, maybe three times) have a weird hicup, where I'll return to a book, and it will have completely lost my place. But it's never glitched out on me while I was reading.

The screen is rock solid. I'm not rough with the device, and put it in it's case whenever it leaves the house, but I don't exactly treat it with kid gloves either, and the screen is still in pristine condition. I've dropped it a handful of times, always on carpet though, but it still feels as solid as the day I bought it.

I haven't read any PDFs on it, but I hear the experience is still pretty painful. Epubs are absolutely easy to convert via Calibre as long as they're already DRM-free.

Zoolander · December 2010

I have the smallest Sony one. PRS-300 or something. Since I got it, I've been reading a lot more books and reading from it is extremely comfortable. Much better than reading from an LCD screen.

Battery life when actually reading books is great, but I still have one issue with the battery. If I stop reading for 2 or 3 weeks, by the time I try to turn it on again, the battery will be dead. This wouldn't be an issue except that Sony doesn't supply an included AC adapter for the thing, you need to plug it into a USB port to charge it. None of the USB AC adapters I own put out enough power to charge the thing (bizarre???). So I end up having to plug it into my computer, which is far away from my bed, which is where I do all my reading. So then I end up not reading.

This is probably not an issue with the other e-readers, just a case of Sony being cheap and me being too lazy/cheap to get Sony's AC adapter.

harry.timbershaft · December 2010

I have a (smaller previous-generation )Kindle, which I really like. However, the following items are things I have problems with:

1) Reading PDFs is nearly impossible on the smaller display (have not tried on the larger display)
2) Some material in reference texts (like programming books) becomes misaligned on the smaller display
3) It is difficult to navigate within reference texts, sometimes, and find the information you need

Overall, however, I love the device. I take it with me when I travel and to the gym and it has been rock solid. I will be upgrading to the large screen size in the future when I feel like shelling out the extra dough for another piece of electronics. I would strongly recommend, if you're using reference texts and not just reading linear novels, to buy the one with the larger display.

Hlubocky · December 2010

One thing to consider about the Kindle 3 is it uses a newer version of the eink screen (Pearl I believe it is called), whereas the Nook is a generation behind. The newer screen provides slightly better contrast (50%, whatever that means).

Mostlyjoe13 · December 2010

I like my NookColor. I got it mostly as a dual ereader/pdf reader. It handles both really well. And while it doens't have a page forward/back button built in, it runs like any android tablet and is really responsive to touches to turn the page. All I have to do it tap the screen.

EggyToast · December 2010

Kindle has the biggest marketshare at about 90%, which means that the readers will probably converge behind Amazon at some point in the future. It also means that there's going to be a wider variety of books available on the Kindle format, and Amazon already has a strong independent publishing background behind the device.

edit to add: I own a Kindle 2 that I bought a little while before the Kindle 3 came out, since Woot had a really awesome price on them. The fact that I could still use the wireless features (as in cellular network) while down in Australia was a very pleasant surprise.

Mojo_Jojo · December 2010

Mostlyjoe13 wrote: »

I like my NookColor. I got it mostly as a dual ereader/pdf reader. It handles both really well. And while it doens't have a page forward/back button built in, it runs like any android tablet and is really responsive to touches to turn the page. All I have to do it tap the screen.

I'm not sure you can class the Nook Colour or the iPad as eReaders given that they don't use eInk.

I'm looking at getting the Sony PRS-350, although now I'm wondering if it might be worth getting the larger one for PDFs (not that they will ever work all that nicely on a slow, black&white screen)

Solandra · December 2010

I'm very happy with my Nook. I've used it a couple of times for public speaking when my printer wasn't working, save the doc to a PDF format, save it to the My Documents folder on the device, and it's saved the day.

Battery lasts longer in airplane mode, of course, but it's quick to charge when it does get low, and I've always had a good reading experience.

My husband showed me the Nook Color, but I think if I want to go in that direction, I'll just get an IPAD.

Mostlyjoe13 · December 2010

Mojo_Jojo wrote: »

I'm not sure you can class the Nook Colour or the iPad as eReaders given that they don't use eInk.

I'm looking at getting the Sony PRS-350, although now I'm wondering if it might be worth getting the larger one for PDFs (not that they will ever work all that nicely on a slow, black&white screen)

Well since now you can download an app to any device and read Nook and Kindle files I think anything can be an eReader. Even tablets. I know the Nookcolor is a toned down tablet. But for it's cost that's all I really needed. Next year when they update the OS for handle flash and open up the app store it's going to get sweeter.

Mojo_Jojo · December 2010

Mostlyjoe13 wrote: »

Mojo_Jojo wrote: »

I'm not sure you can class the Nook Colour or the iPad as eReaders given that they don't use eInk.

I'm looking at getting the Sony PRS-350, although now I'm wondering if it might be worth getting the larger one for PDFs (not that they will ever work all that nicely on a slow, black&white screen)

Well since now you can download an app to any device and read Nook and Kindle files I think anything can be an eReader. Even tablets. I know the Nookcolor is a toned down tablet. But for it's cost that's all I really needed. Next year when they update the OS for handle flash and open up the app store it's going to get sweeter.

My phone has an ebook app. It's still not an eReader.

The whole point of an eReader is that it has a eInk screen so it is like a book.

Elin · December 2010

Yeah, the reason I want an actual e-reader is because I don't want a back light. I have Kindle on my phone and I use it, but the light causes me eye strain with prolonged reading. That's my reason for not even considering the Nook color.

billwill · December 2010

Throwing in my hat in for the Kindle 3.

And I'm not sure why people think reading PDFs on the Kindle is a pain... I can understand if it has pictures, but if it's all text the Kindle treats it EXACTLY like a book you would buy on the Amazon store. I've had no problems reading my dozens of PDFs on it.

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