I have been wanting to have an e-reader so I can stop piling up physical books (takes a lot of space) and im not sure if i should straight buy an e-reader (do they have programmed obsolence issues too?) or an affordable and durable netbook/notebook/tablet
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I use a Kobo Libera h2o (which I think is discontinued now), and I’ve been extremely pleased with it. Kobo doesn’t lock down the device, so transferring books to it is as simple as plugging into a PC and pressing a prompt that allows it to be opened like a thumb drive.
Personally I would recommend any of the Kobo devices, which appear to all be waterproof now as well.
+1
I have a Tolino Shine, which is basically a german rebranded version of the Kobo.
I believe the OS/ software is different tho.I’m relatively happy with it. The battery lasts very very long, I can offline drag and drop transfer .epub and other document files, and even customize my lock screen!
It appears so to really be discontinued but it’d not be a dealbreaker for me, I hate constant updates (i know security updates are for good but still annoying, i dont know if E inks do security updates like usually on mobile/PC though, do they?), interesting about the book transfer, is it natively supported by the device or do you use something like Calibre (which would be fine too)? Waterproof could also not be a dealbreaker for me I guess I could buy a case for it? I certainly wouldn’t stand in the middle of a rain to read
Book transfers are supported by the device itself, no extra software required. It genuinely acts as a USB thumb drive once permission to give access to the PC is allowed on the device, similar to an Android phone. Once a book is put onto it and it’s unplugged, it will automatically find the book and add it to the library screen.
The h2o model is also waterproof, which was a unique feature at the time, while the new Kobo models are all waterproof.
Very interesting, thank you for clarifying and the other informations, i might look if I can find an used Kobo h2o
+1 to this, I have a Libra 2 that I think is pretty much the same as the h2o and it’s great
Good to know, thanks!
Well, here’s my overall take.
The single best way to read an ebook, period, is moon+ reader. It just stomps everything else in terms of how you can adapt the reading experience. Libera is a not too distant second.
As such, I vastly prefer android based options, even for eink devices. I’ve tried kindle options, kobo, and looks barnes and noble nook, and a boox device. Nothing reads as well as my boox poke5 using moon+.
However, even the older models of boox devices aren’t cheap, so affordability is relative. I saved up for mine over a couple of months.
Second best reading experience is a tablet with a good screen, with moon+. You can essentially duplicate the contrast levels of an eink screen, and eye strain/screen fatigue become minimal to non existent. I favor a 7-8 inch device with at least a 2k×1.2k screen. Bigger screens, or less resolution, and you end up with janky text.
Third best is my older kobo with KOreader. Sorting through the library is a slow and annoying process, but the actual reading is nice. The native kobo reading software is meh, imo; and file navigation is worse. Maybe newer kobo devices are better at file management, I dunno. The screens are as good or better than Kindle options though. Really crisp.
Kindles, the only good thing is the screens. They render text very well. Everything else is just a bad experience, even when jailbroken (again, personal opinion based on my use preferences).
Since, up until recently, you didn’t even need an internet connection active on an eink device, software obsolescence was irrelevant. Security updates matter, but only if you’re going to be connected to anything because the formats involved and the lack of access to anything vital on them made it pointless to try and get into.
My eldest device, my old nook, still handles every file type it used to, still reads as well as ever, and it hasn’t had an update in over a decade.
E ink is great if you are a big reader. It’s the closest to reading a book. There is no screen fatigue with it.
I don’t know what is current, I’m still using a Kindle Keyboard which I love. A friend gave it to me when they upgraded. I sail the seas and use Calibre to manage it.
I have a tablet from work, and use Librera from F-Droid on it, which let’s you set custom text colors and background. It’s Ok for shorter reads (I use it for work related PDFs, and books) but it’s not as satisfying as e ink.
Does Kindle Keyboard last long? Also since it’s from Amazon and you mention the seas… don’t they lock you out of your device? I have heard multiple times of Amazon locking people out of their account, not sure if locked out of the device, just for misdetecting them to have books they didn’t buy. My only issue with E ink would be black/screen only display but I could try getting used to it. The only other use I would think of possible issue but I guess I could resort to my personal computer to, is when reading a book/PDF in a foreign language with an open-source dictionaries of those you can click on words (I heard Kindle has that too though, right?) to view the meaning
I just looked it up and my Kindle was released in 2010. I don’t know if newer ones last that long.
I never let it connect to internet, I never had an Amazon account. Since it doesn’t connect to the internet, or an account, it is mine. Calibre does a great job of managing it, and backing it up.
Others will know of things that are more up to date. I was mostly commenting about e ink.
If you want to read comics/ Manga I would think you want something with color, I have no experience with that though. There are many modern ereaders that do offer color e ink.
And yes, I have a few dictionaries in different languages on my Kindle.
Besides the low effort reading with e ink, there is also excellent battery life. I still get 10 days with my 15 year old device. That may or may not be important to you.
To be clear, I am not recommending a Kindle, since 1) fuck Amazon 2) maybe the new ones are shit, I don’t know. I am recommending an e ink device if you are an avid reader. They won’t do anywhere near as much work as even a cheap tablet, to me that is a bonus. If I’m reading I want to do that, no notifications, no work calls, etc.
Thanks for the input, I do occasionally read manga/comics but it’d not be a dealbreaker for me to compromise on it for a while
If you are not familiar with it, here’s the link to Calibre. It has everything you need to manage your device. Transfer, backup, view, edit titles and descriptions etc.
Thank you for taking the time to share it with me, I am a bit familiar with it, I used it to convert formats before but I ended up using shell/python scripts in the end to be more sttaightforward converting files, I will look more into it as soon as I get an E ink to try it out on book transfers, I have bought books outside Amazon and it’d be very helpful for me to have Calibre then
I highly recommend getting a used (screw Amazon) Kindle. I very much enjoy the Paperwhite.
Next, jailbreak it with WinterBreak.
Load all the books you want without dealing with Amazon.
Kindle is very affordable but can you jailbreak non-Paperwhite Kindles too? I thought Kindles were very strictly hard to jailbreak while keeping it usable
Yes absolutely. Almost any Kindle model can leverage WinterBreak to install whatever software you prefer.
Depending on your needs, you can get a very basic e-ink reader for not that much.
My e-reader, the Kobo Libra Color, has an e-ink color display, stylus capabilities (I’ve been doing crossword puzzles on it), WiFi so you can download books straight from the store as well as Dropbox/Google Drive integration if you store downloaded books there. It also supports Adobe DRM which Kindles don’t.
But my mom has the Boox Note 4C which runs a full version of Android. Since it’s e-ink, don’t expect it to play video or games at all. But for productivity, they’re pretty good. Similarly you can get the reMarkable which is like a large e-ink tablet.
As far as obsolescence goes, you can’t go wrong with an e-reader. It uses very little battery, so wear is minimal. The build is not too complex and usually quite sturdy. You might have to rely on WiFi 4 or 5 but that is no issue for the foreseeable future.
The only thing is new e-book formats. Pdf is very basic and is not subject to change, but epub, the more interactive e-book format is currently on v3. It’s basically just an extension of HTML, xHTML to be precise, so it’s unlikely version 4 won’t open on older readers. But considering the capabilities of v3 I won’t expect v4 to be coming any time soon.
I never truly understood the use of epubs to be honest, I usually convert them to PDF. Also I didn’t know you could do crossword puzzles on E ink that does sound very nice, so I assume you could do Sudoku as well? I have heard of reMarkable and it sounds perfect for me but its not within my reach atm unfortunately. I never heard of Boox so I will check it out. Is Kobo durable too?
ePubs are generally a bit smaller than PDF’s, and more critically, allow the text to reflow to fit the screen of any device, or to your personal preference (such as spacing, font size, ragged edge vs full justification, etc). It’s the best open-source format for reading on a device, IMHO.
Is it safe as PDF (i know PDF can be virus ridden by usually embedding the virus in specific parts of the PDF layers or so I heard a while ago, which I usually am careful what PDF i open) or more/less?
More safe, imo, since at present nobody really bothers to try and use epub that way because it’s essentially only used for reading, and in apps that aren’t going to be able to do much in the way of escalating privileges. PDFs at least get used on a wider range of devices , and for more use cases.
Should be, yes.
Thanks, I’ll try it
Well me and my wife both have Kobo and I’m very impressed with the build quality and battery usage. You could definitely do sudoku on the Libra, although at 350 plus stylus makes 410 it’s a bit more expensive than the Clara, but you can’t do puzzles on that.
Good to know, I appreciate you taking the time to clarify it to me, thanks
