Budget friendly ereader recommendations

[mosaix]

I bought Mrs Mosaix a Kobo for Christmas. She can't speak too highly of it.

 

[Paul_C]

Cheers Brian

I got a massive pile of epubs on my smartphone memory card and I don' t think a Fire can read 'em.
Unless someone knows different

I just copied a couple of mobi books over to my kindle Fire and it had no problem with them, I would assume that any epub books converted to mobi would be ok.

I'll see if I've got an epub file and try that too. (It didn't recognise it as a book, so no, it doesn't like epub files).

 

[tinkerdan]

Looking at my kindle touch I'd say that there is something to do with the screen surface since the kindle fire is a lot more reflective. also the screen on the touch is inside a beveled frame at least an eighth of an inch deep where the fire screen surface seems flush with the top..
There is a lot to say for the refresh rate on the e-ink being slower.

However what is noteworthy is the way the text appears on the e-ink appears richer or darker than the Fire.

I would still like to compare the lighted paperwhite to the kindle touch.

I do think that the kindle touch does allow for a possibility of less eye strain.

For overall reading experience I think that for me the Touch and the Fire are equal though the fire allows color graphics.

 

[AlexH]

I don't think there's any glare with e-ink? At least there isn't with my Kobo. It's perfectly readable in bright sun. Another benefit of e-readers over tablets is they use less battery. If you're reading in daylight, you can turn the brightness of an e-reader down to 0. It really is like paper. Mine is also side-lit (you couldn't tell), which is apparently better for night-reading than back-lit.

 

[Vertigo]

Re the formats. I'm not sure about the Fire as it's a tablet, but I suspect you would therefore be able to get a reading app for any format including epub. Mobi incidentally is just the original format that Amazons AZW was derived from. On the other hand a Kindle will definitely not read an epub book and typically any other reader such as a Kobo will not read an AZW book.

Converting between the formats is relatively easy using something like Calibre; a brilliant database program for managing all your books stored on your PC* that can also convert them between just about any format including PDF, RTF etc. The only problem is DRM; to do the conversion any DRM'd books must have that DRM stripped and whilst not overly difficult many do not want the hassle. Personally I do because it means I can buy my books from any vendor no matter what format they are selling.

I'm afraid I can't give any advice on the best current readers as my reader is an ancient Sony which still works so I've not looked that closely at other options. I would like to replace it as I do have problems with some more recent books doing fancy formatting and I was looking at the Kobo Glo but that was a while back so I'm a little out of date.



*Let me stress, I strongly recommend you keep your ebook collection on you PC rather than trusting in your vendors to store them for you and let you re-download. Personally if I've bought something I don't generally leave it in the hands of the person who sold it to me.

 

[tinkerdan]

When referring to e-readers and glare. When I talk about glare I talk about how sunlight hits the glass and causes a glare.
This is seen in both and led and a e-ink. The e-ink is much more read-able under these conditions but it is not immune to glare.

Inside there really isn't much glare to worry about but more of the problem of reflective-(ness). The e-ink has much less to almost zero reflection whereas the led has a rather limited range of view angle before reflection becomes a factor to interfere with your reading pleasure. However I think this is less of a problem for some; who put the reader as close to their face as they can stand. I usually keep it at arms length or resting on a surface at almost that distance.

But when I put the two side by side outside they both glare in the sun and the e-ink is easier to read because it is both less reflection and stronger letters that look like quality ink print. The led screen has both glare and reflection that make the experience hideous at best and the letters are more like what would be on a page using the draft mode in most printers or perhaps even less in print quality than even that.

You can tweak the fire to sepia with low light and almost come close to the appearance of the letters on the kindle (still not as strong[dark]letters). However you can't make the reflective quality go away without some filtering over the screen.

This is my personal take on what I mean when I say glare as opposed to reflection.

 

[pambaddeley]

Someone asked about affecting sleep at night - this was in the news recently and they said that ereaders with a light would have the same effect as a PC screen etc. and would affect melatonin levels. Whereas if the ereader doesn't have a light, and you are just reading it by normal electric light, it is meant to be equivalent to reading a paper book. Also, you can adjust the font and make it bigger if you need.

 

[tinkerdan]

I work all day in front of two led displays::

Someone asked about affecting sleep at night - this was in the news recently and they said that ereaders with a light would have the same effect as a PC screen etc. and would affect melatonin levels. Whereas if the ereader doesn't have a light, and you are just reading it by normal electric light, it is meant to be equivalent to reading a paper book. Also, you can adjust the font and make it bigger if you need.

::Then go home to two more and the tv and my kindle fire.
I have a devil of a time keeping awake and keep wanting to doze off.

Anyway when I try to volunteer for those studies about the PC screen effect and its affects on sleep; they act like I'm not there.
Oh...wait...I'm not there; it's just one of the dreams I have when I nod off.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Cheers Brian

I got a massive pile of epubs on my smartphone memory card and I don' t think a Fire can read 'em.
Unless someone knows different

I have a kindle Fire and I always convert all of mine to .mobi and I change the covers in the metadata so all my covers are in a matching set and I tag them all with series, genre etc which makes them easier to find.

If you do go for a kindle be warned the in built book manager is bloody awful, you are much better advised getting Caliber (for free) installed and using this to manage the kindle books, the inbuilt one is unwieldy and has too many restrictions. Caliber also supports .epub > .mobi conversion and vice versa so you can convert books very easily. (You can batch convert a folder so you don't have to do them individually, it shouldn't take long.)

If you want any specific tech advice just give me a PM.

 

[SilentRoamer]

The Kindle Fire has the added benefit that it isn't really an ereader but a tablet with a built in reading app although it is very easy on the eyes compared to other backlit devices and the screen brightness lowers to a very light fuzz.

It's also a reasonably useful device in terms of processing power and the HD version has a lovely screen for watching things on the go.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I have both the Kindle eReader and Fire tablet, but I always end up using the Fire because it's so much more versatile and user friendly, for example, looking up things while reading. Additionally, I can listen to my music through the Fire while reading on it. I have the brightness right down so I don't ever feel like I'm getting eye-strain. Books are also in a scrolling list of covers so its easy to surf them, whereas on the Kindle eReader it's a text list that needs to be flicked through page by page. The Kindle eReader is nice, but limited, and frankly I only use it if I want to read outside in the sun, ie, on holiday.

 

[kythe]

I've had the Kindle app on my smartphone for years and have been reading books that way. I considered it cost effective since the app is free, and I'm only buying e-books.

But lately I've become frustrated while reading and find myself adjusting the lighting, size, and coloring, and taking my glasses on and off trying to "see" the screen for longer periods at a time.

So I gave in and ordered a Kindle device on amazon.com, the best seller - Kindle Paperwhite E-reader - which is $119 now. I'm hoping it really reduces glare and eyestrain like people say it does. If so, I expect it will be a worthy investment that will last years.

 

[Overread]

Kythe if you can read a book without strain then the e-reader will be great for you! E-ink is honestly nothing like an LCD screen; the e-ink (esp if you turn the light in the paperwhite all the way down) is very much like paper, so it puts far less strain on your eyes. Plus you can adjust the text and still have a meaningful amount of text on the page so you might even get away reading with your glasses off.

 

[dask]

Good information. Didn't know this. If I had it might have gotten a kindle rather than a new 10 inch tablet.