# Dedicated e-Readers vs. tablets for digital books



## Nerds_feather (Oct 26, 2014)

Hi Everyone,

I have an iPad (old model), which is fine for reading books, but I am considering getting a dedicated e-reader. I feel like the glossy finish/glare from the tablet's LCD screen hurts my eyes. So my first question is, do you find dedicated e-readers better on this score?

Second, for anyone who has a dedicated e-reader:


What model?
How do you like it?
What are your thoughts on the various competing platforms?
Anything else you think I should know?

Thanks!

-NF


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## chopper (Oct 26, 2014)

yeah, i prefer dedicated models. i end up leaving the house packed with various bits of tech - netbook, phone, pod, kobo and 3DS! - but it means i concentrate on one thing at a time. concentration can be an issue otherwise...


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## Highlander II (Oct 27, 2014)

I have an 'old skool' Kindle that has the 'e-ink' and I love it for reading.

I can manage reading on my phone most days, but not for long.

My Nexus 7 tablet does pretty well.  The Kindle app lets you change the color of the page background and dim the screen separate from the tablet itself.  I also have an app that orange-shifts the light when it gets dark.  (Like Flux, but for my tablet.)

Of the three - the Kindle is my favorite, then the tablet, then the phone.


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 27, 2014)

A tablet is totally rubbish for prolonged book reading compared to an eInk display of dedicated reader. Also the battery life is garbage compared to a dedicated reader.

For true eBooks a 6" reader is fine. For PDFs, Manuals, old scanned magazines etc a Kindle DXG is better. I looked at Sony PRS, (now defunct), Kobo, Nook etc and decided that since you can put any free content or your own content on a Kindle via USB as well as Amazon and some other eBook stores that Kindle was best solution. At the time the DXG was unavailable so I got the Paperwhite. When the DXG was re-issued I gave the paperwhite (Wifi, no 3G) to Wife. The Wifi is left off all the time to give more battery life. She is delighted and now working through Project Gutenburg, previously she found eBooks too tedious. My DXG has 3G but I keep that off to save battery and use USB to transfer. Free access on 3G to Wikipedia & Amazon plus 60Mbyte a month free to rest of internet.

Newer eInk displays are much better than original which was somewhat grey, but still better than a tablet. It's sort of steampunk as each dot is a half white and black rotating ball! Mechanical. That's why it takes no power except when "page turning", can't ever do video and if colour was attempted (in theory possible) it would be very dim and muddy.


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## Dinosaur (Oct 27, 2014)

I've got a Kindle Paperwhite, it's pretty good but the battery life is terrible even with wi-fi turned off and the back light turned down to minimum. I was charging it every couple of days whilst on holiday.

Before that I had just the standard old kindle which I generally preferred to be honest, yet the Paperwhite has some nice improvements (such as showing book covers) but these don't really make it worth the extra in my opinion.

Strangely the old Sony 505 was I alot better than many of the current e-readers except you needed to download books via a USB cable.


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## thaddeus6th (Oct 27, 2014)

I have an old Kindle model (not the first, but one with an actual keyboard at the bottom). It's great for reading, very very easy on my eyes. I use it for marking chapters for redrafting as well as reading and hours of reading strains the eyes no more than a physical book would. Battery life is pretty good as well.


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## Ursa major (Oct 27, 2014)

I have a very basic Kindle 4 (eInk, WiFi-only, no touchscreen, no backlight) and have been using it a lot. It's far less tiring to read than a computer-type screen. (I have the Kindle software on an all-in-1 PC with a 23" screen; I've never used it.)

As the basic has no keyboard, it can be a nuisance if you want to buy a lot of books; as someone who can be prone to the "let loose in a sweetbookshop" urge, I find this can be a boon....

It isn't quite the same as reading a real book, but not to the extent that it makes reading less pleasant.


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 27, 2014)

No eInk has a backlight, it's impossible. Some have a front light! 
@Dinosaur 
Maybe you have a faulty battery or unsuitable charger? The two Paperwhite here last very much longer that that. Though of course you couldn't read anything like as long as that on a phone or tablet!


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## Ursa major (Oct 27, 2014)

Ray McCarthy said:


> No eInk has a backlight, it's impossible.


But someone who doesn't know much about eInk may not know that the technology doesn't support backlighting (and so an alternative light source is always required, even if it's just the sun).


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## Juliana (Oct 27, 2014)

I love my old kindle. But I do read a lot on my ipad too, mainly because it has the app for my local library so I can borrow ebooks on it. Prefer the kindle, though.


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## Overread (Oct 27, 2014)

Got a Kindle myself, one of the older 3rd generation ones with the keyboard along the bottom. My views:

1) e-ink is fantastic - really utterly fantastic. When I first got my Kindle I tried peeling the display cover off the screen; until I realised that it wasn't one of those see-through stick on displays, but the actual screen itself. It's really as good as reading paper and doesn't have any of that harsh light that a LCD screen has. So you can read for hours and hours. 

2) I like the paddle design along the sides for scrolling back and forward in pages; I'm not as much as fan of touchscreens for that. However most of the Kindle units are now touchscreen - an annoyance but sadly one one will have to live with.

3) Go new - Kindle Paperwhite. The lighting effect will be very useful in dim or dark conditions where you can simply turn the light on and keep reading, without having to fuss with lights or tricky angles.

4) Reflections from very bright light sources (sun) are about the only problem; easily solved too with a small shift in your viewing angle. 

5) Avoid PDF or anything with extensive image use. Sadly good as they are for novels they are not quite there yet with images within text. It's a shame, but if you're reading text novels its also not much of a problem either. 

6) Battery life is very long (esp if you leave the wi-fi off and honestly you only need that on if you're downloading a book) and no problems there.

7) To my mind the 3G versions are not worth it. Most of the time if you're in a country that has 3G coverage you'll have access to the internet if you want to update your book collection. So its only saving you very short gaps of time; and chances are you won't buy that many books whilst out and about. 

8) Ereaders are nice and light - you can read big books without any finger strain, plus they slip into a pocket very easily (well at least any pocket a normal paper back could fit into - jeans still have yet to learn the concept of usable pockets....). 

9) Get yourself a copy of the free to use http://calibre-ebook.com I find it of great use for organising and filling in meta-data for if you get text documents that are not sold on the Kindle Store (eg all those legions of copyright expired free books). 



Overall Kindle all the way for me; although really any dedicated proper e-ink reader would be a great choice and far superior to tablets. One additional bonus is that most e-readers really only do reading. They don't do much else. Even the Kindle units with speakers don't really make much use of them (the version I have as a very crude music player feature and I don't think they've really pushed for that in latter versions at all - esp since the overall storage size on the unit hasn't gone up). This means you won't get distracted by apps or emails or facebook - you can get down to some solid reading.


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## Nerds_feather (Oct 27, 2014)

Thanks everyone! Seems like the Paperwhite is the best Amazon offers (the Voyage sounds great, but it's pricey). How about other brands? Anyone here use Kobo or Nook, and would like to speak about the advantages/disadvantages of those platforms?


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## Ursa major (Oct 27, 2014)

Overread said:


> Sadly good as they are for novels they are not quite there yet with images within text.


To be fair, ordinary books (i.e. not coffee-table types, or similar) don't handle images very well. (If authors want their readers to see complex images or detailed maps, they should host them on their websites.


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## chopper (Oct 27, 2014)

Calibre is my software of choice also, and i use it to sideload my Kobo Mini, which is a wonderfully basic model that does exactly what it says on the box - it allows you to read books. there is no added light, so i'm not tempted to read when the lights are out. there is wi-fi, but you don't often need it. mrs chopper has borrowed mine often enough to warrant a second e-reader in the house - and for an avowed technophobe like her to want one, it's got to be good. hope that helps, Nerds!


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 27, 2014)

eInk is fine for greyscale images. Not a format for Picture books. Sometimes formatting may be the issue. I'm experimenting with limits of Paperwhite and Kind DXG for inbedded images and tables.


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## farntfar (Oct 27, 2014)

Just to plead the other case:   

I don't have a Kindle, so I can't really compare to eInk, but I do have a fairly low end 7" tablet (Asus) which I use for e-reading.

It has the free Kindle for Android software on it to give you access to Amazon, but I also have CoolReader which is another free app for other books (Project Gutenburg, PDFs etc) both of which I find very easy to read. Of the two, I find Coolreader easier to read and to use, but haven't worked out how to pass the Amazon files to it yet. I'd probably be stumped by the DRM anyway.

Both have a choice of paper and fonts etc. and work well in most lights. I also have Calibre.

As it's an Android tablet I have a freeware Office equivalent, notes software, diary and a camera etc as standard, plus it's a GPS ,  and tons of other apps are available to download.

Kindle may be better for reading, I don't know, but I have found this excellent, and it's certainly lighter than many books.


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## Nick B (Nov 20, 2014)

I have an android phone (Xperia Z1) and I find the Kindle app to be really good to be honest. If you don't like a glare of a white screen you can have the pages in sepia, or black instead. Strangely I have found the black page with white lettering to be the easiest on my eyes and you can happily read in pitch darkness with the brightness of the font turned down so as not to be blinding.
All in all, I don't think I would ever bother buying a dedicated ereader when my phone does everything I want it to. Battery is probably the only real issue, but with moderate phone use, a couple hours reading, bit of internet (chrons usually) the battery life is around 2 days of use from full to empty. Not bad for a smartphone these days.


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## Chris Guillory (Nov 22, 2014)

I also prefer an Android tablet since it doesn't limit the user to one book store. To me it's great to have a tablet for, you know, tablet stuff. Plus it's loaded with the Nook app AND the Kindle app allowing me to purchase from both book stores. And like it was mentioned earlier, both have display settings that can be configured to your liking.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 22, 2014)

The Kindle physical reader doesn't limit you to Amazon if you have a Laptop/PC etc!  Free mobi format can even be downloaded direct from Gutenberg.

Use one to read an entire Novel straight and tell me the Tablet is better.

I have Xperia Z1 and use a free android jotter app to make notes or write bits of stories. I have three different eReader apps on my laptop which has a reflection free 1600 x 1200 screen better than any I yet have seen on a tablet or phone. I'm glad to give up even reading large image based PDFs on it now I got the big Kindle DX to replace Paperwhite. Son & Wife both stopped using PCs and Tablets to read when they got paperwhites. The slightly older Kindle touch is just as good unless you have only oil lamp/ candle / dusk and is £69 vs £99 for paperwhite (without adverts). Apart from being better for datasheets, manuals, scanned books on PDF, the Kindle DXG has almost x2 memory of many other Kindles and also free 3G Wikipedia. I'm going to print "don't panic" on my home made cover.


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