Thread title says it all. I've been out of the game forever but always had kindles back in the day. What's good out there now? I'm getting tired to lugging heavy ass books around.
Best E-reader
- Thread starter Homer Potvin
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I got 10 year old kobo, still works great, read with it every night. The amazon kindle thing put me off since it used some weird file format so you'd buy all your books from them. IDK if that's still the case.
Oh yeah, I know its 10 years old cause one of the dogs got it and chewed the cover a bit when he was 8 weeks old.
Oh yeah, I know its 10 years old cause one of the dogs got it and chewed the cover a bit when he was 8 weeks old.
I'm a kindle girl and have been since they came out. I read too much and too fast to have to store physical books. I have some, of course, but most things are on my kindle.
The kindle paperwhite is really quite good. Great battery life, easy to use, has a backlight if you need/want it, you can adjust the brightness and the tone (can make it sepia) to be easy on your eyes. No glare.
My favorite is the kindle colorsoft though. I love being able to see covers in color and highlighting in color is awesome for read throughs and editing my own work on it. It's not like a tablet color though, it's very subdued, like a watercolor painting kind of color. All of the things I said about the paperwhite apply to my colorsoft, though I do have the signature edition. I don't actually know what the differences are between the signature edition and the regular edition.
Edit: It would help to know what features you're specifically looking for and where you plan to get your books from though.
The kindle paperwhite is really quite good. Great battery life, easy to use, has a backlight if you need/want it, you can adjust the brightness and the tone (can make it sepia) to be easy on your eyes. No glare.
My favorite is the kindle colorsoft though. I love being able to see covers in color and highlighting in color is awesome for read throughs and editing my own work on it. It's not like a tablet color though, it's very subdued, like a watercolor painting kind of color. All of the things I said about the paperwhite apply to my colorsoft, though I do have the signature edition. I don't actually know what the differences are between the signature edition and the regular edition.
Edit: It would help to know what features you're specifically looking for and where you plan to get your books from though.
To they still double as tablets with Netflix and games and shit?
I'll be getting my books from Amazon. Still have an asston of them on my account.
The ones I mentioned do not, they are for reading only. They do still have Kindle Fire and those are the ones that do both. They are excellent as well, and I have a kindle Fire 10 which I use all the time for streaming, especially while cooking, but reading on it hurts my eyes so I have the regular kindles. If looking at a screen like the computer to read small print won't bother you, then they definitely work just fine.
I'm not sure I'm describing it well. The paperwhite and colorsoft screens are very much like paper. Like reading a regular book because of the lack of glare and more diffused light, which also makes them unsuitable for streaming.
Edit: and the batteries last muuuuch longer. Like 6-12 weeks depending on light settings.
defaux
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I got myself a Kobo with some birthday money last year. First ereader I've ever had, and I'm quite pleased with it. I didn't like the idea of being tied to Amazon, especially in light of recent library alterations they were accused of, and the advertising. I prefer to own my devices, not rent them.
I like that I can load books from any source onto the kobo, including pdf's and text documents. I splurged for the version with a pen, which I wasn't sure I'd use, but have actually written some first drafts on there (they export to text so I can load them on the computer for editing etc. and the handwriting recognition is pretty good, even with my horrible penmanship.)
I deliberately wanted an eink screen, since I use screens all day for work, I wanted to reduce eye strain in my leisure time. It has a back light, which is nice for low light environments, though I try to avoid using it for the afore mentioned reason.
I like that I can load books from any source onto the kobo, including pdf's and text documents. I splurged for the version with a pen, which I wasn't sure I'd use, but have actually written some first drafts on there (they export to text so I can load them on the computer for editing etc. and the handwriting recognition is pretty good, even with my horrible penmanship.)
I deliberately wanted an eink screen, since I use screens all day for work, I wanted to reduce eye strain in my leisure time. It has a back light, which is nice for low light environments, though I try to avoid using it for the afore mentioned reason.
Yeah, that too. Bezos belongs to the You Will Own Nothing And Be Happy club
I prefer Kobo because it's more consumer friendly for sideloading and just generally less evil, but I bought a Kindle because there will always be a few things that Kobo's store won't have. I always check Kobo storefront first.
I don't know if it's still the case for newer models, but my Kobo lets me turn pages with actual buttons instead of just screen swipes (like on Kindle), which is light years better.
I don't know if it's still the case for newer models, but my Kobo lets me turn pages with actual buttons instead of just screen swipes (like on Kindle), which is light years better.
defaux
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The model I got (libre I think) has physical page turn buttons, which is nice. I gave my son the smaller model for his birthday, it's screen only.
Kindle lad here. On my third over a couple of decades. I have the paperwhite which works for me - I like the touch-screen so you can "flick" pages back and forth as you would with paper (you can simply touch the edge of the screen if you prefer), and I love being able to just put a finger on a word to pop a dictionary definition up.
I bought the "oasis" model for my late mother (before she was late, obviously) because it has a bright screen and the best contrast (she suffered with macular degeneration); when she passed away that went to no.1 son - he discovered the "dyslexic font" and for the first time in his life was able to read like a non-dyslexic ("hearing" words in his head rather than being individually read and then recomposed as sentences). His immediate take was what a pleasure that made reading, and could he take all his exams again...
Kindle does accept many other formats - you can attach it to a pc like usb memory drive and copy files to it, you can drop files into your amazon account (if you do this they will synch across devices if you want the application on your phone or laptop), and you can email file attachments to a kindle address. I have used this for distributing to beta readers etc. - a very useful feature.
I am very much not a fan of that Mr Amazos, quite the opposite, and won't buy via amazon at all if there is any viable alternative (including not buying the thing), but I have to confess that Kindle is awesome. I would get the reader rather than the one that tries to be a hybrid tablet. The whole design principle of the kindle was "not to get in the way of the reading process", and the plain, simple e-ink screen does this much better than a glossy one intended for video.
I bought the "oasis" model for my late mother (before she was late, obviously) because it has a bright screen and the best contrast (she suffered with macular degeneration); when she passed away that went to no.1 son - he discovered the "dyslexic font" and for the first time in his life was able to read like a non-dyslexic ("hearing" words in his head rather than being individually read and then recomposed as sentences). His immediate take was what a pleasure that made reading, and could he take all his exams again...
Kindle does accept many other formats - you can attach it to a pc like usb memory drive and copy files to it, you can drop files into your amazon account (if you do this they will synch across devices if you want the application on your phone or laptop), and you can email file attachments to a kindle address. I have used this for distributing to beta readers etc. - a very useful feature.
I am very much not a fan of that Mr Amazos, quite the opposite, and won't buy via amazon at all if there is any viable alternative (including not buying the thing), but I have to confess that Kindle is awesome. I would get the reader rather than the one that tries to be a hybrid tablet. The whole design principle of the kindle was "not to get in the way of the reading process", and the plain, simple e-ink screen does this much better than a glossy one intended for video.
This is me, I don't love amazon, but I do love my kindles and they do everything I need them to and more.
Also I'm clumsy and the paperwhite is waterproof. I've spilled coffee on it a couple of times and dropped it in a puddle once.
Yeah, I had the Fires back in the day. It was useful for a small movie watching device that wasn't clunky like a laptop or too tiny like my phone. Great for travel, too, but I don't need any of that anymore. Sounds like there haven't been many advances that I've missed.
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