Hi, all. I'm new here, and begging for your wisdom!
For many years now, I have been searching for the elusive ‘perfect’ device. Perfect for me, at least. So far, despite hours poring over Internet searches and hundreds of dollars spent on what turned out to be inadequate electronics, I have failed. So I thought I’d try posting this here, and see if anyone out there can help.
My ‘perfect device’ requirements:
1. Lightweight, ultraportable. I intend to carry this thing around with me *a lot* - and I don’t mean in a bag or a pocket, I mean in my hands, while walking or sitting or reading and walking or sitting… So it has to be *really* light. About the weight of a paperback novel (or less) would be ideal, but I know this isn’t an ideal world, so just as light as possible. Screen size is not particularly important to me, and since small screen usually equals small device and lighter weight, I’m fine with a small screen.
2. Battery life. (I’m sure I’m *the only person in the world* to whom this matters. Or so you’d think from the utterly ridiculous battery life of some devices out there, am I right? I mean, really. All the wonderful sci-fi-turned-reality tech out there, and they can’t make a portable computer that will function for more than a few hours without being tied down to a power cable?! What use is that?) I’d like a minimum of eight hours with medium-heavy usage, but no playing of music or movie files. I am willing to settle for less than this if the battery is user-replaceable and I can carry around a spare or two.
3. Sunlight readability. I want a screen I can read easily in full sunlight. An E-Ink screen would be ideal, but the E-Ink devices I’ve looked at have failed to fulfil my next requirement.
4. Word-processing capability. Not just reading, but editing and creating documents. Preferably in Word (since I think that program is possibly the only thing Microsoft does really well), but I’m willing to compromise on this if necessary. I want a full word-processing program, though, not just Pocket Word. The device would probably need a touchscreen (or digitizer) in order for me to properly word-process, but a physical keyboard isn’t necessary as long as there’s an on-screen one. It might be nice, but I’d prefer to save the weight than have this feature.
5. Portrait orientation. I intend to spend most of my time holding the device and just reading, which feels more natural in portrait mode. So I want either a device in dedicated portrait mode or which can be easily switched to portrait view, and held thus without putting the buttons in awkward positions or somesuch.
Another thing I’d like, but it’s not a dealbreaker if I can’t get it, would be the ability to read .lit format e-books.
So, can anybody out there help me?
