What would be best for Word-documents?

[ryublu]

Forgive a newcomer for getting right to the point: I need some advice as I am thinking of getting my first ereader. I’ve been reading a lot on this forum and others, but I’m only getting more confused as to what I should do.

What I need is a device with a decent screen, preferably of the larger types since 6” is a bit too small for me, that is good for reading Word and text documents as well as jpg and png. To simply be able to load up a memorycard or similar with my extensive Word library and manga collection and plug it into the device is also rather important.

Can anyone give me some advice as to what might work?

It doesn’t have to be an eink screen, I don’t need Wifi or to be able to buy books with it, it doesn’t need to be able to handle sunlight, the device being bulky is not a problem, neither is short battery time as long as I’d get at least a couple of hours worth of reading before needing to recharge it... I basically just want to be able to use it to read during my many sleepless nights.

(I imagine though that decent performance in readability, both for text and images, and the time it takes to “turn the page” is quite important, since I've read a lot of posts mentioning that.)

Price is an issue, anything more expensive than an iRiver Cover Story is going to have to be something I’d save up to get, which makes it rather important that I don’t buy something that ends up not being what I need.
Any help is very much appreciated.

[Filark]

Hello and welcome!

Your question is difficult, because you have so many specific needs. One thing, I don't know how much an iRiver Cover Story costs, so I don't know whether the devices I know about will be more or less expensive than that.

I know a bit about the Sony Daily Edition and about the enTourage eDGe, either one of which might suit your purposes. I'm not sure because I don't use mine the way you will be using yours. The Sony has a 7" screen, so possibly too small. The full-sized eDGe has 2 screens: a 10.1" Android tablet and a 9.7" e-ink. So the size is right. Both devices have memory card capability. Both will work with Word documents, but I can't remember off-hand whether the Sony reads them natively. The eDGe comes with Docs-to-Go, which reads Word documents on the LCD side. I think (but don't quote me) that they both can display jpg and png files.

Anyway, it's a place to start!

Good luck in your researching!

Check here for more info on the above:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=100 (Sony)
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=218 (enTourage eDGe)

[ryublu]

Hello and thank you, Filark

Your suggestion about the enTourage eDGe sounds interesting, unfortunately a quick search around the net showed me that it is no longer available in my part of the world, and in fact the only place known to have sold it shut down ages ago. (They were pricey, too - for the price they had on them I'd get a couple of iPads or the more expensive big-screen ereaders today XD )
I've read a bit about the Sony ereaders (not sure which one, just that it comes recommended by many), but from what I understand when the specs say that it is able to read DOC format what it actually means is that the DOC files get exported into another file type onto the device, which isn't really what I'm after as you can imagine. It is indeed a bit small with the 7" screen, but I'd at least consider it given how happy a lot of people seem to be with theirs, if it read Word documents as they are, so to speak.

Yes, I guess wanting a bigger than 6" screen and memory card is rather specific and makes it a bit tricky... somehow though I have to say that it is a bit disappointing that wanting to read DOC and JPEG also makes it tricky. It is after all hard to get more basic than that, so it is a bit saddening to realise how few ereaders actually seem able to handle these formats. Perhaps one of the new models on the horizon look more promising for this?

Also, the iRiver was just an example, as it is a cheaper and widely sold device where I live. Basically I just meant that anything that costs somewhere in the range of, say, a Kindle or an iPad I'd have to spend quite some time saving up for, and I would hope to know beforehand in that case whether it -whatever device it would be- actually did the things I wanted it to. ^-^

[Filark]

Ah! That clarifies things a bit.

I'm surprised no-one else has chimed in with opinions yet!

You may not want to say, but it might help for people to know where in the world you are. You can add that info (as generically as you like) in your profile.

Have you explored the MobileRead Wiki (very top left) for possible devices?

Best of luck, and you might consider browsing or posting your question in the specific-device forums.

[Yar-PocketBooker]

I thought that practically all decent e-Ink readers handle .doc files pretty well... PocketBook, Onyx, Aztak...

[Logseman]

Your best wager is a second-tier Android tablet. ViewSonicG Tablet/Advent Vega/Point of View Mobii (all the same thing with different brands) will allow you to load anything in the SD card, be it a Word document, a .cbz comic file... you name it, and read it with an app (possibly you'll need a paid one for the word documents, but you're covered with online and offline manga). It works like a charm, and the OS is really fluid: plus the form factor is quite good for manga.

The drawbacks are the fact that you need to research a little bit in order to install all the good things (it doesn't have Android Market and other apps right away), the legibility of the capacitive screen (though the Viewsonic GTablet has more quality in that respect) and possibly the price point, which would make you need to save a bit.

There are (much) cheaper Android tablets with resistive screens, but I can't give you much insight there. My point is that buying a cheap Android tablet will need a bit of time investment for you to improve them.

[ryublu]

Filark,
I have indeed ghosted through both the wiki and the device-specific parts of the forum, but apart from coming to the conclusions that a lot of the various ereaders _sound_ just great, but when I take a closer look (instruction manuals or just on the forum itself) they don't quite seem to deliver when it comes to Word documents, I haven’t really gotten anywhere. Which is why I am hoping some suggestions from members with experience with ereaders might steer me in the right direction, or at least help me narrow the field a bit.

Yar-PocketBooker,
I wouldn't know really, only that for instance the iRiver was supposed to be able to handle DOC and TEXT, but according to that section of the forum that isn't really the case anymore. There is also the Sony where the specs say that it will handle Word, but when you take a closer look at the instruction manual it becomes clear that it doesn't really. Hopefully someone else on this forum reads Word documents on their device and feels like sharing, because it does rather seem that the device specs on at least some models can’t be entirely trusted.

Logseman,
Thank you for your suggestions, I will certainly look into those. As much as I would really truly love to be able to read my doujinshi this way (just jpeg/jpg and png, by the way, I have nothing in cbz), I have started to wonder if perhaps I will have to give up on that and try for something in the 7" range that can handle DOC well. It would still feel a bit small to me but hopefully I would get used to it... a somewhat larger device that could do both would have been ideal, especially since I doubt I'd be able to buy another ereader for a good long time, but perhaps I'm asking for too much?