32GB e-ink reader recommendations?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Summarising the recommendations I've had (Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Sage, Pocketbook Era):

Screen: the Sage has an 8" (1920x1440) screen, all the others are 7" (1680x1264), same as the Oasis.

Storage: all 32GB, except for the Era (64GB).

Connectivity: all USB-C, instead of the awkward micro-USB on the Oasis.

Battery: 1200mAH (Sage), 1500 (Libra 2), 1700 (Era), compared to 1300 on the Oasis.

Price: a quick search shows $240 for the Sage and the Era, $170 for the Libra (as opposed to about $300 for the Oasis 32GB without annoying ads).

So the Libra wins on price, the Era wins on storage, the Sage wins on screen size...

The Sage also wins on processing power (it's noticeably faster than the Libra). Kobo readers (Sage and Libra) win on Calibre integration and customization options. Pocketbooks have even poorer native reading application than Kindles do, so I wouldn't buy a Pocketbook unless I was prepared to use a third-party app (KOReader, for example). YMMV, obviously.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The Sage also wins on processing power (it's noticeably faster than the Libra). Kobo readers (Sage and Libra) win on Calibre integration and customization options. Pocketbooks have even poorer native reading application than Kindles do, so I wouldn't buy a Pocketbook unless I was prepared to use a third-party app (KOReader, for example). YMMV, obviously.

The storage win on the Era is not significant -- I have between 5000 and 6000 epubs, plus some (much bigger) PDFs, so 8GB is too small but 32GB is still comfortable. It looks like it's gonna be a Kobo.

I wonder why they went for a lower-capacity battery on the Sage than the Libra, though?

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

I wonder why they went for a lower-capacity battery on the Sage than the Libra, though?

I was just asking myself the same thing!

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Not sure I understand, as Calibre just has tags, which I use for my genres (among other things).

I was alluding to Calibre's ability to create custom columns to store all kinds of arbitrary metadata. Sometimes people use a separate field from their tags to store genre information. Some people use hierarchical genre info, or hierarchical tags, or both. And you can put all kinds of other stuff in there too. If you're not already familiar with custom columns then they, particularly in combination with templates (and “columns built from other columns”), are very powerful indeed.

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

It looks like it's gonna be a Kobo.

Good luck with your decision and your new reader!

[Colonel Cathcart]

Check out https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide/videos for in depth reviews, if you haven't already, to make sure the device you intend to buy will fill your needs out of the box.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

The storage win on the Era is not significant -- I have between 5000 and 6000 epubs, plus some (much bigger) PDFs, so 8GB is too small but 32GB is still comfortable. It looks like it's gonna be a Kobo.

I wonder why they went for a lower-capacity battery on the Sage than the Libra, though?

Space? Weight? Budget? But I was using a Libra (original) and switched to a Sage and don't have a problem with battery life. I currently have original Libra, Libra2, Sage and Elipsa. One grandson has a Kobo H2O original, one grandson a Libra original, one granddaughter a Sage, one a Nia and there are maybe six other non-Kobo ereaders in the immediate family. I have still got a Kindle DXG & KK3 (with new batteries) and 2 x PW3 in the house (one was Wife's then she got Libra and now delighted with a Sage, though never does notes on it).

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Connectivity: all USB-C, instead of the awkward micro-USB on the Oasis.

Watch out. Most things have gone to Type C, but all Type C is not USB 3.0+.
The latest Barnes & Noble 6" is Type C and USB 2.0
Ok, some people may not care.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

Watch out. Most things have gone to Type C, but all Type C is not USB 3.0+.
The latest Barnes & Noble 6" is Type C and USB 2.0
Ok, some people may not care.

I have a Canon 70D DSLR with a really fast SD card. Its mini-USB (not even micro), is faster than anything else I have, even a USB-B 3.0 SATA HDD adaptor with a 3.5" 7200 rpm disk. USB-C, USB-B or micro-USB.

Ereaders are all pretty slow, though the Sage is the fastest with Calibre. The MTP devices, even with USB-C, are the slowest.

Summary
The kind of USB connector tells you nothing about the speed.

Ethernet achieves 1000 GBps by using parallel transfer on 4 pairs at the same time each at 250 Mbps. USB only uses one pair for data (USB-C extra signalling pair is used for power configuration and optionally there are pairs with Video). Also USB only transmits or receives, half-duplex. The 1Gbps ethernet full duplex transmits and receives at the same time using echo cancellation and hybrid techniques.

USB was developed for keyboard, mouse and joystick etc and has been gradually tinkered with. It beat the superior firewire in the market as it's royalty free and fireware has a royalty. Firewire can run peer-to-peer and do networking, storage or streaming. The original version can be faster in the real world than USB 3.0.

USB is a mess.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Quoth

USB only uses one pair for data ...

Sorry, that's just wrong.
USB 3.0 is full duplex using two pairs, 5 Gb/sec
USB 3.1 is full duplex using two pairs, 5 Gb/sec, 10 Gb/sec
USB 3.2 is full duplex using four pairs, 10 Gb/sec, 20 Gb/sec
That's x10, x20, x40 faster than USB 2.0 HS.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I have a Canon 70D DSLR with a really fast SD card. Its mini-USB (not even micro), is faster than anything else I have, even a USB-B 3.0 SATA HDD adaptor with a 3.5" 7200 rpm disk. USB-C, USB-B or micro-USB.

Ereaders are all pretty slow, though the Sage is the fastest with Calibre. The MTP devices, even with USB-C, are the slowest.

Summary
The kind of USB connector tells you nothing about the speed.

Ethernet achieves 1000 GBps by using parallel transfer on 4 pairs at the same time each at 250 Mbps. USB only uses one pair for data (USB-C extra signalling pair is used for power configuration and optionally there are pairs with Video). Also USB only transmits or receives, half-duplex. The 1Gbps ethernet full duplex transmits and receives at the same time using echo cancellation and hybrid techniques.

USB was developed for keyboard, mouse and joystick etc and has been gradually tinkered with. It beat the superior firewire in the market as it's royalty free and fireware has a royalty. Firewire can run peer-to-peer and do networking, storage or streaming. The original version can be faster in the real world than USB 3.0.

USB is a mess.

You must not have any decent USB 3 devices if a camera with USB 2 is the fastest. These days you can easily get USB SSDs that can get pretty damn close to the 5gbps or 10gbps max.

As Renate mentioned, USB C does not guarantee USB 3. My phone uses USB C but it's only 2.0 so transferring files is very slow. My Boox eReaders though use USB 3 and when combined with a USB 3.0 cable transfers run at that speed. Even with the slight overhead of MTP it's way faster than a mass storage USB 2.0 eReader like a Kobo.

And the connector can tell you about speed sometimes. There is no USB 3 USB mini, and USB micro that supports 3.0 has a weird sidecar thing and USB-B for 3.0 has an extra growth as well. Only A and C are particularly confusing.

[Renate]

I happened to be reading War and Peace (in German).
It takes less than a tenth of a second to transfer it.

->    1,792,013  2023-02-05 19:39  Krieg.epub - 0.093

[Sirtel]

Calibre transfer is pretty slow anyway. So those lightning speeds only really matter to people who don't use Calibre to transfer their books. For me, using Calibre is far more important than transfer speed. I can wait for a few minutes to transfer a couple hundred books via Calibre.

[enuddleyarbl]

In case you haven't seen it, there are actual reading/charging time numbers on the Sage here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...92&postcount=1

Roughly speaking, 9 hours of reading, 2 hours to charge (measured across 2 Sages a year apart with at least 3 different chargers and cables).

[Quoth]

Though Sage is about 45 to 50 minutes with a compatible charger. I don't what that might be except that's the time my Lenovo Yoga Tab charger does. The USB-C port on PC and any other charger is very much slower, likely only 500mA, rather than the 1.5A it can use.

I get more than 9 hours reading, but I don't use front light, wifi or BT.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Renate

I happened to be reading War and Peace (in German).
It takes less than a tenth of a second to transfer it.

->    1,792,013  2023-02-05 19:39  Krieg.epub - 0.093

Which OS, copy command, and copy direction?

OS with buffering show command completion before actual copy conpletion. Clue is how long an eject takes after command completion.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

You must not have any decent USB 3 devices if a camera with USB 2 is the fastest. These days you can easily get USB SSDs that can get pretty damn close to the 5gbps or 10gbps max.

I don't have a USB SSD. I don't see the point of them for backup.

My point is that the connector used is almost unrelated to the USB speed version and something can have a USB 3.0 spec but not achieve as fast as a super fast SD Card on a USB 2.x speed due the nature of the device.

You can even have USB-C connector and less than USB 2.0 speeds.

Also the full speed of USB 3.0 isn't possible even with SSD to SSD, because that's the speed of the interface, there is the USB protocol overhead and the fact all USB is half-duplex.

No eink Ereader is going to get close to the limit of USB 2.0 speed. The kind of port has no effect. USB-C is used now because it's the standard for phones, tablets and similar gadgets, especially in EU and countries that use EU standards. USB-C isn't about faster transfer or even faster charging on ereaders.

Edit:
Some details on USB 3.x
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0

An enterprise class NVMe over USB3.x to a high end NVMe PCIe SSD in decent computer is about the only thing that will approach USB 3.x speeds. Irrelevant to ereaders. You don't USB-C connectors. It's possible on USB-A to extended micro-USB connector or extended USB-B connector. A regular micro-USB cable will work, but slower.