Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Readers > Which one should I buy?

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 09-12-2012, 12:05 AM   #1231
jocampo
Layback feline
jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.jocampo ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
jocampo's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,034
Karma: 6980745
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: USA
Device: Oasis 2nd gen, Sony DPTS1, iPad Pro 10.5"
I like the Nexus display. :-) ....I'm actually replying via Tapatalk and using it.

Its display is better than my iPad 2 for reading, in my opinion.

Not so good for some of my computer books though, same for PDFs.
jocampo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-14-2012, 12:12 PM   #1232
mgmueller
Member Retired
mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mgmueller's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
Quote:
Originally Posted by jocampo View Post
I like the Nexus display. :-) ....I'm actually replying via Tapatalk and using it.

Its display is better than my iPad 2 for reading, in my opinion.

Not so good for some of my computer books though, same for PDFs.
I've read on Pocket PCs and Palm Pilots from ca. 1998 to 2004, so obviously I'm very "robust" and easy to please.
So I don't have any problems at all with the display quality of Nexus 7 or tablets in general.
I think, Nexus 7 is slightly behind BlackBerry PlayBook or iPad 3 re. display quality and maybe about even with Sony Tablet S or Motorola Xoom 2 ME.
But to me, that's just slight variations.

Honestly, I didn't even see the difference between iPad 1 and iPad 3 before directly comparing them. If you put them next to each other, it's enormously obvious. But if I only see iPad 1, I'm still more than fine with it.

What I really love about Nexus 7:
To me, the display is big enough.
And it's simply a lightweight tablet, conveniently to hold for hours...
Kudos to Google!
I'm really curious about the Kindle Fire HD. Will be here October 25th!
mgmueller is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 09-27-2012, 10:59 AM   #1233
JerseyBiker
Addict
JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.JerseyBiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
JerseyBiker's Avatar
 
Posts: 260
Karma: 1013470
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: South Jersey
Device: Nook Classic, Nook Glowlight, Galaxy Tab S9, Kindle Paperwhite
Quote:
Originally Posted by peaceridge View Post

So, what do folks think - should I go looking for the Galaxy Tab 8.9?
B&N just announced a new 9" tablet. http://tinyurl.com/8ak5e2a
JerseyBiker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-20-2012, 09:53 PM   #1234
snahfu
Junior Member
snahfu began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 8
Karma: 10
Join Date: Oct 2012
Device: kindle 4
sorry but you've probably answered this..

which e-reader is the fastest in zooming in/out and moving side to side/ up and down.

my professors gives us a lot of pdfs/scans of books to read and on many of them, the text is too small to read on my kindle 4. the whole process of zooming in was quite frustrating and on top of that, it zoomed in way too much.

do you have any suggestion that doesnt require me to buy a larger e-reader (ie dx)
snahfu is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-24-2012, 11:16 AM   #1235
mgmueller
Member Retired
mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mgmueller's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
Quote:
Originally Posted by snahfu View Post
sorry but you've probably answered this..

which e-reader is the fastest in zooming in/out and moving side to side/ up and down.

my professors gives us a lot of pdfs/scans of books to read and on many of them, the text is too small to read on my kindle 4. the whole process of zooming in was quite frustrating and on top of that, it zoomed in way too much.

do you have any suggestion that doesnt require me to buy a larger e-reader (ie dx)
Sorry, but my recommendation actually really would be a bigger reader.
My personal favorites for PDFs always had been iRex 800 and iRex 1000.
a.) The bigger display is close enough to the "original" format, typically in PDFs that's DIN A4 or letter size.
b.) iRex did have a very helpful zooming function. Marking the area of interest with your stylus and then zooming to full screen.
Same could be done on BeBook Neo for example.
But I didn't find it workable for my kind of documents on the 6" display.

It all depends on the content of course.
In my case, it mainly was legal documents, Service Level Agreements and such.
Plus formulas and diagrams.
For the latter, the original layout had been key.
And trying to read a DIN A4 document on a 6" reader (= ca. half the real size, similar to Steve Jobs' 7" vs iPad's 10" comparison) simply never did it for me.

iRex did cease business, but you still can find pre-owned units on eBay.

The PocketBook series (60x, 90x, ...) has similar features, but I didn't go for them.
When they became a "big player", I already had moved to tablets for those demands.
Reading PDFs on iPad or Android 10" devices = fast, easy on the eyes and highly flexible...
mgmueller is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 10-26-2012, 12:44 PM   #1236
antosony
Junior Member
antosony began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 1
Karma: 10
Join Date: Oct 2012
Device: Nook Simple Touch
I will NEVER get another Sony. I bought a PRS 600 2 years ago and when it froze I sent it back. Sony wanted £30(ukl) to look at it and a further 3120(ukl) to fix it. So I favour:
the Nook Simple Touch because of it's easy page changes, it reads various formats including epub and has an SD card slot.
I also looked at Kobo and Archos but not a Kindle and NEVER a sony
antosony is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-28-2012, 10:58 AM   #1237
mgmueller
Member Retired
mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mgmueller's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
Kindle Fire HD vs. Google (Asus) Nexus 7

Upfront my personal verdict:
Kindle Fire HD beats Google Nexus 7 hands down.

Maybe my Nexus 7 is a "Monday unit".
There are quite a few annoying flaws:
- Some apps, especially the Kindle app (700 books, bought from Amazon), take forever to start or even crash frequently.
- When wanting to deinstall apps and the respective data, it's painfully slow as well.
In general, it seems slow when operating lots of files, i.e. my 700 Kindle books or the app list when deinstalling.

So my summary is quite simple:
Kindle Fire HD, to me is more stylish and "valuable".
So far, it operates very smoothly.
I've sideloaded the Kobo and Nook apps without rooting, no problems whatsoever.
If the Amazon ecosystem is enough for a potential buyer, I highly can recommend Kindle Fire HD.
If one is looking for a full blown tablet, personally I wouldn't go through the pain of rooting Kindle Fire HD. Then, when needing Google Play and such, Google Nexus seems to be the better choice.
mgmueller is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-28-2012, 11:51 AM   #1238
pilotbob
Grand Sorcerer
pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
pilotbob's Avatar
 
Posts: 19,832
Karma: 11844413
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tampa, FL USA
Device: Kindle Touch
Can't wait to see your report on the MS Surface. Or is that too big a device to hit your radar?
pilotbob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-28-2012, 12:16 PM   #1239
mgmueller
Member Retired
mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mgmueller's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob View Post
Can't wait to see your report on the MS Surface. Or is that too big a device to hit your radar?
Should be here tomorrow.
mgmueller is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-28-2012, 12:40 PM   #1240
aceflor
Wizard
aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.aceflor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
aceflor's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,470
Karma: 48036360
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: where the sun lives, or so they say
Device: Pocketbook Era, Pocketbook Inkpad 4, Kobo Libra 2, Kindle Scribe
Looking forward to reading your impressions on it, it is on our relevant list too.
aceflor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-28-2012, 02:27 PM   #1241
pilotbob
Grand Sorcerer
pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
pilotbob's Avatar
 
Posts: 19,832
Karma: 11844413
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tampa, FL USA
Device: Kindle Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller View Post
Should be here tomorrow.
Cool. I'm working on a WinRT app right now. But, I have yet to purchase a touch device to test it on.
pilotbob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-29-2012, 05:32 AM   #1242
mgmueller
Member Retired
mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mgmueller's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
Microsoft Surface

Just got an eMail from Microsoft:
Shipment is delayed, we come back to you.
#E%&$(%§$& I've ordered the very first day. And I've ordered the 64GB version, which usually isn't that popular for most tablets.
I hope I'll get it still this week.

Microsoft sent a coupon of 50 Euro for the inconvenience, redeemable in the Microsoft Online Store. Cool. One rarely sees this happen.

Update:
Monday, 4pm CET: Shipment confirmation from Microsoft.
Unfortunately, we have a public holiday in most of Germany on Thursday. So I expect delivery some time between Wednesday and Monday next week...

Last edited by mgmueller; 10-29-2012 at 11:06 AM.
mgmueller is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-30-2012, 05:42 AM   #1243
mgmueller
Member Retired
mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mgmueller's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
Microsoft Surface RT

It's here!
20 hours after shipment confirmation.
3 days later than expected, but a 50 Euro gift certificate from Microsoft fot the inconvenience, very nice!

First impressions:
The keyboard (the soft one) comes in the very same package.
The keyboard itself looks a bit strange. The front (the external side) looks like the inner side of the Kindle covers. It's not ugly or cheap, but it looks kind of "unpolished".

The Surface looks great. It's not as stylish as Apple's iPad, but it looks and feels very "businesslike".
I guess, it compares best to Motorola's Xoom 1 and 2.
The foldout stand is well thought out, although I won't have much use for it.

The keyboard attaches magnetically (where have we seen that before?) and is extremely stable. You easily can hold the whole tablet at the edges of the cover and won't get afraid about your tablet falling off.
The touchpad seems to have similar functions as on MacBook Air: 2 fingers scroll and such.

The on/off button of the tablet is at a bit strange position.
In portrait, when opening the keyboard cover to the left, the on/off button is at the lower right corner. Exactly where I would hold it in portrait position. The button is very rigid, so you probably can't activate it by accident. Still, I'd prefer the upper corner...

I'm just configuring it. The keyboard is surprisingly smooth. I had feared, you have to push the buttons more roughly. But actually, it's extremely smooth. You almost "hover" over the keys.

To summarise: The soft keyboard is surprisingly smooth.

I'll compare displays (iPad 3, Kindle Fire HD, Google Nexus 7, ...) later on. But fist impressions are great. Vivid and natural color saturation, great viewing angles.

Now to Windows 8.
Where are the settings? I need the MAC address for my WiFi.
Ahh...I've found the settings: They "hide" behind your user name.
And if you switch to Desktop mode, you find the settings icon at the right edge of the screen.
Ahh...The good old command prompt.
So far, it all seems pretty familiar: Drive C, Explorer, Cmd.exe, ...
Ohh...There's a setting button on the keyboard. Well, this has been too easy...

What's pretty obvious:
It really is totally different from iOS or Android.
It's a whole new experience, to work touchscreen and keyboard in parallel in such a way.
But I like it. A lot!

Apps:
I'm installing from the Microsoft Store:
Skype
Wikipedia
OneNote
Evernote
StumbleUpon
7Digital
Merriam-Webster
Spiegel (German News Magazine)
Kobo
Kindle

Battery duration seems to be very good.
It came with 50% charged and still has 25% left after 3 hours.

Surface makes use of the bezel.
Similar to BlackBerry PlayBook or HP TouchPad.
Swiping down for example opens the context menu.
On one hand, that's great. I've always missed this on iOS or Android. On the other hand, it feels somewhat inconsistent: Do I want to use the mouse/touchpad? Or the bezel/touchscreen? Both?

The sound is quite powerful. Distance between speakers is far enough to have stereo effect.
I never understood, why iPad only comes with a single speaker.
I'd say, Surface's sound quality is slightly above average. I have to compare, but Kindle Fire HD may sound a bit "clearer".

Last edited by mgmueller; 10-30-2012 at 05:57 PM.
mgmueller is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-30-2012, 12:11 PM   #1244
pilotbob
Grand Sorcerer
pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.pilotbob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
pilotbob's Avatar
 
Posts: 19,832
Karma: 11844413
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tampa, FL USA
Device: Kindle Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller View Post
To summarise: The soft keyboard is surprisingly smooth.
How do you like the keypad?


Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller View Post
And if you switch to Desktop mode, you find the settings icon at the right edge of the screen.
The surface is a Windows RT device. There is no desktop.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller View Post
But I like it. A lot!
Cool... I was going to get one, but the price was more than I expected. But, I do really want to get one because I am doing development for it, and it would really be nice to test my app on an actual touch device to verify my UI.

BOb
pilotbob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-30-2012, 12:24 PM   #1245
mgmueller
Member Retired
mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mgmueller ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mgmueller's Avatar
 
Posts: 3,308
Karma: 13024950
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Augsburg (near Munich), Germany
Device: 26 Readers, 44 Tablets
Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob View Post
The surface is a Windows RT device. There is no desktop
There is!
(At least, that's what I would call it).
See pictures attached.
Sorry for the low quality, iPhone 4S camera in low light...

Maybe it's about semantics.
But the icon/tile clearly says "Desktop".
And then it leads to the UI we know very well.
I can use Explorer, Command Line and such from here.
I see Drive C: and stuff.
To me, that's the "Desktop". But maybe there's another definition?

Of course, the Desktop isn't of much use (yet?).
I haven't sideloaded any apps so far. I wouldn't know how or what icons to put on the Desktop...
Still: A Desktop-like interface is available.
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0036.JPG
Views:	222
Size:	191.4 KB
ID:	95161   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0043.JPG
Views:	207
Size:	155.4 KB
ID:	95162   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0044.JPG
Views:	195
Size:	149.8 KB
ID:	95163   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0051.JPG
Views:	216
Size:	184.1 KB
ID:	95164  

Last edited by mgmueller; 10-30-2012 at 12:52 PM.
mgmueller is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
comparing, comparison, features, readers, test

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Large list of readers (140+) and comparison charts tomereader Which one should I buy? 1 07-30-2010 02:14 PM
Printable life size comparison of Ebook readers inside scheichxodox Which one should I buy? 0 03-13-2010 02:56 AM
Comparison of 36 eBook readers on sale worldwide thinkpad Which one should I buy? 8 02-10-2010 07:19 PM
Review and Comparison of 4 E-ink Readers billyad2000 Which one should I buy? 1 11-04-2008 09:15 AM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:20 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.