PRS-T1 vs Tablet

[Shirohane]

I first had my eyes set on a Galaxy S1 but the carrier I wantedto go with doesn't have them anymore...

So I'm in the market for a possible upgrade for my K3.

I have narrowed it down to a PRS-T1 and the Lenovo A1 tablet. Both of them are within my budget and readily purchasable from Canada.

What I need my device to do is:
- Read ebooks. Format is irrelevant, TXT support, however is needed.
- Read manga without too much hassle. (I should note that I don't usually zoom when I read manga on my K3)

What I would like:
- Being able to check my emails
- Do some light web browsing

What I don't like about my K3:
- Reading manga with the stock OS is a nightmare
- Duokan doesn't always respond to the forward and back buttons when I read
- The Kindle takes forever to index...

What I'll miss from the K3:
- Free 3G

I was told that the T1 would be a better choice due to the following:
- Better battery life
- Easier on the eyes
- Can run Android apps
- Slightly cheaper

But then again the A1:
- has a color screen
- would be run smoother altogether
- has a higher resolution
- has an integrated GPS
- has access to Android Market (Google Play)

Edit: I forgot to mention that I'm fairly tech-savvy just in case that is relevant to the equation.

[gari189]

I think it depends on what proportion of your time will be spent reading ebooks, manga, browsing and checking emails........

If 25% of your use will be for ebooks and the other 75% of your use is spent on manga, browsing, android apps - then the Lenovo is the clear winner......

I'd keep the K3 - use that for the majority of your ebook use and use the Lenovo for manga etc and the occassional ebook use.

[Shirohane]

Hm... I hadn't thought about it that way... I was going to give the K3 to my BF though that doesn't mean that can "borrow" it back.

It's true that in a way, I don't need two e-ink devices.

[booklover6]

I use my K3/3G for blogs, news, and personal documents (a few hundred). I use my Sony T-1 to store thousands of books, mainly series, stored in folders and sub-folders. Both e-ink readers are used daily by me. I also have a Fire for various uses, including reading. Love all three!

[howyoudoin]

The PSR T1 isn't a significant upgrade on the K3.

[booklover6]

It is, to me! When I got my first Kindle in late 2010, I tried to set it up the way I wanted, author collections with whatever I had by the author in each one. My Kindle ended up being SO incredibly slow. I had to remove most of them and instead of 35 pages of collections, go down to 2 pages of genre collections. Not what I wanted but the only way to make it useable.

Now that I have my Sony T1 with 16 GB card, I have it set up the way I tried to do with the Kindle. Have over 4,000 books on it, all in author folders, some with sub-folders. Still as fast as ever, and easy to search if I don't want to look through the folders.

So to me it is an upgrade. The only thing the Kindle does better is utilize Amazon servers to send books wirelessly.

(And yes Amazon has a better book store and better customer service).

And the other flaw is the archive issue. I had to take my 3G Kindle off my Amazon account and set up a new account so that I could connect to wifi and receive my blogs and news throughout the day. Before I did that the Kindle was rebooting at least once a day. Now, not at all. My original archive has over 4,000 books in it. My new account, archive is 11.

[sheygetz]

* What does the Sony do specifically that your Kindle can't? I second the notion that the Sony is no upgrade to write home about.

* The A1 is much heavier, that is a clear disadvantage. Yes, it is--in absolute terms--only a few hundred gram, but you'll notice when you hold it for an hour. If I'd accomodate heavy, I would want a larger screen. One advantage of tablets is they are more easily available in 8 or 10". I prefer that even for books, more so for comics and any pdf. (I checked amazon.ca to see, if you can get the Archos/ Arnovo line of tablets--you can. Look at the Arnova 8 G2 4GB e.g. or better still the 9 G2, more screen estate, not much more weight, better handling than the A1.)

* I don't know anything about mangas (aren't they like comic strips and mostly in colour (=tablet)?), but ebooks don't need more resolution than either Kindle or Sony offer.

* Easier-on-the-eyes is a much flogged horse. I once googled for 2 hours on the subject, but other than personal preferances I could not find a single scientist/ opthomologist (? or whatever they're called) who substantiated that. Personally--again-- I found the K4 darker than an actual paperback, and on a plane or train more often than not needed artificial lighting. I'd rather have it in the device then. It is though hard on your eyes, if you turn the tablet up to full luminosity in pitch black surroundings. Same for any computer screen, don't sit in complete darkness, always have some other light source than just the screen.

* You could use the Sony for surfing, but would you want to, have you actually tried that? I have and I wouldn't.

Hendrik

[Latinandgreek]

I've enjoyed reading manga on all of my Sony devices (converted to .epub). I've even found reading on the 350 with its 5 inch screen very comfortable, due to the increased pixel density (the 350 can't take an SD card, though). I've never read manga on a Kindle, so I don't know how much the experiences differ. I usually load manga in .epub format onto an SD, and that way I can have several volumes with me at once. I find it very convenient.

The great thing about tablets, though, is the various manga apps that exist, so that you can read manga directly onto your device without the need to download and/or convert the manga onto your computer and then upload it to your ebook reader. I haven't rooted my T1, so I don't know how well Android manga apps work on it.

An ebook reader is the perfect size and weight (IMHO) to carry in your purse so that you can read manga on the subway (manga is my preferred subway reading). The Lenovo A1 is seems quite portable, but perhaps a bit heavy for one handed reading, if that's what you think that you will be doing with it. I do read manga on my iPad, using manga apps, but I find that I prefer reading manga on my T1 - I find the white background on the iPad to be too bright, even when I turn the screen brightness way down. Your best bet, I think, would be to try out some manga at a store on a tablet, to see if you are comfortable reading on a backlit screen. I don't mind reading on a backlit screen for short bursts of time, but I do prefer eink. You will probably find checking your email and doing light web browsing on any eink device a bit cumbersome; you would be better served by a tablet for that sort of thing. Personally, I like having both. If you really don't like the Kindle, you could sell it, buy a T1, and then get a cheap tablet as well. If you have any friends in the U.S. ask to see if any of them can pick up a T1 for you at Target - I've read here at MR that they are on sale for $60 at some Target stores.

Sorry for the long post that probably didn't help vey much I do love my T1, for what it's worth, and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for an eink device.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by sheygetz

* I don't know anything about mangas (aren't they like comic strips and mostly in colour (=tablet)?), but ebooks don't need more resolution than either Kindle or Sony offer.

Manga is mostly black and white (sometimes they will include a few colour pages at the beginning of a volume). I enjoy reading colour comics on my tablet, but I find the mostly white manga backgrounds to bother my eyes when reading them on my iPad, as I've mentioned in my post.

[Shirohane]

Thanks for your opinions. On considering them, I ended up getting a tablet. Though instead of the A1, I went with a refurbished Nook Color (available in Canada through newegg.ca).

I went with the Nook Color because it is a tablet but also because it is easier to mod should I want CM9/ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) on it. Not only that but there are a lot of positive comments on the Nook Color with CM7. I also figured that I could get more support if something goes wrong it as opposed to the Lenovo A1. (I also figured that 800Mhz vs 1Ghz shouldn't have much of an impact on web browsing.)

I found that reading manga on an e-ink device can be quite troublesome if the pages are not leveled; while that tends to be rare, I had a chapter that was very hard to read as everything was grey-ish and the contrast could not be adjusted on the K3; on a tablet, I would simply turn up the brightness a bit.

I also figured that the Nook Color would be of a similar weight as my K3 as I have Amazon's case with light on it which is by no means light.

Also, the "easier on the eyes" thing is as sheygetz said, I work in front of a computer all day at work so reading on a backlit screen should not be much of an issue.

Like booklover6, I have also experienced my Kindle slowing down when I loaded too many files on it. (Which is a problem as I like to keep recipes on it instead of printing them and keeping them in a binder.)

Should I want another e-ink device, I think that I will get a T1 if and when the price drops.

My BF will be getting my K3/3G as planned. That way, if I miss it, it won't be too far and I could... un-gift it?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

The PSR T1 isn't a significant upgrade on the K3.

That depends on one's needs.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That depends on one's needs.

From the list in the OP, what would you suggest makes the T1 an upgrade over the K3?

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by sheygetz

* What does the Sony do specifically that your Kindle can't? I second the notion that the Sony is no upgrade to write home about.

* You could use the Sony for surfing, but would you want to, have you actually tried that? I have and I wouldn't.

Hendrik

I answered how the Sony is better than the kindle, to me, above.

As to the other point I quoted, yes I have tried surfing on both. It's MUCH better on the T1 than on my K3. Web pages load faster, and it's much easier to navigate. I can't compare to the Kindle Touch as I don't have one.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by Shirohane

Like booklover6, I have also experienced my Kindle slowing down when I loaded too many files on it. (Which is a problem as I like to keep recipes on it instead of printing them and keeping them in a binder.)

Should I want another e-ink device, I think that I will get a T1 if and when the price drops.

My BF will be getting my K3/3G as planned. That way, if I miss it, it won't be too far and I could... un-gift it?

Enjoy your new Nook! I find tablets great for recipes, I use my iPad in the kitchen all the time.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That depends on one's needs.

I agree. I love my T1, and while I wouldn't say no to a gifted Kindle, I have never considered getting one to use as my main reader (I have previously thought about getting the cheapest Kindle as a back up reader, but ultimately decided against it). I haven't used the new touch screen model, which may have a better UI, but I really didn't find the previous models very intuitive to use, whereas I've found all of the Sony models to have a great UI. The T1 is great for directly downloading library books as well, and PDFs are surprisingly readable on them thanks to reflow, a usable TOC, etc. I also make extensive use of Sonys foreign dictionaries, which to me are worth the price of the ebook reader by themselves. I love the new font options and the ergonomics of the T1, as well as the colour options for the bezel. Of all of the ebook readers on the market, I think that the T1 is by far the most attractive from a design standpoint. I like having the option of using an SD card, although I can't say that I use it terribly extensively.

To each his own.

[Shirohane]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

From the list in the OP, what would you suggest makes the T1 an upgrade over the K3?

Well, from the list in the OP, I'd say that from what I read, 3G aside, the T1 is better for browsing the web. (For one thing, my K3 has a tendency to freeze when I browse the net.)

And due to the fact that I can install Android apps on it, reading manga/graphic novels/comics would probably be simpler.

But that aside, I'm looking forward to my Nook.