Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg Bell
Was at my library today and the librarian showed me a Kindle and Nook Simple touch. The Kindle wasn't charged but the librarian said the text was very similar to the Nook, which I was very impressed by. Then I read about how terrible Nooks were getting, and so I took a look at a Kobo Glo and on Amazon it got more one star than five star reviews. http://www.amazon.com/Kobo-Glo-Eread...DateDescending
I'm not a big fan of Amazon but it seems like it's the winner by default. (Would much prefer something epub indigenous.) |
If you are able to use Calibre (and add Apprentice Alf's plugins to it if you want to remove the DRM), then a device that handles a specific format becomes immaterial because you can convert your ebooks to whatever format you need for your device.
An SD card slot on an e-ink ereader is nice, but its necessity depends on what you plan to read. If it's just non-graphic intensive ebooks, then you can fit hundreds and hundreds of ebooks on the internal storage. I've got SD cards in some of my ereaders that I've never even used; I usually keep about 300 books on any device, ones that I haven't read yet. A rough rule of thumb is about 1000 ebooks per GB of storage (based upon the number of ebooks I have in my Calibre Library and the size of the Calibre Library file).
What I've found to be the most important thing in e-ink readers is the degree to which it lets you customize your viewing. Which one has the most fonts available? Is it a good mix of serif and non-serif? Does it allow you to add additional fonts? How many text sizes are available? The more there are, the easier it is to find one that suits your vision.
Check the difference in text size, especially from middle-to-small and middle-to-large. In most of the e-ink readers, the two highest text heights ridiculously large and the two smallest are ridiculously small; so check to see if those mid-range heights have a comfortable one for you. You may want to, if your eyes start to get tired when reading, be able to switch over to a text height that is slightly larger, but on some of the devices the jump in height from third largest to second largest, for example, is too great.
Reading .pdf files on an e-ink reader is basically an exercise in futility. There's always some sort of rendering problem - especially if it includes pictures or charts.
Check the physical size and weight of the device. Is it going to be comfortable in your hands?
Go on YouTube and type in the two devices' names plus "comparison" and there's probably a video for it up there. There are unboxing videos for all readers there along with videos of their use.
All the devices make it easy to buy ebooks from their respective stores, with Amazon probably being the easiest one to suck the money from your wallet due to the sheer number of book deals they offer every day.
If you want to borrow books from your local library, make sure your device is one of the ones your library's ebook service works with.
Bottom line, you'll probably be happy if you get a Kindle, a Nook, or a Kobo. The technology has advanced enough that each one will have most of the things you want in an e-ink reader, and once you become familiar with the device, the differences won't matter.