Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamad_Spider
I heard that the screen of these e-book readers are really fragile. Is it right? Is it hard to conserve them?
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Sorry I can't really comment on the specific readers you are inquiring about, but I'll comment on fragility of e-ink.
Many will comment that you absolutely must keep your reader in a cover and it must never ever leave that case. Personally I have never used a case and never broke a screen.
E-ink is MORE FRAGILE than say a screen on a cell phone or tablet, yes. The reason for this is that the substrate of the e-ink is a paper thin (literally, you can search the forums here for pictures from various teardowns if you want to see it) sheet of glass. This means that a sharp impact on the screen can cause the substrate to shatter (rendering the screen useless) even when the surface still looks pristine. IMHO however, the bigger killer of e-ink screens (and more so on the larger devices you are interested in) is from bending or flexing of the device. The glass substrate is rigid but very thin so flexing it can cause it to crack or develop a micro-fracture that may break at a later time (i.e. when a temperature change causes expansion or contraction). You're most likely to run into problems if you are carrying your device in a briefcase/purse etc where you can inadvertently cause pressure that may bend or flex it. A cover may help reduce this a bit, but realistically if you can flex the cover I question how much it helps. I have a wooden case that put mine in when traveling with it. If you are using it at home or your office etc. you won't likely have any issues.
So overall you just need to be aware of how you can hurt it and avoid those conditions (knowing the likely killers is the important part), but as long as you pay a bit of attention they're not super fragile/prone to damage.