Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
What hyperbolic ... ahem. I've used both eInk eReaders and smartphones and tablets. It's not a matter of "misleading memes" -- it's a matter of what's more comfortable for reading. No contest for me, eInk eReaders's screens are superior. They also have longer battery lives (by far), are lighter and have the virtue (in my opinion) of being single use. You may disagree with my preferences, that's your prerogative, but the tablets and smartphones you're shilling aren't much newer than eInk eReaders. As a matter of fact, they pretty much grew up together.
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Smart phones have actually changed a lot in the last 2 or 3 years. Two years ago, I had a 4.7 inch phone with terrible battery life. And a nice tablet, but also short battery life. Then prices dropped on what I'd consider "good enough for reading" phones. I got a 5.3 inch screen one with excellent, all day and more battery life little over a year ago. I kept a smaller phone as my communication device and the larger one as a mini tablet with no service. I paid less than the cost of a Paperwhite for my mini-tablet phone, it's locked to a carrier I don't use, but using it only on wifi, I don't care.
In the past year, I got an iPhone SE , tiny by today's standards to carry in my pocket as a phone and a few more 5 to 6 inch "mini-tablets" to use at home or carry in my purse or backpack (no cell service) for entertainment, music, audiobook, a little video, web forums and reading. The SE was the most expensive of the lot at $200. The phones were each under $100 as I caught them on sale. Bleeding edge phones still tend to have small batteries to keep them thin, but the second and third tier phones are showing up with bigger batteries that easily last all day. A couple of years ago, cheap phones all had dreadful screen resolution, but now you can find them with 720 x 1280 270 dpi and up.
Google has also improved Android battery life with doze mode, so hardly any battery is used while in standby.
The only thing still lacking in phones is sunlight readability. I totally understand why someone who reads outside would prefer e-ink. But for inside I don't see any problem with LCD. I think LCD makers will solve the sunlight readability issue before e-ink makes any improvements to color and refresh speed.