It's now sale season again in my country (Vietnam), and online marketplaces are offering heavy discount vouchers. With that in mind, I decided to check out e-readers once again. My needs are, in order of importance:
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- Price: The e-reader's original price must be under 300 USD/7.83 million VND, and I prefer options under 230 USD/6 million VND. The discount vouchers normally cut around 20-30% of the original price, though once again I prefer options with original prices below 230 USD.
- Screen size: must be 7 inches or bigger. prefer 8/10 inches and above.
- Storage: minimum 16GB. Prefer 32GB and/or allowing for expandable storage, i.e microSD, external USB drive, etc.
- Smoothness/performance: I want the e-reader to be fast enough in daily usage. I don't do web browsing, but I do read a lot of books.
- Note-taking ability, especially with a stylus: I'd like to mark up my books, take notes, and maybe even start practicing drawing. I write in cursive and don't care about color screens, for what it's worth.
- Being able to read PDFs well: I don't want to zoom in and out often, nor do I want to reflow PDFs of my textbooks. That said, I am willing to test out reflowing.
- Customizability/modding: this one's not too important, but I'd love to install or develop a Linux system/a custom Android firmware, or at least make apps for the e-reader. I wouldn't mind not having this ability too much though.
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I have found those options which suit what I want, but I'm not too sure if I should go with them. Note that the prices I listed in the list have all gone through discounts, not the original prices.
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- Kobo Libra 2: Brand new ones go for 4 million VND/153 USD as of now. If I accept the packaging not having an anti-tampering seal (though the e-reader inside will still be fully new), the price goes even lower to 3.5 million VND/134.51 USD.
- Boox Note Air: Lightly used, including stylus and cover - same price as the Kobo. Specs: Snapdragon 636, 3GB RAM/32GB storage.
- Boox Note X/Air2: Lightly used, including stylus and cover - 4.45 million VND/170 USD. Specs: Snapdragon 662, 3GB RAM/32GB storage.
- Boox Note X3/Air3: Brand new goes for 6.28 million VND/240 USD. If I go with used ones with damaged corners, they go for 5.85 million VND/224 USD. Specs: Snapdragon 680, 4GB RAM/64GB storage, 10-inch display, Android 12.
- Boox Tab 10/Ultra: Lightly used (including pen and cover) costs 6.84 million VND/261 USD. Specs: Snapdragon 680, 4GB RAM/64GB storage, 10-inch display, Android 12.
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willing to hear about more options, thanks!