Thread: E-reader sizes
View Single Post
Old 02-27-2010, 12:01 AM   #2
delphidb96
Wizard
delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.delphidb96 ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 2,999
Karma: 300001
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Citrus Heights, California
Device: TWO Kindle 2s, one each Bookeen Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS-500, Axim X51V
Quote:
Originally Posted by gastan View Post
I've been reading thru some of the older posts here and something that I've noticed has me scratching my head a bit.

There seems to be a definite bias against larger screen devices. I keep reading, over and over, about how the new 8"/9"/10" readers are just too big. You can't "comfortably" hold them with one hand, they're "too big" for ease of use, you can't put them in your pocket, yada, yada, yada.

Can someone explain exactly what the problem is? After all, even the new larger screen devices like the eDGe, the Adam, the rumored Hanlin A9, or the Ditto Book D9, in their landscape orientation, are hardly any bigger than a standard paperback (opened for reading).

A standard paper back, when opened for reading, will be about 8" or 9" X 7".
A trade paperback will be even larger -- 10" or 11" X 8".
And I'm not even mentioning hardbound pbooks.

The smallest of the new devices I've mentioned, the Hanlin A9 is about 10.3" X 6.7".
Even the largest, the eDGe (when folded back on itself to use the e-ink screen), is only about 10.75" X 8.25" ... about the same size as a trade paperback.

And as far as I can see, a bigger screen means you can have more material available between page turns, not to mention the obvious benefit for pdf's and newspaper/magazines. And what's so hard about carrying something smaller than a pad of notebook paper?
I can stuff my Kindle 2 (6" display), in its case, into my pants pocket. I cannot do that with any of the 8", 9" or 10" devices. If I want to transport one anywhere, I must grab a tote bag as I need both hands for my canes. Plus, when lying down, it's a bit awkward to hold - of course, so are most hardcover novels, so it's a wash there.

And the nifty thing about the 5" units is that I can stuff a suitably cased device into the pocket on my t-shirt.

Even so, I lust after a larger device as I have plenty of tech manuals in PDF that would go fine on one. Still, the price is far too high at this point - for me.

Derek
delphidb96 is offline   Reply With Quote