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fjtorres · 05-01-2010, 10:14 AM

There are several very good options these days.
I have first-hand experience with four of the better options:

The Kindle is rock solid, apparently never crashes or hangs, and (if that matters) has free wireless plus the benchmark ebook store built-in. The limitations of the bookshelf and the fonts are reportedly being addressed in the 2.5 Firmware update which adds social networking features that could prove huge. (Dont underestimate network effects.) PDF support is good, PRC/Mobi excellent (no duh, right?), ePub/LIT/pdb support non-existent. It is what it is but what it is is very good. Not going to hear anything bad about it from me.

The Pocketbook line (and the PB360 in particular) put *you* in control of the reader's looks, presentation, and features. Extremely stable. The PB360 adds superb ergonomics and a clip-on hard cover (that neatly stows in the back). It is also fast to boot, fast to page and (mostly) fast to load books. (Well thought out software with plain english warnings.) Add-in multiple active dictionaries, themes, games and applets...
Very good value. Very pleasing to own. (Not quite the same thing, you know.) It is my reader of choice for 2010. (2011? There's rumors of a possible hardware tweak--minor stuff apparently. Quieter/less-stiff buttons?) If only it supported LITs...

The Hanlins' (V3/V5 from Astak and others) calling card is broad format support. Jacks of all trades, masters of none; they support pretty much every legacy format this side of eReader (through no fault of their own--they've tried, reportedly). Baseline firmware is less than 100% solid but you do have a choice of a half-dozen alternate firmwares at least one of which supports both Mobi-DRM and Adobe DRM. They even aspire to support LIT files. More of a hobbyist/enthusiast choice. If you don't mind rolling up your sleeve or hitting the reset button every once in a while there's a lot to like.

At the low end there is the Jetbook/Jetbook lite. Hard to argue with $99 price for the Lite, right?

The screen is lower resolution (vga vs SVGA) but you have to really look for it to tell. And it is nice and dark, true black text. Format support is good up to and includind eReader (and yes PalmDoc, works fine) and above average PDF support. (It was good enough I fed it a Google crapscan pdf. No miracle, it choked.) Txt, rtf support is fine. It seems to have an issue with .mobi extension files--they load but only display the first page. PRC-extension mobi files (the same format!) work fine. Only minuses are lack of font choices (uh, let's see; I build a devicee with two font choices and I go with Arial and Verdana? Both sans serif? Uh, guys...? Can we spell B-R-A-I-N-C-R-A-M-P children? Georgia or DROID Serif TTF fonts would likely look glorious on this screen) and lack of table of contents support (no biggie). Choice of justified or left aligned is good. The six font sizes are well-chosen if limited. The PDF zoom factors are abundant and decent but it would be nice if it defaulted to full-screen (best mode for texts) instead of making you choose it every time. In its defense, it *does* remember where you left off reading a book and it does support bookmarks. The ergonomics are decent on the Lite and the slider bar grows on you. The okay/activation button is way too small. SDHC support works to 16GB at least and it reads the card fast and inegrates it with the onboard books. In other words, it is great at nothing but good-enough at everything it does. A lot to like, a lot to niggle about. (Especially typography.) But, did I mention it goes for $99-129?
It has its uses.
The non-lite version adds rechargeable battery and MP3 playback at around $129-149. With the Sony PRS-300 hitting $150 these days that is looking iffy.

In the end it comes down to what your preference is; bookstore access? Polish and customizability? Legacy formats and TTS? Or just basic competence at a good price?

05-01-2010, 10:14 AM	#10
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	There are several very good options these days. I have first-hand experience with four of the better options: The Kindle is rock solid, apparently never crashes or hangs, and (if that matters) has free wireless plus the benchmark ebook store built-in. The limitations of the bookshelf and the fonts are reportedly being addressed in the 2.5 Firmware update which adds social networking features that could prove huge. (Dont underestimate network effects.) PDF support is good, PRC/Mobi excellent (no duh, right?), ePub/LIT/pdb support non-existent. It is what it is but what it is is very good. Not going to hear anything bad about it from me. The Pocketbook line (and the PB360 in particular) put you in control of the reader's looks, presentation, and features. Extremely stable. The PB360 adds superb ergonomics and a clip-on hard cover (that neatly stows in the back). It is also fast to boot, fast to page and (mostly) fast to load books. (Well thought out software with plain english warnings.) Add-in multiple active dictionaries, themes, games and applets... Very good value. Very pleasing to own. (Not quite the same thing, you know.) It is my reader of choice for 2010. (2011? There's rumors of a possible hardware tweak--minor stuff apparently. Quieter/less-stiff buttons?) If only it supported LITs... The Hanlins' (V3/V5 from Astak and others) calling card is broad format support. Jacks of all trades, masters of none; they support pretty much every legacy format this side of eReader (through no fault of their own--they've tried, reportedly). Baseline firmware is less than 100% solid but you do have a choice of a half-dozen alternate firmwares at least one of which supports both Mobi-DRM and Adobe DRM. They even aspire to support LIT files. More of a hobbyist/enthusiast choice. If you don't mind rolling up your sleeve or hitting the reset button every once in a while there's a lot to like. At the low end there is the Jetbook/Jetbook lite. Hard to argue with $99 price for the Lite, right? The screen is lower resolution (vga vs SVGA) but you have to really look for it to tell. And it is nice and dark, true black text. Format support is good up to and includind eReader (and yes PalmDoc, works fine) and above average PDF support. (It was good enough I fed it a Google crapscan pdf. No miracle, it choked.) Txt, rtf support is fine. It seems to have an issue with .mobi extension files--they load but only display the first page. PRC-extension mobi files (the same format!) work fine. Only minuses are lack of font choices (uh, let's see; I build a devicee with two font choices and I go with Arial and Verdana? Both sans serif? Uh, guys...? Can we spell B-R-A-I-N-C-R-A-M-P children? Georgia or DROID Serif TTF fonts would likely look glorious on this screen) and lack of table of contents support (no biggie). Choice of justified or left aligned is good. The six font sizes are well-chosen if limited. The PDF zoom factors are abundant and decent but it would be nice if it defaulted to full-screen (best mode for texts) instead of making you choose it every time. In its defense, it does remember where you left off reading a book and it does support bookmarks. The ergonomics are decent on the Lite and the slider bar grows on you. The okay/activation button is way too small. SDHC support works to 16GB at least and it reads the card fast and inegrates it with the onboard books. In other words, it is great at nothing but good-enough at everything it does. A lot to like, a lot to niggle about. (Especially typography.) But, did I mention it goes for $99-129? It has its uses. The non-lite version adds rechargeable battery and MP3 playback at around $129-149. With the Sony PRS-300 hitting $150 these days that is looking iffy. In the end it comes down to what your preference is; bookstore access? Polish and customizability? Legacy formats and TTS? Or just basic competence at a good price? Last edited by fjtorres; 05-01-2010 at 10:19 AM.