Kindle Oasis 3 vs Boox Poke 3 vs ?

[FivEawE]

Hello, I am looking into buying a new ereader. I currently have PocketBook Basic2, which is terrible (build quality, materials, software crashing). I have looked into 2 ereaders so far, and those are Kindle Oasis 3 and Boox Poke 3.
I really like the form factor of Oasis. I like the two physical buttons to swipe pages, fast page swaps and the warm light. The disadvantages are that it is really expensive here (330 € for the 32 GB model), it is mostly out of stock and there is no epub support.
Boox Poke 3 on the other hand is cheaper and available. The page swaps are blazing fast and it supports epub. However, it runs Android which, security wise, is not that great in my opinion. Also there are no physical buttons.
Most of my ebooks come from HumbleBundle. I read mostly programming books, which have a lot of pictures and code snippets. An ebook is usually 20-70 MB large. Since I am outside of US, I doubt I will use Kindle Store that much (though I might use it every now and then). I also read various documentations on the internet. I have no problems of converting between formats or manually removing DRM if it is needed.

For me, the ereader must have:
Warm light (or the least amount of eye strain)
Fast page swaps
Easy side-loading (preferably through a cable)

A nice to have things are:
Long battery life
Buttons for next/previous page
Epub and PDFs
Displays code blocks nicely
A web browser
Firmware updates for 2-3 years
Easily read in bed
Operable by one hand
Automatic brightness and warmness adjustment

I cannot decide between those two, though I am open to any other suggestions.
Thank you very much in advance for helping me out.

[JSWolf]

You did leave out the Kobo Libra H2O. It fills most of your wish list and costs less then the Kindle Oasis.

Kobo has much better firmware support. They are supporting all of their Readers except for the original 2 and the Kobo Mini. That's 18 devices that can run the current firmware. The oldest device on the list was released on May 23, 2011. Amazon cannot say that at all.

The one thing that the Libra does not have is automatic lights. The Oasis also doesn't have it.

[FivEawE]

Yeah, that one kind of slipped from my attention. I have had a look and it looks nice, though I am kind of worried about only 8 GB of storage. Also the sunken screen seemed like a disadvantage, but when I thought of it, a flushed screen would probably result in higher price and it would attract more fingerprints on the bezels. Funnily enough, there is only one eshop here which sells it for around 220 €.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by FivEawE

Yeah, that one kind of slipped from my attention. I have had a look and it looks nice, though I am kind of worried about only 8 GB of storage. Also the sunken screen seemed like a disadvantage, but when I thought of it, a flushed screen would probably result in higher price and it would attract more fingerprints on the bezels. Funnily enough, there is only one eshop here which sells it for around 220 €.

Why would a sunken screen be a disadvantage for you? If you mean pet hairs get stuck under the bezel or something like that, well, they somewhat do (I have 3 cats), but otherwise there's no difference IMO.

[FivEawE]

It is just the looks. Flushed looks more luxurious lol. The only thing troubling me is the space and from one of the forum posts I have found out that some people have had problems with uneven lightning.
Nonetheless, I think this one is the best one from the three mentioned here. I might get it, but I need to think it through.
Thanks for the help so far, I really appreciate it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Why would a sunken screen be a disadvantage for you? If you mean pet hairs get stuck under the bezel or something like that, well, they somewhat do (I have 3 cats), but otherwise there's no difference IMO.

I have a pug and his hairs do not get on the screen. But then, I have a cover so if any hairs did get on my H2O, it would get on the cover.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FivEawE

It is just the looks. Flushed looks more luxurious lol. The only thing troubling me is the space and from one of the forum posts I have found out that some people have had problems with uneven lightning.
Nonetheless, I think this one is the best one from the three mentioned here. I might get it, but I need to think it through.
Thanks for the help so far, I really appreciate it.

The uneven lighting was fixed. It's no longer a problem. It was only a problem originally.

If you have concerns, ask because old posts are not always giving current information.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FivEawE

It is just the looks. Flushed looks more luxurious lol. The only thing troubling me is the space and from one of the forum posts I have found out that some people have had problems with uneven lightning.
Nonetheless, I think this one is the best one from the three mentioned here. I might get it, but I need to think it through.
Thanks for the help so far, I really appreciate it.

One downside with a flushed screen is that the touch layer could be raised above the screen and give a less sharp screen. For a realy good example of this is the PW3 vs the PW4 as the PW4 is flush and not as clear as the PW3 (not flushed).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have a pug and his hairs do not get on the screen. But then, I have a cover so if any hairs did get on my H2O, it would get on the cover.

My readers are in sleeves when I'm not reading. But some hairs still get stuck during reading sessions. Still, there aren't many and it doesn't bother me all that much. I'm happy with either a flush or a sunken screen, no real difference for me.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One downside with a flushed screen is that the touch layer could be raised above the screen and give a less sharp screen. For a realy good example of this is the PW3 vs the PW4 as the PW4 is flush and not as clear as the PW3 (not flushed).

Hmm but my Oasis 3 (flush) isn't less sharp than my Kobo (sunken), and my Voyage (also flush) was the sharpest of all (I sold it last year, as I couldn't find any use for a 6'' screen, no matter how sharp). The Paperwhites seem to be the only readers with a marked difference between flush and sunken screens.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

My readers are in sleeves when I'm not reading. But some hairs still get stuck during reading sessions. Still, there aren't many and it doesn't bother me all that much. I'm happy with either a flush or a sunken screen, no real difference for me.

But when you stop reading an put your Reader down, you have nothing covering the screen. I do because I have a cover. I've hardly had any dog hair on my H2O.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But when you stop reading an put your Reader down, you have nothing covering the screen. I do because I have a cover. I've hardly had any dog hair on my H2O.

I don't put it down where my cats can get at it. Not because of hairs, but I don't want them to scratch or chew it, or to lie on it. I guess some hairs floating around in the air can still get stuck even so, but it's not an important issue for me.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by FivEawE

Yeah, that one kind of slipped from my attention. I have had a look and it looks nice, though I am kind of worried about only 8 GB of storage.

Unless you read a lot of comics, I don't think you'll find 8GB too limiting. That's room for a few thousand ebooks no problem.

[FivEawE]

If I may ask, how does it feel to hold? Any pain after a while? Is there anything else I can do with it (like CFW)? Any other cons?

[macminer]

If you contemplate reading PDFs, Boox platform is clearly superior. Moreover, you can always install any Android reader app or any other application like Zinio, Scribd etc., which hugely expands reading options.

Moreover, web browser on Boox devices is fully functional, as opposed to Kindle. There it is and has always been "experimental" and quite limited.

Security-wise there is not really much to be afraid of concerning Android. You certainly do not need to keep personal data on an e-book reader and if you have minimal awareness as to what applications not to install, there should be no problems.

I have a Nova 3 and the only thing I'm missing is water resistance. In every other respect it beats Oasis hands down. Nova is obviously a step over Poke, but price-wise it is close to Oasis.