So suggestions please

[johnwhelan]

I've had a number of ebook readers but the one I'm most comfortable with was a Nexus 7 running Moon+Reader.

It seems as if my battery has died on the Nexus 7 and in the operation to replace it the operation was a success but the device died, probably static.

I like white typeface on a black background. The Nexus 7 has disappeared from the Google store. I may be able to get an another Nexus 7 but any other suggestions for the moment?

I quite like having wifi so I can check my emails but if its a device that has easy battery replacement and cheap batteries I can live without wifi.

Thanks John

[barryem]

You have a lot of options. If you want another Nexus 7 those are easily found on Amazon, either new or refurbished. They have both the 2013 and 2014 models. Also a lot of sites are offering them refurbished at sale prices that are sometimes pretty low.

My personal choice for reading is the Kindle Paperwhite 2. That doesn't let you have white text on black background but since it uses a front light instead of a back light the advantage of that would be lost anyway. It also doesn't let you scroll text like Moon+ reader does, a feature I very much miss. It doesn't have nearly as many features as some of the other ereaders and ereader apps but it has all the really important features to me and they all work very well. It's the best reading device I've found.

I also have a Kobo Aura, which isn't a bad device at all. The screen isn't nearly as good as the Paperwhite 2 but it's pretty good. I can enjoy reading on it and I do. It has a lot of really good features but many of them only work reliably on books purchased from Kobo and they're a lot more expensive than Amazon. On books converted from other sources I never know which features will and which won't work. I always know some won't work. But it's always okay anyway. It's a decent device.

One of the other differences is the quality of the dictionaries. The Paperwhite's dictionary is far better when I'm reading an older book. So is the translation feature. The book I'm currently reading has French, German and Dutch phrases throughout and the Kindle gets them all. The book was written in England in 1942 and there are a lot of out of date words and phrases, unknown even then in the USA (I'm old enough to know) and the Paperwhite dictionary finds nearly all of them. The Kobo dictionary finds quite a few but not nearly all.

I have a phone, a Moto G, that I use with either the Kindle app or Moon+ reader (which I prefer). I got it from Amazon for $79. They still have them. I don't have service on it. It's just a pocket size tablet/ereader that I can carry with me. It's a decent reading device. It's a little small but I don't mind that for short reading sessions. I can only manage short reading sessions on an LCD screen anyway.

Some of the things I've been reading lead me to think the Kobo Glo might be a better device than the Aura I have. I like the idea of the smaller, lighter device with the flush screen and that's why I got the Aura, so I probably won't get the Glo, but from what I hear it has a better screen.

I've been considering getting a Kindle Voyage but they're pretty expensive and I haven't really decided to spend that much yet. I'm leaning in that direction so I may end up with one. But at the moment I haven't seen one. I've only seen reviews so it's something I hope will be great.

I have the Paperwhite 2 with 3G, which means I can use the translation feature when I'm away from home as well as at home and that makes it a bit nicer. It also lets me access Wikipedia as I read when I'm away from home. I look things up as I read quite a lot and the Paperwhite makes Wikipedia access pretty easy.

One other advantage of the Kobo over the Paperwhite is that I can upload books to Dropbox and download them on the Kobo. The Paperwhite's browser crashes on the Dropbox website. Everyone seems to have that problem with them since a recent update. Maybe it'll be fixed but there's no reason to think so.

I hope this helps. You have a lot of choices. Any good tablet with an HD screen will work well. There are a lot of good ereaders.

Barry

[johnwhelan]

I think cost becomes a factor as well as screen display. I'm now thinking that most tablets die when their battery needs replacing so $250 is about the limit for a two year life span product.

Moon+Reader has features I like, the Nexus 7 has a good screen display the pixel density seems higher than anything else that's comparable certainly price wise.

The Nexus range gets updated operating systems fairly regularly the other brands with slightly modified Android operating systems do not. Android well moon+reader seems to like it.

Looks like its grab another Nexus 7 whilst there are still one or two around.

Thanks John

[barryem]

Most batteries last longer than 2 years. I still have the original battery in the Creative Zen Vision:M, a portable video player that I bought about 10 years ago and it still holds a charge very well. I also have it's successor, the Zen Vision:W, which I bought a couple years later and it's still just fine.

I have 2 or 3 other portable media players as well, all with original batteries and all are working well. There was one other that I bought about 5 years ago whose battery was beginning to be fairly useless so I had to keep it plugged in. I gave that away a few months ago to a friend with some old movies on it.

It's kind of a matter of luck. The lithium-ion batteries are rated at between 500 and 1000 full charges and that more than doubles with half charges since they seem to do better with partial charges. I won't let my devices get below about 50% and I try to remember to charge them before they get as low as 70%.

Barry

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by barryem

Most batteries last longer than 2 years. I still have the original battery in the Creative Zen Vision:M, a portable video player that I bought about 10 years ago and it still holds a charge very well. I also have it's successor, the Zen Vision:W, which I bought a couple years later and it's still just fine.

I have 2 or 3 other portable media players as well, all with original batteries and all are working well. There was one other that I bought about 5 years ago whose battery was beginning to be fairly useless so I had to keep it plugged in. I gave that away a few months ago to a friend with some old movies on it.

It's kind of a matter of luck. The lithium-ion batteries are rated at between 500 and 1000 full charges and that more than doubles with half charges since they seem to do better with partial charges. I won't let my devices get below about 50% and I try to remember to charge them before they get as low as 70%.

Barry

The Nexus 7 by default runs wifi, blue tooth, GPS etc etc. Running software such as Gmail is not especially battery friendly. Unfortunately I only discovered power bar recently which means I was using far more power than need be. You can buy replacement batteries but when its minus 20 outside it does tend to be a little dry inside with a fair bit of static which is not good when you open a Nexus 7 up. I've also recently come across the idea that Lithium batteries do better when recharged early. However another concern was the number of times that the micro USB connector could be connected so I tended to run the device down lower than perhaps I should have done.

I understand that the new USB Type-C plug is more robust so hopefully in the future the number of times a connector is plugged in or disconnected will no longer be an issue.

I think its called learning be experience, and experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted.

I think the subject is now closed, but thank you for your input.

Cheerio John