White vs black bezel for reading Ebooks with an LCD tablet

[Julius Caesar]

I am planning to get a 12.9" iPad Pro mainly for reading magazines and ebooks. Most ebooks and magazines have black fonts printed on white background. Based on this information, should I get one with a black or a white bezel? Which one would give better reading experience?

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

I am planning to get a 12.9" iPad Pro mainly for reading magazines and ebooks. Most ebooks and magazines have black fonts printed on white background. Based on this information, should I get one with a black or a white bezel? Which one would give better reading experience?

My iPhone and iPad mini have white bezels, my iPad Pro has a black bezel. I'd get a Pro with a white bezel if I had it to do over again, mainly because fingerprints don't show as much on the white.

I don't notice whether one or the other offers a better contrast, but I do read more on the smaller screens, except for magazines.

[HarryT]

My personal preference is for a black bezel. It improves the apparent contrast of the screen.

[drjd]

I prefer a white bezel for my readers. It gives me a feeling of white page margins of a printed book. It looks pretty comfortable on my eyes.

[barryem]

I've had a couple of ereaders with white bezels. I currently have a Nook Glowlight Plus with a white bezel. I don't really find that the bezel makes enough difference to call itself to my attention. I've never done any serious comparing but I probably would have if I'd ever been bothered by one or the other.

I think it's hard to ignore our prejudices sometimes. I assumed for years I couldn't enjoy watching a TV show on a small screen. I just knew that was true. It was so completely obvious. Then one day, 11 or 12 years ago, I downloaded my first video TV show, a Dragnet episode entitled "The Big Bird". What a transformative experience that was!

The resolution was very low, as was the bandwidth, so the reasonably clear image was about 3"x2". It was perfect. I immediately set out looking for more.

Now I mostly watch on my laptop with it's 15" screen. I rarely make them full screen. I also watch shows on my 7" tablet and sometimes on my phone.

The thing is the size of the world contained in the screen matters. They physical screen disappears.

When you're reading a book I wonder if the color of the bezel really matters. Maybe so. I think if I was concerned about this I'd begin testing.

Barry

[AnotherCat]

Over the years I have used black, white and metallic grey tablets for reading and never noticed or even considered there would be any difference reading on one color or another. The tablet that I currently use for reading is white, but that only because that was all that was available in that model at the time I bought it, so an easy choice .

LCD and OLED displays are of such high contrast (orders of magnitude better)compared to paper or E Ink that, for myself, I would consider it a far more important consideration to use a reading application that allows one to effectively manage contrast by means of paper tinting (I have used since PDA days an "aged paper" tint) and, if wanted, selecting or loading one's own paper texture (something I have not found needed for myself). Also, along those same lines, a reading application that allows easy adjustment of display brightness by a simple screen gesture is important to me.