Ereader for private epub technical manuals

[Manosk]

Hi, I work in the IT department of a small firm that makes industrial equipments.

Our employees have tablets with manuals and checklists useful to complete the installation tasks at clients' factories. Unfortunately tablets are not easy to read in direct sunlight...

Since our manual are in epub format, we would like to migrate to a good epub reader.

Here is what we are looking for:

• Size from 6 to 10 inches
• Price 100-200 euro
• Epub and possibly PDF support
• High resolution screen (300 ppi?)
• No link to an ebook store: the device will be used only for read our manuals (loaded by the IT guys)
• Possibility to fully disable internet connection (for security reasons and for longer battery life)
• Possibly sd card
• Long battery life
• Possibility to load extra fonts in opentype format

Could you suggest some models?

[meeera]

I think more detail is needed: a ten inch PDF reader is a very, very different beast from a six inch epub reader. And your budget won't go anywhere near the former.

When you mean "fully disabled internet connection" do you mean that the user can disabled it temporarily (which I think is a feature of all of them), or that you want to disable it so that a user cannot turn wifi back on?

[Manosk]

Originally Posted by meeera

I think more detail is needed: a ten inch PDF reader is a very, very different beast from a six inch epub reader. And your budget won't go anywhere near the former.

In fact a 6" display is all we really need. At moment all our docs are in the epub format. Of course a larger screen will be even better, especially if we want to add some pdf manual in the future. But, as you've noticed, our budget is limited.

Originally Posted by meeera

When you mean "fully disabled internet connection" do you mean that the user can disabled it temporarily (which I think is a feature of all of them), or that you want to disable it so that a user cannot turn wifi back on?

The final user (our employee) has to be able to fully disable internet connection. The device has to be fully isolated from the internet or any private network.

[meeera]

All eink readers have decent battery life, though I read here that the Android type have shorter life than Kobo/Kindle/etc.

I don't know of any ereaders that have an always-on (un-disable-able) wifi connection (just turn on airplane mode) or that cannot have books sideloaded. Would you need to load the epubs as epubs only, or would you be able to convert them (i.e. they are not DRM locked etc)? If you are able to convert, even Kindle isn't out of the question, as your SD card criterion is listed as optional.

What country are you in?

Are you aware that eink readers are in the main more fragile than tablets, and will need to be treated a little carefully?

Do you require a lit screen?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Manosk

In fact a 6" display is all we really need. At moment all our docs are in the epub format. Of course a larger screen will be even better, especially if we want to add some pdf manual in the future. But, as you've noticed, our budget is limited.

With your requirements, I'd suggest the original 6.8" Kobo Aura H2O. Unfortunately, Kobo have just replaced it, but you might be able to find them. I think the water and dust proof would be a good idea. The other reason for the suggestion is that it had an external SD slot. The replacement, Aura H2O Edition 2, doesn't have an external SD slot, but has 8GB of storage. You could also go up to the 7.8" Aura ONE.

PDF isn't great. It is rendered well, but navigation is terrible if you need to zoom in. You can install KOReader to handle PDF.

The final user (our employee) has to be able to fully disable internet connection. The device has to be fully isolated from the internet or any private network.

You can turn the WiFi off for all the devices I know of. The firmware on the Kobo devices is reasonably hackable, so there might be a way to disable the WiFI completely. Removing the driver is probably enough, but I've never had a reason to try.

[pdurrant]

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone does something that would meet your specs at the moment, without a bit of hacking to remove the wifi capability.

[Glorfindel]

I'm not sure about the newer models, but the Kindle I have (kindle 4) has the ability to set a parental lock on the wifi. So if would be locked off unless you know the password

[meeera]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Unfortunately, I don't think anyone does something that would meet your specs at the moment, without a bit of hacking to remove the wifi capability.

The OP said that they just want the end-user to be able to turn it off - i.e. airplane mode. Not that they want it hacked to be completely unable to be turned on.