First Reader

[Classica]

First off, I do not want a Kindle. Not only does Amazon restrict you to their format, the Kindle 2 has no expansion slot, and cannot read in landscape mode. Besides that, the price is way out of my range.

I'm a reader. All I need is a device for reading; I don't care about music or pictures.
An expansion slot is a must. Not only do I read a lot of books, I read a lot of big ones, so I'm going to need space. a 500 book memory is definitely too small.
I don't want a touch screen. Sure, no buttons is awesome, but the glare is not. I have terrible vision, so changeable font size and landscape mode is probably necessary as well.
I say landscape mode because my price range is going to be around $200, leaving me with Sony's Reader Pocket Edition, Astak's EZ Reader Pocket Pro, or the ECTACO JetBook at Bed Bath and Beyond (Also $199). Both Sony and Astak's models are 5" screens, so landscape mode will probably make it easier for me to read. As far as the JetBook goes, I know their screen is a no-back light LCD or something of the sort. Is it easy to read?
As far as what I'll be reading, it's mostly classics. I might get a few new books eventually though, so being able to buy those is important. Also, I'm going to college soon, so having textbooks available would be awesome. A disability has always prevented me from carrying my books, so finally having them with me would be wonderful.
I'm not really in the market for aesthetics. As long as it works, I'm fine. That was really the deal breaker for me with the Sony PRS-300. It was beautiful, but the lack of an expansion slot really turned me off. The PRS-505 looks good, but Sony stopped making them, and even if I could afford one, it looks like they'll be gone before I'm able to buy one.

Bottom line:

Affordable
Portable and Lightweight
Expansion Slot
Able to use many formats
Changeable Font and Landscape Mode
Hopefully able to handle textbooks

[Leep]

The expansion slot issue may not be as big a problem as you think. I, too was worried about having an expansion card but now that I have it, never use it. The solution for me has been Calibre.

Calibre is a much better solution for keeping track of your ebooks, and allows you to convert from almost any format to a format that will work for the ereader that you do purchase. And, best of all, you can try it for free.

cheers

[Latinandgreek]

Hi Classica, and welcome. I can't resist not replying to your topic thread, what with your great nick. Apparently a lot of stores (Target, esp.) have been having really good sales on Sony PRS-505's (going for as low as 200 dollars), so it might be worth it to check around in your area and see if you can scrounge one up. I have one, and I love it. If your textbooks are some sort of non-text based PDFs you will probably find a 5 inch screen too small to read from. I find I can read scanned PDFs on my 6 inch screen after converting them to lfr format, but just barely. Judging by your criteria, the 505 sounds to me like it comes closest to what you are looking for if you can find one on sale.

If you plan on studying classics or literature (just a guess!) the small screen on the Sony 300 or the Pocket Pro probably won't be a problem for you, as much you will be able to find much of your school reading material for free in various other formats on the internet.

Check out the ebooks section on the mobile read web site, I'm sure you will find a lot of classics to start you off on your reading! Also, be sure to download the free program Calibre (which you can find on this site), you can use it to convert files in a format that you cannot use with your future reader to a format that you can use, so if you find a reader you really like and are concerned about it not being able to support a certain format you always have the option of reformatting the file.

Try searching through the forums on this site to see if any readers are currently on sale and available to you, people here are always posting whatever they find on sale so you might luck out and find something that you originally thought would be out of your price range.

I hope my reply has been helpful. Best of luck!

[wallcraft]

The EZ Reader Pocket Pro is a good fit to your needs.

The only issues you are likely to have with the device are that the quality of the rendering of the many supported ebook formats is not all equally good (I would say FB2, MOBI and ePub are best) and the way to add fonts also differs between some of the formats. Overall, I recommend the Pocket Pro as an inexpensive full featured Reader.

[Jack Tingle]

Originally Posted by Classica

I'm a reader. All I need is a device for reading; I don't care about music or pictures. ...An expansion slot is a must. ...As far as the JetBook goes, I know their screen is a no-back light LCD or something of the sort. Is it easy to read?

Bottom line:

Affordable
Portable and Lightweight
Expansion Slot
Able to use many formats
Changeable Font and Landscape Mode
Hopefully able to handle textbooks

With respect to the jetBook, my list was similar to yours, and I bought one.

The LCD is, IMO, better in readability than eInk in most situations. The only drawback is the need to charge it once or twice a week rather than (I have heard) once or twice a month.

It was cheap, and Ectaco has just announced a cost reduced version...coming soon.

5" readers, by their nature, are very light and portable.

It has an SD card slot. I've never experimented to see if it can handle SDHC. I have an ancient 256 Mb card in mine. It works with up to 2 Gb cards for sure.

It (along with the Astak 5") probably has the largest range of formats supported. Be warned, however, that a lot of functionality is eliminated by the jetBook's lack of working internal hyperlinks. If you need those kinds of features, you'll have to convert to pdf. The pdf viewer is quite good. Open Office will output good pdfs for the jetBook. Set the page to 3" wide x 3.78" high, with a tiny left margin, and you get a perfect fit to the screen.

You have a choice of two (2) sans-serifed fonts! Not very impressive. Fortunately, one of them is Verdana, which is very good with (actually designed for) black-and-white displays like this one.

Landscape/Portrait switching is easy. One button.

Textbook use is questionable. I'm told that not even the Kindle DX, which was intended for this, is acceptable yet.

Hope this helps,
Jack Tingle

[JSWolf]

There are no eBook readers out there are acceptable for text books. That said, give that you have terrible vision, a 5" screen would not do you very well. I do think there will be two choices for you that are both not yet available for sale. I would say the iRex DR800SG with a screen size of 8.1" and the Sony PRS-900 (aka Daily Edition) with a 7" screen. I know the Sony will do landscape pretty well. Cannot answer about the iRex. Both are not yet out. The iRex is supposed to be out sometime this month and the Sony not out till December.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There are no eBook readers out there are acceptable for text books. That said, give that you have terrible vision, a 5" screen would not do you very well. I do think there will be two choices for you that are both not yet available for sale. I would say the iRex DR800SG with a screen size of 8.1" and the Sony PRS-900 (aka Daily Edition) with a 7" screen. I know the Sony will do landscape pretty well. Cannot answer about the iRex. Both are not yet out. The iRex is supposed to be out sometime this month and the Sony not out till December.

Unfortunately the larger sized e-readers are outside of the price point for the OP.

To the OP: If an expansion slot is needed then I would rule out the Sony PRS-300, they don't have an expansion slot. I agree with Wallcraft, the Astak PP is a fantastic device (I have one). I have read some good reviews on the Jetbook, however the downside IMHO is they don't come with a protective cover (comes with a sleeve but I don't believe they are solid enough to reduce damage to the screen).

Just something that might help, a couple of youtube videos on each.

Astak Pocket Pro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkJ7Fi06T6M

Jetbook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urgm7dAA7-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63TOut7jmD4

[Classica]

Thanks guys. When I wrote this, I was already thinking about the Pocket Pro, and I think I will eventually end up with that one. I really want a PRS-505, but with my luck I'll never get my hands on one.
A Wal-Mart close by has the Sony PRS-300; I'll have to look at the size of the screen on that one. I'm not totally blind. I can read a small font pretty well; I was more worried about the screen not being very readable more than being able to read from a small screen. If anyone has ever read a copy of Atlas Shrugged, or a pocket-sized Bible, you know what small is. If I can read that, I'll probably be able to handle a 5" screen.
As far as what JSWolf mentioned, I was really looking for the fit in your purse kind of size, and as Solicitous has said, those readers are out of my price range.
The Jetbook sounds nice, but I'm a little worried about no DRM support. From what I understand, most new books have a DRM, and I would like to buy newer books occasionally. I suppose you could convert the books to a different format, but I'm still a little confused about that. (Believe me, I'm definitely a techie, but readers are new for me.)
Leep, I have heard of Calibre. I'll have to look into it.
Latinandgreek, you definitely pigeon-holed my major! I was hoping of studying literature or creative writing, possible double majoring. If you want to get technical, I'm shooting for a Ph.D. and hope to teach at college level.

Thank you all!

[lilac_jive]

I agree with what someone else said earlier, that the lack of expansion slot is no biggie for most. I have never used the one on my 505 in the year and a half since I bought it. Every few weeks I buy new books and put them directly on the Reader, and take off any books I've read. This way I usuallly only have 60-80 books on my Reader, and with minimal effort.

[Classica]

Yeah, I know the whole expansion slot isn't exactly mandatory, but it's not really how many books I can carry around, more like how big they are.

800-1000 page books are definitely going to take up more space than a 200-250 page ones. I'll probably end up carrying 80 or more books with me, and quite a few of them will be rather large. (What? I like giant books.)

Plus, I'll probably be taking this thing off to college with me, and I'm definitely going to be reading then.

I may never need the expansion slot, but with as many books as I read, it would be nice to have a little bit of assurance. Not only do I read books that are a bit on the heavier side, I often read five or more at a time.
Right now it's Frankenstein, Eldest of the Inheritance Trilogy, Son of a Witch, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Wuthering Heights...

There are even more I haven't even been able to start reading. If only I could just read books for the rest of my life and never have to worry about anything else. Emphasis on the if.

School has me swamped with tests and work almost constantly. Unfortunately, most of my teachers have outlawed my books in the classroom. I never pay attention when I'm reading. (Let's see... Boring math lecture vs. Heathcliff? You can guess who wins.)

I just looked at my book shelf and realized how many half-read books there are...
I'm sad now. I miss reading like I used to...

Never fear! One day I will finish them all!

[lilac_jive]

Classica, I think you'll be ok even with large books, as long as they are LRF format and not super image heavy. I've got a combined ebook page amount of 50,000 pages on my Reader (spread over 80 books, and an ebook page is *usually* about double the amount you'd see on a pbook, but not always) and I still have half the memory left, just to give you an idea.

Not trying to talk you into it, just trying to help you make an informed decision

[Classica]

Hey guys!

I just read about the new Nook, Barnes&Noble's upcoming reader. It's about $50 more than what I planned on spending, but I think the features make it worth the extra money.

Go to www.nook.com, and tell me what you think.

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by Classica

The Jetbook sounds nice, but I'm a little worried about no DRM support. From what I understand, most new books have a DRM, and I would like to buy newer books occasionally. I suppose you could convert the books to a different format, but I'm still a little confused about that. (Believe me, I'm definitely a techie, but readers are new for me.)


Thank you all!

jetBook-Lite has eReader DRM support so all books from B&N website will be available. See more details below
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59668
The price is $149.95 that is $50 cheaper if compare with Sony or Astak readers:
http://www.ectaco.com/ectaco-jetbook-lite/
Support of DRM format through Barnes & Nobles