Which reader do I need?

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But it also has the horrible Kobo IR touchscreen.

"Horrible" is clearly an exaggeration. The vast majority of Kobo users like the touchscreen very much.

[JSWolf]

Kobo can download ePub from Dropbox using the browser.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

"Horrible" is clearly an exaggeration. The vast majority of Kobo users like the touchscreen very much.

I found it horrible, and that's no exaggeration. So horrible that it led to me selling my Kobo H2O. I did, however, say in my earlier post that we all had different views of these things.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Rizla

As I understand it, you now have to pay to store non-Amazon content in the cloud. I believe the OP will be reading primarily non-Amazon content. Does the OP wish to pay that subscription?

You understand wrong. Anything that is stored in the KINDLE cloud does not count as part of your Amazon Cloud storage. There is a charge to use the Amazon cloud, but no charge to use the Kindle cloud.

Shari

[Josieb1]

The OP seems to have conflicting requirements. An e-ink ereader, by Kindle or Kobo, would be best for reading in the sun and a large tablet, I.e iPad sized or close as possible for reading unconverted PDFs. I have converted a lot of text only PDFs and they do not convert well without a lot of manual intervention.

[HarryT]

I too have to read a lot of academic PDFs. My iPad Mini is a far better tool for the job than any of my eInk devices, although I read fiction almost exclusively on the eInk readers. It's a case of using the right tool for the task at hand; there's no "one size fits all" solution, unfortunately.

[Rizla]

I will also add that the Kobo can run Koreader which as I understand it makes it easier to read pdfs. The Voyage does not allow the installation of Koreader, or any other modification. You are stuck with the Kindle software.

But the most flexible will always be some form of open Android device like an Onyx or a Boyue.

[susan_cassidy]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Actually, there is. More than one, e.g. XOWA or the Wiki Encyclopedia Offline Android app. The full English Wikipedia main articles dump is about 11.5 GB, (which roughly matches the 3.6 GB the Android app cites for the 'top 2 million articles') .

i didn't know that you could download it.

That doesn't sound like the whole thing, though. I tend to read some fairly obscure articles. Don't know about the OP, though. Plus, that wouldn't fit on any eink Kindle, which are 2 or 4 gb. The 3.6 would just fit, but usually, when a Kindle gets that full, it becomes quite slow.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

i didn't know that you could download it.

That doesn't sound like the whole thing, though. I tend to read some fairly obscure articles. Don't know about the OP, though. Plus, that wouldn't fit on any eink Kindle, which are 2 or 4 gb. The 3.6 would just fit, but usually, when a Kindle gets that full, it becomes quite slow.

That is because there are different downloads offered. You can download specific namespaces, you can download images separate from the text, you can download curated selections, you can even download the multi-terabyte complete everythingness which includes the entire revision history of every last corner of Wikipedia.

If it doesn't fit on the Kindles, that merely means if it is an important feature, don't get a Kindle.

Personally, I think the OP will want an E-Ink tablet like the Onyx, in order to read PDFs.

And I think offline Wikipedia is a tad silly, what with the constantly updating nature, and the near-universal presence of WiFi these days (I suppose that does depend on where you live though).
Nevetheless, if that is what the OP wants, I would make sure to explain how it may be done -- with my reservations attached.

[barryem]

I think there's a lot of exaggeration of the differences between the better Kindles and the better Kobos. I prefer the Kindle but I have both and they're both very good. I think the vast majority of people who buy either of them are going to be happy with whichever they get.

Barry

[jehane]

Originally Posted by shalym

The other advantage of the Kindle is the ability to store all of your books in their cloud for free and sync them between other devices on your account, whether you bought them from Amazon or not.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

the near-universal presence of WiFi these days (I suppose that does depend on where you live though).

From the description provided by the OP it seems likely that he will be using his device outdoors a lot, and he actually states that he will be travelling. So it's likely that he *won't* have constant access to wifi, which is nowhere near universally present, not even in the US, and it's likely that he's not from the US (look at his spelling). Since he wants an offline version of wikipedia he probably won't have much access to the internet at all. So being able to store content in the cloud is an irrelevant feature for him.

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I have converted a lot of text only PDFs and they do not convert well without a lot of manual intervention.

I've read a lot of text-only pdfs (reports, manuals, novels) on my Sonys without any conversion at all and do just fine. The lines and paragraphs come up perfectly normally, the only issue is that the page breaks are set by the document, so it might end halfway down the screen (or less, I've encountered a single line before). To me, this is not a big deal. YMMV

In terms of the browser, I think most current models have one. Personally, I find e-ink too slow for internet usage and I only use it to download books.

Bastian, it would help if you gave us your country. Some brands have better availability and pricing in different parts of the world. For example, Kindles are hugely popular in the US, and for many Americans it is the most appropriate device, but it is also true that Kindles operate best in the US (ie some of their features are not available outside the US, eg public library lending). Kobo is Canada-based, Boox is German I think?, Sony is now out of the market. I've been considering the Onyx Boox T68, which is more like an Android e-ink tablet than primarily a reader. I haven't checked, but it is the most likely to be able to support an external keyboard. There are some others similar like the Boyue T61 which I believe is the same hardware but with different software. There are some threads in this forum doing a comparison. You might also look at Pocketbook, though I'm not up with their current models.

[sunreader]

Thank you all a lot for your helpful replies!

I have updated my OP after having done more reading on the matter. Updates are:
- Offline Wikipedia is not really important.
- I was pretty happy with what I saw here regarding reading pdfs on an 6" e-ink reader (horizontal format reading): https://youtu.be/MOhuIGIsqA4?t=2m53s . So pdfs although I see that they are not ideal for small an e-ink reader should not be a problem - being able to read in the sun is much more important to me! Or is your personal experience different from what I could see in the video above?
- A must have I forgot: Being able to browse a website and then save/download it (my browser on my laptops saves it as html) to read if offline. Is that a standard feature that all e-readers are capable of?

Here is what I want to do (besides situations that are easy to handle for almost all devices): Working in the sun. Reading pdfs (social science, mostly text, some tables) and writing a few texts in the sun.

The two devices I consider atm:
1) Kindle paperwhite, using it's touch screen keyboard to write.
Question: Can you make notes (without making reference to some part of the text) with the paperwhite?

Advantages:
- Seems to be the more mature system with regard to details that matter in daily use: Zomming into pdfs, keyboard. Also referring to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWBGJ7_QbMs
- Has a well working built in vocabulary trainer which I really like.
- Best overall device at the moment, except for the keyboard.

Disadvantages:
- no external keyboard.
- no further apps.

2) An android device, using this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...keyboardhelper to use an external keyboard. The best device I could figure out is the Energy Sistem PRO (almost the same as the Boyue T62 and the Iccarus Illumina). The Onyx T68 is almost twice the price as the Energy Sistem here in Germany...

Advantages:
- External keyboard
- More extendable in the future. It's usability grows with the Android ecosystem.

Disadvantages:
- big bug with zooming into pdfs: https://youtu.be/aqPEJu_FPg8?t=6m59s
- I haven't yet found an android app that remembers the words you looked up from a pdf and saves those. Does anyone know more?

This is an interesting option to the Energy Sistem: http://goodereader.com/blog/electron...ernal-keyboard
I still have to find out here how this/such an app is applicable to currently available Nook devices in Germany.

Someone said on this forum (can't find the link atm) that writing on an e-ink device would be a bad idea in general because the constant page refresh would lead to a battery live comparable to a tablet. If so this still would not be a killer argument because I can still read better than with a tablet in the sun.

[GERGE]

You should also know that Kindle doesn't render type as well as RMSDK devices like Kobo and pretty much everything else out there. Kerning and hyphenation are definite problems in Kindles, as in they do not exist.

This is unacceptable for me, I wouldn't get a Kindle even if they are free.

[nhedgehog]

Originally Posted by sunreader

- I haven't yet found an android app that remembers the words you looked up from a pdf and saves those. Does anyone know more?

My post over there could be interesting..

But generally: reading pdf on 6" devices is not really enjoyable. I'm using different apps, SmartQ Reader is good if you don't need pdf reflow and dictionary support. I would rather convert my pdf's to epub.

German Wikipedia Dump (without images):
Wikidroyd has one from 2011
I have a dump for Fora Dict from 2006
(you will probably not find newer dumps since they got too big)

PS: I have an Energy Sistem eReader pro (bought in Germany via Amazon 109€ incl. postage).
PPS: Even if Energy Sistem eReader Pro is completely switched off after 2 hours of inactivity, my old rooted and adapted Nook STG has a much better battery performance.
PPPS: Energy Sistem are planning to sell an Energy Sistem eReader pro with carta display this summer. (source)

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by nhedgehog

(you will probably not find newer dumps since they got too big)

Wikipedia database dumps are made very regularly, and tools to use them exist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...abase_download