Ereader for web browsing

[Ereadlog]

Hello,
I'm looking for e-reader to read articles on the web and forums (e.g. like this one). What would be the best option ?

My main motivation is to get something better than laptop to save my eyes, as I often feel the pain, especially after dark, so that's why I want e-ink display and not normal tablet.

I did some research and identified potential candidates:

name/ppi/size
Bookeen Notéa 227 10.3
Onyx Boox Note Air 226 10.3
Boyue Likebook P10 200 10
Boyue Likebook Mars T80D 300 7.8
Onyx Boox Nova 3 300 7.8
Boyue Likebook P6 300 6

If someone have a few of them would be nice if you could order them (eg boyou P10 vs onyx nova 3) in terms of responsivness and note some numbers eg "Note Air is only 5% faster than P10 when scrolling, which is not noticeable" - Air is 2x the price of P10 so I don't want to overpay. Or maybe there are somewhere real tests of responsiveness with some numbers related to ghosting, reaction time etc ? I know some ereaders have different refresh-modes which trade speed for ppi, but idk which ones have that and which would be optimal for my use case.
So if you have knowledge please add to the list dimension /responsiveness/ or refresh or whatever value is best for my use case in your opinion.

Different use case of note writing with pen is not important at all for me so I dont want to overpay if non-note ereaders are as fast as note-made ereaders.

I think maybe android one would be the best cause then you get to use firefox "reader view" which makes it easier to read articles.

Another dimension which is important for me is /privacy/, ,at least not blatant spying of every click like Boox does (I heard). Is boyou better for this ? or maybe some other non-chinese brand like Bookeen?

Size is not so important for me but I'm mostly considering between 7.8 and 10. If something is really great for web with 6inch then I guess 300 ppi would be required.

I like ppi, my phone has >400 and it's definieltey huge step up even compared to my other phone's ~300ppi; on the other hand my laptop has 140 ppi and its very good at this distance. So I'm not sure whether 200 vs 300 ppi is really relevant for ereader distance. If it's not then maybe it's better to buy bigger one (eg P10) with 200 ppi instead of 7.8inch one with 300 ppi ?


Ideal answer to my question would look like this with a few devices:
name/ppi/size/responsiveness value in web browsing/privacy
Onyx Boox Note Air 226 10.3 ? ?

When talking about responsiveness please also tell what scale are you using.

I saw there is nxtpaper tech by TCL supposedly to be released soon, do you think it's worth the wait for my use case ? I'm afraid its vaporware as they didn't even show any legit hands on demo. Also if it's going to be similar to Hisense Q5 then it might not be the best to read anyway due to glossy screen and reflections (I prefer non-glossy laptops much more and have used macbooks in the past).

optional: I guess it's too much to ask but maybe you also happen to know which android devices are open to replace original system with degooglified one like lineage.

[ottischwenk]

I'll answer only what seems essential to me:
The operating system cannot be exchanged on any device - Boox uses Android 10, Likebook Android 8.1, I do not know the others.
None of the devices make calls to China.
The 10.3 inch devices have the same pixel count as the 7.8 (1872×1404) - Likebook P10 (10 inch) has less (1600x1200).

I go for 10.3 only when I use the device further away from the eye.
Mainly I use 7.8 inch devices - at appropriate (7.8/10.3) distance there is no difference.
My favorite - when I don't need a pen - is the successor of the Likebook Mars, the Likebook P78.

Likebook has an important advantage for me - SD card capability; no other brand can do that.

Regarding speed of Boox or Likebook, I have not measured anything - it is sufficient for me.

And as a browser, I would generally use the system's internal one - it is tuned to the hardware.

Edit: The Boox devices have 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi; Likebook only 2.4 GHz.

[Quoth]

Tablet is poorer than laptop, even if 10" to 15" due to poorer browsers, and eink much poorer than a tablet, though the Likebook Mars is far better than the Kindle or Kobo, 7.8" and you have SOME choice of browsers.

[ottischwenk]

I lie in the shade on my lawn next to the pool and respond on my Boox Note Air, which I use as a notebook with a keyboard and pen.

[fathead]

I have pool envy

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Tablet is poorer than laptop, even if 10" to 15" due to poorer browsers.

That depends. I can't comment on Android tablets, as I've never used them, but my Surface Pro runs full Windows 10. So the browsers are exactly the same as the laptop/desktop ones.

I have no complaints about the Opera browser I use on my Android phone either, but then I don't do any serious work on my phone.

[Quoth]

I had two Windows tablets. Yes, same browser as any on Win10, but otherwise junk devices as they used Atoms without enough RAM. Flash also too small. It would lose the 256 G SD card after a Windows update. Terrible GUI.
The Surface Pro is really a Windows laptop with an optional keyboard and at least it's not slug slow like the tablets I gave away. I kept the SD card which is in my €120 10" Lenovo tablet. Though Android is still a mess at Version 8.x.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I had two Windows tablets. Yes, same browser as any on Win10, but otherwise junk devices as they used Atoms without enough RAM. Flash also too small. It would lose the 256 G SD card after a Windows update. Terrible GUI.
The Surface Pro is really a Windows laptop with an optional keyboard and at least it's not slug slow like the tablets I gave away. I kept the SD card which is in my €120 10" Lenovo tablet. Though Android is still a mess at Version 8.x.

Junk hardware is junk hardware. You can buy Atom laptops too and they still suck (well maybe not anymore since they've been discontinued).

I had a Windows tablet with a Core m3 with 4GB of RAM and a true SSD which was comparable to the base model 12" MacBook at the time but cost a third as much. Web browsing was obviously good and perfectly fine. The Windows 8 tablet UI was actually pretty good, Windows 10 made it worse. Big issue was lack of touch apps and they generally sucked, like for some reason the Kobo Windows 8 app was significantly slower to open a book than my Android phone or eReader despite being on way better hardware. Amazon gave up on their's and just suggested the desktop app which also sucks for touch.

Firefox for Android isn't far off the desktop browser, especially if you load sites in desktop mode. It has more issues because mobile websites always expect Chrome/Safari and don't know what to do with Firefox, like for example Google serves some weird version that lacks certain search applets unless you fake the user agent.

Anyways if you want an eReader for web browsing because of eyestrain I recommend a Boox model. They are fast enough to do a decent job and A2 and X mode help with scrolling.

[Ghitulescu]

Considering how nasty is the internet, I would not use a closed-system like a real ereader to browse and read webpages.

[Ereadlog]

I went with Likebook P10, waiting for delivery. Decided size and price > ppi
Don't wanna overpay for Boox - Boox Air cost almost 2x as P10

I checked my perception with my laptop's 140ppi - such ppi would matter (too low) at 20cm distance from eyes, but not at >40cm; so if ppi perception with eink work similarly (does it?) I should still be ok with P10's 200ppi at 50cm+ distance; after all 140ppi in 15inch laptop is already FHD

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Edit: The Boox devices have 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi; Likebook only 2.4 GHz.

few sources say for P10 its "WIFI: Yes (2.4GHz + 5GHz)"

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Anyways if you want an eReader for web browsing because of eyestrain I recommend a Boox model. They are fast enough to do a decent job and A2 and X mode help with scrolling.

like ottischwenk said performance is similar with likebook (I assume he meant both P10 and mars ) also youtube's "my deep guide" shows good performance for P10
my theoretical research into this topic indicate difference between onyx air vs P10 is likely only in pen writing experience which is better in air, maybe concurrent apps running due to higher spec of air and 15% more ppi for air; also air maybe has better support as monitor replacement? air also has more refresh-modes, this "X" that P10 doesnt have, but P10's A2 seems good enough for web on youtubes reviews; these factors are irrelevant for me except for the monitor support, which still is only nice to have

[Ereadlog]

again

I went with P10, waiting for delivery. Decided size + price > ppi. Boox Air is almost 2x the cost of P10!!

I checked my perception on my laptop: with 140ppi it only matters (too low) at distance of 20cm, at >40cm it's not really noticeable; so if ppi perception works the same (does it?) on eink device it should be a step up; after all 140ppi for 15inch laptop is already FHD

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Edit: The Boox devices have 2.4 and 5 GHz WiFi; Likebook only 2.4 GHz.

few source say P10 has 5ghz too

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

for web browsing because of eyestrain I recommend a Boox model. They are fast enough to do a decent job and A2 and X mode help with scrolling.

like ottischwenk performance is similar with likebook (hope he meant both p10 and mars ) , also youtube "my deep guide" show good enough performance; the bottleneck for performance is probably eink screen, not specs or producer ?
my theoretical research into this topic indicate that boox air is better in few ways: for pen writing, maybe better support as monitor replacement; maybe better concurrency when running few apps due to higher specs; 15% more ppi, more refresh modes; all these factors are likely irrelevant for web browsing (of articles); more refresh modes might be nice, but youtube reviews show good performance of P10 with A2 refresh mode; monitor support is nice to have for me

actually likebook mars is unbeatable in price/performance and I was close to buying it; 300 ppi, 8 cores CPU and 7'8 inch for 185$ ! but P10's 10inch screen has 64% bigger area

[Daniel Kao]

I have two of the devices.

Onyx Boox Note3 10.3
Boyue Likebook Mars T80D 300 7.8

In general , if you want to browse internet on Eink devices, Onyx Boox series are much better choices than other brands (including Boyue), because it uses Qualcomm CPU, which is much faster than other brands, still, good for power consumption too.

Also, most of browsers are not customized for Eink devices (black&white only, slow on refreshing UI), the experience would be terrible using normal browsers on Eink devices. You can try to install EinkBro App, which offers better experience, and only takes 3MB in size. It's available on F-droid and Google Play Store:

* https://f-droid.org/en/packages/info...aukao.einkbro/
* https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...eaukao.einkbro

You can have a look of a demo video that I took on Onyx Boox Note3, trying to use Onyx device's full text translation feature with EinkBro App while browsing web: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsu_JUE30SU .

[Ereadlog]

can i post here ? hm i wrote 2 long comments yesterday and they got under moderation and not approved

for recommendations

[DNSB]

There's an eInk centric browser mentioned in the Android Forum. See [EInk Browser v8.0] A new browser app for E-Ink devices for more information.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Daniel Kao

In general , if you want to browse internet on Eink devices, Onyx Boox series are much better choices than other brands (including Boyue), because it uses Qualcomm CPU, which is much faster than other brands, still, good for power consumption too.

When browsing, the difference in CPU speed Boox vs Likebook is irrelevant - the drag on speed is the EInk screen, which is halfway compensated for by using A2 mode.
Even with the new 4 core CPUs used by Boyue, I don't notice any speed difference between Boox Note Air vs Likebook P78 in A2 mode use.

This is what matters.