The Worst ebook Reader You Ever Owned!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shalym

I'm curious, what do you mean by "container queries"?

Shari

A Primer On CSS Container Queries

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by shalym

I'm curious, what do you mean by "container queries"?

Shari

Likely a reference to CSS Container Queries.

Much like media queries but able to apply to a container (specified zone) within the displayed page. The concept sounds interesting but I can't see much use in most ebooks unless you are into reading multiple columns with dynamic content.

You may also want to see contain for more information.

[SteveEisenberg]

I’m not that fussy. So I’ll say it’s a tie between the Palm Z22, which was too small even for me, and the Palm IIIx, which was too low resolution. But I read books, and newspapers, on both.

[fduniho]

My first ereader is one candidate. It was a Kobo 2. It lacked a touchscreen, it had only two font choices, serif or sans serif, I had to transfer books to it via USB, and non-Kobo books didn't work as well on the device. However, it was comfortable to read on, and I read a lot with it before getting a Kindle Touch.

The other candidate is the Nook Simple Touch. I got this for the sake of rooting it, and I already had a Kindle Touch at the time. While I still use it, it's mainly for a checklist Android app I run on it. As an ereader, it's not nearly as good as the Kindle Touch. One dealbreaker is that it sometimes loses my place in the document. While I was just comparing the same book with the same font in my Simple Touch and my Kindle Touch, I found out that the Simple Touch sends me to the wrong place when I click on a footnote. This is another dealbreaker. I'm not sure why, but books feel less comfortable to read on the Simple Touch. It might be its wider, shorter screen, it might be that I have a darker skin on it than on my Kindle Touch, or it might be that its case is not as easy for me to hold. It has no ability to handle custom fonts. It has no web browser, which means no ability to look things up on Wikipedia. However, some things in its favor are that it handles block quotes better than the Kindle does, and when I look up a word, it provides a much fuller and better formatted dictionary entry than the Kindle does. On the downside, though, I could not find a way to open the dictionary. But it does provide a dictionary search when it pops up the definition window, and its keyboard includes left and right arrows, which makes correcting typos easier.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by fduniho

The other candidate is the Nook Simple Touch... it's not nearly as good as the Kindle Touch... It might be its wider, shorter screen...

Both get their screens from the same place. I'm pretty sure all 6" readers have screens of the same dimensions.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I’m not that fussy. So I’ll say it’s a tie between the Palm Z22, which was too small even for me, and the Palm IIIx, which was too low resolution. But I read books, and newspapers, on both.

Maybe both are only 160x160, but Z22 adds colour? I have a Z22 and Linux program to manage it.

Toss up as to whether Z22 or Kindle DXG is worse because at least the Z22 is portable and has stylus/touch as well as some usefull non-reading apps.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Both get their screens from the same place. I'm pretty sure all 6" readers have screens of the same dimensions.

Indeed the screen size and shape of Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Touch c, Cover Story, and Kindle Keyboard 3 are the same. The NST case is very wide. I've had or have all four.

[Ned]

I must admit that I don't consider any of my ereaders bad or 'the worst'.

I started off with the Bookeen Cybook Gen 3 back in the day, I believe their first eink reader and moved on via the basic kindle, Amazon Voyage right up to the lovely Kobo Libra 2 in white.
And each time I was grateful for what the device gave me over reading paper books.
OK, so the early ones were not so good as the later ones, may have needed a reading light, but they opened a whole new world to me

[Asawi]

Originally Posted by Ned

I must admit that I don't consider any of my ereaders bad or 'the worst'.

Same here! My first one was the Sony PR600 and it made it possible for me to read books again even though my eyes weren't very good. I upgrades to the 650 and sure, the screen on the 600 was not nearly as good as the one on the 650. But still, I don't think it makes the 600 "bad".
I've gone through a few different Nooks (original, Simple Touch with Glowlight, Glowlight) each one better than the previous.Yet i have loved them all at the time!
Moving on to Kobo, the Aura HD has served me well but it's nowhere near as nice as my current Libra2.
If I had to pick one to be the worst I think I would say the original Nook. Bad battery life and somewhat odd operating with that "extra" screen below the reading surface.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Asawi

I've gone through a few different Nooks (original, Simple Touch with Glowlight, Glowlight) each one better than the previous.Yet i have loved them all at the time!

If I had to pick one to be the worst I think I would say the original Nook. Bad battery life and somewhat odd operating with that "extra" screen below the reading surface.

I never owned an original Nook. For some reason, it was the introduction of a lighted screen that finally convinced me to try a reader.

But for me the most disappointing Nook was the original Glowlight. I thought it looked nice. But moving from the STwGlowlight, the Glowlight lost the buttons and SD card slot and had only a tiny amount of space for sideloading. It felt like a huge step backwards from the ST.

[fduniho]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Both get their screens from the same place. I'm pretty sure all 6" readers have screens of the same dimensions.

You seem to be right about that. Their screens both measure about 3 5/8 by 4 7/8 inches. The devices themselves differ in dimensions, and the Nook Simple Touch has narrower margins. It may be that the text appears a little too close to the edge for my comfort on the Nook, at least using its narrowest margin setting. It felt more comfortable to read on when I adjusted the margins to the medium size.

[Mare of Earth]

My worst ereading device was a Palm M505. (I adopted ebooks as soon as they started to exist)
Tiny screen, black and white, short battery life (2 AA batteries!) and if you didn’t change the batteries fast enough, the memory would wipe and you would have to reload it from your PC.
It was still better than nothing!

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Mare of Earth

My worst ereading device was a Palm M505. (I adopted ebooks as soon as they started to exist)
Tiny screen, black and white, short battery life (2 AA batteries!) and if you didn’t change the batteries fast enough, the memory would wipe and you would have to reload it from your PC.
It was still better than nothing!

I have fond memories of reading on a Greek beach with a m500 in a clear ziplock bag. That was monochrome so would last a day before being recharged overnight. The constant clicking to scroll to the next text section was wearing though - my thumb joints used to get really sore.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Mare of Earth

...black and white...

Black and white? How did you manage

[HLS]

The KOBO that walmart first started to sell. The bargain basement model. Don't remember the name