I can't upgrade my PW4 - what now?

Ridcully · 08-15-2025, 02:42 PM

I've, amazingly, run out of space on my PW4. I've been there for a while -- I think some PDFs from archive.org account for the biggest jump -- and focused on finishing what I've left unread, but it's time to get some more space as I'm loath to throw out books

I'm also tempted by the new options with warm backlight these days.

I can't buy the latest PW, though. I don't want to let my ereader sync my private notes to Amazon because I can't sideload their book and have to connect to wifi instead. The other problem is PW is now sold through resellers in my country and it is priceyyy! I think I paid $140 for PW4 without ads and now I'm looking at over €200/$220 with. I can't blame world politics on this, the prices were just as high when I first checked last autumn.

My Mom has a Kobo Clara BW. It seems well priced and I love the screen and the backlight

Even without backlight, it looks a good bit nicer. Lowest backlight with night mode is also much better on Clara BW. The big bezels are something I'd like to keep from PW4 (as opposed to PW6), although I'd prefer PW4's flat screen. The back is much nicer, PW4's rubbery back feels cheap to the touch and comes off easily.

My problems with Clara BW are no functioning landscape view (absolute must for reading PDFs) and it couldn't open a 50MB PDF (the pages rendered white until I zoomed in, but reading a whole book like that is unworkable). PW seems better at this, although it mostly fails completely at >100MB sizes. I'm a little surprised since they both seem to have a single 1GHz CPU. Any idea if this all works better with KOReader?

Clara Colour has a better CPU and having color is nice, but I've read the black-white contrast is not as good as Clara BW. How does it compare to PW4? (Carta 1200?)

I also had a look at Tolino Shine 5 -- it seems to a sort of cheaper Kobo rebrand but people say it's slower (worse CPU?) which would probably pose a problem with the PDFs. Also no landscape.

I don't have a clue what other manufacturers have on offer at all (nor Kobos beyond Clara). There must be something I'd like not far from BW's price. Surely under $220.

Quoth · 08-15-2025, 05:06 PM

A Nxtpaper 14, or maybe the Nxtpaper 11 (not pro) as it has SD Card slot. I have both. Far superior for PDFs to my Kobo Sage or Elipsa, or reMarkable.

I read reflowable novels and PDF instruction books/manuals that are small enough on the Sage.

The Archive Org content, magasines, illustrated fixed layout novels etc need a big tablet and the NxtPaper 14 is 3:2 and the best thing I've ever had for PDFs except my 23″ 4K LG monitor, which isn't portable.

The Colour eink by Amazon or Kobo use 300 dpi mono panels with a 2 x 2 dot pattern for colour that isn't removable. Mostly Kaleido 3 on a Carta 1300, which is marginally better than Carta 1200. It's OK for comics that fit. It's much darker than regular eink, only pastel shades and poorer contrast.

DNSB · 08-15-2025, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ridcully

My problems with Clara BW are no functioning landscape view (absolute must for reading PDFs) and it couldn't open a 50MB PDF (the pages rendered white until I zoomed in, but reading a whole book like that is unworkable). PW seems better at this, although it mostly fails completely at >100MB sizes. I'm a little surprised since they both seem to have a single 1GHz CPU. Any idea if this all works better with KOReader?

You might want to give KOReader a try on a Clara BW. It seems to render PDFs in landscape on a Clara HD decently enough.

Ridcully · Yesterday, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

A Nxtpaper 14, or maybe the Nxtpaper 11 (not pro) as it has SD Card slot. I have both. Far superior for PDFs to my Kobo Sage or Elipsa, or reMarkable.

I read reflowable novels and PDF instruction books/manuals that are small enough on the Sage.

The Archive Org content, magasines, illustrated fixed layout novels etc need a big tablet and the NxtPaper 14 is 3:2 and the best thing I've ever had for PDFs except my 23″ 4K LG monitor, which isn't portable.

Yeah, I could always use a SD slot

But Nxtpaper is IPS (LCD), right? My current phone is OLED and my previous one was also IPS and they get hot quickly on summer afternoons, even in the shade on an ereader stand. I prefer to put books on Kindle because I don't have to plan around this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

The Colour eink by Amazon or Kobo use 300 dpi mono panels with a 2 x 2 dot pattern for colour that isn't removable. Mostly Kaleido 3 on a Carta 1300, which is marginally better than Carta 1200. It's OK for comics that fit. It's much darker than regular eink, only pastel shades and poorer contrast.

Does it have problems with whites? I tend to flatten grayscale/sepia PDFs of books from Archive.org to black and white only, since the "white" gray renders as a definite gray on Kindle. If I don't do it, pages take longer to turn and the text is hard to read. FWIW that PDF I tried to open on the Clara wasn't flattened.

Quoth · Yesterday, 07:28 PM

Nxtpaper models are variously LCD or OLED. QLED is possible. Older phones & tablets I had got hot from CPU. Current ones don't.

Kaleido 3 on Carta 1300 needs the front light on to be as white as Carta HD or Carta 1200 with light off and decent ambient indoor light. It's darker than Pearl eink. it's inherently poorer contrast due to reflections from the coloured dots. Certain fonts and images can have coloured stripe artefacts at 300 dpi. It depends on your perception.

08-15-2025, 02:42 PM	#1
Ridcully Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 2112464 Join Date: Apr 2017 Device: Kindle 10th gen. Paperwhite (2018)	I can't upgrade my PW4 - what now? I've, amazingly, run out of space on my PW4. I've been there for a while -- I think some PDFs from archive.org account for the biggest jump -- and focused on finishing what I've left unread, but it's time to get some more space as I'm loath to throw out books I'm also tempted by the new options with warm backlight these days. I can't buy the latest PW, though. I don't want to let my ereader sync my private notes to Amazon because I can't sideload their book and have to connect to wifi instead. The other problem is PW is now sold through resellers in my country and it is priceyyy! I think I paid $140 for PW4 without ads and now I'm looking at over €200/$220 with. I can't blame world politics on this, the prices were just as high when I first checked last autumn. My Mom has a Kobo Clara BW. It seems well priced and I love the screen and the backlight Even without backlight, it looks a good bit nicer. Lowest backlight with night mode is also much better on Clara BW. The big bezels are something I'd like to keep from PW4 (as opposed to PW6), although I'd prefer PW4's flat screen. The back is much nicer, PW4's rubbery back feels cheap to the touch and comes off easily. My problems with Clara BW are no functioning landscape view (absolute must for reading PDFs) and it couldn't open a 50MB PDF (the pages rendered white until I zoomed in, but reading a whole book like that is unworkable). PW seems better at this, although it mostly fails completely at >100MB sizes. I'm a little surprised since they both seem to have a single 1GHz CPU. Any idea if this all works better with KOReader? Clara Colour has a better CPU and having color is nice, but I've read the black-white contrast is not as good as Clara BW. How does it compare to PW4? (Carta 1200?) I also had a look at Tolino Shine 5 -- it seems to a sort of cheaper Kobo rebrand but people say it's slower (worse CPU?) which would probably pose a problem with the PDFs. Also no landscape. I don't have a clue what other manufacturers have on offer at all (nor Kobos beyond Clara). There must be something I'd like not far from BW's price. Surely under $220.

08-15-2025, 05:06 PM	#2
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,289 Karma: 105299897 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	A Nxtpaper 14, or maybe the Nxtpaper 11 (not pro) as it has SD Card slot. I have both. Far superior for PDFs to my Kobo Sage or Elipsa, or reMarkable. I read reflowable novels and PDF instruction books/manuals that are small enough on the Sage. The Archive Org content, magasines, illustrated fixed layout novels etc need a big tablet and the NxtPaper 14 is 3:2 and the best thing I've ever had for PDFs except my 23″ 4K LG monitor, which isn't portable. The Colour eink by Amazon or Kobo use 300 dpi mono panels with a 2 x 2 dot pattern for colour that isn't removable. Mostly Kaleido 3 on a Carta 1300, which is marginally better than Carta 1200. It's OK for comics that fit. It's much darker than regular eink, only pastel shades and poorer contrast. Last edited by Quoth; 08-15-2025 at 05:11 PM.

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Yesterday, 07:28 PM	#5
Quoth Still reading Posts: 14,289 Karma: 105299897 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper	Nxtpaper models are variously LCD or OLED. QLED is possible. Older phones & tablets I had got hot from CPU. Current ones don't. Kaleido 3 on Carta 1300 needs the front light on to be as white as Carta HD or Carta 1200 with light off and decent ambient indoor light. It's darker than Pearl eink. it's inherently poorer contrast due to reflections from the coloured dots. Certain fonts and images can have coloured stripe artefacts at 300 dpi. It depends on your perception.