What is the best current e-reader for reading manga?

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by bearmann

Hmmm... I don't really understand why the majority seems to recommend (color) tablets!? Mangas != comics! As maledyris already said, mangas are black & white ONLY. (except for a few pages) Therefore there is no need to buy a color tablet.

I would go with an E-Ink Pearl device - namely Sony or Amazon. Here you can find some impressions of how mangas look on a kindle 3: click

My instinct is a tablet simply because they have much better pdf support.

In the case of an Android device (like the Tab or a rooted Nook Color) or an ipad, you can get support for the digital manga formats also via 3rd party apps.

[Jinnai]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

My instinct is a tablet simply because they have much better pdf support.

In the case of an Android device (like the Tab or a rooted Nook Color) or an ipad, you can get support for the digital manga formats also via 3rd party apps.

I guess it depends on what kind of apps people intend to use beyond reading manga. If all you want to is to read manga, does it matter? Even if you want say to listen to some music while you read, there's still a lot of e-ink ebook readers out there that can do that.

Now if you want to play games, watch videos, or you happen to read more color manga (yes it does exist), use it for showing off pics, etc, then its a different matter.

Outside those apps and if you'd like to see those occasional color manga pages in color, the only reasons I could see someone who just wants to read manga benefiting from the usually higher price-tag and lower battery-life of tablets is if you want a back light, the somewhat better handling of some formats, notably PDF for those who don't want to use converters, and load times.

Basically each class of device has its own advantages and disadvantages and one isn't universally better at for something a specific as "just reading manga". You have to take things in context.

[Logseman]

You can find the Advent Vega, a 10 inch color tablet, for 250 pounds in your country. Plug in the Google Apps (including the Market) with the add-ons from MoDaCo or XDA, find Android Comic Viewer and MangaWhat... and glory ensues. It's a pity that the screen has mediocre screen angles though. Nevertheless, I read my manga and watch my anime there without any kind of trouble. I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You probably want a colour tablet device for this.

why? most manga are black&white.

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

why? most manga are black&white.

It's not about the black and white. It has to do with transition speed and freedom of movement too. Zooming a PDF with manga can become maddening in an e-Ink device.

[jocampo]

Correct.

Tablets have faster and better CPUs and more memory, making reading and turning Manga pages a more pleasant experience; eink screens have very slow refresh rate too and that's by design. Tablets screens are also bigger hence, dialogs are easier to read.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by Logseman

It has to do with transition speed and freedom of movement too.

why? manga are comics, not animations.

Zooming a PDF with manga can become maddening in an e-Ink device.

I thought the point of a dedicated e-reader would be bigger screens. If I still have to zoom in, I don't really see the point of a large boulder that won't fit my pocket...

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

why? manga are comics, not animations.

I thought the point of a dedicated e-reader would be bigger screens. If I still have to zoom in, I don't really see the point of a large boulder that won't fit my pocket...

Manga are comics. As such, they entail a degree of fine detail not present in a purely written book: small dialog boxes, little visual puns, and so on, which may require zooming even in large screens. And the transition speed is quite relevant in my case as many manga tend to have a really rapid pacing. Having the page flash every time you move the image, zoom or flip to the next page is quite distracting and it kills the mood for me (it's true that I hate said flash even for only written books and I'm quite happy that my reader allows me to deactivate it).

The point of a dedicated ereader... there are points for every screen size. In my case, I have a 5 inch reader. It gives me a portability that makes it ideal for taking it out in a plane and reading peacefully. In that case, the slow response time of e-Ink is even an advantage for me, as it allows for a tranquil pace of reading.

Of course, if you're happy reading manga in a big eInk screen, you're entitled to it. However there is a point in tablets, and even big-screen smartphones such as the iPhone, the Galaxy S and their kin.

[Latinandgreek]

I sometimes read manga on my PRS-505. It's not a bad experience, but as others here have said, a larger screen would be more suitable.

The new Sony models, from what I've seen on youtube, seem to be VERY fast at zooming. If you want an e-ink device, the Kindle DX and the Sony PRS-950 are probably your best bets. The Kindle DX seems to be (again, I'm speaking only from watching reviews) a bit slower and more awkward than the 950 at zooming in on PDFs, but likely makes up for that with its screen size.

The - now discontinued, as far as I know - Irex DR800 seemed to me to have just the right page size for reading manga to me (8 inches, but still very portable), I suppose it's worth a try to see if you can pick it up on ebay or craigslist for a good price. It's not supported anymore, but if you somehow manage to find it quite cheap (I remember reading that some people managed to pick them up for really good prices after they were discontinued) it would probably make a good manga reader.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

The Kindle DX seems to be (again, I'm speaking only from watching reviews) a bit slower and more awkward than the 950 at zooming in on PDFs, but likely makes up for that with its screen size.

True.

Kindle DXG is a bit slow when turning PDF and Manga pages. But the positive side, like you mentioned, is that the screen size makes the dialogs easy to read. Talking by experience: I tried a few months ago after buying my DXG.

I do not read Manga too much but in my particular case, I prefer something bigger than 6". Even if you don't zoom, 9" or 10" are more readable to me, but that's my opinion.

[Care]

I have not read manga on a reader, but I do read comics and have tried them on eink and colour readers. I will use The Walking Dead as an example because it is black and white. I really didn't like viewing it on eink, it just seemed off. Now this was on my classic nook, so I am not sure what the newer sonys can do zoom wise. I like being able to pinch and zoom. When I read it on my nook color I loved it. I like to convert to pdf so I can read it in landscape and zoom to fit across the page. It looks great. The screen on the nook color is amazing and really brings out th details. The samsung galaxy tab and ipad would both look great as well, so it really depends on what you want.

Now if you root the nook color or get an ipad or samsung tab there are many apps for manga and comics. I just use the stock reader for mine.

[cayle]

I have both an eink reader (Sony PRS- 505) and an Android tablet device (Pocketbook IQ). The screen size on the eink reader is important, as I have had problems before when the manga's type was set too small to easily read.

When I want to read manga on my eink, I change the .rar/.zip to cbr/cbz then import into Calibre, which convert is nicely into an epub version that works on my reader.

On my tablet, I just drag and drop the cbr/cbz file into a folder on my SD card and then use the ACV app to read.

Either is doable. It really depends on 1) how much you want to pay and 2) what else you might want to do with the device.

[Clash]

Manga/Comics, right? I read manga on my Kindle 3 all the time! I converted all my manga to really low quality jpegs for a small filesize.

Then, I compress a chapter/volume of images into a .ZIP. I rename the .ZIP to .CBZ and add the .CBZ to my Kindle 3.

Another way is to convert all the images into a PDF file, and dump it into the "documents" folder of the Kindle 3.

It looks fine. I rarely have a problem with the text where I have to pan in, squint, or rotate the image to read it. Currently, I can fit all the chapters for Naruto (500+) and One Piece (600+) for about 1 GB! I would really recommend you get a Kindle 3 for manga. Unless you only read color manga, that is.

For color manga, maybe get a NOOK Color or an iPad?

[Anke Wehner]

Probably not a recommendation for you, but I'm posting it in case anybody else passing finds it interesting:

I got a 6'' reader rather than 5'' to have an option to read b&w comics in addition to novels, and tested it with a file I built from collected pages of http://www.diggercomic.com/ - as described upthread: zipped up, renamed to cbz, converted in calibre to PDF.

The PRS-650 turns the pages as quickly as a novel page. And it does have an SD card slot. And the text of that comic is big enough for me to read without zooming. (If only just, but the text seems relatively small when compared to manga I've read.)

But if you have the budget and mostly want to read comics/manga, something big enough to display a double page spread in one go would make sense.