Best E-Reader For Touchscreen Haters?

[Richwood]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm not sure what you mean by a simple, clean font. But I guarantee a Glowlight 3 will have a better looking, cleaner screen than any e-reader that is old enough to not have a touchscreen, due to the higher resolution and later generation screen.

Even with the low resolution 167 DPI screen on the current Kindle Basic the font can be surprisingly good due to the combination of the number of fonts available and the range of size and boldness settings available with the latest firmware. Love to see that firmware available on the old K4/K5 which have basically the same screen resolution but without the capacitive touch layer.

[Braid]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can understand that someone might prefer to turn pages with buttons, but it seems to me that only a masochist wouldn’t want a touchscreen for operations such as looking up a word in a dictionary, highlighting text, or adding an annotation!

If there was a new Kindle or Kobo with keyboard, I would buy it. Sure, looking up words takes slightly longer. But this is worth it for being able to have my fingers touching the screen while reading, and being able to wipe dust off the screen while reading. As well, there is the superior responsiveness, reliability, and muscle-memorability physical buttons have compared with touch screens, making functions such as "go back", "go home", more intuitive to execute without thought; without looking at the screen and finding the button you are hoping for; without waiting to see if the device registered your command. In short, physical buttons are more ergonomic and intuitive for some people. There's nothing masochistic about it. The ubiquity of the touch screen is largely due to what is in vogue and cost of manufacturing; it is certainly not superior in terms of functionality or ergonomics for a lot of people.

Maybe the new Kindle's "disable touchscreen" function will one day provide part of this. It is not there yet. It requires four button presses to enable, and then requires the device being put to sleep and re-awoken in order to do anything other than turn pages.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Richwood

I noted when in Holland years ago, circa 1972, that book stores seemed to have books in 4 languages. Languages were Dutch, English, French and German. The Dutch are highly multilingual and Holland is a small enough country that apparently relatively few books are published in Dutch. The same true in Estonia? Anything specialized or most fiction is going to only be available in Russian or English?

It was true in Estonia about 20-30 years ago, but not so much anymore. Nowadays there's plenty Estonian books and translations. But I got used to reading fiction in English during the lean times. Besides, I have always been a nut of science fiction, fantasy and historical mysteries, so I read mostly in those genres in my free time. And there's vastly bigger selection available in English, especially in historical mysteries.

[Pajamaman]

I personally don't mind touch screens, but the problem is the screen navigation systems on Kobos and Kindles are extremely poor, and are poor solely because the designers make them that way.

[Deskisamess]

I find the screen and controls on the new Oasis to be very responsive. My Kobo Glo HD isn't bad either.

[sjfan]

Originally Posted by rcentros

The Sony x50 is not too bad here because a tap doesn't navigate, you've got to swipe.

Kobos (at least relatively modern ones) can also be set to swipe-only for page flips, FWIW.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can understand that someone might prefer to turn pages with buttons, but it seems to me that only a masochist wouldn’t want a touchscreen for operations such as looking up a word in a dictionary, highlighting text, or adding an annotation!

This is EASY to do on the non touch screen kindle. I do all of these all the time. Easiest on the Kindle Keyboard especially if you do a lot of notes.

The biggest two problems with touch screens are accidentally brushing the screen and the screen not responding. it's very annoying when you brush a dust speck off and your pages randomly go somewhere else. People insist these screens don't care if you have poor circulation, but I guarantee that when my fingers are cold, I cannot get the touch screen on my readers to work. I don't have the same problem with tablets. I will say that I have neither of these problems with the Voyage. I read elsewhere on MobileReads in the past couple of days that the screen technology is different between the Voyage and Oasis models and other touch kindles .

To sum up for the original poster, I recommend getting a Kindle keyboard. If you're doing lots of notes that's going to be the fastest option without getting a tablet.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Tarana

People insist these screens don't care if you have poor circulation, but I guarantee that when my fingers are cold, I cannot get the touch screen on my readers to work. I don't have the same problem with tablets. I will say that I have neither of these problems with the Voyage.

To sum up for the original poster, I recommend getting a Kindle keyboard. If you're doing lots of notes that's going to be the fastest option without getting a tablet.

Get a stylus for when your fingers are too cold

Also, why would you want to sacrifice higher resolution, greater clarity, and better contrast for not having a touch screen?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Get a stylus for when your fingers are too cold

Also, why would you want to sacrifice higher resolution, greater clarity, and better contrast for not having a touch screen?

A stylus is a pain. You have to hold both the eReader and the stylus.

Personally, I'm finding that, when reading Kindle format books I've borrowed from Overdrive or bought from Amazon, my eReader of choice is almost always my Kindle 4 (non-touch) or my Kindle Keyboard (more often my Kindle keyboard). The contrast on the screen is good, the fonts are bold and clear and (maybe because there are fewer options) I'm not always adjusting the font size, boldness, etc. And, as Tarana says, it's really not that hard to use the dictionary or to highlight text (which I hardly ever do anyhow).

[HarryT]

Well, the important thing is that you have something that works for you. We don’t all have to have the same preferences!

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Well, the important thing is that you have something that works for you. We don’t all have to have the same preferences!

When it comes down to it I'm pretty much happy with whatever eReader I happen to be using at the time. I don't know why, but my eyes can't get used to front-lit eReaders, so that kind of limits me to the older eReaders. I do like page turn buttons and being able to clean the screen while reading without worrying about turning the page. I think I've done far more reading on Kindle 4 than on any other device (now it's getting split between the 4 and the Keyboard, but that might be because the Keyboard's lighted case is bulky and easy to hold – and has a better built-in light than the 4's case).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rcentros

When it comes down to it I'm pretty much happy with whatever eReader I happen to be using at the time. I don't know why, but my eyes can't get used to front-lit eReaders, so that kind of limits me to the older eReaders. I do like page turn buttons and being able to clean the screen while reading without worrying about turning the page.

For me, frontlit readers are the best ever improvement to them. I’d never go back to an unlit device.

I just turn the device off on the comparatively rare occasions I feel the need to clean the screen. I find, though, that keeping it in a cover and using buttons to turn the page, the screen stays pretty clean.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by sjfan

Kobos (at least relatively modern ones) can also be set to swipe-only for page flips, FWIW.

If the Touch had that feature I would like to try it but, since the Sony x50 and T-series have physical page turn buttons it wouldn't quite be the same.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For me, frontlit readers are the best ever improvement to them. I’d never go back to an unlit device.

If my eyes were comfortable with front-lit readers, I would probably two or three of them. I would have kept the Kobo Glo (maybe upgraded), probably would have had a Nook Glowlight Plus (and/or 3) and a Kindle Paperwhite or Voyage.

Originally Posted by HarryT

I just turn the device off on the comparatively rare occasions I feel the need to clean the screen. I find, though, that keeping it in a cover and using buttons to turn the page, the screen stays pretty clean.

I do that also on the touch screen readers – I have a "micro-cloth" (I think that's the right word) specifically for that purpose. But I sometimes get little specs of dust on the screen while I'm reading, and they bug me unless I remove them. And it's nice to be able to do this while reading.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Richwood

Even with the low resolution 167 DPI screen on the current Kindle Basic the font can be surprisingly good due to the combination of the number of fonts available and the range of size and boldness settings available with the latest firmware. Love to see that firmware available on the old K4/K5 which have basically the same screen resolution but without the capacitive touch layer.

On the 8th Generation Basic I use Palatino at the 2nd Boldness level and 3rd (sometimes the 2nd) font size. I still think the Kindle 4's/Keyboard's font is "crisper" than the 8's, but it probably has something to do with the Palatino font. I'm pretty sure that the 8th Generation has an Infrared touch screen instead of capacitive one.