Ars Tecnica tests the 5 best e-readers for every budget 20190523

[leebase]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I can say in a couple of posts, you and hollowpoint have offered more concrete reasons than I have ever read in any review where they say iPad is the best.

When I hear such a claim made with little to no backup, I just think of the downsides I've already mentioned.

I'm a "tech fan" in the manner of "art fan". You can like more than one artist. You might like this artist and not that. But unlike a "sports fan", you don't have to like your team and hate all others.

I completely agree that expandable storage is a nice feature, and that having to go outside of the book app to order is a pain. I will point out, though, that it is impossible to buy Apple books from a Kindle Tablet....or Amazon books from a Kobo.

Price is the biggest gate. I buy Amazon Kindle Fire tablets as gifts. I've bought no less than 10 for family and friends over the years. I'd never do that with iPads as they are considerably more money.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

To be fair, my main use for reading on a tablet is comics that I sideload. Comics can be fairly large files, so for me 64GB is just not enough.

I have always wondered why that is: to the extent that the artwork can be vectorized, it would take much less space and would scale smoothly to any resolution.

When I said 'the Apple way of buying books', I meant: you can't buy books directly from Amazon's apps and have to use a workaround of signing in to Amazon via Safari, buy the books and then read them in the app. I believe other book seller apps work the same?

Trust me: it is completely easy (much too easy) to buy books with Safari, and it is a better experience than Kindle Store on a Kindle, Fire, or the Android app (where important details tend to be missing). I would use Safari instead of an in-app experience. Of course you can borrow Kindle Unliimited titles and get samples in-app.

And while I never use it, there is a Safari-iPad optimized storefront that you can save as an App icon on iOS home screen.

Again, maybe iPads are the best tablet to read on. But when I hear that claimed, I don't hear solid, concrete reasons this is so.

The 4:3 screen ratio is a good reason. I know there are Android tablets that are 4:3, but not sure if they have the same resolution as the iPad.

I recently got my first iPad mini, after a series of larger iPads. I never read much on the latter, though they are better for fixed layout content, sheet music, etc. But this thing is fantastic for reading. I’ve barely picked up my Kindle since getting it.

4:3 is better too, especially if you read landscape 2 column.

I have a Fire HD 8 but never use it. My favorite Fire tablet was the HD 6 but updates all but killed it (slow) and for some reason they did not continue with that form factor.

You said the reading apps for iOS are just way better than those on Android. That could be true. I haven't used them.

I used to think this was true but have no recent experience to confirm. Android seems to be very phone-centric and that has always been the priority for developers. The one thing I like about Android reading apps is they mostly support keyboard navigation, which is a good thing for tablets. On iOS, keyboard support is very spotty (except of course for typing things). You cannot even turn pages with arrow keys in the iOS Kindle app (Apple Books supports this).

[hollowpoint]

Originally Posted by tomsem

I recently got my first iPad mini, after a series of larger iPads. I never read much on the latter, though they are better for fixed layout content, sheet music, etc. But this thing is fantastic for reading. I’ve barely picked up my Kindle since getting it.

4:3 is better too, especially if you read landscape 2 column.

This has been exactly my experience. I'm not an Apple fanboi (actually somewhat to the contrary). I can get any device I want and am not a platform loyalist, I just like to get nice hardware. The new Ipad Mini to me, was a significant bump upward in reading experience on a tablet. This was due mainly to the hardware, and secondarily to the iOS platform and app ecosystem. The Ipads aren't very wallet friendly, but it's the best reading experience I've had with ebooks and now my Kindle and phone don't get used for reading unless the Ipad is unavailable.

[crane3]

I think the 16:9 vs 4.3 differences are overblown & that the 4:3 is just a gimmick by Apple. I have both types & see no differences for reading; I also do not see a "standard" sized hardback or trade book as there are also many different sizes on my bookcase.

The article is very misleading as it purports to be for "ereaders" (e-ink) then claimed that the best is an ipad mini. I know of several people who have an ipad mini & prefer & use a kindle for reading books. I have an ipad 6th gen & still find that is is not a preferable device for reading after reading a couple of books; the android has much better reading apps & configurations.

I found out how "sandboxing" kills the ipad for reading after downloading the ios 12 user guide from apple store. When I moved the book to another folder created by files explorer, the ios user guide format (epub) was no longer recognized by ios as to be readable by any app. Reader apps for ios sucks compared to the one on android. MapleReader is about the best for ios & it still cannot compare closely to Moon+Reader; but at least I can delete the copy of the book easily after reading. I do use Calibre Companion on ios which is lacking compared to the android version.

Apple censored/banned mangas from manga readers; guess the manga app developers have to sign an agreement to not show individual mangas even tho the manga are other web sites, e.g. "food wars". Wonder what else is banned from manga/comic readers to read & what books are banned for use by ebook reader apps?

Had gotten rid of the ipad 2017 but bought the ipad 2018 because of my isp special limited time offer to retain users. ipad 6th gen 128 gig for $120 to be payed in 24 installments without interest charges! That is all the ipad is worth.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

When I said 'the Apple way of buying books', I meant: you can't buy books directly from Amazon's apps and have to use a workaround of signing in to Amazon via Safari, buy the books and then read them in the app. I believe other book seller apps work the same?

That’s the way I buy all my Kindle books on any device. I find the “shopping experience” of the Amazon website to be far superior to using the store in the Kindle app on the other devices that have it.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by crane3

I think the 16:9 vs 4.3 differences are overblown & that the 4:3 is just a gimmick by Apple. I have both types & see no differences for reading; I also do not see a "standard" sized hardback or trade book as there are also many different sizes on my bookcase.

The article is very misleading as it purports to be for "ereaders" (e-ink) then claimed that the best is an ipad mini. I know of several people who have an ipad mini & prefer & use a kindle for reading books. I have an ipad 6th gen & still find that is is not a preferable device for reading after reading a couple of books; the android has much better reading apps & configurations.

I found out how "sandboxing" kills the ipad for reading after downloading the ios 12 user guide from apple store. When I moved the book to another folder created by files explorer, the ios user guide format (epub) was no longer recognized by ios as to be readable by any app. Reader apps for ios sucks compared to the one on android. MapleReader is about the best for ios & it still cannot compare closely to Moon+Reader; but at least I can delete the copy of the book easily after reading. I do use Calibre Companion on ios which is lacking compared to the android version.

Apple censored/banned mangas from manga readers; guess the manga app developers have to sign an agreement to not show individual mangas even tho the manga are other web sites, e.g. "food wars". Wonder what else is banned from manga/comic readers to read & what books are banned for use by ebook reader apps?

Had gotten rid of the ipad 2017 but bought the ipad 2018 because of my isp special limited time offer to retain users. ipad 6th gen 128 gig for $120 to be payed in 24 installments without interest charges! That is all the ipad is worth.

I don't think it claimed that the Ipad was superior to a dedicated ereader, just that it was the best tablet for ereading and would be a good choice if you only wanted one device, or needed color.

I read mostly novels and prefer a dedicated e-ink reader; I don't need color although I'll no doubt buy color e-ink if and when it gets here.

My eyesight isn't what it once was and my main uses for a tablet are casual browsing and reading email; phone screens are too small for me and a tablet is more convenient to carry around than a laptop, even at home. I vastly prefer the 4:3 ratio for that. My eight inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is getting on in years now and I'm very disappointed that almost everything is 16:9 now.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by crane3

Apple censored/banned mangas from manga readers; guess the manga app developers have to sign an agreement to not show individual mangas even tho the manga are other web sites, e.g. "food wars". Wonder what else is banned from manga/comic readers to read & what books are banned for use by ebook reader apps?

What manga readers are you referring to?

Food Wars is licensed in the US by Viz. It's actually sold on iBooks as well so it should be available through official channels (comiXology, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks, Google Play, etc).

However, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the licensing terms between Viz and Apple iBooks include blocking access to unofficial, scanlated versions of licensed titles from iOS manga aggregator apps.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by crane3

I think the 16:9 vs 4.3 differences are overblown & that the 4:3 is just a gimmick by Apple.

4:3 is just a gimmick by Apple? I seem to remember a time not so long ago when 4:3 was the aspect ratio for monitors--remember when 1024x768 was high resolution? 640x480? 800x600? 720x350 (bonus points for remembering which graphics card used that resolution and why the second number was actually 348).

Perhaps you can remember any number of tablets that were released prior to Apple's first iPad that sported a 16x9 aspect ratio?

My personal opinion is that 16x9 in portrait mode is just too tall and too narrow. Justifying text gives too many lines with massive chunks of white space. Admittedly, this is using a 2013 Nexus 7 which has a 1980x1200 (16x10) screen but I suspect making the screen even narrower is not going to help.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal opinion is that 16x9 in portrait mode is just too tall and too narrow. Justifying text gives too many lines with massive chunks of white space. Admittedly, this is using a 2013 Nexus 7 which has a 1980x1200 (16x10) screen but I suspect making the screen even narrower is not going to help.

16:9/16:10 is too short for landscape as well particularly when you have the onscreen keyboard blocking almost half of the display.

That said, I actually really liked using the 2013 Nexus 7 in portrait. It was perfect for manga. Granted, didn't really use it much for ebooks. My preferred reading mode is two column landscape and for that, the 4:3 iPad was better.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by leebase

BTW, you have to do a bit of work (not that hard) to enable the Google play store on the Kindle Fire tablets. Without that, you don't have access to the alternative to Amazon ereader apps.

Uh, not quite.
You can get the readers without the play store. I did.
There's a variety of ways. The easiest is via a browser and 1Mobile.

fbreader you can get from its own web site:

https://fbreader.org/android

It's my favorite. It does what I need and nothing else.
I run it on the Fire HD 10 and on Windows.
And since Play has nothing I need I don't bother with it.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by DNSB

4:3 is just a gimmick by Apple? I seem to remember a time not so long ago when 4:3 was the aspect ratio for monitors--remember when 1024x768 was high resolution? 640x480? 800x600? 720x350 (bonus points for remembering which graphics card used that resolution and why the second number was actually 348).

Perhaps you can remember any number of tablets that were released prior to Apple's first iPad that sported a 16x9 aspect ratio?

My personal opinion is that 16x9 in portrait mode is just too tall and too narrow. Justifying text gives too many lines with massive chunks of white space. Admittedly, this is using a 2013 Nexus 7 which has a 1980x1200 (16x10) screen but I suspect making the screen even narrower is not going to help.

The gimmick is that the 4:3 is the ratio of books & the 4:3 gets one to read an ebook like reading a book. Never mind everyone's eyesight is different & that some of us read a book for its content & not ratio of display or format. I recall it was posted that the Nook HD+ was even different like more in the 3:2 ratio; never measured nor care. I do find my Tab S2 a bit "fat" sometimes.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

What manga readers are you referring to?

Food Wars is licensed in the US by Viz. It's actually sold on iBooks as well so it should be available through official channels (comiXology, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks, Google Play, etc).

However, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the licensing terms between Viz and Apple iBooks include blocking access to unofficial, scanlated versions of licensed titles from iOS manga aggregator apps.

I use MangaRock. Haven't tried others for ios but the fan translated "food wars" versions do show up on websites. I do prefer the fan translations usually because they are many volumes current where the "official" translations can be many years behind. Wonder how far back the or behind the ibooks version is..

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by crane3

The gimmick is that the 4:3 is the ratio of books & the 4:3 gets one to read an ebook like reading a book. Never mind everyone's eyesight is different & that some of us read a book for its content & not ratio of display or format. I recall it was posted that the Nook HD+ was even different like more in the 3:2 ratio; never measured nor care. I do find my Tab S2 a bit "fat" sometimes.

Hmmm... I have some trouble believing that Apple was influenced by the 4:3 ratio of books especially when I could find few physical books with that aspect ratio looking through my collection. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for books sizes, I could find none of the "standard" sizes that translated to a 4:3 aspect ratio though a couple of trade books came close. The North American letter size paper comes close but would need to be a titch taller while A4 size paper needs to be a titch shorter--21.59x28.79 for letter size, 21.0x28.0 for A4 size compared to the actual 21.59x279.4 for letter and 21.0x29.7 for A4.

If you can supply a source or two for your claim about this being an Apple gimmick, I'll be more than willing to listen though given the original iPad display was 768x1024 which was a pretty standard resolution at the time it was released, I suspect finding any sources is going to be pretty hard to do.

As for reading a book for it's content, I can't think of a time that I chose to read a book due to it's format or aspect ratio. I've read thousands of dead tree books where none of those factors were in my control. The nice thing with ebooks is that I can change the format to suit my tastes such as ragged right, non-indented first paragraphs, etc. if I find it truly offensive to my eyes.

And please don't bring up the "my TV is 16x9" so I want my other devices to have the same aspect ratio. That one has been kicked to death on this site for a decade.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hmmm... I have some trouble believing that Apple was influenced by the 4:3 ratio of books especially when I could find few physical books with that aspect ratio looking through my collection. Looking at the Wikipedia entry for books sizes, I could find none of the "standard" sizes that translated to a 4:3 aspect ratio though a couple of trade books came close. The North American letter size paper comes close but would need to be a titch taller while A4 size paper needs to be a titch shorter--21.59x28.79 for letter size, 21.0x28.0 for A4 size compared to the actual 21.59x279.4 for letter and 21.0x29.7 for A4.

Most of my books are actually 2:3.

It's the technical books and magazines that are often letter or A4-sized and for those, 3:4 is a better fit (much smaller borders, content uses more of the display area). Aspect ratio may not matter much for reflowable content but for fixed pages, it often means less zooming and panning around required.

Letter
8.5" x 11"

iPad 9.7" 4:3
5.8" x 7.8" -> 5.8" x 7.5" -> 0.15" borders on top and bottom

10.1" 1920x1200 16:10
5.4" x 8.6" -> 5.4" x 7" -> 0.8" borders on top and bottom

10.1" 1920x1080 16:9
5" x 8.8" -> 5" x 6.5" -> 1.15" borders on top and bottom

[leebase]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Uh, not quite.
You can get the readers without the play store. I did.
There's a variety of ways. The easiest is via a browser and 1Mobile.

fbreader you can get from its own web site:

https://fbreader.org/android

It's my favorite. It does what I need and nothing else.
I run it on the Fire HD 10 and on Windows.
And since Play has nothing I need I don't bother with it.

Alright...a list of other far less “normal consumer friendly” than merely buying a book from Amazon's excellent website.

Is it nicer to have in app purchasing of books? Yes. Does having to use a website to purchase an ebook harder than side loading apps? I don’t think so.

You can be a part of any book ecosystem on an Apple device. Any of them. No other book platform is even close to Apple in this regard. Sure, it’s easier to buy an Amazon book on an Amazon device. But then you'd have to jump through hoops to buy a book from ANY other source.

Same with a Kobo device.

Looking forward to trying out that Walmart $64 pure Android 9.0 device. Amazon subsidized type price point but open platform.