small (5") e-reader rec?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I guess you have had both. Me too and, after getting the Mini, the 350 was too heavy (and bigger).

I've got to admit that I like the way the Mini fits in my shirt pocket. In my case, however, the screen is a little sharper on the 350, but I think that was just the "luck of the draw" on these.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I've got to admit that I like the way the Mini fits in my shirt pocket. In my case, however, the screen is a little sharper on the 350, but I think that was just the "luck of the draw" on these.

I think the same, really, but I'm not very picky about it

[issybird]

I’ve got both a Mini and two 350s and the 350 feels nicer and sleeker and sharper. And once you put them in the OEM covers, there’s no contest; the Mini is positively bulbous where the 350 is petite. I got the Mini because I was tempted by something smaller still, but once I got it and before I found out about the full screen hack (which was much, much later), I thought the Mini was next to useless as so little text was displayed on the screen. That said, the Mini is kinda, sorta still in use as I can download directly from Kobo on it and all that padding means I toss it into my beach bag. It wouldn’t break my heart if something happened to it.

I would be tempted by a 5” front-lit reader with 300 ppl, but I can’t imagine we’ll ever see one.

[rowe]

Hisense A5 is an e-ink phone. I use mine just as a book reader.

158 g
154.1 x 74.6 x 7.95mm

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by issybird

... all that padding means I toss it into my beach bag. It wouldn’t break my heart if something happened to it.

There's an idea. Why isn't anyone marketing an ereader with a super-durable screen? Water resistance is nice, but dropping the reader on a hard surface is much more likely for me.

[DrMoze]

Thx for all the replies, comparisons, etc. Did not know an e-ink phone exists. I also realize the prs-300 is a bit bulky for a 5", was hoping a proportionally smaller 5" existed, but i guess not. photos were very helpful too!

[Richwood]

I have the Mini, the PRS-300 and PRS-350. The 300 is large and heavy due to the controls beside and below the screen. I have the 350 with both factory covers, the lighted one and the regular. The lighted cover makes it too wide I find, close to square. With the regular cover it is narrower and thinner than the Kobo Mini in it's factory cover.

Due to the larger and better screen and size/weight close to the 350 and Mini, in covers, I find that I prefer the Sony PRS-T3 to any of the 5" readers. Better screen, 212 DPI E-ink Pearl, as well as same basic width, in the cover, as the 350 and narrower than the Mini with cover, if about 1/2" taller. Even with the lighted cover it is also very close in weight to both the factory covered 5" readers without lighting. If you can live with a cover light rather than a front lighted screen the Sony T3 is an excellent reader even now IMO. I felt lucky recently to pick up a spare, with lighted cover, fairly reasonably on Ebay. Reader looks virtually unused but the cover is pretty beat up.

[achopen]

I have seen a 4.3" e ink in AliExpress, no touch screen, no light and no microSD. Should we give it a try?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by achopen

I have seen a 4.3" e ink in AliExpress, no touch screen, no light and no microSD. Should we give it a try?

One 4.3" reader i tried to find for a while was the Pyrus Mini. Someone here actually sold two or three of them on the Flea Market, but they only shipped to Europe. You might want to watch for these. I think a couple times they showed up on eBay.

A link to a review with pictures comparing it to a Kobo Mini...

https://www.the-ebook-reader.com/pyrus-mini.html

EDIT: It looks like the TrekStor Pyrus Mini (and also named the Liro Mini) was a rebranded BK4304, but with 2GBs instead of 4GB, 8GB or 16GB. And, as you say, the BK4304 has no microSD whereas the TrekStor Pyrus Mini / Liro Mini did.

I've been able to confirm that the BK4304 size is the same as the Pyro Mini... the specs are here...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...archweb201603_

Apparently these use an OED "E-ink" screen – OED Technologies Inc. is a competitor to the E-Ink Corporation. OED Technologies calls (or did call) their "E-Ink" screen O-Paper. Supposedly it matches the specs of early E-Ink screens. (These were first made in 2013, I think.)

[JSWolf]

IMHO, a 5" screen is too small.

These days, 6" is the new small screen.

[Dr. Drib]

Since this is a Family Oriented Show-'n'-Tell, I thought I would show you mine. It's retired and in a drawer, where it resides next to my huge fortune of Monopoly money. I paid around $150 or so for it back when, but it's now probably not worth 99 cents.

One photo shows the PocketBook 360 next to my current partner: A Kobo Glo HD - and it doesn't snore, gurgle, burp, or pass wind in the night!

Jon: Notice that I have it protected in a cover. I might throw the ebook reader under the car to see if it survives.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Since this is a Family Oriented Show-'n'-Tell, I thought I would show you mine. It's retired and in a drawer, where it resides next to my huge fortune of Monopoly money. I paid around $150 or so for it back when, but it's now probably not worth 99 cents.

One photo shows the PocketBook 360 next to my current partner: A Kobo Glo HD - and it doesn't snore, gurgle, burp, or pass wind in the night!

Jon: Notice that I have it protected in a cover. I might throw the ebook reader under the car to see if it survives.

That PocketBook 360 is probably worth more than what you paid for it. These have gotten very rare. The Kobo Glo HDs are also fairly rare. Seems like Kobo only had these (and their close kin, the Touch 2.0) out for a very short time.

[Dr. Drib]

There was a newer model of the PocketBook 360 that was supposed to be superior to mine. The one I have is the first one. Anyway, it's hard to believe that it's rare, but I'll trust your judgment.

The Kobo Glo HD is a joy to use. I bought it for $60 used (in Peru, where most everything is inflated in price), about four years ago.

[kacir]

Ever since I have retired my PocketBook 360° I have been looking for a front-lit 5" e-ink reader.
No such device exists at the moment. At least I haven't seen one and I follow discussions such as this one ;-) .
The most recent 5" e-ink reader I saw with my own eyes was Kobo mini in 2012.
There was also Sony PRS-350.
None of those were front-lit.

The devices I am going to discuss further are not readers but phones that can be used as readers.

I have purchased an obsolete Onyx Midia InkPhone with 4.3 inch e-ink screen. Great form-factor, botched hardware and poor software. That was quite a long time ago. They were sold for a few weeks and after that they were pulled from the market

I have also purchased Yotaphone 2. The e-ink display is not front-lit, but the phone has also a fantastic amoled screen on the other side of the phone, so you can use that when you need lit screen, or when you want to use a file manager that doesn't work well on an e-ink. Or watch a movie, or use a general-purpose Android app not optimized for e-ink. Great, great device. It is a shame that the company folded and Yotaphone 3 wasn't a success (I am not sure they are manufactured anymore). Mind you, Yotaphone 3 is missing some features than version 2 has. At one moment a Chinese company purchased Russian Yotaphone brand and dumped a bunch of Yotaphone 2 devices on the market for a fraction of price. That was when I got it. There was no way I was going to pay the original 800Euro price.
You can still purchase Yotaphone 3 from some e-shops.

The only current device[s] that I am aware of are Hisense A5 and related models.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

IMHO, a 5" screen is too small.

The right size ereader is a very personal choice. This morning I got out an old 4.3" phone and was reading on it. Personally I think it's the ideal size. I usually read on a 5" phone but that's mostly because it has a newer version of Android and has more storage.

A 6" ereader is unreasonably large.

Barry