Elipsa Kobo Elipsa: suitability for academic library ebooks?

[wherahiko]

I'm looking for an eink reader for ebooks from my university library. I'm considering the Kobo Elipsa, and would welcome your thoughts.

Background is:
- I need the reader to be able to handle Adobe DRM (via ADE is fine).
- The screen needs to be large enough to handle PDF ebooks (not epub).
- I'm not terribly concerned about markup tools.

I had an Onyx Boox Note (1st gen) but the battery died after less than two years, so I'm reluctant to buy again. I also found DRM books difficult to read on the Note since it couldn't be authorised with ADE (sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't; sometimes I needed to use an app.

So, I would welcome your thoughts on:
1. How well does the Elipsa handle Adobe DRM / ADE?
2. What is the reading experience like with PDFs? (I'm aware of the inability to crop margins, etc. Have you found this an issue in real life?)

Thank you for your help.

[Quoth]

I installed KOReader and Menu "one click" on the Elipsa purely for PDFs. It has auto and manual settings to crop margin and ability to change "contrast/brightness" for poor scanned PDFs to have black text and white "paper". No special jailbreaking. Just down load the files (different scripts for Mac, Windows, Linux), connect via USB and run script. Files & instructions on this site.

I've no idea personally about ADE/DRM, but it has the menu option to register and people here use it. Also it may be that DRM files only work on the built in PDF viewer which can't crop. The Zoom to lose margins is useless except for a 3 or 4 page datasheet or a short manual.

I use the Elipsa to read PDF books (they are not real ebooks but electronic preview for paper) from public domain, manuals, old scanned magazines (PD) and our own PDFs that are uploaded for POD paper. Easier than checking on Laptop even though it has a 24" external 2K screen.

[PennyDred]

I agree with Quoth here. The Elipsa is a great size for reading PDFs, and works well with Adobe, but the Kobo out-of-the-box PDF viewer is not useable for serious reading. I've found installing KOReader to be simple and it's more pleasant to use. You may want to explore whether the Elipsa can connect to your campus wifi, as Kobo's connection options don't work with some eduroam setups. That need not be a dealbreaker though.

I have found the notetaking a bit clunky, but useful for occasions where I don't want to be distracted by a laptop.

[k_men]

I concur with the above observations. I myself have KOreader on all my devices, and just love the way it handles PDFs, with reflowing and optional OCR.

Going back to the OP's requirements here, I'd add that, while installing KOreader on a Kobo is relatively straight-forward, it doesn't handle Adobe DRM (or any DRM, for that matter). The Kobo Nickel interface does, once the ereader has been registered to your Adobe account, but KOreader or any other software you use can't. This might turn out to be a show-stopper.

[lensmann]

I personally use a Boox Max 2 and a Lenovo Thinkbook Plus (a dual-screen laptop with an e-ink screen and a normal screen) for academic PDFs. As others have said, you'll struggle to use the Elipsa for PDFs protected by DRM. Kobo's built-in reader displays individual PDF pages fine, but its crop and zoom functions are quite painful to use for PDFs of anything more than a few pages. Koreader is very good, but it can't handle DRM. Unfortunately, there aren't really that many large-screen e-ink devices out there which work well with ADE-encrypted PDFs apart from Onyx, Boyue, Pocketbook, and a few others.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by k_men

I concur with the above observations. I myself have KOreader on all my devices, and just love the way it handles PDFs, with reflowing and optional OCR.

Going back to the OP's requirements here, I'd add that, while installing KOreader on a Kobo is relatively straight-forward, it doesn't handle Adobe DRM (or any DRM, for that matter). The Kobo Nickel interface does, once the ereader has been registered to your Adobe account, but KOreader or any other software you use can't. This might turn out to be a show-stopper.

Thanks for mentioning that. KOreader seems to impress many users here bc of its PDF handling, and if I did more with PDFs, Inwould be sorely tempted to try it out, but the OP specifically mentioned Adobe DRM, which requires Kobo’s own software, as you’ve mentioned.

Re: Note taking. I do find note taking clunky on my Elipsa, too, though the latest firmware improved writing speeds, but I thoroughly enjoy scritching notes on my Elipsa for its tactile effect as opposed to the slick effect of plastic on glass that I have with my Apple Pencil & iPad.


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[wherahiko]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses. It seems that KOreader is a good solution for DRM-free PDFs (but won't work for the Adobe DRM PDFs I'm trying to read). I'll need to look into the Onyx Boox Note again or into reading PDFs without any cropping tools. (The latter may actually be ok; I often read uncropped PDFs on my old Onyx, so may get an Elipsa to try this on and return it if need be.)

Originally Posted by lensmann

I personally use a Boox Max 2 and a Lenovo Thinkbook Plus (a dual-screen laptop with an e-ink screen and a normal screen) for academic PDFs.

How do you find the battery on your Max 2? I was very disappointed with my last Note's battery (after 1.5 years, it no longer held a charge at all). If the problem is solved in newer iterations, I may reconsider Onyx. Thanks also for the tip about the Lenovo Thinkboox Plus. It seems to be discontinued now. I may also look into an eink monitor, though.