Looking for the best premium e-reader

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kandwo

Considering that the OP defined "premium" in this way, I'd say the Kobos are out:



I quite like my Libra 2, but "premium" is about as far off as one can get from it. It's made of plastic, which feels cheap, and it creaks if pressed in certain spots. The buttons don't feel particularly luxurious - and the fact that one has to learn which half to press doesn't contribute either. Initially it feels like half the button is defective until one learns to press it correctly.

It doesn't feel "expensive" to me at all. That, however, is something I like, as I don't have to be too careful with it.

That said I like it and use it a lot for reading. And to be fair, no e-reader that I've come across has felt "premium". They all are full of trade offs.

The OP has decided to buy the Onyx Boox Page. I hope it's good. An interesting thing about it is the decision to use micro etched glass. Like the Kindle Voyage also did. One can only hope that the result is anywhere near that of the Voyage.

Source: https://onyxboox.com/boox_page (Under the section "What ONYX Glass ...")

So do tell us about the premiumness and the screen when you get it!

You can have the best hardware possible but if the software is poor, it's no premium. You are forgetting it's a package with the hardware and software.

[Quoth]

Unfortunately doesn't Onyx use Android? Only an advantage if you need ereader apps for loans, libraries and subscriptions.

My premium metal Oasis was in actual use inferior to the Libra and Libra 2.
My premium reMarkable has seriously inferior usability to the Elipsa.

Very often with gadgets "premium" is marketing and some brushed aluminium that scratches easily and is unpleasant to hold.

Many people have ereaders or phones in totally enclosing cases with flaps.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can have the best hardware possible but if the software is poor, it's no premium. You are forgetting it's a package with the hardware and software.

Yes, of course. But .....

[Ned]

Regardless of cost, for a 7 inch screen you'd be hard-pressed to do better than the Kobo Libra 2.
Paying more for an inferior 'premium' product doesn't make a lot of sense.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Yes, of course. But .....

But what?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

These are values of the latest technologies; but Kobo uses SD cards - more than 10 years old technology, you can't get them in normal shops anymore.
Also: the standard SD delivery is that for the 2 per thousand GB there is a non-partitioned space for which the controller can swap defective areas - the rest is exFAT in huge blocks.
But that is not the case with the Kobo partitioning - the entire space is partitioned and sometimes in ext4 a very write-intensive file system because it is logging.
As soon as the first cell becomes defective, the card is defective.

And, of course, Rakuten wants to keep selling devices.

And you have proof of your claim about 300 write cycles? A reference to where you read that number?

Perhaps you should take the time to read on how the spare blocks are treated in solid state drives. Gentle hint: they are not subtracted from the capacity the drive shows nor do they show as non-partitioned space. Formatting the entire space exposed by the on board controller space does not affect the spare blocks. The only time a spare block becomes visible is when it is swapped for a failed block by the on-board controller.

As for ext4 being a write-intensive file system? Another of your "interesting" claims. Yes, ext4 does journaling but then so do most modern file systems. And yes, there are log files being written. But most of the writes are relatively small blocks so contribute little to the disk wear.

Looking at a Kobo Clara 2e µSD card, I see 3 partitions. The system partition and the recovery partition are ext4 and show as 300 and 384MiB respectively. The FAT32 partition clocks in at 14,469MiB (~14GiB). Now that partition is where most of the wear would be seen since the databases stored in that partition are written to very often. There is also a 16MB unpartitioned space which is most noted for being where the serial number is stored though it also has the boot information and other bits and bobs. There is no exFAT partition used on a Kobo ereader though I have seen people reformat the exposed partition as ext4 on a couple of occasions.

I am rather surprised by some of the total crap you have been posting. Have you ever taken the time to actually read up on the technology you are so enthusiastically dumping on? Perhaps a quick search on bad block management would be helpful. I did note multiple manufacturers claim that 5-7% of the blocks are reserved for bad block replacement not 2 blocks per 1000GB. 2 blocks of either 256KiB or 512KiB (commonest block sizes on a newer SD card) would be 512K or 1MB in 1000GB in contrast to 50-70GiB which is would be common. Take the time to check on erase blocks in flash storage for more information.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Ned

Regardless of cost, for a 7 inch screen you'd be hard-pressed to do better than the Kobo Libra 2.
Paying more for an inferior 'premium' product doesn't make a lot of sense.

I have Tolino Vision 6 (Kobo Libra 2) and Boox Leaf 2 - the screens are equal, the Boox is lighter and feels better in my hand, there are no gaps (screen, bezel) to get dirty and the installed software is far more adaptable to my needs than Kobo's.

To me, these benefits are worth the price difference.

But I wouldn't call any of these devices premium - they work, but nothing more.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can have the best hardware possible but if the software is poor, it's no premium. You are forgetting it's a package with the hardware and software.

No, I'm not. The OP specifically, in the quote, referred to build quality, i.e. hardware. And the tactile feel of Kobos don't scream quality to me. In fact, I thought I might return the Libra 2 at first before I got used to it.

The Kindles I've used - K2, PW3, Voyage - have all felt sturdier and better built.

Does that mean that I prefer Kindles? No. I agree that the software is important, but that wasn't the point that was being addressed.

There's no reader that has felt "premium" to me. Either in software, hardware or a combination of both. Luckily, that isn't a priority for me. I just want everything to work and reading to be pleasurable.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Quality

Obnoxious

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kandwo

No, I'm not. The OP specifically, in the quote, referred to build quality, i.e. hardware. And the tactile feel of Kobos don't scream quality to me. In fact, I thought I might return the Libra 2 at first before I got used to it.

The Kindles I've used - K2, PW3, Voyage - have all felt sturdier and better built.

Does that mean that I prefer Kindles? No. I agree that the software is important, but that wasn't the point that was being addressed.

There's no reader that has felt "premium" to me. Either in software, hardware or a combination of both. Luckily, that isn't a priority for me. I just want everything to work and reading to be pleasurable.

The PW3 & PW5 are not better then Kobo. They are similar. The software is not similar. Kobo beats Amazon in the software department.

[cellaris]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Unfortunately doesn't Onyx use Android? Only an advantage if you need ereader apps for loans, libraries and subscriptions.

What's wrong with Android? I use the reading programs I like the most (AlReaderX and KOReader), fully adapted to e-ink, and a lot of utilities that make the reading process much easier for me: dictionaries, translators, book and file organisers, cloud storage and synchronisation, Wikipedia... I don't know what's wrong with using those reading programs and applications. Onyx Boox has good and very varied devices. When I use my Onyx Boox devices, I certainly don't notice a difference in quality or reading satisfaction compared to my Kobo, Kindle or PocketBook devices. They are different e-readers, with their own unique characteristics, and if you compare them with each other you will always find shortcomings in all of them. To me this battle between Android and Linux seems much more theoretical than practical. There are devices on both operating systems that are very good and very bad.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Not only - this also includes special innovation and the Boox Tab devices are unique in the screen treatment.

That makes them innovative, it does not necessarily insure premium quality.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Quality

Argument by Repetition

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by afv011

Obnoxious

Hmmm - did you even get the gist of this thread?
Because you are the first to use a word that has not been mentioned here before and immediately provide an explanation for it.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Argument by Repetition

No - an explanation for someone who may not be familiar with a term.