dedicated ebook reader or something else..?

[jriihi]

Well I have been thinking what device to buy for ebook reading and then got bit carried away maybe as you can see from list below. I was almost ready to get sony ereader but then read its dark grey background with black text??

Here is where I would use it:
bus (no indoors light but good sunlight)
bus (bus indoors lightning, no sunlight at all)
outdoors (bright sunlight)
indoors (normal reading light)

So is there dark grey background in those situations?

Devices I have been looking for as ebook reader mainly but then I discovered
several devices that might also be good ebook readers (or not):
Nokia Internet tablet N800 4.13" 840x480 206g ~400e
MiniPC OQO 02 5" 450g 840x480 - external monitor upto 1920x1200 ~1400e
PDA+Phone+GPS hybrid HTC Advantage X7500 5" 640x480 350g ~1000e

It seems all 7" are too big or heavy to fit in pocket and only those I found under 7" so far as options.

I am not sure if some of those even are bit too heavy for pants pocket? I tried to list only units that fit and weight under 500g.

[NatCh]

jriihi, if you haven't seen an e-ink display for yourself, you really need to do that in order to evaluate it properly. I would not characterize the background as "dark gray" in any case, it is gray, but it's pretty light, and the background is a fairly consistent in all lighting.

That being said, the general rule of thumb is, the brighter the light the better it looks -- up until the light is too bright to stand, of course.

Of the reading situations you list, I wouldn't hesitate to use my Reader in any of them -- it's spectacular in sunlight, its great in regular indoor lighting, I don't know just how light your bus would be without sunlight, so I can't really evaluate that, but I can say that it works just fine on an airplane with the little built-in reading lights they have.

In the end, the best advice I can give you is my first advice: try to see one for yourself. Find a store, or a MobileReader near you who has one, and go take a gander at it. That's the only way you'll be able to tell for sure exactly how it looks to your eyes. I'm pretty confident that you'll be amazed. I was expecting to be amazed and I was still amazed.

[jriihi]

Originally Posted by NatCh

jriihi, if you haven't seen an e-ink display for yourself, you really need to do that in order to evaluate it properly.

Sorry but I cant do that locally. Its not available in Finland.

[Leaping Gnome]

I have to echo Natch that in all the situations you describe an eInk device would be fine. The screen background is a light gray, anyone would be very hard pressed to call it "dark".

[NatCh]

Yes, the Sony would be rather difficult there, but the display tech is the same in the iLiad, the STAReREADER, the HanLin devices, etc., perhaps one of them might be more accessible.

How about it folks, any e-inked MobileReaders in Finland?

Short of that, the high-rez photo that Alexander posted in this thread is about the best photographic representation of e-ink I've ever seen. At a minimum, it will give you a good reference point for just how gray and black the background and text (respectively) are on e-ink. The color is more regular than the pic makes it look, but the overall shade is pretty close.

[RWood]

That is a good representation of e-ink. I know that I can read the Sony with comfort in all lighting situations that my wife can read normal books in. So therefore (sorry for the bad line about to come) if you can read a book you can read an e-ink screen.

[jriihi]

Well in that highres pic display looks light grey? So why someone commented about dark grey background??

[jriihi]

Found another potential problem with sony ereader. Seems its fairly big job to store/rename 200+ books since reader doesnt support directories?

I dont really like it if I cant store whole collection to it.

[kacir]

I have purchased an old secondhand PDA
cassiopeia A-20
It is an almost perfect bookreader for me.

- large screen - 640x240 black/white LCD
(well, more like dark grey/light grey color ;-)
The screen is larger than screen on the most PDAs
- has backlight, if needed
- was cheap, so I am not afraid to toss it into a backpack
- when you do not use backlight it can last a looong time on one
charge. Even 21 hours
- runs on two AA batteries
- I always carry spare charged accumulators, so I do not
run out of juice on road
- accumulators can be changed very easily
(unlike other devices whre you have to send the device
to an authorized service to change an internal battery)
- if the capacity of an accumulator is not big enough,
you simply buy better one
- I use built-in "ms pocket word" to read the books
- you can use two CF cards in the device - one directly
and other one using PCMCIA adapter (available for less than
10 bucks). Or you can buy relatively cheap CF adapter
for your SD card.
I hold the device in my right hand when reading and I touch the scrollbar
with my thumb to scroll the text.

at this moment there is one such device on ebay for 16 bucks.
Disclaimer:
I have nothing to do with the above-mentioned bid, I simply
found it at this moment when I was having a look if you can still
buy one.

[yvanleterrible]

If you're patient enough you will be able to get this one which will be perfect for what use you have in mind. And it's European.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9700

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by jriihi

Well in that highres pic display looks light grey? So why someone commented about dark grey background??

At a guess: either it honestly looked 'dark gray' to him, or he was annoyed about it and exagerated.

Originally Posted by jriihi

Found another potential problem with sony ereader. Seems its fairly big job to store/rename 200+ books since reader doesnt support directories?

I dont really like it if I cant store whole collection to it.

Well, any re-naming would have to take place on the computer side, as the Reader doesn't do any editing at all. And you're correct, the file structure is flat (no sub directories). If you're using the ConnSoft that comes with it, you can create 'Collections' on the device to group books and set their orders, but the main listing of books will still be flat.

If that's a deal breaker for you, then you shouldn't get one, however, most folks have found that they don't really want to carry their entire collection on the device, just what they're reading now, and the next several titles they want to read (it's what I do, myself) -- I mean, how many books do you read at a given time? There are a couple of folks around here who report reading as many as half a dozen or so books at once, which are easily enough dealt with in a flat file system.

It sounds to me like you're doing good deep research, that's good because it means you're more likely to be satisfied with what you end up with (because you'll know what it does & doesn't do beforehand). That's the important bit, that you get what works best for you.

[jriihi]

Originally Posted by NatCh

If you're using the ConnSoft that comes with it, you can create 'Collections' on the device to group books and set their orders, but the main listing of books will still be flat.

Well can i access some kind of collections list then or? I mean if I could create collections named A-E,F-L,M-S,T-Z for example?

[nekokami]

I've heard the e ink displays compared to newsprint before, which seems fair based on the pics I've seen. So anywhere you can read a newspaper, you should be able to read an e ink display. (Do the rest of you who have used them agree?)

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by jriihi

Well can i access some kind of collections list then or? I mean if I could create collections named A-E,F-L,M-S,T-Z for example?

Yes, you could do that if you wanted to.

Originally Posted by nekokami

I've heard the e ink displays compared to newsprint before, which seems fair based on the pics I've seen. So anywhere you can read a newspaper, you should be able to read an e ink display. (Do the rest of you who have used them agree?)

Yes, I think that's an excellent comparison, neko.

[Leaping Gnome]

Yeah, newspaper background is very similar to the eInk background color.