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Old 01-16-2012, 03:00 PM   #1
pash
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Which e-reader or tablet would best suit my needs?

I've been lurking the forums for days, trying to figure out which e-reader or tablet would suit my needs best, but the more I read the more confused I get, because of all the new alternatives and possibilities I keep finding out with every thread I read...

That's why I thought about asking directly; I'm a total noob to the whole e-readers/tablets universe, so please forgive my noobness!

What I'm looking for is:

1) a device to read comics/manga, mostly in .cbr/.cbz formats, but some of them also in .pdf (let's say 70% of them are italian comics - which means, B&W - 20% US comics, 5% manga and 5% french comics - these are the pdf ones, in color)

2) the display shouldn't be too small (I'm used to read cbr/cbz on my 17" notebook, I'm not sure I could easily get used to a 5" or 6"!)

3) the price should be within 250€ (the less the better)

4) apart from reading cbr/cbz, I would surely use the device for reading pdf books and, if possible, also now and then for watching some hardsubbed anime in .rmvb/.rm formats, and some series&movies in .avi (not interested in HD, 90% of what I have is smaller than 720p; anyway the biggest part of what I have is softsubbed, so it should absolutely read .srt/.sub subtitles)

5) I'm totally not interested in gaming, and also websurfing isn't necessary (if it's available good, but it ain't relevant to me); also unnecessary for my needs is the chance to download stuff with it, as I already have a huge archive (I'm not lying when I say that most of it it's a backup for comics I have in paper form!); if it can play mp3s good, but that also isn't too important.


Of all the devices I searched, these are the ones that seem most promising to me so far:

Nook Color
Nook Tablet
Archos 70 ereader
Archos 70 internet tablet
PocketBook IQ 701
Pandigital Novel

(Unfortunately, the Nooks aren't available in Italy yet...though if I got it right, they should be soon; another thing that sounds very promising is the JetBook Color, but atm it doesn't support cbr/cbz - though they say it will in the future! - and also its price is too high for me - I'm gonna wait some more for that, when it supports cbr/cbz and the price goes down, that sounds like it could be IT; but meanwhile I need a device now, so that's another story)

I also noticed that there are many cheap tablets within the price range I mentioned, probably too many too name 'em all; I'm totally open to suggestions!

Many TIA!!!
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Old 01-16-2012, 07:15 PM   #2
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All of the options that you listed are tablets? Have you looked at the Kindle DX? I haven't actually tried one but they are quite big, but still eink so they have a better battery life and since it's eink you have less eye strain. But I don't know if they support CBZ so you'll have to check that.

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Old 01-17-2012, 07:50 AM   #3
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^ Thanks for the suggestion, but I never really took into consideration the Kindle DX because it isn't available here nor it seems like it's planned to be soon, and also because it only supports .zip (which means I would need to rename all my cbrs to rar, unrar them and then zip 'em (I could do that for a bunch of comics, not for a TB of 'em!); the price is also out of my range (at that point I'd rather wait for the JetBook Color to implement cbr/cbz, once the prices drop a bit they'd cost pretty much the same, and then it would be a color e-ink supporting cbr/cbz vs. a b&w one not supporting them - I'd see no reason to choose the Kindle, really), and finally from what I've read here and googling, it doesn't seem so great for reading comics...^_^;
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Old 01-17-2012, 07:58 AM   #4
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p.s.
Meanwhile, 2 more devices that caught my attention (they're both available for less than 150€)

Arnova Tablet PC WiFi 10"
MPMAN Internet Tablet 824

Though I still couldn't find our whether they read cbr/cbz, whether they support srt/sub, and anyway whether they're sporting a full (or rootable) Android or just limited versions...gonna keep investigating...^_^;
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Old 01-17-2012, 11:51 AM   #5
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The tablet which completely dominates the market - and with good reason - is the Apple iPad. If a new iPad is out of your price range, you can get excellent deals on a 2nd hand iPad 1.
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Old 01-17-2012, 11:57 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
The tablet which completely dominates the market - and with good reason - is the Apple iPad. If a new iPad is out of your price range, you can get excellent deals on a 2nd hand iPad 1.
Better yet, try to get a refurb from Apple. Those feature new chassis and battery and carry the same one year warranty as brand new products. Seriously, the only thing that's different is the packaging.

Alas, I don't think iPads would work very well with rmvb + srt/sub soft subs. You really do want an Android for that (even then, I'm not sure if the rmvb support is there) and not one of the cheap ones, either. In case hardware video decode acceleration doesn't work, you'd need a tablet with a decent CPU. Scratch that. Looks like there are now iOS apps available that feature rmvb and soft sub support.

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Old 01-17-2012, 12:09 PM   #7
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Thanks guys, but the iPad also is not an option for various reasons (at 680g it's a bit too heavy, besides)...even the refurbished ones cost around 400€ here, btw...>__<

Does anybody know those 2 cheap tablets I named coupla posts ago by any chance? I couldn't find many infos on those, I'm wondering whether they can read cbr/cbz and srt (I'm afraid they have no access to the Android market but only AppsLib, gotta find more about this anyway...)
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Old 01-17-2012, 12:20 PM   #8
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I'm not sure a cheapie Android tablet with ultra low-end CPU will be able to provide decent video + softsub playback experience in case hardware acceleration doesn't work (in particular, for esoteric file formats). If you can let go of that requirement I reckon CBR/CBZ should be doable as long as you're at least able to side-load free Android apps such as Perfect Viewer.
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Old 01-17-2012, 01:22 PM   #9
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^ Thanks for the info! Yep, I also have to take that into account...hmm...I still couldn't find infos on the Arnova hardware specs (also, I wonder if its screen could perhaps be a bother, as most of the comics I intend to read are more on a 4:3 ratio while that display looks more like a 1.85:1 rather than a 16:9...); as for the MPMAN (btw, they also have a 10" which costs around 180€) the CPU is a Cortex A8 1Ghz, with 512MB of RAM; how does that sound to you? Crappy or still decent? Also, their 8" has a resistive screen - doesn't sound like a good option for comics, right? - while their 10" is capacitive.
Anyway it appears that both the Arnova and the MPMAN only give access to AppsLib, so unless there's an easy way to root them Perfect Viewer would be out of reach...=__=
Couldn't find infos on that so far...

Recapping: unfortunately the Nooks aren't yet available here (they should be soon, but I have no infos on the price) as they would probably be a good choice; the other main options so far are the Archos 70, 101 G9, and the PocketBook IQ 701 (the Pandigital Novel also isn't available here)...in the future I could seriously consider buying a JetBook Color (I exchanged a coupla mails with them, btw they're very kind: they said they're gonna add cbr/cbz support in the future with a sw upgrade, and that color pdf comics are already supported) but I still think I'm gonna wait a bit for that, so I'd most probably go for a cheap(ish) tablet right now...now I just gotta choose which one...^_^;;;

Once again TIA!
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Old 01-21-2012, 05:25 PM   #10
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I looked at all of the following before I purchased.

Archos 80G9 (I have one)
8" = 1024 x 768

Archos 101G9
10" = 1280 x 800
too big.

Arnova G2 range (Archos' value range)
10" = 1024x600
8" = 800x600
9" = 1024 x768
no GPS

Motorola Xoom2 media edition
8.2" = 1280 x 800
no microSD
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Old 01-26-2012, 12:20 PM   #11
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Have you looked at the Hero Tab MID 816

It is an 8" color 4:3 format Android 2.3 with various usb and SDHC input/output. mhz 1.2

Being an Android you should be able to find various readers / players to meet your needs.

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