Big screen ereaders cost too much: are there any economic alternative?

[carpler]

I have been looking for a new ereader for a long time to replace my Nook Simple Touch which is now falling apart (literally!).
I have always wanted a bigger screen, not only for books, but also for comics.
My dream would be a 10 "ereader, but the prices are prohibitive for me: despite the e-ink technology it seems to me to be stuck for years, the prices for the big screen ereaders are still too high for my pockets.
I am resizing my dreams and looking at the models with 7.8" screens: even here the prices are still high, but almost reachable for me.
The Kobo forma here in Italy costs € 239 in the 8Gb version which however is not expandable (for me a big flaw).
The Kindle Oasis costs more (€ 249) and has a smaller screen.
The Boox ereaders (Nova 2 or Nova Pro) look very nice, but they cost much more (327 € for the Pro).
What do you suggest, both paying attention to the price, but also to the goodness of the ereader?
Thanks for the tips!

[ps67]

Originally Posted by carpler

I have been looking for a new ereader for a long time to replace my Nook Simple Touch which is now falling apart (literally!).
I have always wanted a bigger screen, not only for books, but also for comics.
My dream would be a 10 "ereader, but the prices are prohibitive for me: despite the e-ink technology it seems to me to be stuck for years, the prices for the big screen ereaders are still too high for my pockets.
I am resizing my dreams and looking at the models with 7.8" screens: even here the prices are still high, but almost reachable for me.
The Kobo forma here in Italy costs € 239 in the 8Gb version which however is not expandable (for me a big flaw).
The Kindle Oasis costs more (€ 249) and has a smaller screen.
The Boox ereaders (Nova 2 or Nova Pro) look very nice, but they cost much more (327 € for the Pro).
What do you suggest, both paying attention to the price, but also to the goodness of the ereader?
Thanks for the tips!

You could also consider:

https://www.amazon.it/Likebook-Mars-...9054026&sr=8-2

I don't know anything about it, but the price seems good and there are some owners in the Boyue forum. I don't know if it has the possibility of expansion (a review in Amazon store says yes) but there are 16 GB.

Anyway € 239,00 for a Forma is a good price, it is € 40,00 cheaper than usual, but it hasn't the possibility of expansion. And about Poketbook of course there are some owners in the forum, may be somebody will answer to You.

[Bookstooge]

What do you want to accomplish, specifically, on a larger screen? I wonder if a cheap tablet might not fulfill your needs...

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by carpler

What do you suggest, both paying attention to the price, but also to the goodness of the ereader?

You might want to look at the PocketBook InkPad 3. Tech Inn will ship to Italy, currently € 215 plus shipping. (Shipping to the U.S. is reasonable, can't guarantee the same for Italy.) But I think you have several Italian dealers that sell these also.

https://www.techinn.com/it/pocketboo...-6/137356323/p

(The Tech Inn ad says 6" screen, but it's a 7.8" screen.)

The Ink Pad 3 comes with 8GBs of storage but does have a microSD slot for expansion.

Also can play MP3s (with USB adapter) and has a TTS feature.

From the Italian PocketBook site...

https://pocketbook.ch/it-ch/catalog/...inkpad-3-black

[Pajamaman]

I recently bought a used nova pro on ebay and a nova on the flea market here. Both are like new. Onyx hardware is high quality. I have an old T68 that still works perfectly. The Boyue (Likebook) I got at the same time, on the other hand, is long dead.

So I would suggest looking at a used nova or a 10" Note. I see a lot on ebay.IME they are long lasting reliable devices. I see a lot of novas and notes on there. Quite a few come from the UK and Europe, as well as the USA. It is possible to get a good deal.

If you want to read comics, the Onyx is a must for a 7.8 because the Neoreader apps has many option to divide the screen into panels, and also to change the direction of reading. IME a 7.8 screen is too small to read comics on without Neoreader. I know of no other software that can do it on a small e-ink screen.

Alternatively, you can find the Nook 7.8" on ebay refurbed very cheap. I have. the 6" version. The screen is excellent, better than the Onyx, but Onyx is very good. However the general hardware on the Nook is nowhere near as good. But you can root it and add Koreader. It looks like the ST but the hardware is not as good. Undoubtedly the Onyx is the more powerful device.

[carpler]

I'm back here after many weeks only to say thank you all for answers!

[gwynevans]

Any conclusions?

[carpler]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

Any conclusions?

At the moment, unfortunately, I have not made any decisions.
The real problem is that I can't abandon the idea of the 10 "e-ink screen, but the prices are really too high.

The second-hand market may be a good option as suggested by @Pajamaman, but finding something takes time, patience and even a good deal of luck.

On the new, the market is too static: the only little interesting model is the reMarkable 2 which is € 400 in preorder, but too many problems make me give up (the price, delivery in October, very limited software if you don't make some hack) .

So I'm still here dreaming and with nothing in hand!

Thank you to all!

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by carpler

At the moment, unfortunately, I have not made any decisions.
The real problem is that I can't abandon the idea of the 10 "e-ink screen, but the prices are really too high.

The second-hand market may be a good option as suggested by @Pajamaman, but finding something takes time, patience and even a good deal of luck.

On the new, the market is too static: the only little interesting model is the reMarkable 2 which is € 400 in preorder, but too many problems make me give up (the price, delivery in October, very limited software if you don't make some hack) .

So I'm still here dreaming and with nothing in hand!

Thank you to all!

7.8 Inch devices have the same resolution like 10.3 - 1872x1404.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

7.8 Inch devices have the same resolution like 10.3 - 1872x1404.

Resolution is only part of the story. Perfectly laser quality characters are no use if too small to read easily. PDF scans of old books and magazines in the public domain are tricky even at 10". Note that a Letter or A4 size document needs 14" diagonal at a reasonable aspect ratio (not 16:9) to be viewed actual size.
I've plenty of PDFs that are excruciating on a 10" tablet, but work on a regular sized screen rotated to portrait.

Similarly a "Retina" resolution 12" laptop is much less useful than a lower pixel count 14" 1920 x 1080. For documents my 2002 laptop with 15.6" 1600 x 1200 is better even though the DPI is less, because that 1200 vs 1080 on a quite taller screen makes a big difference for PDFs. The 14" is a little small and 1080 just slightly not enough. The 16:9 is a step backwards for laptops.

So I bought a Libra (7") and a 10" Tablet at about the same cost as a Forma. The Forma isn't big enough, despite the similar number of pixels, nor does it have enough storage for scanned PDFs (Almost every genuine PD PDF is scanned). The Libra is as large as I'd want to read a novel. The Tablet has a 256 G byte micro SD card at an extra €40 approx.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Resolution is only part of the story. Perfectly laser quality characters are no use if too small to read easily. PDF scans of old books and magazines in the public domain are tricky even at 10". Note that a Letter or A4 size document needs 14" diagonal at a reasonable aspect ratio (not 16:9) to be viewed actual size.So I bought a Libra (7") and a 10" Tablet at about the same cost as a Forma. The Forma isn't big enough, despite the similar number of pixels, nor does it have enough storage for scanned PDFs (Almost every genuine PD PDF is scanned). The Libra is as large as I'd want to read a novel. The Tablet has a 256 G byte micro SD card at an extra €40 approx.

I never would buy a Kobo - the only thing you can do with it better than with other devices is reading kebup files.
I bought a 7,8 inch Likebook Ares with a 512 GB SD and can admire A4 pdf in 2 parts landscape - it costs less than a Forma I can scribble and I can use it in sunshine.
My 10.3 Inch Likebook Alita Im using when bigger distances are needed - eg piano notes