Device for reading A4 color non-reflowable pdfs

[crAss]

Hi all!

I think I am at a point I need a new device and I cannot wait for color e-ink above 10 inches.

For my literature reading needs, the 6 inch readers I have had since 2009 (first a cybook gen 3 and since 2015 the cybook muse frontlight) are great and I will get a new one only when the muse fails for any reason, but not before.

As far as current hardware is concerned, I have a 12 inch travel laptop and when at my desk I use a 32 inch screen with the desktop computer. I also got a 10.1 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab A.

I find myself spending a lot of time reading technical A4 pdfs, always in the 32 inch monitor, which is ok since it is for work and I would need to still sit in my office and so it is no big deal. It would be good though to have something simulating a printed document in my hands (i.e. this is a luxury I would not say no to, but not a real need).

But I also like to read magazines like the Economist and National Geographic in pdf form. For these I cannot find a comfortable solution. The 6 inch ebook reader is awful. The android tablet has a very long screen suited for movies watching and not A4 pdfs. This coupled with the 10 inches in 1:1 viewing make it not so nice.

The laptop is the one I currently use most, but it is not meant to rotate the screen so I am all the time going up and down and the bulk of the keyboard does not make it easy to relax while reading magazines either on the couch or bed.

I simply want a device I can have a single full page readable in front of me in color. At the same time it would be nice not to spend more than 500-600 euros for that. The best device I have found on my own so far is the MS Surface Pro at 12.3 inches but that is too expensive above 700 euros and it would make sense only if I upgrade my laptop and view it as such - but the laptop is really good, no need to change it yet (3 years old, 4 cores, 4 GB of ram, 256GB ssd, less than 1 kg and about 8 hours of autonomy).

I believe this forum is the best for such a question. Is there a device I can get in the 250-500 euros range preferably, or I need to go above and in reality get the MS Surface?

PS. No apple devices please, they are comparable in size/functionality/cost with the MS devices and I prefer the MS ecosystem. Any android or even proprietary is also ok.

[gwynevans]

Short answer: No

Longer answer depends on what of your various criteria you drop, but cost, size, aspect ratio and colour combine to rule out everything as far as I’m aware...

[Quoth]

You already have a 10" Android tablet. The only thing better is a 12" to 14" one.
For PDFs I use a 10" Lenovo (originally nearly €200, but reduced in a sale. I added a €40 256G Byte µSD card) and my wife uses so called fake RCA* branded €88 10" tablet from Tesco that also has a 32 GB µSD card bought separately. Much better than the laptop as it's portable, though the old 1600x1200 laptop bought in 2002 was better for PDFs than the late 2016 replacement.

* Edit: RCA is defunct since 1986. Thomson certainly bought the label, but the RCA branded tablet seems to be made by someone else, though it's probably a Chinese OEM sold by a UK marketing company. Tesco in Ireland often sells products that have only UK support.

[crAss]

I think I getting warmed up to buy an MS surface pro. It will be over 1000 Euros but I will be getting it as a laptop replacement and give the current laptop to my wife.
1000 Euros for reading magazines is crazy, but for a new travel laptop is a tad on the expensive but can be acceptable.

Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

[Quoth]

I couldn't find ANY PDF reader for Win10 that worked as well as several on Android 10" with touch only, or even with the volume keys to turn the page.
I gave away 2 x Win 10 tablets with maker's folding keyboard doc. So I use Xodo on Android now for PDFs. It has tabs like a Browser and also built in navigation of internal memory and the 256 K Byte SD card.
Also some Win 10 updates actually disabled sound and later SD card.

Only buy a Surface if you really like Win10 and the apps you want really work with touch, otherwise a much cheaper laptop, even with win 10, will work better.

[crAss]

You couldn't set up Adobe Acrobat in a way that you could use it well? It supports both touch and pen input.

[crAss]

I bought the surface pro, it is in the mail now. It is a laptop upgrade which I will use also as a reader. Otherwise 1000+ k€ would be mad.
I will post use results.

Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

[KWagNer]

Check Xodo, it's free and quite robust, I use this to fill forms freehand on Surface Pro. Also cross platform with Android, iOS appts.

[Quoth]

I didn't know Xodo was on Win 10. However a £120 10" Android Tablet is far better value than a Surface Pro, which only has any point if you need a laptop that makes a poor tablet occasionally, or is a poor tablet that occasionally is needed to run a real Windows program. In which case an Android tablet and Lenovo laptop (Linux OR Windows or Both) is cheaper and better.

I do use Xodo on Android. A 256 G micro SD card has all the PDFs.

[pata]

I use SumatraPDF. I find its settings are more easily customizable to my use than Xodo. For some image-PDFs that SumatraPDF/Xodo don’t render well on HiDPI Windows devices I use Cover (comic book reader app) as my backup.

Originally Posted by crAss

I find myself spending a lot of time reading technical A4 pdfs... I also like to read magazines like the Economist and National Geographic in pdf form. The android tablet has a very long screen suited for movies watching and not A4 pdfs...

I simply want a device I can have a single full page readable* in front of me in color. At the same time it would be nice not to spend more than 500-600 euros for that. The best device I have found on my own so far is the MS Surface Pro at 12.3 inches...

PS. No apple devices please**, they are comparable in size/functionality/cost with the MS devices and I prefer the MS ecosystem. Any android or even proprietary is also ok.

Microsoft Surface Book 13.5” (3:2 | 3000x2000) is THE excellent choice — the 15” (3:2 | 3240x2160) obviously has more screen estate/pixels but the 13” is available in one fanless model — or you can wear noise cancelling ear like I do when the fans go off on my Toughpad 4K (20”, 3:2 | 3840x2560).

If you have buyer’s remorse over the Surface Book price then best value can be found not in Android tablets or Windows devices but in Chromebooks! The HP Chromebook x2 (12.3”, 3:2 | 2400x1600) and Pixel Slate m3 (12.3”, 3:2 | 3000x2000) should be acquirable for ~500-600 euros and can also run Android/Linux apps.

If you want to spend even more than the cost of the Surface Book then the cutting edge is the recently released Thinkpad X1 Fold (13.3”, 4:3 | 2048x1536). The screen resolution is quite low for the price but on the other hand it’s rare to find an AMOLED display that isn’t 16:9/16:10 and the foldable screen is unique...

*Are you happy with just a 'single full page readable... in color' or do you want two page view? I prefer two page view for magazines, comics etc but if you mostly read technical PDFs in single page view then 16:9/16:10 screens aren’t too bad and you get more options: at the high end you can get 4K AMOLED displays on Windows devices and Android tablets and at the low end you can get 15” 4K Touchscreen portable Monitors that you can plug into a laptop...

[Quoth]

You can buy FOUR decent tablets or a real laptop (Windows or Linux) for the price of an HP Chromebook.

[pata]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You can buy FOUR decent tablets or a real laptop (Windows or Linux) for the price of an HP Chromebook.

define 'decent'

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by pata

Microsoft Surface Book 13.5 is THE excellent choice

The OP said they wanted to spend no more than 500-600 Euros. In my country, the device you recommend is 1200 Euros, I wonder how far outside the OP's preferred price range it is for their conutry.

[pata]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The OP said they wanted to spend no more than 500-600 Euros. In my country, the device you recommend is 1200 Euros, I wonder how far outside the OP's preferred price range it is for their conutry.

OP already bought the Surface Book not based on my post:

Originally Posted by crAss

I bought the surface pro, it is in the mail now. It is a laptop upgrade which I will use also as a reader. Otherwise 1000+ k€ would be mad.
I will post use results.

Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

[crAss]

Just to follow up. I rationalized getting a Surface Pro as a laptop replacement, which would be used to also view A4 documents. In the end I got the i7 - 16 GB ram - 256 SSD version which of course is absolute overkill as an ebook reader, but makes sense as a laptop based on my typical use.

The screen size is perfect in 3:2 aspect ratio for A4/Legal documents. The magazines I wanted to read show up great (e.g. Economist, National Geographic). Moreover, two column scientific papers also show up great on 1:1. So 12.3 is more than enough for me and no reason t go for a larger 13 inch device. The 10 inch ones I had tested, I didn't like since fonts were too small.

Bad thing is the weight, when you consider it as an ebook reader - almost double the 13 inch e-ink readers. It is feather light if you consider it as a laptop at ~1 kg.

The problem I had right away is that Adobe Acrobat was never meant to be used as a full screen touch screen controlled application - I will probably use it only for cases where I want to use the pen and make notes on the pdf. I ended up using Sumatra PDF. Of course nowhere near e.g. Moon Reader+ that I use on my mobile phone, but good enough for magazines reading. I haven't tried the emulator route that has been suggested in some websites to run android apps in windows, but I don't think it is practical enough.