The Kindle Voyage is back

[JSWolf]

The major issue with the KV i the screen. It's only 6". Once you read on a 7" screen you won't want to go back.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The major issue with the KV i the screen. It's only 6". Once you read on a 7" screen you won't want to go back.

The KV screen is one of its major draws as reported by people drawn to it.

I have been reading on my 2017 7" Oasis (official nickname on MobileRead wiki Kindle serial number page KOA2) almost daily for over 2 years. I like that screen a lot, but I do more reading on my KV because of its better ergonomics for me and its screen is good enough.

Plenty of people prefer 6" screens to 7" screens, and from time to time there are posts here lamenting the disappearance of 5" screens.

[binaryhermit]

I've never had a 5 inch e-reader, but I certainly would consider a 5 inch kindle

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I've never had a 5 inch e-reader, but I certainly would consider a 5 inch kindle

Pocketbook and kobo had 5" screens, amazon did not. The chance of a new 5" screen reader seems to be very low and going down, but I would like one that would fit in a shirt pocket.

[Quoth]

I have a 5" Sony PRS350. It's quite good for out and about. However a 6.8" or 7" seems best at home. Bigger gets a bit heavy.
I've simply switched to a coat with larger pockets to be able to take 7" Kobo Libra rather than the 5" Sony PRS350 out.

I can't see a market for a 5" ereader unless it was less than $25, because over half of eBooks are read on a phone. I sometimes read on my phone if I'm waiting for a Take-out.

The 9.7" Kindle DGX was far too heavy. My lightweight Lenovo 10" Android Tablet is great for technical PDFs, but too heavy to read a novel on. The Win10 10" tablet was worse apart from being too slow for many PDF scans of ancient magazines or books. The 7" 300dpi does let a lot of modern PDF manuals that are about A5 size work well, far faster and easier to read than original 6.8" Kobo H2O. The 6" Kindle PW3 is too small for almost all PDFs. I use it simply to buy Amazon ebooks, which is a tiny percentage of my reading.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

I have a 5" Sony PRS350. It's quite good for out and about. However a 6.8" or 7" seems best at home. Bigger gets a bit heavy.
I've simply switched to a coat with larger pockets to be able to take 7" Kobo Libra rather than the 5" Sony PRS350 out.

I can't see a market for a 5" ereader unless it was less than $25, because over half of eBooks are read on a phone. I sometimes read on my phone if I'm waiting for a Take-out.

The 9.7" Kindle DGX was far too heavy. My lightweight Lenovo 10" Android Tablet is great for technical PDFs, but too heavy to read a novel on. The Win10 10" tablet was worse apart from being too slow for many PDF scans of ancient magazines or books. The 7" 300dpi does let a lot of modern PDF manuals that are about A5 size work well, far faster and easier to read than original 6.8" Kobo H2O. The 6" Kindle PW3 is too small for almost all PDFs. I use it simply to buy Amazon ebooks, which is a tiny percentage of my reading.

The weight of the 350 is 155g. The weight of the Kobo Forma is 197g. The Kobo Libra is 192g. The Kobo Clara HD is 166g. So unless the weight is an issue, the 350 is rather heavy for what it is.

[Luffy]

Where I live, I can shop for e-readers only on ebay. Doesn't anyone here buy from that site?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Where I live, I can shop for e-readers only on ebay. Doesn't anyone here buy from that site?

If you buy a Kindle from eBay, you risk buying one that's been blacklisted. That's why I would not buy a Kindle from eBay. Sure, it's OK to buy other brands. Just not a Kindle.

[Bookstooge]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Pocketbook and kobo had 5" screens, amazon did not. The chance of a new 5" screen reader seems to be very low and going down, but I would like one that would fit in a shirt pocket.

The Sony 350 was also a 5in. I loved that little unit when I was using sony's. Fit in my shirt pocket perfectly.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The weight of the 350 is 155g. The weight of the Kobo Forma is 197g. The Kobo Libra is 192g. The Kobo Clara HD is 166g. So unless the weight is an issue, the 350 is rather heavy for what it is.

I was comparing it and Libra to the 9.7" Kindle DXG and two 10" LCD tablets.
Under 200g only the size counts.
I'd seriously considered the Forma, despite it's maybe too big for my coat pocket, but it is €100 extra here. The 10" Android tablet was €119 and replaces the stupid & slower 10" Win10 for PDFs, as I have a laptop for content creation. Also the Forma isn't big enough for most of my PDFs.

[Braid]

My comments in the USB-C discussion:

While I love the idea of a reversible connector with rapid charging and fast transfer speeds, I do not trust this connector. I have had a couple of USB-C cables which required wiggling in order to connect. This sounds like a small issue, but I think it is a grave flaw. It means that if I nudge a device during a data transfer, I could interrupt the transfer, bricking my device. I have never had similar issues with micro-USB.

Perhaps the transition to type-C is inevitable. Fine by me - maybe when it becomes universal, the issues will become better known and some regulations will be imposed. Until then, I am not going to complain about devices being produced with a safer, more reliable connection, especially e-readers, which have small batteries and (for me, at least) small files to transfer.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

To be fair, I don't think USB-C gets higher speeds in any way that's terribly relevant, I know USB 3.0 does 5 gbps and predates USB-C
(And could transfer 32 GB (the full storage size of the largest current kindle) in under a minute in theory.

It does but I think you need Gen 2. Most have Gen 1 which is same speed as USB 3.0.

Of course, real-world transfer speeds are limited by source and target storage devices. Only way you’d actually see anywhere near close to top speed is when doing large file SSD to SSD transfers with UASP support.

The Kindle’s storage maxes out at around 10-12 MB/s, iirc. That’s for block level reads with Win32 Disk Imager. Writing small ebooks is slower.

Apart from being reversible, pretty much the only benefit of USB-C in the case of e-readers is if you have other devices (e.g. smartphones, etc) with USB-C and you don’t want to carry multiple cables.

The batteries on e-ink readers are small enough that even 5V/1A (e.g. PW4) charges pretty fast. The PW3 actually charges at just 5V/0.5A. USB-PD fast charging levels would likely just generate excessive heat and kill the battery more quickly.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

No USB-C. There are too many cables out there that are not made correctly that they could damage your computer and/or Kindle. And even some USB-C chargers are dodgy as well. There is no need for USB-C. You don't need the extra speed to send eBooks and microUSB works fast enough to charge.

Jon, you might want to drag yourself in the 20's. Most USB-C ports in the last few years have implemented better protection that the Pixel Chromebook and measuring devices used by Benson Leung. Not to mention that quite a few of the questionable cables he posted about were adapter cables -- micro-A to USB-C for instance and not USB-C to USB-C cables. Most of those cables would work for charging a smartphone, the SHTF when you attempted to use the 3.0A charging current that laptops and Chromebooks supported.

I will admit that I tend towards purchasing brandname cables since physically, they tend to be better built. Nothing like pulling a USB cable out of the port and having the cover pull off the connector. For my Thunderbolt port, I've only used the manufacturer's 0.5 meter cable to get the maximum 40GB speed.

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

To be fair, I don't think USB-C gets higher speeds in any way that's terribly relevant, I know USB 3.0 does 5 gbps and predates USB-C
(And could transfer 32 GB (the full storage size of the largest current kindle) in under a minute in theory.

Hmmm... now if I had a ereader that supported the Thunderbolt 3 port on my laptop (same physical connector as USB-C), I could transfer 32GB in about 8 seconds and fully charge in about 5 minutes.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Braid

My comments in the USB-C discussion:

While I love the idea of a reversible connector with rapid charging and fast transfer speeds, I do not trust this connector. I have had a couple of USB-C cables which required wiggling in order to connect. This sounds like a small issue, but I think it is a grave flaw. It means that if I nudge a device during a data transfer, I could interrupt the transfer, bricking my device. I have never had similar issues with micro-USB.

Perhaps the transition to type-C is inevitable. Fine by me - maybe when it becomes universal, the issues will become better known and some regulations will be imposed. Until then, I am not going to complain about devices being produced with a safer, more reliable connection, especially e-readers, which have small batteries and (for me, at least) small files to transfer.

The EU is considering doing something very stupid. They are thinking of standardizing on ISB-C for all phones. Tha would be very stupid. If any phones and/or computer and chargers blow up, catch file, or short circuit, then I think the EU needs to pay for the damage. It's very easy to buy a poorly made charger and poorly made cable. For example, the USB-C splitter and Y cables do not work properly with a 5V device. Plus, I've seen pictures of what can happen with a bad cable. So really, USB-C needs to go away and we need a new USB standard that has regulations. Of we could just dump USB-C and instead of another USB standard, go with Firewire 800.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Jon, you might want to drag yourself in the 20's. Most USB-C ports in the last few years have implemented better protection that the Pixel Chromebook and measuring devices used by Benson Leung. Not to mention that quite a few of the questionable cables he posted about were adapter cables -- micro-A to USB-C for instance and not USB-C to USB-C cables. Most of those cables would work for charging a smartphone, the SHTF when you attempted to use the 3.0A charging current that laptops and Chromebooks supported.

I will admit that I tend towards purchasing brandname cables since physically, they tend to be better built. Nothing like pulling a USB cable out of the port and having the cover pull off the connector. For my Thunderbolt port, I've only used the manufacturer's 0.5 meter cable to get the maximum 40GB speed.

Hmmm... now if I had a ereader that supported the Thunderbolt 3 port on my laptop (same physical connector as USB-C), I could transfer 32GB in about 8 seconds and fully charge in about 5 minutes.

Even some brand name cables are not 100% USB-C spec. So it's not easy to find a cable that's going to be 100% USB-C. I don't care that USB-C is the up and coming standard. It's the crappiest port ever put on any device. It's unsafe and unreliable. While you try to be safe, there are a lot of people out there who so not know about the pitfalls of USB-C and will just hit up Amazon to buy a cable and/or charger.

I do not find microUSB to be too slow to charge and transfer with my H2O.