What is the ideal screen size for an eReader?

[osama_jamal]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think a good 8 inch screen might be a decent enough size for PDF if it allows the margin to be removed. And come a moderator please fix the poll to add in an 8 inch scree?

I have to agree with you. The DR 800 is a device that I loved so much! had it only had a stylus input (without a firmware update that is)

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Ea

What is the best screen size for an eReader that you use... where?

* 5'' and below is very portable
* 6-8'' is large enough for a resonable amount of text on the screen while still not being cumbersome tos it with
* 9-11'' is better for the kind of PDFs we can currently get, and I would prefer a large screen for most non-fiction in general

Exactly-except I'd reserve the 'extra-large' screens for browsing multiple articles, e.g. news or magazine. I dislike the 'headline only' format of RSS or many of the news websites (where the main page is a list of links). Generally I prefer to have a couple of paragraphs of the 'story' right below the headline, so currently I read those on my PC. I use my Palm for fiction because it's pocket-sized. And I'd like something a little bigger, but still portable, for reading 'around the house' but have chosen not to get anything like that just yet. Mostly lack of synchronization. (I like Amazon's approach with the Kindle, but will get one only when they allow me to sync it over my home network rather than via theirs. Too many potential privacy issues with their current system. Not to mention the DRM-but at least that can usually be circumvented.)

[deltop]

Well I've a Sony 505 which is good enough for reading fiction and great for portability.

But my next purchase will hopefully be a Notion Ink Adam, as long as the reviews are good.

A small screen for portability and mainly fiction reading, and a larger device for comics and newspapers. Plus some web browsing and maybe more. That's the plan anyway.

[krischik]

If I had made this poll there would have been one more option:

One 5" + 11" or larger

Martin

[emoorman]

Smaller, smaller, smaller that 5". All you ladies have a purse to carry your reader and have been trained since you were a little girl to carry and keep up with it. As a 72-year old man, I don't want to have to carry and keep up with a reader I can't put in a shirt pocket. I have carried a Palm or smart phone for years in a shirt pocket, but I am tired of the batteries going dead in the middle of a chapter. Give me one that fits and I'll buy it.

[CyGuy]

I think a 10" screen is perfect. In fact, I think my Samsung netbook is just the perfect reader but is the wrong form factor. I just want a Win7 netbook with no keyboard/mouse and a touch screen!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by emoorman

Smaller, smaller, smaller that 5". All you ladies have a purse to carry your reader and have been trained since you were a little girl to carry and keep up with it. As a 72-year old man, I don't want to have to carry and keep up with a reader I can't put in a shirt pocket. I have carried a Palm or smart phone for years in a shirt pocket, but I am tired of the batteries going dead in the middle of a chapter. Give me one that fits and I'll buy it.

Both the Opus and the Pocketbook 360 can be comfortably carried in trouser pockets; I do so frequently.

[Elfwreck]

I have a 6" screen; it's okay. I want a 5" screen. I think I want a 4" screen but know it'll never get made. I read on a Clié for two years before getting my Sony; I gave up on the Cliés when I realized they'd always have battery problems, and the newer PDAs were crammed with (battery-sucking) bells and whistles I didn't want.

Portability & battery life are the two features I want most in an ebook reader. Ability to read letter/A4-sized PDFs isn't nearly as important; I'm willing to do the conversion work on anything I really want to read on it.

I understand there are plenty of people who want to read textbook or journal-ish technical PDFs on a screen big enough to show the original pages. I'm glad they have devices, but I have no interest in giving up my take-it-everywhere ebook reader for the ability to easily view a small number of documents.

What I really, REALLY want? A 4" screen at 300+dpi. I'm willing to read very tiny text if it doesn't get pixelated or blurry.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Both the Opus and the Pocketbook 360 can be comfortably carried in trouser pockets; I do so frequently.

Different strokes for different folks, but I quit carrying anything with a screen in my pants' pocket after I broke my 3rd screen within 2 months. (That was 20 years ago, with 'electronic address books'.)

Coat pockets are OK, if they fasten (I've lost several cell phones out of the ones that don't) but generally I've found my shirt pocket to be safest, if smallest. (Yes, it can fall out if I bend over, but as I get older & heavier I find that I bend over less often. But I sit down at least as much.)

[Clancy_s]

I think 2 sizes would needed for optimal functioning - 6" for travelling (I need a font size that makes 5" too small) and 11" for home / work - newspapers, texts with diagrams etc.

(so I didn't vote)

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think a good 8 inch screen might be a decent enough size for PDF if it allows the margin to be removed. And come a moderator please fix the poll to add in an 8 inch scree?

Reframing the question as, "if you could only own one reader, what would be the optimal screen size," I, too, would go with 8.

I have a Sony 505, and the entire device is almost exactly the size of an 8 inch screen. Holding it, I can tell that on the one hand, a somewhat portable device could be built around an 8 inch screen, while at the same time, pdf & technical documents could be read in landscape mode, with the possible exception of large scale diagrams which require a full 8x11 page to be read intelligently.

But the market seems to be telling us that we should own, at a minimum, two devices. One has a screen sized up to 6 or 7 inches, and the other has a screen sized around 10 inches. The former is for casual, portable reading, the other for more intense reading, at a table or in a good easy chair.

I hope to have the market over for dinner soon, to explain my purchase of an Apple tablet to my wife.

[Jack Tingle]

Well, I have a 2.8", a 3.5" (two of them, actually), a 5", and a 17". None is ideal; some are better at some things than others. I voted for 5" just because.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[ardeegee]

I've been thinking of the size of my largest deadtree book to get a rough size for a good "coffee table ereader" when the tech is mature and ubiquitous. So I just measured, and my largest book happens to be 17.5 inches on the diagonal, so a screen size of around that for my big reader...

[kjk]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

I've been thinking of the size of my largest deadtree book to get a rough size for a good "coffee table ereader" when the tech is mature and ubiquitous. So I just measured, and my largest book happens to be 17.5 inches on the diagonal, so a screen size of around that for my big reader...

hmmm..maybe you need a coffee table ereader! http://www.microsoft.com/surface/Pag...ct/WhatIs.aspx

[Scott Nielsen]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think a good 8 inch screen might be a decent enough size for PDF if it allows the margin to be removed. And come a moderator please fix the poll to add in an 8 inch scree?

Ditto that. I want a light, 8" reader. Hopefully plastic screens will ensure the weight is kept down.