Help Me Find A Reader

[tommystery]

Howdy, new here on the forum but I've been lurking around (unregistered) for about a year now. I was originally looking for an ebook reader over a year ago and narrowed it down to the bebook as fitting my needs at the time. I didn't end up purchasing it however because it wasn't the perfect device for me.

Seeing how the market has now considerably changed, and with the number of new devices that have popped up, I'm wondering if maybe I can get some advice on where to start looking again.

I love to hack my devices and would optimally want to have a device with good dev. support. But if it does everything I need it to do this might not be necessary

I think I would prefer an E-Ink display but haven't really given much thought to an epaper-tft screen. I might checkout the Libre Pro @ Future shop just to see what the screen looks like.

Here are my requirements:

MUST
+ Open a large variety of formats: mobi, pdf, epub, djvu, etc.
+ Display charts and tables in pdf properly
+ Reflow pdf files with good zoom features
+ Bookmarking/Notes
+ File browsing off SD

NICE TO HAVE
+ Optimally a 6" device (I can live with 5 or 7 as well)
+ Dictionary would be nice to have

FEATURE I'D LIKE TO HAVE BUT HAVEN'T SEEN AVAILABLE YET
+ Highlighting in pdf with the ability to save the pdf on fly with the highlights. Many devices allow you to highlight but store the info on the device so when you export it back to your pc they're not there.

NOT NECESSARY
- Don't really need connectivity (WIFI/3G)
- Don't really need to use it as anything else (MP3, Games, etc)

Many Thanks,
- Rob.

[Keslynn]

Originally Posted by tommystery

FEATURE I'D LIKE TO HAVE BUT HAVEN'T SEEN AVAILABLE YET
+ Highlighting in pdf with the ability to save the pdf on fly with the highlights. Many devices allow you to highlight but store the info on the device so when you export it back to your pc they're not there.

The Entourage Pocket Edge has this ability. The device has been discontinued but that means that you can find it for fairly cheap. You may want to add it to your list of options.

[tommystery]

Thanks for the suggestion!

I just got an android phone so the extra features of the edge would be somewhat useless and it doesn't seem as a good standalone reader because of the dual screens; which is what I'm really looking for.

At the moment I've found a few likely candidates: BeBook Neo, PB 902/903 or the Sony PRS-650/950 if I can deal with converting files.

Please keep the suggestions coming!

[Keslynn]

Congrats on the new Android! I'm an Android fan.

I can recommend Sony. I have a PRS-350 and I love it. I imagine its larger siblings are just as good. The Pearl screen is fantastic and I really like being able to see the book covers. And, of course, touch screen is very nice.

[tommystery]

Just discovered the Onyx Boox M90 - wow, what a beautiful device. I've been reading on screen size and am no longer sure if 6" is large enough. I need to be able to flow and display articles from finance papers (from my university's library) [pdf].

I'm reading really good things about the PRS-950, but it's unavailable in Canada and could be a hassle to obtain. Apparently was on sale for $200 at BB across the border a weeks back though, at that price I would've driven over and grabbed one.

I'm not sure about the pdf annotations/highlights with the device though, and I'd have to figure out on how to convert some of the djvu files that I have.

[tommystery]

The android device is leaps and bounds ahead of the Blackberry I had before. One annoying thing though, it keeps on deleting my text messages randomly. It's a noted bug on google's dev boards but they don't seem to care all that much about it (been around for about a year)