Reddit e-reader analysis: what Kindle, Kobo, BOOX and PocketBook get praised for

[Saikava]

Hi all,

I’m building RedDB, a product research site that summarizes Reddit discussions into structured product pages. I’m trying to sanity-check the e-reader category with people who know these devices better than a general audience.

I grouped Reddit mentions by brand and recurring feature: display, reading comfort, file support, ecosystem, annotation, battery, software, and value. The charts are attached.

Full breakdown:
https://reddb.co/category/e-readers?...aders_feedback

I’d appreciate corrections on three things:

1. Which brand/use-case pattern looks wrong?
2. Are important brands or models missing?
3. Would this be useful to someone choosing between Kindle, Kobo, Onyx BOOX, and PocketBook?

Caveats: this is based on Reddit discussion, not lab testing. Popular brands naturally get more mentions. Onyx and BOOX are grouped as Onyx BOOX. The feature/sentiment classification is AI-assisted, so I expect some errors and want to improve it.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by Saikava

Hi all,
3. Would this be useful to someone choosing between Kindle, Kobo, Onyx BOOX, and PocketBook?

I can’t see any value or use for it for myself - the examples you show completely lack any indication re: specific features that matter to me (and not just me) when choosing a new e-reader - size, existence or lack of buttons, colour vs BW.

If I am looking for a new 8’’ BW device with buttons that supports apps, I get absolutely nothing out of those graphs and tables, I’m afraid.

I would think most readers (at least those who actually buy or borrow books) would also want to have a clear idea of which brand supports which stores or apps. Just something like “77% software” isn’t going to tell me that I can’t put Amazon-bought books on a Kobo or use my subscription app on a PocketBook Inkpad.

All that said, someone might well love such a tool! Just as long as they don’t actually pick an e-reader based on those number values and then come to reddit asking why they can’t read their Kindle books on a PocketBook even though PocketBook supports the most file formats...

[Sirtel]

I agree. Frankly I cannot imagine how a percentage in some vague category would help someone to choose an ereader. I'd certainly want to know features, advantages and disadvantages of each brand, file formats they support and so on.

[Saikava]

That makes sense. I think I led with the wrong layer of the data here.

For e-readers, a useful comparison probably needs concrete specs and compatibility first: screen size, buttons, color/BW, Android/app support, store/library/subscription support, file formats, and only then sentiment/pros/cons as supporting context.

Thanks for the honest feedback. I’m going to rethink this category around those practical buying constraints.

[Yapyap]

Yes, I think leading with actual features and specifications makes more sense.

There are categories of readers who won’t care - they are either very much into DRM removal (and in that case I think knowledgeable enough to not go by vague “sentiment”) or they pirate everything and only read reflowable books.

Most people looking for their first e-reader, based on what I’ve seen on reddit, don’t really fall into either of those categories - they may start out with asking “what’s the best e-reader, Kobo or Kindle”, but … even if they’re the second sort, people who “have their own books”, a lot of the time it turns out most of those books are large scanned image PDFs, or they want to read manga/comic books, or webtoons etc, or it comes out they’d not even thought about libraries but would actually like that, etc.

The problem is that e-readers really aren’t entirely interchangeable between brands (for people who don’t remove DRM as a matter of course) - maybe Kobo and PocketBook to an extent (in the sense that they occupy a more similar niche as file support goes), but not Kobo and Kindle, or Kindle and Boox (or Android devices in general), etc.

[DNSB]

I tend to break eInk ereaders into 2 groups. Amazon with their proprietary mobi/KF8/KFX formats and everyone else who basically support ePub out of the box. Once that is out of the way, screen size, buttons, colour, etc. come into play.

[JSWolf]

Those charts are useless. They don't give any information on what's really important.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Those charts are useless. They don't give any information on what's really important.

Perhaps you could state what you consider really important?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps you could state what you consider really important?

ePub support for ePub 2 & 3 with adept DRM
external font support
Easy to use UI
hyphenation
kerning
fits in my bag

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

ePub support for ePub 2 & 3 with adept DRM
external font support
Easy to use UI
hyphenation
kerning
fits in my bag

Not bad. Perhaps a size limit for your bag with numbers?

[Sirtel]

"Easy to use UI" is as vague as a percentage.

For me, important bits I'd want to know are screen size, contrast/sharpness, buttons, device shape and weight, bw or color, UI features and whether they also apply to sideloaded books, options to change font size/line height/margins/font weight (I'm picky about such things), external font support. Battery life doesn't matter to me, as long as it lasts a few days. Neither does format support nor ecosystem/built-in store (I sideload all my books).

Granted, I've been using ereaders for 15 years. If I were a beginner looking for their first ereader, I'd probably not care as much about some aspects mentioned above.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not bad. Perhaps a size limit for your bag with numbers?

I have no idea what size will fit. I know the Libra 2 fits with a little bit of room. So I'm not sure an 8" Reader would fit. But most 7" Readers I would think would fit.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

"Easy to use UI" is as vague as a percentage.

Kobo UI is easy to use. Kindle UI is not easy to use.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Kobo UI is easy to use. Kindle UI is not easy to use.

In what way isn't it easy to use?

[Frogm4n]

Did anyone actually try the link and see it working? It's dead for me and the domain doesn't appear to even be registered. The OPs reply also feels like LLM speak. Is this a real person or is someone testing an LLM bot on MobileRead?