A5-sized PDF device with buttons

[teso]

Hello, my PB740/Inkpad 3 broke a while ago and I couldn't find a suitable replacement since. Spare screens don't seem to be available either.

I tried the logical option of getting an Inkpad 4 but it didn't let me bind screen turn-off to a button action; having the touch screen always on is not acceptable for me. Additionally it had no card slot, was as slow as its predecessor and quite pricey for what it was. Bluetooth headphone support seemed nice, built-in speaker seemed yet another source of possible annoyance from a device I barely control.

Most of my books and documents are .pdf.

It boils down to:
- Touch screen (if any) can be turned off
- Page turning buttons
- 7''-ish screen: as big as possible while still big-pocket-able
- Will display PDFs
- Crop pages
- Zoom-in

- Low power usage, if possible
- Card slot or USB OTG support, if possible
- Reasonably cheap and easy to repair, if possible

I hope these requirements can be satisfied.
Any advice is appreciated!

[PeterT]

Have you taken a look at the tool found in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=361308

Sent from my SM-X238U using Tapatalk

[Quoth]

I've tried many eink ereaders and tablets.
A5 is far too small.

Kindle DXG (9.7), Likebook Mars (7.8″), Elipsa (10.3), Sage(8), reMarkable (10.3). The Sage is best of those, though only 8" because the others are lower pixel count!
I gave away the reMarkable & the Elipsa, but the reMarkable returned when the owner got a Sage.


The only models I found that were good:
TCL Nxtpaper 11 (10.9″). Pro: SD Card slot maybe 1T, good for notes. Con: Not quite big enough for magazine PDFs and two page spread illustrated books, or proofing PDF novels for print (needs 2 page spread).
TCL Nxtpaper 14 (14.25″). Pro: perfect for PDFs and two page spread. Con: no SD card slot! Too heavy for handwritten notes.

Neither has headphone socket. BT or USB keyboard or Audio works fine. Total Commander + SMB plugin over WiFi is the fastest file transfer. Pocketbook App gives Wireless access to Calibre Server. Pocketbbook app good for PDFs and uses volume keys to turn pages. Don't use default settings. Some PDF apps don't do page order correct on a 2 page layout. For LtoR text the 1st page must be on the right and left empty.

The MyWrite Nebo (maybe renamed?) or other handwriting to text is terrible on eink, but fine on the Nxtpaper and the Android/iOS versions have far more features inc PDF (missing on Sage & Elipsa).

They are highly polarised, so though they are bright enough outside, polarising sunglasses may not work. The default settings and "eink simulations" are all poor. Better is sRGB mode and manual colour balance. Fixed brightness to match ambient on paper indoors and only use Auto outside.

The Kindle Scribe is "locked into" Amazon servers, so it crippled without losing privacy/security of the documents. Also Amazon wants you to use fixed layout KFX rather than PDF. I've a Paperwhite 3 (better than DXG for PDFs!) and had an Oasis 2. I'd not buy any Kindle now though bought them in the past.

Kobo only has some refurbished Sage in some countries.

Edit: Meebook has replaced Likebook.
Some SD Card slots only take up to 32G.

The TCL pro models not worth the extra.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've tried many eink ereaders and tablets.
A5 is far too small.

For you. For your purposes. There are PDFs of ~A5 books out there too.

OP I think you're going to struggle to find anything that will let you bind turning off the touch screen with a button anymore. At least out of the box. Maybe it's possible on an Android reader like the Boox Go 7 with a 3rd party app and that might be your best bet. Boox is really good at PDF and has cropping.

[Quoth]

Turning off the touch screen: Not something I've seen ever.

I've only found PDF instruction/operation manuals working on smaller screens.
Most apps and now all kobos allow per document crop of PDFs.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Turning off the touch screen: Not something I've seen ever.

I've only found PDF instruction/operation manuals working on smaller screens.
Most apps and now all kobos allow per document crop of PDFs.

Boox's Reader let's you turn off finger gestures requiring you to use the Stylus or press a button on-screen to re-enable it.

There's loads and loads of PDFs books that are perfectly readable on A5 sized devices for most people. A scan of an average paperback is going to be fine. Especially with a crop. (e.g., https://archive.org/details/bwb_P8-B...e/n33/mode/2up). And there are sites that sell or offer PDFs of books for purchase/loan. ebooks.com for example has some titles in PDF that replicate the print editions.

[Yapyap]

I have to admit I got a little confused here by the initial ask .. Isn’t A5 size basically closest to 10’’ as e-readers go? So essentially twice the size of 7’’?

I checked with the size tool at https://comparisontabl.es/size-comparison/ and it looks like an A5 sheet of paper is essentially exactly the height of the screen of e.g. Boox Go 10.3 while being just a little narrower. The screen of the PocketBook Inkpad 4 is considerably smaller both in height and width, and a 7’’ Boox Go 7 is smaller still.

Top row is a 7’’ Boox Go 7, 7.8’’ PocketBook Inkpad 4, A5 paper and Boox Go 10.3 lined up, bottom row is each e-reader with the A5 paper. At least it helps me visualise this better.



10’’ e-ink devices with buttons are harder to come by though, but 7’’ is really much smaller than A5… newer Android ones are somewhat better for zooming than dedicated e-reader with less processing power, but I can’t see how one could zoom without the touchscreen being on. I suppose with cropping, if the original PDF has generous margins to crop away, and excellent eyesight (and if the PDFs have sharp, clear, not too small text) it might work for some people? (Not me, I’ve tried and .. nope. But my eyes suck.)

[georgemk]

@Yapyap
I don't know where you got the image from, but the size being shown as A5 is actually A4.

A4 size 210 x 297 mm 8.3 x 11.7 in
A5 size 148 x 210 mm 5.8 x 8.3 in

https://paper-size.com/c/a-paper-sizes.html

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by georgemk

@Yapyap
I don’t know where you got the image from, but the size being shown as A5 is actually A4.

A4 size 210 x 297 mm 8.3 x 11.7 in
A5 size 148 x 210 mm 5.8 x 8.3 in

https://paper-size.com/c/a-paper-sizes.html

I got it from the page I linked to above.

But this is exactly what the A5 size on the image above says though? 21.0 x 14.8 cm? Which is .. well, exactly the same as 148 x 210 mm, just with the height given first?

[DNSB]

Last time I dealt with A4 paper, it was had a ~36.4cm (14.3") diagonal. The sizes in the images are a bit odd since they quote the external dimensions of the ereader and not the screen dimension. Also the Boox Go7 seems to line the left edge of the screen with the edge of the A5 paper while the Pocketbook Inkpad 4 seems to line up the edge of the bezel with the edge of the paper in the lower trio of images.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Quoth

and had an Oasis 2.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Turning off the touch screen: Not something I've seen ever.

Then you must have got rid of your Oasis 2 before fw 5.12.x or didn't sufficiently explore its settings or missed this:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=343353
and multiple other posts around the same time.

[georgemk]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

IWhich is .. well, exactly the same as 148 x 210 mm, just with the height given first?

Sorry I had a senior moment there and didn't swap the width and length measurement so misread the true size.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Last time I dealt with A4 paper, it was had a ~36.4cm (14.3”) diagonal. The sizes in the images are a bit odd since they quote the external dimensions of the ereader and not the screen dimension. Also the Boox Go7 seems to line the left edge of the screen with the edge of the A5 paper while the Pocketbook Inkpad 4 seems to line up the edge of the bezel with the edge of the paper in the lower trio of images.

The odd placement was due to my shaky hand!

I tried my best to align the lower edge of the screen of the device with the edge of the paper, but it was a bit tricky to drag them accurately. It wasn’t an attempt at perfection, but to get a relatively OK visualisation (mostly to satisfy my own curiosity and to get a decent visual idea of how the sizes actually relate to one another, but I figured I could just as well share it).

Dimensions are what the tool automatically offers, unfortunately - for devices, it’s the device dimensions, not the exact measurements of screens.

Originally Posted by georgemk

Sorry I had a senior moment there and didn’t swap the width and length measurement so misread the true size.

Happens to the best of us!

I was genuinely worried for a moment there that I’d got something very wrong and that A4 was smaller than what I’d remembered (since I didn’t have an A4 sheet at hand to compare in person with my Go 10.3), but then I looked at the numbers again and felt relieved.

[teso]

Thanks for all the replies.
I've come across the comparison table before but it doesn't say much about software features.

The A5 spec was based on often having the reader stacked upon something of this format. It was meant as the upper bound on size, margins included. My pockets can fit a flat slab about 20 cm wide; anything bigger I'd have to carry in a bag. I suppose 7,8" screen with buttons along the shorter of edges is my target size. 6" screens are too small to be comfortable for me.

I'm unsure about android devices due to concerns about power consumption and distractions.

Screen turn-off sounds like the biggest pain point. Such a simple feature... Makes me wonder if there are customizable firmwares. I don't mind a bit of programming, though writing the whole suite because the company removed a feature that made touch screen bearable is not something I signed up for.

As for replacement screens for Inkpad3 / PB740, I have two inkpads with broken screens. Both original screens are ED078KH4 with TT41101 touch screen controller. This model is not available but -KH3 and -KC1 are. I was wondering if either of them is compatible.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by teso

Thanks for all the replies.
I've come across the comparison table before but it doesn't say much about software features.

The A5 spec was based on often having the reader stacked upon something of this format. It was meant as the upper bound on size, margins included. My pockets can fit a flat slab about 20 cm wide; anything bigger I'd have to carry in a bag. I suppose 7,8" screen with buttons along the shorter of edges is my target size. 6" screens are too small to be comfortable for me.

I'm unsure about android devices due to concerns about power consumption and distractions.

Screen turn-off sounds like the biggest pain point. Such a simple feature... Makes me wonder if there are customizable firmwares. I don't mind a bit of programming, though writing the whole suite because the company removed a feature that made touch screen bearable is not something I signed up for.

As for replacement screens for Inkpad3 / PB740, I have two inkpads with broken screens. Both original screens are ED078KH4 with TT41101 touch screen controller. This model is not available but -KH3 and -KC1 are. I was wondering if either of them is compatible.

I find distractions are cut down a lot on Android eInk readers. Yes, technically they are better at displaying a web page but scrolling is still pretty miserable, video is pretty much a non-starter too even on the "fast" refresh modes. Pretty much any non-paginated app is similarly not the best.

Maybe it's possible to make a Kobo patch disable the touch screen, but AFAIK there isn't one out there right now. On Android it should be doable with apps but you need to figure out how to bind it to a key.