What's new
What's new

OT - E-reader In Shop

MihiT

Aluminum
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
I have searched for "tablet" and "e-reader" here and come up with SFA asides from a 2 year old thread about a guy who wants someone to justify him buying a Microsoft Surface.

My main criteria are:
Long battery life. And by long, I mean Nokia long - days. No Qi charging, no "topping up", just GOOD battery life. (This points to e-reader over tablet, afaik)

Good readability. - Preferably readable in sunlight, flurouescent, and dim/darkness (Paperwhite?)

Durability. - While few things not-made-of-metal last very long near me, and I resent paying for technology, I would like something moderately tolerant of abuse.

It's likely I will buy second hand. I'm no puritan about Apple/MS/Blackberry/Android/Samsung, realistically, price will be the determining factor, but I wont tolerate any crap (ads, forced updates, "log in required", spyware, Microsoft)

The Idea is to have it on-hand in the shop, rather than getting my paper books greasy, and it will probably also find use for evening reading/camping trips.

So I'm seeking advice from anyone who uses E-readers (or a tablet with good battery life) that can point me in the right direction. I don't need this year's model, would prefer something older, proven, stable.
I'm no blouse about taking things apart, so if anyone can recommend a good platform, where I could find a second-hand "broken" one for cheap and replace the screen/keyboard/battery that's good too.

Sorry for being so wordy, It's just there seem to be a lot of pedants 'round these parts. If you can't give me an answer with the info provided it's probably best if you click on by...
 
I bought a Nook Simple Touch several years ago and was very happy with it until it was stolen.

I've had its replacement, a Kobo Touch, for about four years and I like it.

Screen is sharp and clear; I usually read under a desk lamp but I've used the screen illumination in darker places such as the doctor's waiting room and found it excellent.

I take it when I travel in my campervan; it's been dropped a few times and has a corner chipped off its protective case but has never given any trouble.

I don't have figures on battery life but I use it for several hours a day (I'm a voracious reader) most days and I charge it after a few days to a week.. I keep the charger at my "reading station" and plug it in when I think of it.

As I said, it's a good four years old; the current model should have even better battery life.

It handles epub files very well, with choices of font, size, margin width and line spacing.

It does not handle pdfs at all well; I regard it as useless for those.

My fiction reading is almost exclusively in the world of a century or more ago and Project Gutenberg supplies my needs in that regard; I was able to send some hundreds of (mostly) paperbacks of classics to charity and clear my bookshelves.

I retained my hard-cover library of non-fiction and technical subjects as they are mostly not available in epub form and those that I have tried in that form are not suited to the e-reader. Unlike epub files, pdfs never fit the screen and it's not possible, at least on the Nook or the Kobo models that I've owned, to adjust the size to fit; epubs fit automatically.

Pictures, photos, charts & tables as are found in technical books do not, in my experience, work as pdf files on an e-reader; if you want to read or consult those a tablet, netbook or laptop would be better.

Some of the epub files that I have include illustrations and they are never satisfactorily reproduced; they are usually too small and too dark.

I have two desktop computers, a laptop and a netbook; by far my favourite is the netbook, a 10" Acer that cost A$200 some years ago.

I bought it for the electronics bench to operate some test equipment as the laptop took-up too much room and the large screen wasn't necessary; although I prefer hard copies of such books, I do keep a few pdfs of technical references on it and have no difficulty in consulting them as the little screen is very sharp and bright.

That's my experience.
 
I have searched for "tablet" and "e-reader" here and come up with SFA asides from a 2 year old thread about a guy who wants someone to justify him buying a Microsoft Surface. <snip>Sorry for being so wordy, It's just there seem to be a lot of pedants 'round these parts. If you can't give me an answer with the info provided it's probably best if you click on by...
Why don't you click on by. Stupid Rude Kiwi. What is this Practical Tablet, or Practical E-Reader?
It's likely I will buy second hand. I'm no puritan about Apple/MS/Blackberry/Android/Samsung, realistically, price will be the determining factor, but I wont tolerate any crap (ads, forced updates, "log in required", spyware, Microsoft)
What are the chances you just violated several of those determining factors, just to make that post?
 
i wanted a microsoft surface as it can be used in a docking station as a computer and unplugged as a tablet. can use as a camera, picture viewer, etc
.
boss said no. said it would get dropped and damaged even in some sort of protective case. got plenty of desktop computers with big screens. actually many machines have 2 computers
.
about 5 years ago i had small one in cargo pants leg pocket. leaned against something not even that hard. when i went to look at tablet screen 1/2 black permanently.
.
boss rather give us a bigger 40 to 55" computer monitor if we wanted to show drawing better and it looks like shop is more modern. hard to show full size blueprint drawing on a tablet unless it was hugh
 
1 in 4 actively useful replies. QED.
Thank you planner, bit of a shame about the pdf situation as most of the reference books I have on PC are in that format. I may have to look into converting them. Appreciate the input
 
i wanted a microsoft surface as it can be used in a docking station as a computer and unplugged as a tablet. can use as a camera, picture viewer, etc
.
boss said no. said it would get dropped and damaged even in some sort of protective case. got plenty of desktop computers with big screens. actually many machines have 2 computers
.
about 5 years ago i had small one in cargo pants leg pocket. leaned against something not even that hard. when i went to look at tablet screen 1/2 black permanently.
.
boss rather give us a bigger 40 to 55" computer monitor if we wanted to show drawing better and it looks like shop is more modern. hard to show full size blueprint drawing on a tablet unless it was hugh

I did read through your thread. I don't need any of the other features, camera, typing etc, pretty much looking for a reading solution. Cheers.
 
I did read through your thread. I don't need any of the other features, camera, typing etc, pretty much looking for a reading solution. Cheers.
.
many pdf are of books roughly 8.5x11" in size and text is sized to read but fit as much text in a page that size.
.
if tablet is 13" diagonal or bigger you can read the text. many pdf files are basically a picture of a page. OCR scanning i find to be error filled and its not a problem if a story but if you read a technical book and spelling is off it can have disastrous consequences
.
from personal use ebook or catalogs on a full size desktop computer its easier to read and i have added bookmarks to a pdf file so i could search the bookmarks. thus is a 1000 page manual explains say a gcode like G98 i can run a search and go to page in seconds. its easier on a desktop computer
.
i wouldnt not appreciate the camera as many people rather than scan a page take a picture. i also have taken picture of cnc screen to save info too. and of course you can save a picture of a machining setup for later repeating setup. or take a picture of a problem and to ask another about it
.
using small tablet or phone screen is very limited. not saying you cannot read technical book but you waste a lot of time zooming and scrolling
 
Today, you could probably buy a new Amazon Kindle cheap. They work very well for reading - most are limited for things like browsing the Web. But you can upload most anything in PDF format.
 
Another vote for Kindle or Kindle Fire. Check out their selection, their prices are usually really decent.
 
Mihi; I made the point about pdfs because I gathered that you wanted to use this kind of file as well as for general reading.

Although 99% of my e-book files are already in epub form, I have used Calibre once or twice to convert Word files to epub; it worked OK if I remember correctly.

Calibre is, or was a few years ago, the "go-to" conversion program;its Help page says this about pdfs;

To re-iterate PDF is a really, really bad format to use as input. If you absolutely must use PDF, then be prepared for an output ranging anywhere from decent to unusable, depending on the input PDF.

The emphasis is theirs, not mine; they make the point strongly.

I'm a book-lover and I swore that I would never give-up my library for some stupid electronic device but I was soon convinced otherwise; I have more than 2,000 books in my Kobo and it fits in a pocket.

I think you would be happy with an e-reader, of whatever brand, for your general reading and camping trips; that's precisely what I use mine for.

For the technical books, a computer would be better I think; there are plenty to choose from, laptop, netbook or tablet.

One thing that the computer does far better is in looking-through a book to find something (a table, an equation, a "how-to-do-this") that you remember is there.

With a paper book, you can flick quickly through the pages until you find what you are seeking; the scroll or page function in a computer is almost as good but it's a real pain with a reader, at least with the two that I have used.

That is often the nature of technical books; you remember seeing what you want somewhere in a book and want to find it again; with a paper book or a computer you can skim-through and the chances are that you will find what you seek but that is a most laborious process with an e-reader which, although there is provision for page-turning and going to a specific page number, is really designed to read from the first page to the last..

It's horses-for-courses and a single device may not meet your requirements.

The Germans have a delightful expression, "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" or "egg-laying wool milk pig" for something that tries to do everything but rarely succeeds. :)
 
pdf is very good for scanning a old book as it is just pictures and doesnt mess with trying to convert the text (text mistakes can be costly). adding bookmarks to a pdf file for organizing i have done easily hundreds of times over at least 3 decades.
.
obviously if you got a 2000 pages manual and you add 100 bookmarks you can search those bookmarks in a few seconds and go to that page. a 2000 page fully text version pdf if you search a keyword it can take 10x longer cause it is searching 2000 pages for the keyword in addition to bookmarks
.
there are many items where you want in electronic format like a pdf and the ability to organize 1000's of pages becomes apparent quickly. its like looking for a needle in a haystack. those of us with literally no exaggeration millions of pages of info need a way to organize and find stuff quickly
.
like any software their is a learning curve. obviously any software you dont take the time to learn you will have problems with
.
when you got gigabytes and or terabytes of files you better have a way to organize stuff. like going into 6 story tall library with millions of books and if they are not organized good luck finding a particular book
 
To those recommending kindle, do the devicea not require a signup/ connection? I tried their e-reader app, (Blackberry native) and it wouldn't even get as far as letting me read my own books already on device, unless I signed up. Deleted the app after that.
 
Planner, thanks again. I will have to do a bit more research on netbooks, I suppose they have similar or larger screens than readers, But tbey'll also be running with the overhead of the OS and so battery hungry, probably also with typical screens, which are painful to do much reading on. I dont suppose you'd know off the top of your head if any netbooks have amoled of frontlit screens?
Also I feel like I'd be paying for features I don't want, but I suppose if I found one cheap enough second hand it wouldn't matter.
 
Buy from Amazon, in my experience spending many, unpaid, hours searching for the "best" deal elsewhere is rarely worth it.
Amazon sell new, used, warehouse deals (customer returns).
Widest range of products on the planet.
Best delivery on the planet.
Best returns on the planet.
No ebay type horror stories about Amazon purchases on PM.

Do not by any E reader unless you need to view outdoors in sunlight, which you state you do.
Ditto battery life.
But understand E readers have severe limitations compared to a tablet.

First decision of tablet selection is which operating system?
Frequent viewing of drawings and other commercial file formats might indicate Windows.
Windows is streets ahead of Android as a commercial operating system.
My first tablet was a 10" Windows hybrid, running 8.1, it is far from ideal operating as a tablet. I have a cheap mouse in the car to remedy its deficiencies.
Windows 10 claims to have solved these issues, I have read many reviews but not actually used Windows 10.
Purchased used. 2/3 year old laptops/tablets can be bought for c35% of the new price, if you are patient.

My second tablet was an 10" Android tablet bought used, bought because of Windows limitations.
I chose a model which had a SIM slot so I can make phone calls, and not carry two devices.
The SIM is an additional cost on new tablets but this cost vanishes when buying used.
This is much superior to my Windows tablet, as a tablet. But no use as a laptop.
Some common file formats are not natively supported by Android.
Ensure that you can obtain apps to run files you need to view frequently.
Ensure that these apps actually work, most of the apps I have downloaded were in the bin PDQ.

I also have an 8" Amazon Fire tablet, purchased new in a sale.
These must be the best value available anywhere, almost throwaway prices.
Cheaper than a Kindle.
7" is even cheaper, bought used you can pay more for a round of drinks.
Is it as good as my other tablets costing 8-12 X as much new. No.
Battery life is not as good as a Kindle, but may be good enough for you.
But the performance is remarkable for the money, I use this about 80% of the time.
I would suggest you buy a Fire first, if it does not do the job you will find another use for it.
I paid, for all three tablets, less than the cost of a new ipad.
 
Thanks for the input MMB. My likely choice for a tablet /netbook OS will be a linux distro, however from my searching yesterday I didn't find any with decent reading screens, so that idea is on the backburner again.
I don't need the rest of the functionality of a tablet, (I have other devices for other for other things) so the "severe" limitations of a reader are actually a selling point for me.
Good to hear you recommend the fire, as it looks like they're easy to root and flash another OS on if Amazon OS pisses me off. I almost couldn't believe they're only $50usd (which is about 250 NZ¥ :D)
Cheers.
 
Amazon fire tablet is registered to a owner, many have password on screensaver screen so somebody else cannot buy stuff with it. also you often have to select to turn off one click ordering. there a reason Amazon tablets are cheap as its to sell you stuff fast and easy
.
i use Amazon tablet everyday at home it uses wifi to get on internet. other than put in my screen saver password takes only a second it works very well for most things. i never ever buy anything with it. mostly use it for reading, netflix, surfing internet. can be a real time waster in that often stop reading book and surfing internet basically wasting time. some play games on them for hours. often many people 99% usage is playing games on it
.
and of course if battery runs out its basically useless. battery lasts about 4 hours depends on how bright the screen is and how often page changes. that is if reading same page it uses much less battery. surfing internet watching netflix that drains battery usually 4 hours give or take
 
Another vote for Kindle or Kindle Fire. Check out their selection, their prices are usually really decent.

I'm using a fire tablet for business, as I do audio on the side and the mixer is wireless.


It's been fantastic. Bonus points if you get the kids version with added warranty and drop proof case.
 








 
Back
Top