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/erg/ e-reader general
lzZbz7
No.727
E-reader discussion and shill thread.
Post pics, experiences, reviews, and whatever else about e-readers.
FAQ:
>is the reading experience just like a physical book?
Yes and no. E-ink looks extremely similar to actual paper, but it obviously doesn't have the tactile feel of a book in hand with flipping pages, book weight, etc.
>why should I buy one then?
Modern features like brightness, bookmarking, highlighting, fonts, layout, dictionary search, etc.
Load thousands of e-books with no issue.
Extremely portable. Save a lot of money. An e-reader should last you 5 years, minimum. Plenty of people still use e-readers that have lasted over a decade.
>ok, will I miss physical books?
I haven't so far, the reading experience has been quite pleasant for me, but ymmv.
>what are my options?
I recommend sticking to big brands like Kindle and Kobo. There are others, but I'm not sure about their presence in Indian market.
>can I read PDFs?
Sure, if you hate yourself. More expensive models with larger screen size, like the Kindle Scribe, can let you do things like annotate and take notes, but for smaller models I do not recommend.
This includes things like textbooks, research papers, etc.
>can I read manga?
Sure. The larger the screen the better, but even 6-7" models are servicable for most manga. You might have to pinch and zoom from time to time depending on the typesetting though.
>do I have to charge it often?
Not really. A single charge should last a couple of weeks at least.
>are e-readers expensive?
A decent budget is between 10k-20k. There are more expensive models out there, or even cheaper, but I'd recommend sticking to well known brands with a large community and support.
This is for new devices btw. The refurbished market needs more research. Some models will need to be imported, so costs will vary.
>do you recommend color?
I haven't done extensive research into color models, but the general consensus seems to be that the tech isn't quite there yet. The colors tend to be washed out and not vibrant. Feel free to prove me wrong.
>which models do you recommend then?
I've personally used the Kindle Basic, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kobo Clara BW. For most people the Basic is fine, but stock may vary.
Paperwhite and Kobo Clara BW have similar price, and the Paperwhite has a 6.8" screen compared to Clara BW's 6".
There is a bit of a glare on Paperwhite screen though, so I prefer the Clara BW.
Anons can chip in with their own reviews for these and other models and brands, such as Boox, Pocketbook.
>where can I get e-books?
Considering only English for now, you can buy them on Amaazon Kindle store or Kobo store.
If you prefer sailing the seas to look for treasure, try sites like z-library and Anna's Archive.
>A NOTE ON THE ABSOLUTE STATE OF INDIC LANGUAGE SUPPORT
Kindle only supports Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, and Tamil. Even then, the book selection is trash, optimization for Indic scripts is trash, do not recommend for Indic languages currently.
They might add support later, but Amazon in general has some shady practices, so I've stopped shilling Kindles.
Kobo supports Indic scripts without having to wait for 15 fucking seconds every page turn like the Kindle.
Only issue is that indic language ebooks are not popular and thus cannot be found on either store.
N0CGKY
No.728
I need to change my life. Recommend me some epic book, anon. I'll read it on my laptop with sumatra pdf.
PmTv69
No.729
>>727(OP)
I've wanted some thread like this but for Indian market for so long!
I've been thinking of replacing my smartphone with an e-reader, dumbphone and DAP.
I want an e-reader preferably second hand and budget is between 5 to 7k. It should be moddable and should support sideloading my mobile/epub files
Make some thread like this for dumbphones and DAP too anon, what's your opinion on these 2 devices?
lzZbz7
No.730
>>728
Sorry anon, my life's a total mess as well. I think most of us already know what we need to do, but internal resistance is so much that we're not willing to actually act.
In that sense, no book can really help change things. Self-help books for the most part become a distraction we use to tell ourselves that some progress has been made.
It's self-comfort, not self-help. I include philosophy as well.
But I will recommend Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky. Short but not sweet, it was hard hitting read for me.
5mg8dq
No.731
I had kobo e-reader, issue was that i had lots of pdf etc. so tablet felt better for my usecase but i love e-reader still because
>very light
which means i could hold them for hours and read without hurting my arms
>battery last for eons
>very soothing to actually read
Experience is not even matched by pdfs.
most important things are these two -
>weight
>backlight
both e-reader are superior at.
lzZbz7
No.732
>>729
I've been trying to minimize the number of electronics I buy, so I'm sticking with just my smartphone. Can't do without it for work purposes as well.
Anon, make a thread about dumbphones and DAPs. The former is still not completely irrelevant in India. The only experience with the latter I have is a 200 rupee chinki knockoff mp3 player I purchased over 10 years ago that did not last a day. I'm still malding.
As far as I know, you should be able to jailbreak any Kobo you have. Same with Kindle, but there might be some issues depending on firmware version.
Tbh, I didn't find a need to mod my e-readers. People always shill KOReader for Kobo, but I haven't found a need to do so yet.
You don't need to jailbreak in order to sideload books. Most popular way is to use Calibre.
Kindle doesn't support EPUB files, so you'll have to convert them to AZW3, which is the preferred format. AZW3 is based on EPUB, so conversion will generally not have issues.
Kobo has EPUB support, so not an issue.
There's also MOBI format, but it's an old standard and not preferred these days. EPUB is king.
PDF can go take a long walk off the cliff. Conversion from PDF to any other format ranges from barely acceptable to downright incomprehensible. Still no reliable way in big 2025 wtf.
As for refurb market, quick search tells me there's not many models available, and they're older generation. Battery life may be an issue, for my 8 year old Paperwhite 7th gen I had to recharge it every 4 days instead of every 3 weeks. Still not unreasonable. Needs more research and reviews.
lzZbz7
No.733
>>731
What kind of PDFs? Maybe there are EPUBs floating out there somewhere?
