I hear that it’s quite possible to jailbreak your kindle these days, and that sounds super cool.
But a lot of e-Readers tend to be quite expensive. Why would you purchase an e-Reader if you already have your phone? Even if you didn’t, your average phone is still gonna be cheaper than an e-Reader. Depending on the phone you’ll get, it’s also more durable and portable, probably even waterproof. Phones also tend to have more storage than ereaders. They even come with color. (I know color e-Readers exist, but they’re even MORE expensive, and they also come with their own issues that black-n-white e-Readers don’t have.)
Yeah, eReaders have more battery life than phones, and they’re also easier on the eyes. But overall, why buy an e-Reader to jailbreak if you already have a phone?
I use a tablet but I think a phone would work just as well. Never actually tried an e-reader to do a comparison but haven’t had any issues so far to incentivise me to do so.
I will pick up my phone to look at the time, use it for 15 minutes, put it down and still not know what the time is. With ebook readers this is not the case
Plenty of reasons.
An e-reader is essentially what a book was 20 years ago, except it’s an entire library.
Using it doesn’t deplete your phone’s battery, and a good e-reader can stay powered for a week or more with constant usage. Your phone, given all the background services etc., would die within 8-10 hours.
Then there’s the display. Better aspect ratio for reading, better approach for readability (eink), better optimised for reading (cold-warm frontlight), the list goes on.
- Easy to read in sunlight
- No eyestrain
- No distractions
- Long battery life, and you preserve the battery of your phone
- Doesn’t get warm in your hand like a smartphone
This is why I only use ereaders with true eInk screen (no LCD) and without Android
Yeah idk you can get a working e reader that is over 10 years old for 15€ so they aren’t that expensive.
Follow up question: any recommendations? I definitely don’t want kindle, and the only alternative I often see mentioned is kobo. But it seems that also comes with its own software pre-installed? Can it be easily replaced without jailbreaking? Do you need a kobo account for anything?
Are there other brands that don’t try to push you into their ecosystem?
Kobo offers one of the most open and cheapest platforms. Great variety as well in features and models.
I want to upgrade my really old kindle for a Clara colour.
I have a box palma 2 and a supernote a5x. I like both, but for different things. The palma 2 is primarily for reading fiction on the go. The supernote is for handwritten notes, doodles, or reading larger format textbooks or research paper PDFs.
Backlit screens are often impossible to read in direct sunlight.
E-paper dominates on the beach or by the pool.
Lack of distraction, easier on the eyes, larger screen, much easier to read if it’s sunny out.
I like to use it as an extra screen for when I’m taking notes on a pdf/ebook on my laptop, so I don’t need to dedicate half my laptop screen to the book. And like I said, it’s a bigger screen than my smartphone.
I will answer to some things
- they’re expensive, but they also outlast most modern laptops. A first gen Sony still fulfills its purpose of reading epubs. So in the end it isn’t as expensive. Secondhand it is also a lot cheaper and again, they don’t age that much
- most readers are waterproof
- e-readers have little storage, but a book is a few MB’s. So even with 16gb, you probably never fill it
- color is fun, but I’d recommend steering away if your end goal is reading books. You need to push the backlight way earlier than on a bw ereader. If you do read comics, it looks like an old newspaper in terms of picture quality. The colors are far from accurate, but you only notice this side by side with the actual comic/phone
- I would steer away from kindles. They’re known to just update and kill your setup. There are plenty of devices in which you can play around without this issue. Kobo and pocketbook are in my opinion the most viable options. Long battery life, supports many formats, supports koreader if you want. Boox is also fun, but due to android the battery life is a lot less. With the boox you’re able to run Android apps though, so you could more easily use it like a notepad with your familiar apps
I have a boox and battery life is really not an issue at all.
I prefer reading on an ereader. I find them easier on the eyes, especially in the evening and you can bring them into bright sunlight - they will work even better.
Another topic is: an ereader is for reading. Not checking mail, discord or signal. Not for browsing Lemmy. Not to quickly check up on something. It’s for sitting down, relaxing and reading. That is worth the investment for me.
Also, they keep. I can still use my first gen keyboard kindle after 15+ years.
I since then upgraded to a pocketbook for reading and a onyx air 5c for ttrpg sourcebooks and I could not be happier.
What apps do you use?
Preinstalled ones and Libby/Onleihe. Especially the box one has all I need to read the tons of pdfs I have from humble bundles and bundles of holding.
I chose an e-ink ebook reader.
Specifically because I wanted the ability to turn backlighting off, and use a soft warm book light to read by.
And also the fact that it uses an extremely low amount of power is great. I still forget where the charging port is after a year and a half with it because I don’t need to charge it very often, even with the amount of reading I do. The biggest power drain is the lighting.
Plus I like being able to toss my phone away and not have notifications while reading my digital collection.
I can’t upvote this enough. You nailed it all
I just bought a ReMarkable Paper Pure tablet for note taking, but have discovered that it’s really nice as an e-reader too. I think I’m limited to free e-pub sites like Project Gutenberg, but it’s just really easy on the eyes and the battery life is crazy long. Also, I can just set it down and don’t have to switch it off. I just finished Agatha Christie’s “And then there were none” on it last night and I’m not a huge reader either, but it was just so much nicer to use than my phone. One of the reasons too is that I don’t get endless notifications and other distractions while I’m using it.
Why are you limited to gutenberg only? What about anna’s archive?
(makes a note of that) Thanks! 😁
| and they’re also easier on the eyes
This is my main reason for preferring to read on e-readers. A book is a long-ass journey, and to be staring at a regular screen for that long can be painful business.
I also like that there’s at least the suggestion of old-school physical connection to the book. It’s a device that does just one thing (and is very good at it as a result), and you find yourself treating it the way you used to treat a paper book. I guess it’s the same sort of “positive friction” you get when you listen to vinyl or something like that. Makes the experience a bit nicer. Like, yeah, you could open notepad on a smartphone and read the complete works of Shakespeare for free in Courier New font, having to scroll every 2 paragraphs, but who the fuck wants to do that?
The basic form factor of the book has been perfected over centuries, and e-readers emulate it to a fair degree.
I think most e-readers are waterproof, too 🤔 One would hope so, at least! Reading in the tub or on a beach is one of the benefits of its portability.
Why would you buy a laptop instead of using your phone?
Different argument altogether.
For e-reader, it really depends on the user’s sensitivity to size.
I don’t care for e-readers at all. I love the concept of many books on a single device, it just doesn’t work for me.
Primarily the reasons you gave in your closing. Battery and easier on the eyes.
But I also like that it’s dedicated to just books, without the myriad of other distractions that a phone brings.
Perfect answer.
Seconded
