What e-reader are you guys using? I’m seriously thinking of getting one, preferrably cheap, but not too small.
How small is too small? Most e-readers have an 6 inch display (with 5 inch being the tiniest on the market). The biggest have 9,7.
I’ve considered buying a Barnes&Noble Nook Simple Touch, but I am not sure that buying such a thing would be a good choice in our days, given that the price difference between this one [though, it’s a relativity cheep one] and a full-functional tablet, Google Nexus 7, for instance, is not critical.
Tablet will allow the flexibility you may require as a language learner [a dictionary of your choice, flashcards, etc]. With the reader you just get what you get. The only possible advantage of a reader is probably a “sun-friendly” screen, or… just the fact that you may really like it without a really special reason to.
I have a Pocketbook Pro with a 6" screen (there is also a 9" option). While not the cheapest on the market, it has excellent language support, with text-to-speech and dictionaries in nearly every language combination I can think of. It also supports every ebook format I have ever come across, including PDF with reflow.
I can heartily recommend it for reading English, French, German and Russian.
With Japanese you are restricted to using PDFs but I think that’s probably the case with all e-ink devices on the market. If you want to read proprietary Japanese ebook formats I think you need to go Android.
p.s. Although e-ink is not as quick and sexy as LCD it is much easier on the eyes, which is important if you like to read for long periods. It also can be read easily in bright sunlight.
Thank you both for your input.
@eugrus, I’ve considered getting a tablet too, but a good one in Brazil is three times as expensive as a reader, and the Nexus 7 is not available here yet. The screen issue is also important, as I hate reading off LCD screens.
@skyblueteapot, I’ll look into the Pocketbook Pro. It appears to be just what I’m looking for, IF I can find it for a reasonable price here (which usually means three times as much as it costs in the US).
PS.: It looks like I’ll have to wait until my next trip to the US to get either a tablet or an e-reader. The prices here after taxes are killing me.
Hi Elric,
Recently I’ve bought the newest model from Pocketbook, the Pocketbook Touch 622, and I like it very much. Especially looking up words in the dictionary is much faster than doing this on my android tablet. The 6 inch are just fine for me because it is so easy to take it with you. And the quality of the eInk is quite good. Much better than on my tablet, and that was the reason why I’ve bought an eBook reader too.
I can highly recommend even if it is not the cheapest one.
Nice. Thank you, Vera. I’ll take a look into that one, too.
Hi Elric,
I’ve bought a kindle touch and I have to admit that it is frustrating. If you want a e-reader only to train your english it’s OK because you only can read books from Amazon. Amazon is a virtual bookstore with very few titles in portuguese.
I’ve been using my e-reader basically to read blogs and newspapers with apps Calibre and Readability. I wrote about my experience with the kindle touch in my blog, that I invite you to visit: Jornadas da Alma: Sofrendo com o Kindle .
Greetings,
Luiz
I’ve been using a Sony eReader for the last couple of years. It supports ePub, PDF, and MS-Word files, and has great built-in dictionaries between English and French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. All in all, it gets an 87% rating from me.
Having said that, next time I go to buy (soon?) I’ll most probably get an iPad and use a reader-app on that.
(The Teapot’s weapon of choice also sounds very impressive, however.)
Jay_B, I’m not too eager to get a tablet, as I said, as they’re crazy-expensive here. The Sony sounds good to me. When you get your new tablet, you can send your eReader to me.
luiz, thank you for the blog link. Very useful info in there. I was coincidentally reading about the Positivo Alfa this morning, and I think it might be the best option for me, since it has two crucial characteristics I need, to be able to read a variety of formats, inexpensive and not hard on my eyesight.
I just saw in the newspaper that the Brazilian government has passed a law relieving e-readers from import taxes. Yay! That should cut off at least one third of the price.
the quality of the eInk is quite good
I would recommend SiPix over E-Ink.
looking up words in the dictionary is much faster than doing this on my android tablet
I am quite surprised to hear that. What e-reading app and dictionary are you using on Android? I find looking up words in FBReader*, integrated with ColorDict^ flawless.
@Eugrus: I use MoonReader + with ColorDict on my tablet.
Actually my ebook reader has an E Ink Pearl display. I had no opportunity to compare eInk with SiPix. But here in this overview with some eBook readers: E-Book-Reader in der Übersicht - teltarif.de Ratgeber I found only the Oyo with SiPix, and according to what you can read in eBook reader forums there are better ones than the Oyo.
I would recommend SiPix over E-Ink.
Eugrus, why? And thanks for the Google Play links.
Ernie and Vera,
I’ve mistakenly thought that Nook Simple has SiPix, while that was in fact the Pearl screen. So, I take this part back. As to Perl screens, the background is just whiter, than in older E-Inks. The contrast is also better.
eugrus, thanks for the clarification. Looking around, I came across these comparisons, too: SiPix vs E Ink – eReader Screen Technologies Compared | The eBook Reader Blog .