E-ink tablets

[touchingcloth]

My Kindle has a borked backlight which has caused an annoying bright spot in the middle of the page which I've covered up - to an extent - with a smear of Sharpie.

I quite fancy replacing it with something non-Bezos, ideally something that allows for note taking as well as reading. Other than that, priorities are:

- Paperback size (my current Kindle is a 6.8" screen, which is perfect)
- Backlight
- Wireless syncing for ebooks ideally compatible with Calibre
- Wireless syncing notes to iCloud, Mac, PC, in that order of preference
- Bath proof
- Not a laggy, annoying piece of shit
- <200€ (ha ha ha)

I'm not arsed about a colour display (I prefer e ink for ease of reading and battery life), nor the ability to install apps. I want something that does ebooks and note taking, and does them well.

Lack of a browser/Wikipedia are positives rather than negatives to reduce distractions. Kindles are shite with PDFs (zooming in is laggy and buggy as fuck, so you're limited to peering at tiny text with entire pages shrunk to fit - the ability is really a novelty than of practical use on Kindles) so the ability to handle those better would be good.

I'm sure I heard someone waxing lyrical about theirs recently, but can't remember who or in which thread.

[QDRPHNC]

THAT WAS ME

I have the Mobiscribe Origin, which isn't the fanciest or the prettiest, but I like it.

Boox and Supernote are worth looking it. Check out a YT channel called My Deep Guide, he'll set you straight. I don't think any e-ink screen can handle resizing PDFs brilliantly, but I know the latest couple of Boox models have gotten pretty speedy.

[touchingcloth]

THAT WAS ME

I have the Mobiscribe Origin, which isn't the fanciest or the prettiest, but I like it.

Boox and Supernote are worth looking it. Check out a YT channel called My Deep Guide, he'll set you straight. I don't think any e-ink screen can handle resizing PDFs brilliantly, but I know the latest couple of Boox models have gotten pretty speedy.

I THOUGHT IT WAS BUT I DIDN'T WANT TO @ YOU

Thanks for the advice. None of them seem to quite fit the bill, sadly, whether based on price, bugginess, battery life, or form factor. The Kobo Sage was sounding quite attractive until realising how much the price leaps when adding a stylus into the mix.

I'll probably just drive my current Kindle into the ground (slash inevitably drop it into the bath) and see what the market's like then, potentially switching for a Kobo Libra if the note-taking situation doesn't improve some, given that for me that's really a nice extra rather than a necessity.

[Dex Sawash]

Should invent E-Tippex to fix your old one

[touchingcloth]

Should invent E-Tippex to fix your old one

Sharpie, mate.

[touchingcloth]

Fuck it. It's Xmas, and it might be the Boox Nova Air I buy later when smashed.

[QDRPHNC]

So did you do it? I feel like I need one more person before I can petition Barry for a full e-ink tablet sub forum.

[touchingcloth]

I didn't do it. Couldn't justify the 350€ to myself, even when drunk at Christmas.

There's a brand called TopJoy out there who have a colour model they're crowdsourcing for at the moment, but I'm reticent because of the (understandable) lack of reviews, and while the 50% cheaper price compared to Boox is tempting, I'm leery about the risk with it being a crowdfunding job that hasn't launched yet.

Boox Nova Air is where my research landed me at as the best thing for my needs (Supernote A6 would have tipped things if I was more interested in writing than reading), but there's nothing which quite fits the various bills for me, mainly having battery life, A5-ish size, and waterproofing in the same device.

[QDRPHNC]

That's fair, if you're not so fussed on the writing side of it, I can see why you'd hesitate at that price.

I'd be leery of the TopJoy too, there was a recent crowdsourced one, can't remember the name, that turned out to be a bit of a bust.

[touchingcloth]

That's fair, if you're not so fussed on the writing side of it, I can see why you'd hesitate at that price.

I'd be leery of the TopJoy too, there was a recent crowdsourced one, can't remember the name, that turned out to be a bit of a bust.

I'll keep an eye on it, and if the reviews come in good then on release then I might shell out TopWhack for one.

Thanks for the tip on My Deep Guide, by the way. Seriously in depth stuff, and without the usual fannying about that a lot of reviewers on YouTube are into.

[Dex Sawash]

Google is now stalke-ink me since I posted here.
New tabs for twe-ink lovers

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/tcl-announces-three-new-tablets/

[touchingcloth]

Somewhat surprisingly, colour screens and cameras make them sound a lot less desirable than black and white, basic note taking models to me.

[QDRPHNC]

I'm similar - even the speakers on the Boox Note Air put me off a bit, couldn't imagine ever needing them on that type of device. Lovely otherwise though.

[touchingcloth]

The amount of times I've been back to look at reviews means I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the Boox if my pay increase gets confirmed. The only thing it's really missing is waterproofosity, and I can keep my old Kindle for using in the bath and pool. Most reviews mention the user experience being fairly shite, but having spent chunks of 2008 browsing the web via Opera on a DS I'm pretty sure I can handle it. I can see myself using it to "watch" YouTube while falling asleep.

[Ferris]

The wife is after one of these jobs, our kindles have finally given up the ghost after 12 years of service.

Someone recommended a Kobo, are they any good?

[touchingcloth]

All of my research has led me to the conclusion that Kobos are maybe slightly better than Kindles, at the cost of being slightly more expensive.

The cheapest waterproof Kobos have physical page turn buttons compared to the Kindle being solely touchscreen. If that's not a dealbreaker, the main difference is whether you're already tied into Kindle through having purchased Ebooks via Amazon.

[Ferris]

I often sail the high seas for books (on the basis that I probably own whatever it is I'm reading already, albeit in actual book form) so not connected to Amazon. We both like having non touch screen, non internet, non speaker (etc) devices because it means there's no temptation when reading a book to check emails or put some music on then get completely sidelined and forget about reading. Happily, that means devices should be (?) cheaper than any fancy equivalents.

Sounds like Kobo might be the business.

[touchingcloth]

Those sorts of devices are cheaper, aye. The absolute cheapest out there is the basic Kindle (90 USD), and the Kobo Clara (120 USD) is basically an identical device

The Kindle Paperwhite (140 USD) is essentially the same as the basic Kindle but with waterproofing and a warm backlight for a chekky night time read. If I was in the market for something which was purely an e-reader then I'd probably go with the Kobo Libra H2O (170 USD), which has everything the Paperwhite does plus physical page turn buttons, and a very slightly larger screen.

People rave about the OS on Kobos being better than Kindles, but I've never actually used one myself. It's worth watching some YouTube reviews or whatever to see it in action, and then if you like the look of it the choice comes down to whether you're arsed about waterproofing or physical buttons for turning pages.

[QDRPHNC]

Yep, I had a Kobo before I moved to the Mobiscribe. Great device, don't think I ever had a problem with any type of file.

[Ferris]

Nice one, thanks both!

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Which cock at Amazon decided that putting the power button on the bottom of the Kindle, where there's more likelihood of it being pressed accidentally, was a good idea?

[touchingcloth]

Sucks for Wordle, however.

[Ferris]

Wife went for the Kobo and it's a great little device. $250 (~150 quid) so not cheap but not too bad all things considered.

[touchingcloth]

I think ~£150 is about the starting price for devices where the consensus seems to nudge above "meh". Which did she go for? H2O?

[Ferris]

Kobo Libra 2. Actually it was cheaper than I thought, $210 so more like 125 quid.

[touchingcloth]

Bet my thing shits on it. It has a stylus, so there, what does your "wife" make of that?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I've got a nook, it cost £30 in 2013 and fills the page when viewing pdfs which is more than some of the modern ones do seemingly.

The general navigation is woeful, but that doesn't matter much once you've got the book open. More annoyingly its concept of a page bears no relationship to a screen's worth of text (so if you change the text size this gets even worse). Might need to replace the battery soon though, that's another £12.

[Ferris]

We were both using gen 1 kindles from 2010 until last year when they both gave up the ghost around the same time.

@touchingcloth this thing is touchscreen and comes with a stylus so I suspect she'd politely titter at your offering tbh. Bit embarrassing but don't blame you for trying.

[QDRPHNC]

This is pretty great. With my line of work I could never use one, but if you were able to, it must be lovely on the eyes.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I always thought they should make digital photo frames with e-ink screens, once they can do colour. It would be a lot better than those rubbish LCD ones.