Which e-reader should I buy?

Between earthquakes and RSI, I’ve reached a point in my life where an e-reader would be an advantage. I’m not fussy about features.

  • I basically want to read books on it, synced from my (Mac) laptop.
  • I rarely if ever read anything that requires colour.
  • It must have native ePub capability (I’m not buying a Kindle); ideally I’d like it to support a range of basic formats like pdf, txt, rtf, html, but can survive if some of these have inexplicably not been implemented.
  • I like the idea of e-ink but am comfortable with LCD screens too.
  • Storage space and battery life are important though not to the exclusion of other considerations (including price).
  • Something RSI-friendly would be nice – lightweight, comfortable, with left-hand/right-hand redundancy.

I think I’m probably looking at a Nook or a Kobo and of the two I think I like the Nook better, but this is based entirely on looking at websites and feature comparison charts. All the charts say you should try them out yourself, but last time I saw anything one could try out was in a bookstore just before Christmas, and as near as I could tell approximately a gazillion other customers had already tried them out and broken them. As for now… half the bookstores in town are destroyed or inaccessible and the other half are on the verge of bankruptcy (okay, I admit it, I can name two exceptions, but neither has e-readers) and right now unnecessary travelling wears me out.

Bonus features I’d like but aren’t necessary since I don’t know if they really exist:

  • Full Unicode support (including Māori macrons). You wouldn’t think this would be so hard, and yet… Seriously, let me know if you know of anyone doing this.
  • Note-taking functionality – but not if to get that I have to also get a thousand other features and pay through the nose for the combo. An iPad, for example, would be ridiculously overpowered for my purposes.

Experiences, (dis)recommendations?

2 thoughts on “Which e-reader should I buy?

  1. CW

    I can’t comment on the Nook, not having seen or used one, but I have used a Kobo, and now use a Sony.

    The Kobo (make sure you get the version 2 model which has a faster processor than the earlier model) is a nice light basic machine. However on terms of left-hand and right-hand redundancy it is very right-hand-centric as the control button is located for right hand use.

    You haven’t mentioned the Sony at all but I will say that it is excellent in terms of the right and left hand thing – it has a touch screen so you really dont need to worry how you want to turn the page – flick left or right anywhere on the screen using either hand. The touch screen also allows you to annotate the book you’re reading quite nicely.

    In terms of formats both the Nook and the Kobo do epub but as far as I know the Nook uses a proprietary (Barnes & Noble specific) DRM, while Kobo uses Adobe Digital Editions. (Sony also uses Adobe.)

    If you buy a Nook I don’t think you will be able to buy from B&N at all (geo-restrictions strike again). I don’t know if there will be a problem with getting books from places like Kobo or Borders (both use ADE), given the DRM issue… (I’d suggest checking this out before committing to a Nook, for this reason. There would be a way around the DRM but this would not be legal, and not to mention fiddly.)

    In terms of full unicode support I dont know of any of the major ereaders that does, unfortunately.

    This is a rather long comment, if you want to debate ereader pros and cons with me find me at Twitter 🙂

    Con aka @flexnib

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  2. Deborah Fitchett

    Thanks! Another friend has recommended the PocketBook 360 which I’d never heard of before but fell in love with at first sight: it’s nice and basic just as I want, and is light and flexible for my RSI, and has lots of formats and even, wonder of wonders, Unicode, which pretty much sold it.

    It doesn’t read DRMed ebooks, but I have technology I’m willing to fiddle with, and my reading of the NZ Copyright Amendment Act is that it’s legal to remove DRM for the purpose of exercising one’s fair use rights (which I take to include the right to read a book one has legally purchased/leased/borrowed). (Store licenses likely complicate the issue; I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.)

    My sister’s getting a Kobo though, and I think a friend is going the same route as a gift for someone – due to geo-restrictions it seems the best/simplest option in New Zealand at present. I just have very idiosyncratic criteria. 🙂

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