e-Book readers - any good?

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Having hauled the contents of a small university library over the Channel and back I think it is time to invest in an e-Book reader and am looking for some feedback on them.

  1. Are they as good as they say they are?
  2. How long does a charge last?
  3. Can they display diagrams/pictures?
  4. How waterproof are they?
 
1. Yes
2. Kindle lasts about three weeks with wifi/3G turned off.
3. Kindle does.
4. They're not, but waterproof covers are available for not a lot of money.
 
I owned a Sony E-Reader which was pretty good - early technology now. These days I rely on my tablet and smartphone - they are not as good as a dedicated eReader, but I'm going to be carrying them anyway and I don't want to lug an ebook reader round as well...
 
Camelia said:
Having hauled the contents of a small university library over the Channel and back I think it is time to invest in an e-Book reader and am looking for some feedback on them.

  1. Are they as good as they say they are?
  2. How long does a charge last?
  3. Can they display diagrams/pictures?
  4. How waterproof are they?
Click to expand...

1. They're precisely as good as they say, assuming "they" are well-informed, unbiased and rational.
2. Depends how much use they get. Kindle claim something like 30 days. In practice, I get a week or two reading quite heavily.
3. Yes, but not usually with the clarity of a laptop or tablet. They also often struggle with pdf files with more than the most basic formatting (like columns). And many are monochrome.
4. About as waterproof as a typical mobile phone, I'd say.

The best thing about Kindles (other than the 'Fire') is their e-ink display; no flicker, restful on the eye, tiny power draw. The Paperlight is especially handy on a boat, since you can read it in the dark. Of course there are other, sometimes cheaper, e-readers than Kindles.
Finally, along with MP3 players (and vast hard drives for movies), they might have been invented for life on board.
 
I've been using the KOBO for about 4 Months now.
Advantage of the KOBO is that it's not locked to Amazon, so you can store any PDF's, magazine downloads etc on it. I have maintenance manuals on mine alongside the books.
Battery life is phenomenal, it's rare that I don't use it daily and I charge it about once a Month (As long as you remember to switch it off when not in use)
It's great, and I love it, but the display of pictures and diagrams is poor. I'm seriously considering looking at the Kindle paperwhite to see how it stacks up against it for that reason.
 
The other advantage of the Kindle is that Amazon make the reader software available on multiple platforms, not just their own hardware - I use the Kindle reader software on my phone, tablet and PC despite the fact that I don't own a Kindle. My book library is on the Amazon cloud and I can access them from any device.
 
i have the old fashioned kindle like this one on ebay - they are now dead cheap and really excellent. if you get the 3g version you can download books without a wifi connection for free from amazon or access your amazon library from anywhere you can get a mobile phone signal

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amazon-Ki...=UK_iPad_Tablets_eReaders&hash=item2a40d23ccf

the built in light in the cover is great for reading in your bunk or the cockpit at night. once you have an amazon account you can email your kindle with pdfs of any instruction manual you have and then they read perfectly normally.

mine lasts for ages on one charge as long as you switch the wifi off. and i recharge mine on the boat with a travel charger that firs into a cigar 12v socket. (same charge does my nexus 7 and samsung phone!)

suggest you can source an old fashioned one like mine cheaply on ebay but the new basic ones are quite cheap. and you are not stuck with amazon. as one of the posts above says you can use calibre - an ebook managing program that's free (just put that into google). lets you convert any ebook file to mobi format (the kindle format) and also means you can download classics from project gutenberg and send them to your kindle. calibre is free and safe to use but does tend to update every week or so, so be prepared to spend ten minutes a week downloading the updates!
 
My iPad mini with Retina display gives a fabulous reading experience with the Kindle app. You can also put the iPad to other good uses.
 
I have had three Kindles now and they're great. I currently have a Paperwhite which is a cracking piece of kit and backlit which means I don't have to disturb SWMBO with the light on. The Paperwhite doesn't have the battery life of the non-backlit ones but lasts a good week of reading and charges fairly quickly from the mains.

One of the reasons I've had three is that they are not waterproof! However, I managed to dry mine out after a brief dunking and it works fine again.
 
maby said:
The other advantage of the Kindle is that Amazon make the reader software available on multiple platforms, not just their own hardware - I use the Kindle reader software on my phone, tablet and PC despite the fact that I don't own a Kindle. My book library is on the Amazon cloud and I can access them from any device.
Click to expand...

That in a nutshell is the reason I've bought in to the Kindle/Amazon thing as well...


  1. Are they as good as they say they are? I have a b&w Kindle and would say "yes"
  2. How long does a charge last? If I'm reading on it every day - weeks
  3. Can they display diagrams/pictures? Yes - but in black and white so diagrams will be better than pictures - like Maby I would us my Kindle app on the PC to look at pictures
  4. How waterproof are they? Errr - same as a bog standard phone or any other electronic device...
 
I use both a Kindle and the Kindle app on my ipad. The main advantage of the Kindle to me is that you can look up the meaning of words & order books. The ipad is useful because you can do other things on it, such as check email or ybw.com :) I think the ipad displays better but my Kindle's an older one so maybe the newer ones are better.

The things I most like about e-readers are being able to adjust the size of the text and never having to look for where you left off reading as they open at the last page you read.
 
Melody said:
The things I most like about e-readers are being able to adjust the size of the text and never having to look for where you left off reading as they open at the last page you read.
Click to expand...
They also sync across devices if you have the same book open on both.
 
Melody said:
I use both a Kindle and the Kindle app on my ipad. The main advantage of the Kindle to me is that you can look up the meaning of words & order books. The ipad is useful because you can do other things on it, such as check email or ybw.com :) I think the ipad displays better but my Kindle's an older one so maybe the newer ones are better.
Click to expand...

iPad great for general flexibility, but dedicated Kindle miles (weeks?) better in terms of battery life.
Like others I have Kindle app to use on whatever device is to hand - iPad (if charged), Android phone for short read whilst waiting for transport etc
 
Another advantage I have found with the Kindle (and it would apply to other e-readers, of course) is that you gain access to thousands of free books that you never knew existed. I download a lot from Project Gutenberg and get a list of latest releases every few days. I've read many interesting American books that I would never have found in UK bookshops.
 
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