Upgrading!

[ladysprite]

So in spite of having held out and promising myself I'd never do it, I finally broke down a couple of years ago and bought myself an e-reader. I wound up with a Nook Simple Touch, and I have been madly in love with it ever since.

Except now it's starting to get a bit old. (Not that old; the original one glitched a little more than a year ago and had to be replaced.) It's running out of battery at random intervals, completely unrelated to how recently it's been charged, and sometimes it's just not responding. Nothing too bad, but it's starting to become a pattern. And I'm left with the thought of what to do.

I love the Simple Touch. What I want, most of all, is a way to read books, and that's all it does, and it does it well. And it's a lot easier for me to read on e-paper than it is on a standard monitor. And it's small enough to fit easily in my purse, and it doesn't weigh a ton.

Except... it doesn't do color. Or pictures. And I'd dearly love the ability to read graphic novels. I just don't know if I want that enough to give up my (slightly) easier reading.

And if I *do* decide to upgrade.... I'm not quite sure what to go with. umbran has a Nook Tablet, and he loves it, but if I am going to upgrade and get a tablet, is the Nook tablet worth it, or should I just bite the bullet and get an actual tablet?

I know bless-all about tech devices; I just know that I like reading, and maybe might want to upgrade my reader. Or maybe not. But I also know that my friends are smart and experienced and more knowledgeable in this field than I am.

So... opinions? What's your favorite e-reader, if you have one? What do you think would suit me best?

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Once you want color, you're removing yourself from the e-paper realm, period (there isn't color e-ink yet), and looking at a tablet. In which case I recommend the Google Nexus 7, which is at this point pretty much my primary computer.

But that's no longer an e-reader purchase.

[blaisepascal]

There is color e-ink, but from all I've heard it isn't as good as the b/w or greyscale stuff. PocketBook announced plans to release an 8" color e-ink tablet by mid-year (we will see if those plans hold up). I agree basically with the rest.

My current color ereader is a Galaxy Note, which is a "phablet". It's got a smaller screen than my Kindle, but I haven't broken the screen on it yet, I can carry it everywhere, and it's a phone (with all that entails). It's not a full tablet replacement, though.

[grum]

I wish there were color epaper already. Id love an 8.5*11 color ereader.

But lacking that. I use my nook a little. Not enough, phone is easier. And am seriiusly considering an xl phone or small tablet + dumb phone for the next phone uphrade. We'll see.

Good luck and id like to see what you decide on. Please keep lj updated as you search.

[laurion]

At that point, yes, go for an actual tablet. Unless you want to get technical and 'root' something like the Nook Tablet into a full blown tablet. In general, an actual tablet will do everything the 'ereader tablets' do, but the reverse is not true. Comparable screens, comparable battery life, etc.

Nexus 7 or iPad Mini are potentially the right way to go, in terms of full capability with in-the-bag portability.

But on the other hand, the Kindle Paperwhite is a beautiful ereader...

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

The e-ink devices are nice in that they only use power when you're turning the page, not while you're staring at it. And they're a bit easier on the eyes, I think, than a colour LCD screen. I still use my Kindle for reading books, even though I have a tablet and could read them there. Mind you, the tablet isn't a bad reading experience, either, but it doesn't have the battery life of the Kindle.

The iPad mini I have isn't much bigger than my Kindle (and a bit thinner). I can carry it in my purse as easily as the Kindle (and sometimes both of them together, but it has a colour screen so I can see pictures and such on it. I also can draw on it, which was a use case I never even imagined when I got it, so you'll likely find other things to do with a tablet besides reading.

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

Seconded comments about ePaper vs conventional colour displays.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

My opinion is that ebooks are good at being books (and having really good sharpness and contrast and enormous battery life), and tablets are good at being light-weight sorta-computers (and being flexible and multi-tasking and glitzy).

I'm not sure what Nook Tablet is supposed to be good at.

I swear by my ancient, slow, barely sufficiently memoried, non-wireless, non-touchscreen, non-backlit Sony, because it's really good for reading text on, and I don't care about graphic novels, I want easily portable books, and I want to go on a trip without bringing one more charger.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

The Nook tablet is good... at being second place in a number of things, which actually works out pretty well.

I wanted something I could read on, something I could do occasional web-browsing and e-mail checking on, play a game every now and then, maybe read a comic book, as well as be a non-issue on size, and not make me wince thinking about the cost for what is basically an entertainment device. It does *all* of those things pretty well, if not best-in-class at any one of them, which makes it attractive for someone like me.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Makes perfect sense.

I use my ipod touch (whose primary purpose is to carry about an arbitrarily sized music library) for incidental gaming and browsing as well as emergency reading, and it's pocket-sized and thus more likely to be on my person at all times. The e-reader for me is a direct substitute of a stack of paperbacks, and I don't really want it to do anything other than be easily read.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

If you're thinking about a tablet but size is an issue, you might take a look at the iPad Mini. I have another friend who says it's the perfect compromise between a dedicated e-reader (she needs more functionality than just e-books) and a full-sized tablet (too large for her to hold comfortably one-handed). Just a datapoint.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

There's one thing I don't like about my tablet.

If I pick up my Kindle, I'm going to read.

If I pick up my tablet, there's a great deal of risk that I'll intend to read a book, and instead of going into the Kindle Appm, I'll check a few websites, check e-mail, maybe get distracted, and not read the book.

But if you don't need the discipline of a single-use device, it's wonderful to have a full fledged tablet.

(Edited to clarify what I meant by "intend(ing) to read".)

[whiffert.livejournal.com]

I have both a Kindle reader and Kindle Fire tablet. Both have their merits and I still use them both. The e-ink Kindle reader has unbelievable battery life, but apart from the browser, which is great for downloading from Project Gutneberg, it lacks tablety features.

The Fire is a good solid low cost tablet. I got the first released one with no camera or memory slot. The display is very nice and it is full of android goodness and lets you play Angry Birds when Anne Rice gets a bit too heavy. The reader is about the same, but gives you a light beige background, not sure why.

Mother got the Fire as her reader of choice. I am not sure if she even uses the applications. Fire battery life if 2-3 hours on a good day, but it charges quite fast.

[droewyn.livejournal.com]

I've got a Nook Glow *and* a tablet. The tablet's great for graphic novels, but I don't read anything else on it. I mainly use it for media.

The Nook/Kindle tablets are excellent for the price... IF you don't mind being restricted to their respective app stores. We bank through a credit union, for instance, and while the banking app is on the Google Play store, it's not available in the B&N shop. We didn't realize this when we bought the Nook tablet (HD+), and so I'm working to root it because artificial restrictions bother me.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I find the (standard, pre-retina) iPad screen to be *just* big enough to read comics on, and only occasionally find myself wanting to zoom in. I'd hate to be reading on something so small that I had to zoom in all the time. (Though being able to zoom when I want is a blessing!)

[tinyplasticmeat.livejournal.com]

I have a Kindle and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. The Kindle is used solely for reading and I love the e-ink so, so much. It also takes up no space and requires almost no charging (goes for a month or so between charges being used at least an hour or so a day). It requires no Wi-Fi (although the newest ones have it) and gets all the books by Amazon's WhisperSync technology. The barebones one is just $69 now.

The Tab is for watching movies, computerizing in bed, etc. It needs to be charged a lot and needs a WiFi connection to do just about anything useful, so I only use it at home or at my mom's. It cost me $150--sale at Woot.

I like having both, and I like having the lack of distractions when I read on the Kindle.

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

I love my Kindle for reading, but until there's something with a color e-paper interface, I'm sticking to hardcopy for graphic novels and books with lots of illustrations.

I've toyed with the idea of getting a tablet, but I just don't have enough use for one to justify it.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

One of our options is to get her a new Nook Simple Touch when her current one gets squirrely, and consider buying a full-sized tablet "for the house" - useful for graphic novels, my Marvel Comics Digital Unlimited subscription, taking recipes from the web into the kitchen, tabletop gaming reference, and so on.

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cunning plan...

[mamatiger.livejournal.com]

If you don't care about access to the Google app store, the new Kindle Fire HD is supposed to be pretty cool, and accesses the web and email as well as movies and books. Otherwise the Galaxy 7 is the economical choice, the iPad/mini if you want to spend the big bucks. 7 inch tablets are comfortable in one's hands, the 10 inch ones, not so much, but do of course have the bigger/nicer display.

You'd have to go to a store and try them out in your own hands to get a feel for what works for you.