[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by GTO

Recently bought a Kindle and I can tell you this : For reading books, it blows everything away (from iPads to Galaxys) away to smithereens. Nothing touches it for the reading experience (so paper-esque), bookstore collection (i.e. amazon.com), convenience (small, light & outstanding battery life) and price.

+1. The E-Ink technology as a whole, are good for reading experience.

Originally Posted by GTO

I find Kindle books to be superbly priced. Then, the device itself is so cheap. I got the ad-supported version for $70. Because its so cheap, I'd suggest you get a Kindle either ways for your reading, and something else to handle PDFs.

The kindle am not so enthusiastic coz of their proprietary format of 'mobi' as opposed to the universal 'epub' all others have taken to. I understand we can convert using it using some tools, but would have been happier if they had that built-in to the device. Also, the other readers provide you with options to extend the storage with a micro-SD card. And, even in the display the kobo Aura HD has better resolution and lighting technology. The kindle scores only on the huge library base of Amazon.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

The kindle am not so enthusiastic coz of their proprietary format of 'mobi' as opposed to the universal 'epub' all others have taken to. I understand we can convert using it using some tools, but would have been happier if they had that built-in to the device.

When Kindle was designed, epub format was not even available. You can't expect them to develop a product around an open standard that was still under development. Now as market leader, they have no reason to change their format.

Originally Posted by JMaruru

Also, the other readers provide you with options to extend the storage with a micro-SD card. And, even in the display the kobo Aura HD has better resolution and lighting technology. The kindle scores only on the huge library base of Amazon.

Roughly, Kindle can hold up to 1500 books of average size. Even if you read one book a week, that is good enough for 30 years. You will run out of space only if you want to load audio books or lots of large PDFs. But you are better off with iPad or other tablets for those formats. Finally, if you are indeed running out of space, keep only the books you are reading, and archive the rest on your PC. Kindle is so cheap now, you can have it just for book reading.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by Samurai

You will run out of space only if you want to load audio books or lots of large PDFs. But you are better off with iPad or other tablets for those formats.

The Sony E-Readers render PDFs much better than others, coz of their unique reflow feature. If you want to stick with E-Ink and read PDFs, they are considered the best. Only drawback is, they do not have anything for reading in the dark. There are rumors PRS-T3 might come out with the lighting feature. If else, as of now Kobo Aura HD with 7" screen also does a better job than Kindle for PDFs, and their front light feature is much better than Kindle paperwhite.

[athanedar]

I bought 32 GB Amazon kindle for my brother in law as a gift and he absolutely loves reading books using the kindle.
I asked him what was the best thing he liked and he said couple of things :
1. The convinience of storing multiple books in tablet.
2. The unique feature of dicitionary which tells the meaning of words with just a easy press of finger on that word.

He cant keep his kindle down is his mother's complaint now.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by JMaruru

The Sony E-Readers render PDFs much better than others, coz of their unique reflow feature. If you want to stick with E-Ink and read PDFs, they are considered the best. Only drawback is, they do not have anything for reading in the dark.

I second the Sony Reader series. I zoom in and have the text reflow, and in the early days wondered why people complained about eInk readers. eInk readers are cheaper but also have slower processors, a problem that has plagued the Sony Reader series. I have a Sony Reader Touch PRS-600 and it's perfect for taking notes or highlighting something within a PDF, using the stylus. It also has finger gesture support (it's a resistive touch screen) for page turns.

Reading in the dark isn't really a problem if you buy the Sony Reader case - it comes with a reading light. The light is powered by an AA battery, unlike the Kindle cases that were powered from the Kindle battery, though I recall reading that using the cases with reading lights caused the Kindles to crash for some reason (maybe a voltage drop or something more complex; I can't recall why it occurred).

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by GTO

Recently bought a Kindle and I can tell you this : For reading books, it blows everything away (from iPads to Galaxys) away to smithereens. Nothing touches it for the reading experience (so paper-esque), bookstore collection (i.e. amazon.com), convenience (small, light & outstanding battery life) and price.

I find Kindle books to be superbly priced. Then, the device itself is so cheap. I got the ad-supported version for $70. Because its so cheap, I'd suggest you get a Kindle either ways for your reading, and something else to handle PDFs.

Totally agree with you. I have seen people use Sony and Nook but Kindle PW is brilliant. I have been using one for over a year now.

Agree on the PDF part, Kindle Paperwhite (PW) does not read PDF's too well. For that I use a Kindle Fire.

Best part about Kindles are that you done feel the need of a Laptop on shorter journeys. The prices and the content is good. However I would love to get a couple of the full newspapers in there. Currently it has very limited Indian content (There is the HT & Indian Express but they are very limited as compared to a proper journal).

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by athanedar

I bought 32 GB Amazon kindle for my brother in law as a gift and he absolutely loves reading books using the kindle.

This would be Kindle Fire, and it is a 'Tablet' and NOT an E-Reader.

Originally Posted by k_nitin_r

I second the Sony Reader series. I zoom in and have the text reflow, and in the early days wondered why people complained about eInk readers. eInk readers are cheaper but also have slower processors, a problem that has plagued the Sony Reader series. I have a Sony Reader Touch PRS-600 and it's perfect for taking notes or highlighting something within a PDF, using the stylus. It also has finger gesture support (it's a resistive touch screen) for page turns.

Reading in the dark isn't really a problem if you buy the Sony Reader case - it comes with a reading light. The light is powered by an AA battery, unlike the Kindle cases that were powered from the Kindle battery, though I recall reading that using the cases with reading lights caused the Kindles to crash for some reason (maybe a voltage drop or something more complex; I can't recall why it occurred).

The ReFlow feature of Sony helps in better rendering of PDFs. But i would hope they add the light as a built-in feature, in the forthcoming models.

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Agree on the PDF part, Kindle Paperwhite (PW) does not read PDF's too well. For that I use a Kindle Fire.

Kindle Fire is a tablet. For reading PDFs you can consider Sony, Onyx or even Kobo E-Readers.

[sumithb]

I have given up on eReaders! My Kindle and Kobo Glo were rendered useless after their screens cracked (basically there's a thin mirror behind the e-ink screen that is very fragile and cannot withstand shock) .

If you do buy an eReader, buy a good protective case for it as well.

[Samurai]

My Kindle will complete 3 years next month. I bought it with lighted leather cover. The elastic string has become a bit loose, no other issues with it.

[k_nitin_r]

I have a Sony Reader Touch that is just as old - 3 years. The leather case for the Sony Reader Touch has an integrated reading light that runs on an AA cell, unlike the Kindles. The battery now doesn't stay above 3 of 4 bars for very long but it can still outlast most tablets. These eReaders aren't very responsive compared to the mainstream tablets (Kindle Fire, Nexus tablet etc) and when they did make them more responsive, it was too little too late. Color e-ink didn't make it and now tablet prices are low enough that the e-reader market seems to have no recovery from its downfall.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by k_nitin_r

These eReaders aren't very responsive compared to the mainstream tablets (Kindle Fire, Nexus tablet etc) and when they did make them more responsive, it was too little too late. Color e-ink didn't make it and now tablet prices are low enough that the e-reader market seems to have no recovery from its downfall.

Earlier, they used infra-red for the e-reader displays. These days, you are getting e-readers with capacitive displays. So, going ahead it should be as responsive as the tablets.

[JMaruru]

The best deal of cyber monday, the 'kobo aura' is going for $99. This is only for today. I paid $149/- to get one.

[theexperthand]

I recently brought a Kobo Glo, thanks to the posts in Amazon Kindle thread at Team-BHP. Received the device yesterday and the experience is on a different plane altogether compared to reading on my tab \ phone.

I ordered it from eBay (seller oddlots_eletronics (Croma) ) and the shipping was fast. Paid about 4.7K for the device.

The shipment arrived in Croma branded packing and it was a fresh box piece. Few unboxing pictures:









The package contained the reader, few leaflets and a micro usb data cum charging cable. No wall socket charger is supplied along with the package.

The usable space in the device is around 1.32 GB. I have not yet loaded a micro USB though the device suppots SD cards upto 32 GB.

The initial setup was straightforward - connect the device to PC, download the kobo desktop from kobosetup.com and run the program on the PC - but it did take some time to finish the setup. Once the setup was complete, I side loaded few eBooks I already had (ePub and txt format) and Kobo picked them up once I ejected the device.

The UI is straightforward to use and we can build our own collections (something akin to playlists for songs). This is very useful since all the books I side loaded was getting displayed in a flat manner (no folder structure visible).

The glow feature is very good - the lighting is non intrusive and I did not find any patches - the lighting is even across the surface and reading in dark is effortless.

I want to buy a case for this, but it is not available easily - so planning to order one from AliExpress.

All in all, I am very happy with the purchase.

--Anoop

[venuvedam]

How is the Kobo catalog compared to Kindle store? Good enough? Can these eBooks be read (at least those purchased from Kobo) on smartphones/tabs too?

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by venuvedam

How is the Kobo catalog compared to Kindle store? Good enough? Can these eBooks be read (at least those purchased from Kobo) on smartphones/tabs too?

I am yet to make a visit to the Kobo store - but what I gathered from other sources is that the store is not as good as Amazon store.

Yes, you can download Kobo app on your smartphone\ tab\ computer and can read books on other devices also - Kobo offers bookmark sync bwteen different devices.

--Anoop