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well after always saying how much i hate e-readers i have run out of space for books and i finally caved after having a go of my friends and ordered a kindle. i'll post a review of it after i've had it 4 a bit :)
Mod
Here's my Review:
Brand: Pico Life
Model: BK7001
Specifications:(Taken from harvey norman website)
Features Estimated Battery Life (hr): Up to 6.8 hours (E-book), Up to 40 hours (Music)
Battery Type: Li-polymer
Digital Media Cards Reader: MMC, SDHC, SD Memory Card
USB Ports: 1
Disk Drives Hard Drive Size: 2GB
Screen Screen Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 16:9
Screen Resolution: 800 x 480
Screen Size: 7"
Screen Type: LCD
Connections and Expansion Audio Ports: Headphone mini jack
Dimensions Product Width (cm): 13.3
Product Depth (cm): 1.29
Product Height (cm): 20.65
Product Weight (kg): 0.34
Pros: *$94...need i say more. i talked they guy down to that price(a fact which i quite proud of ... as i haven't done it before)
*Plays music while i read, so no need for separate mp3 player(even though i still do - out of habit)
*is in full colour and you can change the font colour.
*Zoom Function, i think it is standard, but i love how you can change it to suit you.
*adjustible backlight. you can make it lighter or darker.
*you can read if you are connected to a USB Charger(while charging).
*you can put it on standby
*it also has a timed powersaver funtion
*and it has a built in meter to check how the power is going... soo cool i watched it for about 10mins one day (yes... i was bored how could you tell?!)
*can also play video(i haven't tried it yet)
Cons:
*Zoom Fuction. i have been having a bit of trouble with. each time you enter a new book you have to set the font.
*It does not save your previous settings. you have to set it per book.and per charge or turn on or off.
*backlight has to be on 100% of the time. this is ok. but if you want to read outside on a somewhat sunny day this is impossible.you have to turn it right up and even then you have to angle it away so you don't get sun glare. Very annoying.
*comes only with a USB cord. in the manual, you are to this is used for, emergency chargeups. so you get a full charge, but the battry runs out quickly.
* you can't read while connected to a PC while your charging via PC
*this one was my biggest annoyance... powersaver function....GRRRRR.every time the reader had turned off or been charged, you have to go in and make sure your power saver fuction thing is set correctly. it will look like it is, but it seems to work if you go and double check.
*Another big annoyance. NO Protective cover Provided. i searched everywhere just to find one ... no luck.i ended up using an expandible file that is just the right size (and personally it does the job)
my next search is for a wall charger for it....wish me luck!
other than my few Gripes about the reader. i got used to it's "personality" pretty quickly and i worked around it's little and big quirks.
Edit:: my e reader broke in july 2011. It just stopped charging , tried several cords and chargers( charge by usb only) completly not charging. Shame because i really started to love that thing.
I have had my Sony Reader for about a year now, so I guess I can go ahead and review it safely..Brand: Sony
Model: PocketEdition
Screen: 5 in
Holds: 1,200 books
Size: 5.71x4.11x0.33 in
Battery Life: 14 Days on a single charge
USB port:1
Has a place to plug into wall charger
Pros: I love that it is lightweight and easy to carry in my purse. It has three different zooms stlyes making it easier to read in different lighting or if your like me and forget your glasses all the time!
The Sony store is easy to look through and they sometimes send you something for so much off a book and they will discount books often.
The battery life is also a plus and it has a powersave option when you leave it on for so long it turns off, the good part about it bookmarks your place and will return you back when you slide the power button over.
Cons: Mine doesn't have a back light, I am not sure rather the other ones do or not but mine doesn't and the cover with a book light is like $50.
The reader has froze once or twice and I had to google how to unfreeze it because it was not in the directions how to. It also did not come with a protective screen cover but I also haven't searched for one either and there may be one out there.
You can't read while the reader is charging on this one either and that kinda stinks but other than minor gripes except for the back light that is a major gripe
the Sony is a pretty good E-reader!
If you are searching for a reader remember I have had mine a year and they may have updated them since then :)
i've had my kindle for a little over a month now and i love it.Brand - Amazon Kindle
Model - 3rd Generation with Wi-Fi
Specifications (Taken From Amazon.co.uk)
Display Size - 6" diagonal
Display Type - E Ink Pearl
Size - 190mm X 123mm X 8.5mm
Weight - 241 grams
Storage - 3,500 Books
Battery with wireless off - 1 Month
Battery with wireless on - 3 Weeks
Books Download in 60 Seconds
PDF storage
Whispersync
Text to speech
Free Book Samples
real page numbers
Pros
there is no backlight so if u are reading while outside you can still see all the text clearly as you don't get a glare from the sun
the screen looks exactly like a real page in a book so you dnt really realise its not actually a page in a real book
the cover picture comes up on the kindle
really easy to use
very light and easy to carry around
If you decide 2 delete a book from the kindle amazon have all the books you have downloaded in your kindle account so you can re-download the book again for free
PDFs can be put on2 it really easily which is great for me as i have lots of uni wrk on pdfs
Cons
when i first got my kindle there were no page numbers on the e-books so i couldn't update my status on goodreads as it only came up with a percentage. recently amazon updated the kindle so that it supposedly has real page numbers on most of the ebooks that correspond with the hardback or paperback. however not all of the ebooks have page numbers on. most of the ones on my kindle still only say the percentage.
I bought my Sony PRS-350 after looking at loads of readers on the market. Imo the Kindle is a big ugly class less monstrosity. So I opted for the classy Sony. I haven't been disappointed with my choice and although it was £50 more than Kindle (now same price £111) I think It's worth every penny!Brand: Sony
Model: PRS-350
Screen: 5in infa red touch sensitive
Holds: 1,200 books
Size: 5.71x4.11x0.33 in
Battery Life: 2/3 weeks or 10k page turns
USB port:1
Has a place to plug into wall charger
Pros: I love that it is lightweight and fits easily in my jeans pocket. The touch screen is fantastic making page turning as easy as flicking a finger. The screen uses Eink and is just like ink on real paper. It has lots of different font sizes from xs to xxl and this makes reading very easy especially when just finishing that last chapter before bed when ya dog tired.
The battery life is also a plus and goes into a screen saver when left for a period of inactivity. It also bookmarks your place and will return you back when you slide the power button over.
I also discovered Htc mobile phone chargers can be used to charge the reader and are alot less expensive than official sony brands.
Cons: No back light and the Sony case with one built is expensive at £49.
Not much else really.
Imo a fantastic little ereader ;)
Mod
Have you got any of these and what to tell us about it?
Mod
http://www.toptenreviews.com/configur...
go through the questionnaire then check your reccomendation. then read the review .
i wouldn't suggest buying from this site (just in case it's dodgy)
I like my Kindle, except for one thing. You can download PDF's to it but you can't adjust the font. So it's usually really, really ... really (did I say, 'really') teeny.Norm
www.normcowie.com
I am looking for an e-reader at the moment. So I'm very glad to come across this thread. :-)
I bought myself a Nook Simple Touch for Christmas and I love it!! Brand: Nook
Model: Simple Touch
Specifications: WiFi, holds up to 1000 books(can buy a SD micro card to hold more), battery life is 720 hours(haven't timed it myself tho it does last awhile)
Pros: Great ereader for the price!! I love that I can take it anywhere and nobody can see what I am reading...if I am reading something steamy..lol. Charges quick. I love the dictionary feature for those words I need to look up at times. I can change the text..this comes in handy when I read on the treadmill, I just enlarge it to make it easier with all my moving around. It takes sideloads easy, so it works great with Calibre! Oh and I like that I can get library books on it!
Cons: I can honestly say I don't hate anything about it. If I could add anything to it I would make it compatible with audio books and would add a light for reading at night. (they have one now)
I agree with everything Jamie wrote about the Nook Simple touch. Absolutley love mine. I got mine in Feb then had to get the one with the glow light. Best money I've ever spent!! The light makes a huge difference.
Kelley wrote: "I agree with everything Jamie wrote about the Nook Simple touch. Absolutley love mine. I got mine in Feb then had to get the one with the glow light. Best money I've ever spent!! The light makes a ..."My fiance want's one...maybe I will give him mine and get the one with the glow light for me..lol!!
I have a look color and absolutely love it! It has thousands of free books to choose from. It has wi-Di so I rarely use my laptop anymore. I believe it can hold about 3,000 books and you can always add memory.
Mod
Especially helpful if auto correct tries to help you!
Mod
I have also been using aldiko for my netgalley reads and i love that too.
Mod
Cons
when i first got my kindle there were no page numbers on the e-books so i couldn't update my status on goodreads as it only came up with a percentage. "
When you update status of a book you are reading, it says "I'm on page ___ 'Book Name'" and the word page is highlighted. If you click on 'page' the sentence will now read "I am ____ % done with 'Book Name'" and the % symbol is now highlighted if you want to change back to page numbers.
I always do % even while reading paperback or hardback books as I might have the wrong version and it might have the wrong number of pages. I do a guess as 25%, 33% etc... I have multiple readers so don't want to fool with page numbers.
Coolreader app on my tablet and phone (android) actually adjusts the number of pages for how many more page turns you have. On my phone, I can have thousands of pages for a 300-400 page paperback depending on font. Totally arbitrary.
Hope it is useful info.
Mod
I've used
-Libre Pro 5"
-Libre 7" color
-Sharper Image Literati
-Augen the Book
-Kindle 2
-Kindle 3 (aka Keyboard)
-Kindle Fire
-Nook 2
Cannot review Augen's The Book as I got my Kindle shortly after and have used it very little.
Libre 5"
Pros - very small
- comes with pouch
- has PDF reflow (very big positive)
- Is a B/W (grey scale) LCD which can be read in light
- has SD card expansion
- Takes almost any format of ebook
- Your books are organized in folders
Cons
- page flips are on one side only
- LCD is low contrast
Libre 7"
Pros- backlit screen
Cons- slow
-too much light in dark rooms
-page flips on only one side of screen
Literati
Pros-color
-page flips both sides with no sounds
-inverse and font colors make really low light for night-time reading (was my favorite night reader)
- expansion card
Cons
-only takes epub and pdf
-if you want to go to a position in the book there is no way except by chapters and page turns. Some books don't put chapters.
Kindle 2 vs Kindle 3 and pros and cons
pros
-eInk, high contrast easy to read in day and outdoors with little eye strain
-landscape mode for pdf, some of the newer kindles don't have this an none have text reflow. Landscape is the only way to read PDFs on this, it will do 3 page turns for every PDF page but the font is readable and not teeny.
-Text to Speech, I use it only if in a really exciting part and I have to drive.
-page turns on both sides of unit (I like to switch hands and be able to page flip)
-Keyboard (mainly I like this when I read in bed and the unit is resting on my tummy as my comforter will block an inch or more of the lower half :-))
-3G to get books while out of country, yea.
Cons
-Need a light at night
-No text re-flow for all text PDF
-key turns can be noisy
-no go to percentage (why? Why? Why? they tell you percentage read, why not goto percent. No it is goto location which only has meaning to Kindle. I have to do division all the time; example 3725 times .32 for 32% in order to sync to where I am in the paperback or my tablet)
-page flash during page turns.
Kindle 2 issues that were fixed with 3
-Margin at the side were too big.
-Top header and footer wouldn't disappear during reading making the lines per page turn 2 lines less in normal font size
-most recent first is not quite right.
-Bigger and bulkier
-no page back button on right side.
Kindle Fire--
If you are a big Amazon person, not too tech savvy, and will get your books from Amazon only, then this is a great choice.
The biggest problem with the Fire is
-Books that don't come from Amazon may not show up on reader. This issue is all over the forums. I didn't believe it, until I used it. If you use other services and download to your computer, like gutenberg, ellora cave, baen books, or smash words, good luck in loading them.
I loaded several books and a few showed up in the documents tab instead of the books tab but some were just... missing. I installed ESfile explorer (from Amazon as Google Play is NOT supported) and then uploaded CoolReader apk through my email (not available through Amazon as it is competition to Kindle app) to the Fire and installed it. Guess what? All the books are there and readable but only visible in Coolreader.
OK next, no text to speech, the coolreader app even does that.
-no expansion slot (OK, as long as a reader has a couple of GB of space, that is OK but a tablet needs space for apps and much of the Fire's is taken by Amazon)
I figure it is better to get an Android tablet and install the Kindle app for your Amazon books. This way the Tablet has access to the Google Market and the Amazon Market. The Nexus 7 might be my next "Christmas Present".
So hope people will enjoy my little travel through the eReader circus.
My favorite eReader in light and out doors Kindle 3
My favorite eReader at night... My Android 7" tablet, HTC View(same as Flyer), with Coolreader app. I have a little travel experience through the eReader app world too. :-)
Got a Kindle Paperwhite in Nov.It's without doubt the best eReader I have owned, which is many. The Light is fantastic and the text is so crisp it's a joy to read. I love it and recommend it to anyone!
I have a Kindle fire Hd also but for reading the Paperwhite is streets ahead. No eye strain for one thing and the battery lasts weeks even with the light always on.
It's a winner and will be where I do most of my reading from now on ;-)
Mod
I have had friends who want to buy the kindle and ask me which one( seeing I only use kindle app I have no idea) so thank you to all the people who have posted their reviews. I at least have an idea of what to recommend now.
Mod
I ordered a Kindle Paperwhite for a friend. Within a week she gave it back. I then used it for a week myself and decided to send it back too. Before ordering it I was so craving it but...
1. At night I would rather read my tablet with Kindle or coolreader app as the light can be turned down lower than the lowest setting on the Paperwhite. Still it is easier on the eyes and it is low light for a dark room with someone else sleeping.
2. The lighting at the lower settings is not smooth or even, as they initially advertised. There are actually 4 LED lights under the bottom edge of the screen that shine into the fiberoptics. Somehow in order to make it so the screen isn't bright there where the lights shine, they dim the optics and you actually get 4 half moon shadows on the screen. I didn't think the rest of the lighting very even/smooth either. I found this uneven lighting very distracting and didn't get used to it even after the week of use.
3. For exceptionally fast readers, the page turns are too slow. She is a speed reader and found that the page turns were too slow for the 5" screen. We tried the two settings for refreshing the screen but didn't help with speed, just flash.
4. When moving around in the settings, going from authors, to most recent, or going to settings and turning on wifi, etc... It is super slow in response time. (maybe it was the unit) My Kindle 3 is so much quicker. Also the 3 has twice the space. What I don't understand here is my Kindle 3 is faster in response time. The page turns are as fast if not faster though the flash is more pronounced. Also they took away Text-to-speech and 2 GB of space. Amazon what are you thinking, that downgrades are acceptable?
5. No text to speech! None of the new eInk readers from Amazon have text-to-speech, only the Kindle Fires do. They have improved the text-to-speech greatly but new eInk users don't get to enjoy it. Only the Kindle DX is offered with TTS and that is a very old model. The Kindle 3 (or keyboard is no longer directly available through Amazon)
The pros of the Paperwhite might out weigh the cons for some. Like it has a very small footprint. I love the size. Also it really doesn't strain the eyes, even in the dark. Still, I sent it back to Amazon.
OK, so the Nook HD+
I have my friend's Nook HD+ for almost 2 weeks.
I'm going to compare to the NOOK HD+ to the Kindle HD (not the newer HDX which has a faster proc and higher resolution screen) frequently as I have used both extensively. The New Kindle Fire HD 9" side loading of books is improved but they make it harder to put side loaded apps like coolreader onto it. Still some books are still not recognized. The text-to-speech is much improved. You are still locked to the Amazon store for apps but Amazon is pretty good, many of the free app from Google are free on Amazon. They have no reader apps on the Amazon app store, so no NOOK app, coolreader, aldiko, moon reader, FBreader, etc...
So...
New NOOK HD+, from here called NOOK.
It is 9", I think 9.1" screen compared to the 8.9" of the Fire, and the size is exactly the same as the Fire I lay them on top of one another. So same size, very slightly bigger screen.
-It has the Google Play store. Doesn't have Amazon store. You can install the Kindle app to get all your Kindle books but if you are a prime customer, you will not be able to watch Prime videos without knowing the ins and outs. (you can add a browser like Firefox, the Nook comes with Chrome, and then side load an older Android 4.0 flash player, might have gliches. Since I'm not going to use for video, I didn't do it) So overall you will be able to play and get many apps from the biggest app store there is for Android.
-So for reading, which this is about, you can install your favorite reading app and access all you Amazon books through the Kindle app.
-Side loading books is really easy and everything shows up. I've found that some of the books are inversed title author etc... but they are there in both coolreader and the nook reader.
-personally I don't like the bigger screen and weight of the tablet, my friend does. It is very responsive in both apps and books. Page turns are immediate. Lots of settings to get the books the way you want them, font, size, margins, line spacing, background color, etc... Most book prices are equal to the Amazon store.
-The NOOK has a Micro SD slot to increase you apps. You really will never need more space for books.
-The battery is great. I did read on it for 10 hours, no playing games so cannot say there, but reading... you can read all day and then charge it. The charge port is proprietary so you have to uses its USB cable. In the long run I think this might be a plus as I've had the charge port on 2 tablets, 2 phones, and my Nook classic, using Micro USB, go bad on me and stop charging. I always buy the extended warranty.
I would recommend the new NOOK as it is a nice tablet and the prices are great, sale until September 28th $109 for the 7" (which is what I would buy), $149 for the 9", the glow (which I would like to try out) at $79, and simple touch $59.
A little note on battery life
Kindle likes to say 8-10 weeks reading time for their eInk readers. This is meaningless except they say that 8 weeks of 1/2 hour of reading per day on some defining page I finally found somewhere. So... Here is how it should read for 8 weeks. 8 times 7 divided by 2 which is 28 hours. I think I get about that with my Kindle 3. I was very confused because I was charging every other week or so, never close to 8 weeks. :-) Now what is really nice compared to the tablets is... you put down the reader for days and come back to it, it still has full charge, while the tablet will be empty if on standby.
Mod
I love my Nook HD. I don't go anywhere without. I got a nook over the cause my friend recommend it who reads all the time. I tried hers and loved it.
Mod
The Nook handles side loaded content much better than the Fire and puts it right into the library. It allows easy loading of alternate readers from Google Play. So your Amazon content can be read with the Kindle for Android app. on the Nook. With the Fire you are limited to the Amazon app store and there library and reader set up.
Mod
It can? I cannot D/L the Kindle App to my Nook, or Nook App to the Kindle.. Same thing with Kobo... They are not options. How do you do that?
I have the nook hd and I downloaded kindle app from google play store. Before I bought my nook I compared both kindle fire and nook hd. The nook app cannot be put on the kindle but the kindle app can be put on nook. That was my deciding factor.
I also just checked the google play store and the kobo app is free to download. I've never used kobo so I don't know if the app works just like kobo reader does.
i love it but it has it's pros and cons.
and well it serves it's purpose for now, and i think its ok for a first one, now i'll know what to buy next.
i think people should know more about e reader's and i thought people could write their own reviews of whatever e reader they have.
your review should include:
Brand: (Brand name ie: sony, kindle etc)
Model: (type/model number/version)
Specifications: (what bells and whistles does it have? wifi? internet connectivity?)
Pros: (what you love about it)
Cons: (what you hate about it)
hopefully we can compile a great list that people can come back to or at least look at before they buy. and we can eliminate the buying of crappy e readers.