cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/14277930
Kobo announces its first color e-readers
with extras like […] no lockscreen ads
What the fuck? Why is that an extra not just the default? It’s great that this product isn’t riddled with ads, but that’s like saying it’s great a burger is not made of human shit; it’s crazy that anyone would tolerate a shit-burger in the first place.
Maybe ads are normal in the e-reader space for some reason, but that’s just insane to me.
I think it’s only Amazon that does lock screen ads but since they have two-thirds of the market share globally (and a near monopoly in the US where the Verge is based) then whatever they do in the e-reader space is “normal”
Just talking here in the US, the only competitor Amazon has really had here is Nook which also has lock screen ads
You can buy “discounted” Kindle e-readers with ads, or you can buy them without ads for full price.
There’s no discount there, you’re just accepting their marketing bullshit. That sounds to me like the company is double-dipping by shoving ads in your face and making the product objectively worse, then charging even more for a “premium” model where the only difference is they haven’t intentionally downgraded it.
I’m trusting y’all to let me know if it’s worth it
What do you need it for?
It isn’t up to snuff for reading Comic Books or Graphic Novels, and it’s worse experience than a good Non-Color E-ink display. Which is saying it’s worse for the vast vast majority of books you will read.
I’m not sure why it exists other than it has to - in order for a better version to eventually come out. R&D isn’t free.
I have the Boox Onyx Note 3c. Its a color e-ink and its okay for comics. But I mainly use it for note taking. The colors are helpful for more detailed notes. The eink display makes it easier in my eyes especially for long days of note taking.
Oyeah the E-Ink is so great for your eyes. Just like a book. I just meant Color vs BW E-ink.
How do you like it for note taking? Does it convert handwriting to type? That is one of my dream features that I’ve yet to hear has become robust
Both use E Ink’s latest Kaleido color screen technology, which has subtle, pastel-like hues and drops from a 300ppi grayscale resolution to 150ppi when you view content in color.
I had to check just how bad 150ppi would be when dropping down the resolution for color.
A 24" Full HD monitor has a PPI of 92. So it’s actually okay.
I’m still using my old Kobo Aura HD (now roughly 11 years old) and the battery still lasts over a month. The screen was already decent back then, but a bit sluggish. I just checked, the old one has 265 ppi. Maybe it’s not time for an upgrade yet :)
A PPI of 92, but that screen is going to probably be between 2 and 3 feet from your face, vs the 150 PPI sitting 6 inches to a foot away… Doesn’t mean it isn’t good enough by any means, but it’s certainly not a conclusive comparison
I have a Boox Ultra C. It has the same screen, I can confidently say the colours are utter shite for any kind of colour sensitive work or media. However, they’re more than good enough for conveying information, like different coloured lines on a chart.
The colours also look sharp as fuck, as the grey scale is still used for brightness, and the colour just tints it. Meaning it looks a lot sharper than 150ppi and almost indistinguishable from 300ppi
How is your boox, BTW? Would you recommend them?
I’m in the market and they look interesting to me but the price is a bit of a shocker
Yeah, 6 inches is about the furthest something can be for me to see it with any clarity at all without glasses, regardless of size and resolution, but still often read without them on my phone just to relax my eyes (and also, nothing looks clearer to me than something a few inches from my face with my glasses off)
But i did say “6 inches to a foot” which I’m at least assuming is not that atypical a range that people hold their devices at, but I’m not that great at judging distance overall… At the very least, my point is you’re holding the small device much closer than the bigger screen will be so needs higher PPI to still look as crisp
Of course, but it’s mostly for reading. The color will probably be used for notes and the occasional image, for which it’s easily good enough. When I read it’s usually a foot away, while I keep my monitor at 2 feet.
Black and white content (text) has 300 dpi atleast, so for that it’s perfect.
E-Ink is fantastic for lots of reading and battery life, for everything else an actual screen is leagues ahead. The response time is awful too.
I really REALLY love my Kobo Libre 2, it’s a fantastic reader. I would like to move the Color version, but they didn’t actually show anything like a graphic novel, guess I’ll be waiting for reviews, not sure why they wouldn’t show the most common use for one of these unless maybe it’s not great at it.
I have a Onyx Boox Nova C that has pretty much the same technology (Kaleido Plus) and would say that the color display is mostly just a neat gimmick that comes with some tradeoffs. Compared to a pure monochrome E-Ink display the contrast is much worse and colors don’t really pop either. You basically always need at least a bit off background lighting to be able to read.
I’d recommend these types of display only if being able to read without background lighting isn’t a must and even then only for stuff that’s better with color, like notes, technical books or the occasional colored page in a book/manga. If you want to read something reliant on stunning colorful artwork like graphic novels I’d stay away.
I’ve had a Libra 2 for almost 2 years now and just yesterday I was thinking “it still looks great!”. I don’t feel the need to upgrade and colour isn’t a must for me, so I’ll just wait for a couple of generations until the colour technology is more mature and they add some kind of feature my Libra 2 doesn’t have besides that.
Yeah, sadly a good color e-ink screens seems like one of those techs that is always a couple years away. It seems like maybe the demand just isn’t there for R&D with everyone having large form factor phones these days.
Sorry, I haven’t made the jump into an e reader of my own yet, so I may be missing something, but could the same not be said for phones and B&W e readers? Phones can basically do everything an e reader can on its face, but there’s still a niche to be filled by e readers, so I’m not sure lack of demand would exactly be the problem?
I like my Kobo, but wish it had a bit better of a storefront. I want to get my books from more than just the kobo store. Overdrive support is nice. It sometimes loses my page just like a real book, ironically.
Still, I find myself still letting it collect dust due to it’s limited storefront and long book checkout times at the library. Physical books and newspapers are a bit bigger and stable software-wise.
I really wish epaper displays were more common. It’s a really cool technology. I’d love an inexpensive epaper monitor or maybe an alarm clock?
Install Calibre on a computer and use that. Browse online sailing forums for your favourite books and new releases. Then support the authors financially by buying their paper books directly from them or their publishers.
If you buy your books from them digitally use a DRM remover (Like the plugin available on Calibre) so you can forever own your books and move them to any device you want in any format you want. Forever.