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What e-reader should I buy, when I don't want to use amazon (or similar) services to log in/buy/transfer books to the reader?
I have plenty of free old PDF books I simply want to copy there and be able to read them without ads and online bs.
I don't need web browser, mp3 player, spotify, google translator or other such nonsense. I need simple controls, backlight (adjustable) to read at night and that's basically it.
Thanks for any input.
You can easily load PDFs into kobo readers, at-least into mine. However, most PDFs will be unreadable. To reads PDFs properly on a e-reader you need a screen that is at-least as big as their render size. Meaning, that if the PDF was built for A4, your experience will be, in most cases, lacking on any screen smaller than A4.
I have no experience using such big eink and can't comment on their quality.
PDFs are usually terrible for reading in this screen size. If they are plain text, you might be able to convert them to proper ebooks in Calibra.
OK, thank you for noting that. Never thought about it. My local library hands out free e-books of classic old literature so it might be available in other formats too. I grabbed some PDFs, because it was easiest to open in PC or android. Will check it out.
This guy reviews all kinds of e-ink devices. https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide/videos
I watched his videos before deciding to get a large format BOOX Max Lumi (13") for PDF reading and note taking. I wanted the large one to split screen a PDF textbook on the left and notebook on the right. That was a few years ago, though, and I suggest reviewing some more recent videos to get an idea of what the current devices are like.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/c/MyDeepGuide/videos
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I agree with the other reply that pdfs are terrible for e-readers. That being said, Pocketbooks can open them (which is not that common) and it is possible to read them, although it isn't so comfortable, especially for A4 pdfs. It can also open wide range of other formats and I'm quite happy with it in general. You can connect it to a computer and simply copy your books there, among other means of getting books there. But I have to say I have no first hand experience with competition.
Thanks for the input. I wrote PDFs, but it might be possible to get another format. Check the other comment.
As for Pocketbook, which model do you have? Is there anything you dislike about it? Would you buy it again or seek alternative? Thank you.
I see. You can open just about anything, something like 18 formats, it's on their website. I prefer epub, but it can open Kindle's mobi etc. That's why I bought it, I got a large library of pdbs.
I have Touch HD 3, I had some Touch Lux before. I had it for a while, don't know their newest models. But yes, not only would I buy it again, I already did, just bought a newer version. Unless I was looking for something for hand note taking, I wouldn't change. What I dislike is that when you break the screen, it's expensive to replace, so I just bought a new one instead. Nothing you wouldn't be used to from phones. And I'd very much like to have an option to disable the touch layer of the screen by long press of one of the physical buttons, but it's a minor issue. What I like is the tunable intensity and colour temperature of the light and I'm quite happy with everything else. You can upload books by sending them as an attachment to a special email. If you don't like the interface for reading the books, you can even quite easily replace it with Cool reader. I tried it before, but I didn't do it in the newest one. You can use dictionaries, some are preinstalled, or use notes and highlights, but I don't have experience with that.
I use a Kindle, but never bought a single book from them. I mostly use their transfer method for convenience instead of looking for a cable. As for books, I downloaded a few gigs of ebooks in html/RTF/doc format well before e-ink was invented, and use those with calibre to convert to epub. Pdfs are rather suboptimal for ebooks.