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this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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I think it depends on how invested you are in ebooks, and how much time you wanna spend on it. I would advise a Kobo if you aren't up for Tinkering or an iPad if you are flexible with the screen.
But if you are up for a challenge a Chinese ePaper Android Tablet like Onyx Boox or Bouyee, so long as you can get Google Play to work. Or a Pocket Book if you can sort out DRM removal for ebooks.
Here are the pros and cons bellow
Kobo is the easy option.
Adobe Digital Editions for non-kobo DRM, and library access. Its able to read DRM free books like you find on Project Gutenberg or Humble Bundle.
Major downside is that you can't read Amazon without effort (or a kindle serial number), book sorting kind of sucks without Calibre, and the storage size is small if you are into Comics.
iPad is the safe option
Apple Books app is convenient and can read anything. It can sync with your iCloud if you wanna so you can continue on your iPhone. And DRM isn't an issue since you can just download the apps.
but its a LCD Tablet, and no ePaper display. iTunes isn't the easiest to figure out to move books and iCloud can get verrry expensive if you are syncing comics.
Android Tablets are kind of in the same boat but...
with KOReader even an old (but not too old) tablet is viable. Side loading official apps.
OS updates are kind of hit or miss, support for older android is worse than iPad, and the devs don't put as much effort in their Android ports.
Android ePaper tablet (Onyx Boox)
Usually steals KOReader as its base, if its new probably has pen support so you can use it as a writing tablet, if it has Google Play you can get official apps
But its expensive, there is often no updates to the OS, usually no MicroSD card, and has a lot of preinstalled bloat which is hard to trust.
Kindle Tablet/fire tablet
Cons, its made by Amazon and will track your every movement.
Pros keep it offline and it can read converted DRM free ebooks converted to AZW3 via Calibre. Fire Tablets can be made into cheap eReaders with side loading. But more importantly if you do give your kindle an Amazon account you can decrypt ebooks with its serial number. So you can get cheap books on a better eReaders.
If you go for the Kobo Clara HD (Not the newer one), you can go around the storage size by replacing the internal microSD card (It is a bit of work, yes, but it works, and is doable)
Also, on Kobo, it is very easy to put KOReader on as well, so very much, comfy.
Bought an android tablet, installed Moon Reader+. Never looked back
Might be worth noting but you can jailbreak a wide array of Kindles to use KOReader opening up the device for even more file types.
I just bought the onyx boox page and I'm not seeing much, if any bloat. It's a premium ebook reader ($250), but I bought it to replace my aging Kindle Oasis. I use moon reader pro instead of the built in reader. Google Play worked fine straight out of the box. It has a micro SD card slot for more storage as well.
Overall I'm very satisfied with it and it is completely comparable to Amazons premium ereaders (honestly way longer battery life than my oasis ever had).
Time will tell on OS updates, but truthfully I don't really care much about that. At least until my apps stop working.
I have a Nova 3 Color and 2 like books.
The likebooks never got OS updates, but the Nova got updates, but they were updating the default apps.
I don't like moonreader, as I found it to be a battery hog. KOReader is my favourite and its the default reader (or a skin of it is)
By bloat I am referring to the Onyx store which is on my home screen and is not removable.
With that said my Nova is my preferred eReader, especially when I kill the WiFi. 2+ week battery life FTW
That's fair. Using moon reader makes the library and store tabs useless. I have the store 'disabled' but the tab remains. Moon reader doesn't like it when I open books via the library tab (creates a duplicate) so I stopped using it. Personally I rarely need to exit the moon reader app, so the base UI really doesn't impact me much.
Haven't noticed moon reader hogging the battery. I keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and use a decent amount of backlight and still get a couple of weeks out of it. Which is so much better than the 2-4 days my oasis got.
Part of the reason I love mine is that it supports TTS so I can create my own audiobooks. Currently using Google wavenet to read books to me. This is nice for car rides especially cause I read a lot of books that will never get audio book versions (translated Chinese cultural cultivation fantasy)
Might be a phone thing. Usually crashes any background apps while in use. Maybe its fine on a dedicated device?