this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
325 points (99.4% liked)
Technology
85804 readers
3405 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Do people have suggestions other than Kobo for a color ereader? I am trying to avoid feeling too locked down/in and thought Kobo was that. I'm still rocking an old nook I got for a few bucks at a thrift store years ago. I was led to believe Kobo was the most open option while still having access to local libraries.
Kobo won’t lock you in. You can sideload any books you want, install Koreader and download books straight from Calibre using OPDS without even needed to jailbreak anything.
I bought a Onyx Boox reader a couple years ago that I'm quite happy with. Its literally an Android tablet with an e-ink screen, so you can download anything on the play store.
The only way Kobo really locks you down if you buy books from their store, which I wouldn't recommend with any eReader.
It's very open since you aren't forced to use it, and can just sideload your own bought DRM-free books.
You can also just install Koreader which also allows you to read eBooks, which I think wouldn't have the issue. Think they also use up-to-date standards, since it's also available on other eReaders
I think there's also Pocketbook and Onyx. Which also allow you to read your ePubs, and are open.
Don't get an Amazon device though, they don't have ePub support, and you can't easily put your own books on them.
What do you do when there's a particular book you want to read (and you want to buy it to make sure the author is compensated for their work), but its only available from one of the big 4 ebook ecosystems (Amazon Kindle, Kobo shop, Apple Books, Google Play (or whatever the hell they renamed it to this week))?
I had one such book recently and specifically chose Kobo shop as it seemed like the least evil choice between those four.
No specific suggestions, but I came across this table while researching and it's been a good comparison of eink devices.
https://comparisontabl.es/e-readers/
I enjoy Kobo after switching from Kindle 2 years ago.
I originally bought it to stop giving Bezos money and because Kobo promised bookshop.org support (money goes to local bookshops). This is still pending and extremely disappointing. It is easy to get books from Libraries (Libby), Kobo store, or add them through the cloud like Google Drive and other options. Libby support is pretty important to me. I basically only pay for 10% of my books now, but the library rentals still support the authors.
Just get a Kobo and install koreader if you want
There are a few Android based ones and there's one alternative that just uses Koreader by default lol, Kobo is the probably most cost effective and accessible though.
I use an Android tablet, full color, fast page loading.