I'm looking for recommendations on an E-reader. 7-8 inch screen minimum, ~$500 price range, I'd prefer it just be in black and white and to not have a bunch of extras like a web browser and such too. I already have a tablet, I don't need it to be another, I just want an to read on it.
>>1563639Where do you buy your books? If on Amazon, get whatever Kindle is in your price range. If on Kobo or on the seven seas, get whatever Kobo is in your price range. Apart from that there are a lot of decent Android-based e-readers in the same price range that are no slouches either (in fact they often have better hardware), but if you really want a bare-bones one then those are your choices.Kobo readers have an advantage of being easily hackable to install e.g. Koreader which supports many more formats than just epub.I've got a Kobo Sage, 8-inch, it's pretty damn good as long as you read things in the languages you already know well (its Japanese dictionaries suck ass, but then anything without 10ten/yomitan support is ass sadly). But it's also getting a bit long in the tooth by now, I got it mostly because I wanted something larger than 7 and smaller than 10.
>>1563639https://pocketbook.ch/en-ch/catalog
>>1563641I didn't purchase most of my books. And speaking of Japanese, is 8 inch good enough for reading manga? I should've specified in the OP but that's one of the major things I wanted a reader for
>>1563644Depends on the manga. I would not read a yonkoma on an 8-incher due to the text being tiny, but e.g. for shonen where you have three frames per page it's good enough. You'll have to test it out for yourself, everyone has different eyesight and comfort zone.Personally, for manga I much prefer my 10.5" Galaxy S6 Tab. It's also just plain faster, I prefer the perfect OLED contrast for anything with images, and the manga I read has color pages every now and then. But it does hurt my eyes somewhat more than e-ink (both hurt my eyes in the end, this is very individual so ideally you want to try all sorts of devices before buying). Though for people who don't religiously hate iOS like me I'd just tell to get an iPad for manga, size-wise and aspect ratio-wise they are perfect, and older models go for reasonable prices.Tl;dr you'll probably be fine with 8" but you have to check out 10" ones too.
Also if you're getting e-ink get something with buttons, touchscreens and oleophobic layers on these fucking suck balls.
>>1563644I started with a Supernote Nomad and sold it because I wanted something with a built-in light. I then went to a Boox Tab Mini C which I liked but I wound up wanting something with a bigger screen for reading manga. Don't get me wrong, you can read just fine on and I actually still have it (passed it onto the wife who uses it all the time for manga) but I use a Boox Note Air 4C now and I love it. I know you said you don't need another tablet but there are benefits to it just also being a tablet. I use Mihon for manga and it tracks my reading automatically on MAL and AniList which is really nice.If you only want it to be black and white check out the Boox Go 10.3 (or the 8 inch one if you prefer the smaller option). The new generation they put out has an option for a light if you care about that like I do.If you really don't want it to be a tablet and you'll just load things on it yourself manually then the Supernote Manta could be a good choice.
>>1563639BW is good, colour sucks atm and for the foreseeable future. Not only the poor saturation and lack of colour fidelity but the effect on the BW resolution. Even if the underlying display is a true 300 dpi, like the advertising calls it, to make greyscale through a filter it has to balance the RGB the filter outputs unavoidably. Under subjective tests a colour display in monochrome mode is softer and fuzzier, the equivalent of a 200 to 250 dpi true monochrome display. Better colour methods are currently experimental and not commercially available.IMO there's not a huge difference between ereaders really. Things I'd look for if I was buying another one today>battery runtime2 weeks versus 3 weeks is maybe not a big issue unless you're going camping for weeks without a solar panel, just don't overcharge batteries and they'll survive longer>storagebigger is better because no expansion slot>buttons>bezel size>note taking>water resistance>screen sizeall personal preference8" is still small for a screen. Kobo elipsa is 10.3" but that means 6.2" x 8.2" and Kindle scribe is 10.3" which is only 6.1" x 8.2". For 8" at the same aspect ratio you're getting 4.8" x 6.4" which is smaller than a typical tanka at 5" x 7.5". People get stupid mad over page turn rate and crap like that. 100 ms vs 200 ms partial refresh just doesn't matter to me in use.Native operating system is irrelevant. Kindle's sucks which is why only chumps use it. Smart guys use 100% uninstallable software like KOReader. Reads every format I've put on it.You can install custom dictionaries including writing your own if you want, like fictionaries to keep track of characters.>>1563650>these fucking suckOne time a bit of solid glue from a glue stick was on the screen but that's the only time I've had a problem with an ereader screen. I like hardware buttons on phones but not on ereaders.
>>1563659The problem with Dictionaries on Kobo and Kindle alike is that they just don't understand lemmatization, meaning that as soon as you're out of English you're shit out of luck. Looking up something like 探して? Well fuck you because even your custom dictionary only has 探す. The day Yomitan is available on basic e-readers is the day I rejoice, but for now I end up sticking to Androids. I use it for other languages too, Finnish wiktionary has been an absolute godsend even though it was a pain to set up. I swear these damn companies will shove in AI translation into e-readers before they make actually good by 2026 standards dictionary support.
Just keep in mind that all these e-readers can and will be obsolete one day either by the manufacturers not supporting them or by the big ebook libraries not supporting them. Amazon for example just obsoleted several of their e-reader models leaving those who have them hooped. Yes, eventually batteries fail too. I realize that. It's just that when Amazon or others decides they're only supporting the latest to get you to spend money and upgrade, it's an endless money treadmill just like with phones, tablets and computers. So be prepared to keep on spending.
