Ask Engadget: What's the best e-book reader?

Tim from Australia sent in a question via our super-sophisticated submission method (that'd be e-mailing one in to ask at engadget dawt com) regarding e-readers, and given that Sony just pushed out a new one of its own, we found this one particularly timely:

"I'm starting a PhD next year and I'm looking to get an e-book reader so I can read PDFs of journal articles on the bus. It would have to be readable in direct sunlight and have a display large enough to read pages of about 400 to 500 words. Stylishness would also be nice. I don't know the going rate for decent e-readers but I'd be prepared to spend up to $500."

So, intellects -- what's the best piece of kit to snag for visually inhaling those scholarly articles in PDF form? Will it handle the occasional FCC user manual, too? Because that's really important, you know.

[Samurai Jack @ Oct 9th 2008 11:32PM]

This will be an unpopular choice in these circles, but why not an iPhone...

[noyp @ Oct 9th 2008 11:35PM]

The screen will be too small to read 400-500 words without messing with it. Did you even read the article?

[computer.dude.28 @ Oct 9th 2008 11:35PM]

"a display large enough to read pages of about 400 to 500 words."
I think that would be kind of cramped.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Oct 9th 2008 11:36PM]

It is too small and it has a LED backlit screen which hurts your eyes after a while.

[Samurai Jack @ Oct 9th 2008 11:45PM]

Size matters not. But when it does the Sony would be the better choice. And no, I only read the summary. My bad.

[Kurtis @ Oct 9th 2008 11:51PM]

From the summary, jackass:

"and have a display large enough to read pages of about 400 to 500 words. "

[aznofazns @ Oct 10th 2008 12:50AM]

Kurtis, how about you stop being a grouchy pottymouth and grow up? This is a place to share insightful opinions, and even if someone's opinion is not as useful it doesn't mean you have the right to call him/her names.

[Information Central @ Oct 10th 2008 2:33AM]

"it has a LED backlit screen which hurts your eyes after a while.'

Very true, and it appears that many other people agree. So why do people tolerate the idiotic inverse color scheme that Windows and the Mac OS ship with? Black text on a glaring white background IS STUPID.

At least on Windows you can change the color scheme in a minute or two. On the Mac, you're stuck with the failed '80s attempt to make computer screens an analogy for a piece of paper.

NEWS FLASH: PAPER DOES NOT EMIT LIGHT.

[Dan @ Oct 10th 2008 2:59AM]

@Information Central

Or, you can just invert the colors on a mac with control+option+command+8, when you want to read, and switch back when your done.

[i.c. weiner @ Oct 10th 2008 4:15PM]

@ aznofazns
Grouchy Pottymouth? Who needs to grow up?

[E71 @ Oct 11th 2008 5:12AM]

eBook readers... what a lazy invention.

Just as lazy as

[KM Ford @ Oct 13th 2008 9:45PM]

How about a thread for people who don't want e-books? I already carry my laptop (and cellphone) everywhere--why do I need another screen? Yet I would like to read a lot of titles that are only available in Kindle format...

kmford

[Jason @ Oct 9th 2008 11:35PM]

I'm in the same boat as you and I am debating looking at the iRex iLiad reader. It's about $700 but it has a built-in Wacom tablet, which allows you to annotate and create notes.

[Charbax @ Oct 10th 2008 2:30AM]

Yup, the iRex Iliad is the only suitable e-reader for students and professionals today in my opinion. The only way to display up to A4 sized documents and to directly annotate on the screen using a Wacom touch-screen.

Sadly, iRex Iliad is quite expensive, I think starting at $500 but probably more like $599 or $699, check the latest iRex Iliad 1000 that is coming out right now.

Other problem with iRex, even the new model, doesn't seem to standby/resume correctly, not sure their Wacom battery life is very well managed, no built-in HSDPA with built-in SIM card reader.

I would like an iRex Illiad that is pocketable with a 5" screen, this wouldn't be so student or professional styled, but it would suit my needs of reading stuff and annotating and doing awesome HSDPA typed stuff.

You see, I want to read this blog post on an e-reader, not using an LCD with a strong backlight which is like staring into a flash light. E-ink is much better to the eyes, and we should all be reading the whole Internet on e-ink.

[Eric @ Oct 10th 2008 2:54AM]

you're starting your phd next year? congrats...

[Julie @ Oct 10th 2008 5:12AM]

I just popped for an iliad from iRex Technologies. I wanted it specifically for .pdf files and for this with my Mac I LOVE it! It's a little tricky to get a news feed, haven't quite gotten that yet, but it mounts as an external drive and loads the documents (.word and txt too) in a simple drag an drop way.

[sempereadem @ Oct 10th 2008 7:46AM]

That is so completely geekalicious!

[Pen Insider @ Oct 13th 2008 11:32AM]

For a somewhat higher price, I would spring for the latest iRex product, the DR1000S with Wacom pen. It has a 10.2" display that is optimized for A4/letter PDF viewing and is available from stock on their webshop for EUR599 plus shipping.

The iLiad weighs the same, only has an 8.1" display and uses an electronics architecture that is two years old.

[anthony909 @ Oct 9th 2008 11:36PM]

The iPhone has plenty of free e book readers in the app store. Not only will you be stylish but it combines a media player and your phone so you dont gave to lug around all sorts of devices.

[CraigJ @ Oct 9th 2008 11:47PM]

I really like my iPhone but the screen is just too small to read a novel. I hope Apple comes out with, basically, a 7" version of the Touch and starts selling eBooks in the iTunes store.

[Ethan @ Oct 10th 2008 4:33AM]

I'm currently using it as one but it by no means fits the criteria of the article.

[Jaimi @ Oct 9th 2008 11:36PM]

If you're on a budget, I recommend the Sony e-reader 700. If money is no object, then the Iliad is better by far.

[Mike @ Oct 9th 2008 11:40PM]

I'd go w/ the Iliad. I've tried the Sony and the Amazon, and both were dreadful for what I wanted to do (reading PDFs). The Sony was particularly dreadful. Proprietary books work fine, but won't someone bring these things into version 1.0? I feel like Windows/286.

[JC @ Oct 9th 2008 11:47PM]

I am also looking for an ebook reader. I was thinking about the sony reader, but I keep reading in different places that it's not good for PDF files. A lot of my ebooks are in PDF. Does anybody have the Iliad and can comment on how it does with PDF files?

[KH @ Oct 10th 2008 12:09AM]

I have an Iliad, and use it almost exclusively for PDFs. The large screen is great, and PDFs are a pleasure to read on it.

[Pat @ Oct 10th 2008 1:26AM]

I have the sony and wouldn't worry too much about pdfs. The newest firmware updates make them more readable, but yeah it still is pretty bad. But as long as it's an ebook in pdf format I've always had great success with converting the pdf into an ebook or an rtf file.

[aramis @ Dec 19th 2008 7:51AM]

I read PDF's on my PRS-505 all the time. It does text re-flow fairly well, and many of my PDF's are of 8.5x11" stuff.

Mostly, what I'm reading on it is Role-playing game manuals.

8.5x11 inch, displayed at full page: 40%
8.5x11 inch, displayed at full width in landscape: 60%
Some readable 8.5x11" PDF titles: MegaTraveller PDF's, Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG, Mongoose Traveller, D&D Rules Cyclopedia (1994), all available from DriveThruRPG. Both traveller editions and BTVS are readable in full page, albeit small text. D&D scans are readable in landscape fit width. BTVS and MGT both have text encoded, and can thus be reflowed to much more readable text.

Note: Most 11x8.5 (landscape mode) books require rotation of the pages counterclockwise to make them work on the reader. This is a case where an unlocker and a PDF-editor come in REALLY handy.

6x9" game book PDFs: much better; almost all the White Wolf Games Mind's Eye Theater are readable in fit page. Wicked Dead Brewing Company's 6x9's don't work well; the text is hard to read on my MacBook.

5.5x8.5" books: This size shines well. it's 60% in full page; 86% in fit width. Problem: Several publishers put these onto 8.5x11 pages, showing facing pages, so again, it's a pain. Many, however, are unlocked.

There is a thriving market of PDF's of various Roleplaying Games, some long out of print, for example, little-book D&D (in the 1976 edition, not the 1974 ed, due to Tolkein Ent. vs TSR...).

Also, most of the RPG PDF's are not DRM; Sony DOES have DRM capability for PDF, but I've not tried it.

Several PDF RPG content providers I've used:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/ A large part of their content is scanned & OCR'd; the OCR is often poor.
http://indiepressrevolution.com/ Everything I've gotten was original electronic format
http://www.pigames.net/ Again, what I got was electronic from the get-go.

One other note: Many documents actually render larger than default, since the Sony version of Acrobat Reader for the PRS505 zooms not to the page, but the content; an 8.5x11 page with 1" margins and no text in them renders only the 6.5x9" chunk... thus hitting 50% in full page, and about 75% in fit width.

[CraigJ @ Oct 9th 2008 11:48PM]

a slate format is much more conducive to sitting on the couch or laying in bed while reading...

[TB @ Oct 9th 2008 11:49PM]

If you want one right now, Kindle. If you can wait, Kindle 2.

Why not the Sony? Locked format + less selection than Amazon. Plus the Kindles don't even require a PC, bonus. I've heard good things about the Iliad, but they're expensive and the selection from Amazon pretty much just trumps all.

[Kamokazi @ Oct 10th 2008 12:01AM]

Kindle uses what to get it's books? Cellular Service. Specifically Sprint.

Sprint = US Carrier

Where is this guy from?



(And before you cry hackery, remember CDMA service is virtually nonexistant in most other countries, with a few notable exceptions.)

[Chris Taylor @ Oct 10th 2008 2:05AM]

Actually I never in my life thought I was say this but if you want OPEN you want SONY.

TXT PDF RTF JPG GIF all readable DIRECTLY from the SD or MS memory card. NO proprietary software NO conversions NO software at all. In fact I only installed the sony software to get the "$50 in free books" that came with it. After that I uninstalled the software.

I pop the mem card into my Card Reader dump whatever I want onto the card and pop the card into the reader.

The kindle on the other hand is FULLY locked down and FULL proprietary. I HEAR it might be able to read txt and thats it. anything else MUST be not only converted but to convert you have to SEND the file to AMAZON let them convert it and send it back to you.

Instant deal breaker for me.

[aramis @ Dec 25th 2008 6:21AM]

Sony supports a whole range of formats, including epub, PDF, Adobe Ebook (including secured), TXT, RTF, and BBEB, plus JPG, GIF, MP3. Of these, BBEB is the only "proprietary" format.

For PDF's, it can reflow and zoom text if the current updates are installed.

Also, using Calibre, I can quick convert HTML and XML docs, and grab RSS newsfeeds, and connect it up and manage it on the mac. If it is just a matter of loading, Adobe Ebook Reader interfaces from the mac (and windows) and allows secured doc transfers, and I can always just drag and drop in Win or MacOSX any readable formats.

Sure, no keyboard. Other than that and the bank-account destruction of on-the-fly purchases, the kindle is FAR less friendly.

[Nick @ Oct 9th 2008 11:49PM]

the cybook, with the latest software upgrade is quite nice, can easily read pdf now, and if the pdf is too big, can easily be converted with the mobipocket file converter, so it will create a ebook file for it. only low point with the cybook is the file browsing, which is not the most user friendly, but not that complicated to use.

but in case you really have other people opinion about ebook reader and what is available or coming, go to this site : http://www.mobileread.com

[Disconnect @ Oct 10th 2008 8:07AM]

I love my cybook gen3, HOWEVER they are way way too fragile for real life. This is my third unit in 6 months - the first one died within a month. (The consensus is that something happened to give the screen a hairline crack, and then temp/humid changes expanded it into a kaboom. Cuz nothing happened to it while I was @ work..) The second died within 2 weeks, controller failure (horizontal lines, exactly on a row - no curves) and was under warranty. The third one .. well, its still alive, but I'm terrified to do anything with it because it'll break.

It totally wins style points though - light, thin, small. So light it feels hollow, even for the tiny size.

In other news, you can (illegally :/ ..) put Booreader, the killer reader app, onto several other devices (built out of heavier, stiffer plastic.)

[Saad @ Oct 9th 2008 11:51PM]

Don't ask which e-reader is the best. Instead, ask what is keeping e-readers from making the jump from novelty to necessity.

[phooky @ Oct 10th 2008 12:19AM]

It's sad, but not enough people in the world read books.

[Plothole @ Oct 10th 2008 1:12AM]

IMO that would be cost primarily. As 350-400 turns to 300-350 turns to 200-250 and so on, I suspect demand for these devices will increase exponentially. The introduction of color eInk a few years from now should also help matters.

[Rotaryfan @ Oct 10th 2008 1:24AM]

No reason to low rank phooky, he's right. think about how few people read for entertainment. magazines and newspapers exclueded; just books. outside of the higher-educated world, only a small percentage of people like books, or reading for that matter.

it's unfortunate that the world is at a low level of farenheit 411. TV is the primary medium of the spread of information. radio probably comes in second. newspapers just aren't the popular medium they once were.

but I'm way off topic.

I would love to recomend the kindle, but it obviously has a major flaw in AUS. luckily there isn't an enormous abundance of e-inc, ebook readers. the sony looks good and stays under the price, maybe it would be best for JUST pdf's. maybe I'm wrong though, I don't actually own it.

*wasn't there a nice touch screen e-book reader a couple months ago featured here on engadget?? anyone remember what that one was?

[drathos @ Oct 10th 2008 10:03AM]

One thing that keeps me from considering one is the asinine "turn off ALL electronic devices" on airlines. I get most of my reading done when I travel and if I used an ebook reader instead of a plain book, I would be stuck there with nothing to do for 20-30 minutes at each end of my flight.

[Joel @ Oct 10th 2008 2:00PM]

No you wouldn't. You're allowed to keep electronic devices on, you just have to turn the wireless off. Surely you've seen people using their laptops on planes before...

[Allan M @ Oct 9th 2008 11:52PM]

If you can swing it, I would suggest a Tablet of some kind with Microsoft Onenote. Perhaps a used one to keep the price down. In grad school, there's not much point in reading a PDF unless you can mark it up. Otherwise you just have to read it again. I bought a used Toshiba M200 five years ago and it got me through my qualifying exams and my first chapter. One of the smaller Fujitsu's would probably do the trick. I've tried to use my iPhone for this, but annotating on it is pretty useless and the screen is too small. Best of luck on the PhD!

[Benson @ Oct 10th 2008 1:58AM]

As a fellow grad student...

I have a tx2000; it's a great machine, but it's a little on the big side, rather hot, and short battery life for what I expect you're after. In conjunction with the N800 that I keep in my pocket, though, it works out pretty nicely. If you're game for two devices covering laptop and e-reader, but don't have either picked out, I'd recommend this combo (although look at replacing the N800 with an N810 or a Pandora...), but if you've already got your laptop figured, or just really want all your reading and jotting on one device, the tx2000 is too much laptop and not enough clipboard to suit.

[Satoshi109 @ Oct 9th 2008 11:55PM]

I have a Sony prs-505. I have to say, I've read a fairly decent amount of PDF's on it without any issues at all. Using calibre to sync, all your conversions will be fast and painless, and you'll be able to set up the tags so finding documents is quick.
The form factor is pretty nice on the reader, though I must admit it could be better. That said, I've gotten quite used to it.
As far as price goes, its a good deal - and should at least be considered when your looking at what devices are on the market. Be sure to take into account that it has no back light - as is an issue with many different devices out now. This is starting to become a fixed issue, but most readers you buy right now will have this problem.
Whatever your choice is, I would highly recommend e-ink displays. They are far from similar to any other kind of display. The iphone, psp, treo, etc are not even close to this kind of technology.
Good luck to you, I'm sure there's an e-reader out there that will fit the bill.

[BigD145 @ Oct 10th 2008 12:01AM]

What's the readability of e-ink under portable LED lighting (aka book lite)? Glare issues?

[Dustin @ Oct 10th 2008 12:19AM]

I have the sony reader PRS-505 and I would say that its a pretty good reader. I did some research before I purchased it a few months ago and with a 3 year warranty it came out to about $350, which is pretty good for a device I use everyday.

Reading a research paper on it would be kind of difficult since the zoom on it for pdf's only zooms in one level (which pretty much eliminates the white border around the page) which would make the page kind of small to view.

You can switch the page view to horizontal, which will make a research paper easy to read, but you'll only see half of the page at a time. You can also zoom in once with this feature to get a good look at equations and figures.

Usually I'm not a fan of sony products ( sony memory card prices, locked hardware), but I think they did a good job with the PRS-505. If the screen for the next sony reader is bigger, I'd wait around to see how it is before you make a commitment.

[Dustin @ Oct 10th 2008 12:22AM]

There is a slight glare if you have the light behind you, but if it is above, then you won't have any issues reading with a book light.

[Ian @ Oct 9th 2008 11:57PM]

I'm waiting to see the price of the one from Plastic Logic, although I doubt it would be

[DirtyVegas @ Oct 9th 2008 11:58PM]

Print it on A4.

[Ian @ Oct 9th 2008 11:59PM]

The comment system sucks

I wrote "although I doubt it would be < $500". Maybe it doesn't like the "less than" symbol. No idea.

[Mitch @ Oct 10th 2008 12:58AM]

Of course it doesnt like it, or everyone would be commenting like this