All iPads: Favorite eBook Reader

[Awakener]

Now that iPad Mini is here, curious what others prefer for daily reading:

iPad Mini
iPad 1/2/3/4
Something else? Why?


I think iPad 3/4 are the best eReaders since they can handle any format (iBooks, Kindle, Kobo, ePub, etc), and have large retina displays.

[ucfgrad93]

My Kindle Keyboard is my favorite ebook reader.

[SandboxGeneral]

For reading books, I prefer my Kindle Paperwhite over the iPad.

[ActionableMango]

Any small e-ink Kindle

Because they are small, lightweight, durable, and have a non-reflective screen. Also the run time on a full charge is rated in days instead of hours.

[Awakener]

Originally Posted by ActionableMango

Any small e-ink Kindle

Because they are small, lightweight, durable, and have a non-reflective screen. Also the run time on a full charge is rated in days instead of hours.

Lots of advantages to Kindles. Couldn't get past limited format and the 6" size.

[ActionableMango]

Originally Posted by Awakener

Lots of advantages to Kindles. Couldn't get past limited format and the 6" size.

Personally I like the smaller size of the 6" Kindle (and the iPad Mini). It makes them much more handy. In the physical book world, I also prefer mass market paperbacks to the much larger and heavier hardbacks.

I recognize that it is a personal preference though. I see merit in the larger tablets and e-readers, they just aren't for me.

[WilliamLondon]

I just bought a mini and the main reason I got it was to read PDFs, which I read a lot for school (journal articles, book scans, chapters from books, ebooks, all, though PDF). The mini is great for viewing these PDFs, much better than I expected, which is a very nice surprise. My normal reading device is a bog standard, plain and simple Kindle, and I love it. I thought when I got the mini that my poor Kindle would immediately be rendered obsolete, but it's not the case. While I love the mini, I just really love the small and lightweight form factor of the Kindle, plus as someone else on here already said, the batter life is measured in weeks not hours.

I may try reading a book on the mini that isn't for school and compare to the Kindle experience, but I'm quite partial to my Kindle, it's a great device and I'm not sure the mini would beat it.

[Awakener]

Originally Posted by WilliamLondon

I just bought a mini and the main reason I got it was to read PDFs, which I read a lot for school (journal articles, book scans, chapters from books, ebooks, all, though PDF). The mini is great for viewing these PDFs, much better than I expected, which is a very nice surprise. My normal reading device is a bog standard, plain and simple Kindle, and I love it. I thought when I got the mini that my poor Kindle would immediately be rendered obsolete, but it's not the case. While I love the mini, I just really love the small and lightweight form factor of the Kindle, plus as someone else on here already said, the batter life is measured in weeks not hours.

I may try reading a book on the mini that isn't for school and compare to the Kindle experience, but I'm quite partial to my Kindle, it's a great device and I'm not sure the mini would beat it.

Are you using any particular app for viewing PDF files on the mini?

[Kadman]

The best display I've seen for text is my wife's Kindle (I think it's third gen? - last of the normal Kindle display size with keyboard below). Anyway, I have a Kindle Fire HD because I couldn't take the text quality on the iPad Mini and hate the bulk of my iPad 3 for reading. Not to sound wimpy, but it's amazing how heavy and awkward a 1.5 lb tablet can feel after reading for any length of time!

[Madmic23]

I keep wanting to buy a Kobo, but I haven't taken the plunge yet. I like the idea of an e-ink ereader, and I like the flexibility of the kobo over the kindle. Plus, kobo has cheaper book prices here in Canada.
Having said that, I've only read ebooks from iBooks and the kindle app on my iPad.

[Awakener]

Originally Posted by Kadman

The best display I've seen for text is my wife's Kindle (I think it's third gen? - last of the normal Kindle display size with keyboard below). Anyway, I have a Kindle Fire HD because I couldn't take the text quality on the iPad Mini and hate the bulk of my iPad 3 for reading. Not to sound wimpy, but it's amazing how heavy and awkward a 1.5 lb tablet can feel after reading for any length of time!

The other issue with Mini is that the text for webpages is too small.

[Baggio]

Originally Posted by Awakener

The other issue with Mini is that the text for webpages is too small.

I only find that problem with Safari. I use Mercury and adjust the text size and even Chrome, which doesn't have the option for text sizing, but has better text rendering than Safari. Not sure if it can fixed with an iOS update or not.

[WilliamLondon]

Originally Posted by Awakener

Are you using any particular app for viewing PDF files on the mini?

Very good question. I had bought from the days when I owned a gen 1 iPad the app Good Reader. While it is excellent, I want to synchronise my PDF viewing (and annotating, which is a big requirement for me, given the school nature of my PDF reading) so I went ahead and splurged on PDFpen for iPad, as I have PDFpenPro on my iMac. I've also tested the iBooks application, as it displays (and features specifically) PDF files.

Good Reader is great, it's what I first viewed PDFs on in the app (other than the default viewing of Dropbox).

PDFpen at first I was annoyed because it retains a small part of the title bar (the iOS title bar), which Good Reader doesn't, but also because it doesn't fit the entire page by default, I had to keep shrinking it to get the whole page in the display. What I now think is that PDFpen not shrinking each page is a good thing - I read a lot of scanned PDFs, and having that bit of extra zoom (even if you have to scroll down the page a little before moving to the next page) is worth it.

Using iBooks (a quick test admittedly) is a very basic PDF reader, and certainly able to display a PDF. I was even able to read a full PDF page in landscape mode (when the PDF is in portrait), which is more an indication of the mini's screen resolution being good enough to display portrait PDF pages clearly enough in landscape.

I also tried (quickly) these same files in the Kindle app (which I also have on my device) and it rendered them nearly the same, though I noticed when it displayed pages it would pause rendering them until it could render them perfectly, where iBooks might render them quickly with blur, and then render them perfectly. In the end, they both render the same, but it appeared to me to be a different way of handling the files.

One feature I thought might be interesting, and maybe one or all of these apps do this, but it'd be good to be viewing a PDF and have an option be "eliminate white space around the page" (which is similar to what the desktop version of Adobe Acrobat Pro can do, not easily mind you) - so it would automatically zoom in to a point where there is *only* text (or images) for each page, and that would effectively maximise the text area of the page in the display (automatically). That would be cool, I would like that.

All in all, I'd say all those apps are quite similar at viewing PDFs. I'm just well pleased with how the device displays PDFs in general. Hope that helps.

[Awakener]

Great detailed info on PDF's.

Interesting that no one so far seems to think much of the iPad or iPad Mini as a primary eReader.

[RedRaven571]

IPad 2 is my one and only eBook reader.

[PrayForDeath]

Kindle Paperwhite.

[Jayrcee]

Nook Simple Touch w/ Glowlight

[MacGurl111]

Nook Tablet. I love the feel of it.

[jojoba]

For work I use my 3gen iPad, reading and annotating research articles and draft texts using either iAnnotate or Sente. I love e-ink readers but find that they don't offer the functionality I need for work, and I'm not interested in the mini for this purpose due to smaller screen and lack of retina.

For recreational reading, I use my Kindle Touch and my Sony T1. If I happen to not have them with me, I use the Kindle and Kobo apps on my iPad.

[Bakari45]

iPad mini
Kindle for iPad
Sometimes iBooks
GoodReader for pfds

[RenoG]

Originally Posted by Jayrcee

Nook Simple Touch w/ Glowlight

I bought my daughter this as a gift for good grades, she's a heavy book reader. She likes my ipad for everything else but when it comes to clocking time reading off a device its the nook glowlight all day for her..

[Awakener]

Are there any e-ink eReaders that handle multiple formats and have a large screen (8" or more)?

[MrDoug]

I have iPad4/PaperWhite.. but use Nexus 7 for books, iPad4 for Newspapers and Magazines.. the screen resolution on the Nexus 7 for Books is awesome..
Doug

[davideotape]

ive been using my mini just because its new and shiny but when that dust settles i'll move back to my kindle paperwhite

[LizKat]

Originally Posted by Jayrcee

Nook Simple Touch w/ Glowlight

Originally Posted by RenoG

I bought my daughter this as a gift for good grades, she's a heavy book reader. She likes my ipad for everything else but when it comes to clocking time reading off a device its the nook glowlight all day for her..

I could sure use one of those instead of my Nook e-ink reader that needs a clip-on light. I seem to have misplaced the light. Oh well, another item on the to-do list. Find the darn thing and then stitch a pocket for it onto the sleeve I had made for the reader!