There are more and more ebook readers appearing on the market almost daily and choosing the best ebook reader can quickly become overwhelming. They range in price enough to cut the field down a bit by setting a budget. But the electronic book reader is still a new piece of technology to most people and you may not be entirely sure what to look for. But with a little research and figuring out what exactly it is that you want from your new gadget, you can make your choice a lot easier.
When it comes to readers, size really does matter. But bigger may not mean better depending on where you plan to take your reader. If you plan to spend most of your time using it to read the paper in the morning or lay back on the couch with your favorite novel, something like the Kindle DX may be perfect for you. You get magazine and newspaper subscriptions automatically delivered and you can read them on the huge 9.7 inch screen. But if you travel a lot, the weight of such a reader may not suit you so well.
Battery life is another critical element in choosing the best ebook reader for you. If you travel a lot, you might like the older Kindle 2. You can read for days without a charging. And if you turn off WiFi, days turn into weeks. If battery life, or price for that matter, don’t mean anything to you, you may be happy to spend $1,000 on the Flepia and its incredible touch screen. But you’ll only get about 40 hours out of the battery. If you travel a lot, you will want to make sure you get a reader that can keep up with you.
Many people overlook one very important aspect of a reader: the books you can choose from. What good does it do you to buy a new reader only to find out that you can’t buy your favorite author’s newest novel? Sony keeps a library of around 100,000 books, while Amazon stocks over 250,000. Make sure you get the one that offers the library you want. Some ereaders will only recognize a limited array of file types as well. If you already have some ebooks, you will want to get a reader that can view them.
It doesn’t have to be painful to find the model that suits you best. You just need to know what it is you want from your reader. If you plan to spend your days at home, you may want one with a bigger screen and a huge library, but if you travel a lot you may find a smaller device that fits in your bag is more to your liking. Once you have decided what it is you really want from your ereader, a little research will help you find the one that meets all your criteria. And the best ebook reader for you is the one that meets all of your needs.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Larry:
Here are the formats that the Kindle supports:
Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.
Note: PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP are supported through conversion only! Meaning, you’ll need third party software (you can find some that are free) to convert the files.
The most common format for ebooks in libraries are MOBI and PDF.
The Sony supports MOBI and PDF natively (meaning you don’t to convert anything).
If you tell me what formats the ebooks are in that you’re interested in, I can give you a more concrete answer!
Thanks,
TravisVS
Site Admin
I’m a book reader but not a buyer and get all my books at the public library. The library tells me they are increasing the amount of e books they have. I can’t get answers from either SONY or Kindle about whether they are compatible with the various formats available for e books. In the stores, you get different answers about the same product and you can’t even see the Kindle in a store. So what do I do?
Hi,
Here’s what I know about the Amazon Kindle:
1. First of all, if you want to buy one and you live outside the US, you’d have to ask someone in the US to purchase it for you as it’s not yet available outside the country. As for using it, yes, you can still use it even without Sprint but you don’t have the option of downloading books “wirelessly.” What you do is just manually transfer content to your Kindle by downloading ebooks from the Web or from the Kindle store to your PC, and then transferring the books to your Kindle via USB.
2. The Kindle charger works fine for any voltage input from 100-240 volts. The USB cable also allows you to “trickle charge” your Kindle.
3. Yes, Amazon offers customer service through email or phone. And you don’t even need to sign in to your Amazon account to reach a Kindle representative.
Hope this helps, Perry!
How could I use it in Europe or other countries, as they don’t have sprint.
What about power, is it 110 and 220 volts so we could charge it in every country.
Does Amazon have live tech support or live sales reps
Hope you could email me the answer.