←back to thread

572 points bookofjoe | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.203s | source
Show context
pfooti ◴[] No.41864842[source]
I have a pretty old paperwhite. When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre, I decided to get a kobo. I have a libra color, and I have to say: price notwithstanding, it's a great device. I don't have a lot of experience with more recent devices, but compared to my 2nd gen paperwhite, it is _amazing_.

Color is good enough to read comic books on it, the google drive integration means it's not too hard to get my CBR/CBZ files on directly. The annotation / notetaking featureas are nice (I haven't leaned into them yet, but they work well even on the small screen size), plus all the regular stuff with normal book reading. Also, since it's kobo/rakuten, the libby integration is better (search and select library books right from the device).

The actual reading app is maybe 90% as good as reading on the kindle (or a more specialized reader like perfectviewer on android). There's some annoyingly fiddly features- font size is kind of weirdly variable, when going through CBR files there's no "read next in the folder" gesture nor is there a "this is read/unread" state in the google drive ui, so you always have to remember which book you are finishing when opening the next in the series.

I tried out one of those boox readers with the android apps, which would be even better software-wise, but the boox hardware seems like garbage (for an N=1 at least). My display came with several rows of stuck pixels, and apparently it's a good thing that I ordered from amazon instead of the boox store, because the reviews indicate getting an RMA from boox directly is a pain.

replies(20): >>41865054 #>>41865144 #>>41865315 #>>41865560 #>>41865566 #>>41865600 #>>41865699 #>>41865782 #>>41866257 #>>41867222 #>>41867433 #>>41867629 #>>41867668 #>>41867732 #>>41868184 #>>41869695 #>>41870125 #>>41870297 #>>41870442 #>>41870449 #
Latty ◴[] No.41865144[source]
I've got a Boox Note 3 and love it for what it is (my hardware has been fine), but I'd find it very hard to recommend generally. Boox are dodgy at best (GPL violations, random connections to china, etc...), you start with an already old version of Android and if lucky you might get another major version, they aren't cheap, Android stuff is mostly not designed for black-and-white/low refresh rate and some apps have unreadable buttons, things like that.

But, with that all said... it's great for my specific uses. Android is just so much better if you want to run self-hosted stuff. When it dies or the software just gets that old I'll be really at a loss for what to get to replace it.

replies(4): >>41865231 #>>41865725 #>>41866911 #>>41869495 #
TechDebtDevin ◴[] No.41865725[source]
Boox is dodgy, but everyone I know that has one loves them. I wouldn't expect any Chinese company to respect GPLs. Although, I've seen people on Reddit say they can have QA issues, and if you receive that unit you're likely SOL, this is the only reason that I've been hesitant to spend money on one. I've also been eyeing this new company, daylight, that has a 60hz refresh rate with what I think is E-Ink[0]. Their website says E-Paper, not sure if that's different from E-Ink. Unfortunately, they've always been on wait list months out every time I've looked.

https://daylightcomputer.com/product

replies(5): >>41865842 #>>41866570 #>>41866922 #>>41867244 #>>41867267 #
1. grogenaut ◴[] No.41866570[source]
I have a boox note 3, I don't love it. I barely use it. Have a remarkable 2 but spouse stole it when I iddn't use it much. I bought a scribe and used it more. I had 2 sets of classes this spring. I used the crap out of the scribe. I tried the boox for it and went back to the scribe. All I was doing was taking written notes in class and using it as infinte paper for doing homeworks. The boox takes forever to wake up and just is more laggy. It was usable for reading stuff in google docs outside but an umbrella and a laptop worked better.

That said all 3 have amazing battery life, they'd all last all semester on a charge.