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Kindle Fire HD: Can you actually read ebooks from this without eye strain?
dezire
15-01-2013
I was wondering what it's like for reading ebooks? Surely with that type of screen it will give you eye strain if looking at text for too long, yet they are plugging it as a ebook reader.

What are your experiences?
Dai13371
15-01-2013
I have read George R R Martin on a Galaxy Tab 1, similar size screen yet less resolution. My eyes were fine, essentially when I used the reader app feature to turn down the brightness and/or make the page look as close to paper as possible.

I read this on a review of the Kindle Fire:-

"The screen is high resolution enough to make text very readable indeed. Letters are crisp and not blurry as they are on some tablets. "
clonmult
15-01-2013
My experiences - no way would I do that. Its bad enough sitting staring at a screen all day writing stuff, coding, etc. But I'm at a distance, not staring at a screen.

I have tried, but absolutely cannot concentrate on it. My ex can happily read books on her Playbook.

Honestly, if your prime function is to read books, then an e-Ink screen is about a bazillion times better than any of the current generation of LCDs. And battery life when doing that is considerably better.

(ps Wrong forum!)
DevonBloke
15-01-2013
It's like on the iPad, if you select sepia and turn the brightness right down its perfect I find.
Tassium
15-01-2013
I find e-ink too low contrast for comfort, although the new Kindle Paperwhite is supposed to be very good.

Meanwhile LCDs are usually awful to read off. IPS screens (like on the Fire HD) are significantly better than ordinary LCD but still can be unpleasant for some. It's a personal thing.

The only solution is to find a Fire HD on display and read lots and lots. But problems may not become apparent until quite a while, say 30 minutes.
paulbrock
16-01-2013
Can't speak for the Kindle Fire HD, but the similarly screened Nexus 7 is the only way I currently read books. Never had a problem.
Dan Sette
16-01-2013
Originally Posted by DevonBloke:
“It's like on the iPad, if you select sepia and turn the brightness right down its perfect I find.”

Or reverse. White print on black background. No galre and very restful.
Mind you this is a throw back from my BBC days where the meters on broadcast desks were always whit on black, which the Beeb maintained was more restfull and easier to read in low light situations.
LostFool
16-01-2013
Originally Posted by paulbrock:
“Can't speak for the Kindle Fire HD, but the similarly screened Nexus 7 is the only way I currently read books. Never had a problem.”

I find the Nexus 7 fine for short periods but if I'm going to have a long reading session I'll always switch to my old trusty Kindle. I also like the Kindle as there aren't the distractions and temptations from other apps that you get on the Nexus. The battery life if also much better so you don't have to worry about it going flat.
stud u like
16-01-2013
Ipads are great for reading on. I read a lot of books on them and magazines.
Shall
16-01-2013
Kindle, using black background and white text read in bed with the lights off. No issue.
grassmarket
17-01-2013
Yes, no problem reading for a few hours with a Kindle Fire indoors - you'll want to adjust the brightness manually. You might also want to fiddle with the defaults, some people prefer a sepia background to white. However, for reading outdoors or in a glare, I bought the cheapest old Kindle e-paper model, which is much easier.
frightlever
18-01-2013
I can't tell you how gratified I feel reading some of the comments on here. I've been an LCD/TFT/Transflective(!) e-reading advocate for years. I used to read mainly on a Palm TX and have had this argument so many times. For some reason some people reading off these backlit screens have the brightness turned up full with black text on a pure white background and then dismiss it as being hard on the eyes after ten minutes.Essentially they're staring at a bright white screen without blinking for that duration. Light gray text on a black background with the brightness dialled right down is my preferred way to read off the Palm, and I've used the same set-up on iPads, Android tablets and even cheap MP3 players.

This is nothing I discovered independently, but it was a factor on many web design and usability websites for years. Thankfully that message seems to have gotten out to the wider public - something I never seemed to manage in my own "discussions".

I have a Keyboard Kindle and a Kindle Paperwhite - I found the non-backlit keyboard Kindle to be a real effort to read off. No eye strain as such, but the contrast was so poor and the requirement for direct lighting meant I didn't use it all that much. The Paperwhite is fantastic though. A side-lit e-ink screen is pretty much perfect for me, with great contrast and visibility coupled with fantastic battery life. Honestly it's the battery life that has now killed the back-lit screens for my day to day reading, but in a pinch I'm perfectly happy to go back to them and if I could only have ONE device then a Kindle Fire HD, or similar Android tablet would be perfect, allowing me to not only read but play games and browse as well.

That's a whole other point. People will tell you that they can't, having browsed the Internet for hours on end staring at a LCD or LED screen, read off anything except an e-Ink screen. Arrant nonsense. It's like the loons who claim that mobile phone signals give them headaches.
Stormsorrow
20-01-2013
No problems here reading on a KFHD. No eye strain or blurring or anything untoward. I haven't tried it outside though.
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