Although I have a tablet, I find e-Ink displays are certainly easier on my eyes for long sessions of reading. It's mainly because they reflect light rather then emit it. Also pixels are bi-stable and not being refreshed many times a second. Plus all the obvious benefits of being able to read in strong sunlight or places with bright ambient light and massive battery life.

Sure, e-readers are not as flexible or powerful as tablets, but they cannot be beaten just for reading books containing lots of text. Besides they are very affordable if that is all you need.

How long will your ipad last running just on its battery? You can't really compare any tablet with a dedicated reader in terms of overall performance, tablets are at best a compromise for reading ebooks.

My girlfriend has a Kobo ereader, and it's much better to use than any tablet I've used. The eInk is much easier to read and the size and weight also is much better.

Well I have tried it on my wifes iPad and I'm sure you won't say that lacks enough contrast and resolution

And my wife uses the Kindle for reading rather than her iPad as well as she finds it better for reading.

Rather than trying to make out I am wrong in what i find best why not just except that I, as well as many others prefer reading on an eInk screen?

I love books. I've shelves of the things and always had a couple on the go, up until Christmas.

Then the wife got me the Nook with the back-light, and I've never looked back. I have tried reading books on my tablet, but it was useless in bright sunlight by a pool or on the beach.
Just back from a couple of weeks in the States, and the Nook was a godsend. I have around 80 books downloaded at the moment (imagine those as part of your luggage allowance) and it's just so easy to carry about, to read on the plane (especially on a night-flight with the light), by the pool etc. Also, with the long battery life between charging you don't need to pack the charger.
Still took my tablet, but mostly for music, watching films, games and such, but as far as reading's concerned I wouldn't go back.

I don't recall recommending a tablet over a "dedicated reader." That said, a tablet with a good high resolution screen will actually perform better than a dedicated reader as you don't have that awful delay when going through pages as you do on e-ink readers. You also have a color screen for content with color and most importantly you have access to books from all sources, unlike a "dedicated reader." Readability is only an issue in very bright lighting conditions, as I said.

Of course the battery on a e-ink reader will last much longer than on a tablet but most people are not away from a socket to recharge overnight. I think more and more people are beginning to realize the advantages of a tablet over an Ebook reader and I think that is where the future of Ebook reading is heading.

Everyone has their preferences but preferences are not necessarily rooted in or based on scientific fact. I suspect the weight of the iPad has a lot to do with her reasoning.

Outside of very bright conditions there is nothing inherently wrong with LCD/OLED displays for reading compared to an e-ink display. That's a proven fact.

I was looking at the Kobo and the Nook. The Kobo Glow light looks far better and it also has many font options too, but it's so expensive. I have pretty much ruled out the paperwhite as it's limited to 2gb memory.

What awful delay?

Posts on this thread would suggest otherwise. In fact I'd say that more and more people are realising the advantages of an ebook reader over a tablet

2GB is plenty of books. If you are firmly in the Amazon ecosystem for books, as I am, the memory doesn't matter that much. all your books are in the cloud, you only need to keep "current" books on your device.

I usually only keep a couple on my kindle at a time.

Care to link directly to several peer-reviewed studies in respected journals if it's a "proven fact" when it goes against the grain of most people's anecdotal experience.

Also re: your comment on slow page turn. On my kindle, without changing my hand position, I can press a button to turn a page and it does it in about 1 second. Quicker than turning a page in a real book and quicker than the skeuomorphic action of having to turn a page in iBooks where I have to change my hold position and then swipe a finger across the screen.

If you are going to be buying from their integrated stores then the strength and longevity of the company matters too. I have much more confidence in Amazon sticking around than Barnes & Noble or Kobo.

E-ink displays have a slight delay when refreshing content. One page to the next is not as big of a deal but it is painful when going quickly through books.

Look it up if it's important enough for you.


Page navigating in iBooks is done in three different ways. One should also consider speed when it comes to simply going to the next page and when flipping through pages.

1- As you have described, and similar in speed to an E-reader, due to the animation, but much faster for flipping through.
2- Tap on the side of the page, which is faster but much, much faster for flipping through.
3- Scroll mode, which is the fastest mode and ridiculously fast for flipping through. A scroll mode is not possible with current e-ink technology.

I only use 2 or 3.

Amazon's and Nook's iOS apps are the same story, quicker at page turning. I use all three on my iPad 4.

Very true about preferences vs scientific fact but I was talking about preferences and that most people seem to prefer reading eInk screens rather than LCD screens when reading for long periods.

The weight does not come into it at all - my wife often uses her iPad for hours at a time.

Do you have a link to this fact? I don't think anyone has said it's wrong to read on an LCD screen only that most people find it easier on the eyes to read an eInk screen.

I'm not asking you for a link for that.

Those that are truly interested in what I have said will research it on their own. Clearly you are not one of those people.

I own both a keyboard kindle (soon to upgrade to a Paperwhite) and an iPad, I would never dream of taking my iPad out to a pool area when on holiday, its just an accident waiting to happen. I was in Disney last year and the amount of people carrying around iPads and using them as cameras and video cameras was amazing. For one thing I wouldn't want the weight of carrying an iPad all day and two again water, kids running around etc another accident waiting to happen

Usually, the expectation is that if someone makes an assertion of something as 'fact' they provide a good quality link as evidence, else their assertion becomes invalid.

Otherwise, people could be saying "FACT!" all day long (it actually happens a lot).

I could say, eventually your eyeballs will melt if you use an LCD for too long, FACT! If you use an eInk screen, you will gain 20/20 vision, FACT!

Then, when challenged, I just say look it up yourself - not very satisfying is it?

He does this a lot. Best to steer clear of him.

I had the third revision of the kindle. I liked it, I think it was easier on my eyes, but the ipad 4 which I have now is nice to read on.

Ah I see - that kind of argument! LOL

Say something is a fact but unable to back it up Nice

Now that's a word only a reader would know

I have an iPad - rubbish for reading, battery life is poor, the weight is too much and the screen isn't designed for long sessions of reading, but mostly it doesn't feel like I'm reading a book, it feels like i'm reading text on a computer. Watching films, browsing the net it's better than laptop.

My Paperwhite can be held in one hand and it feels like i'm reading an actual book.

The weight is crucial too for me. I don't like carrying around a tablet, but the Kindle is light, cheap and hassle free.

To finish with a cliché - at the end of the day it's horses for courses.

I use a Kobo Glo to read its small and portable, the light is fantastic for reading in bed at night and your not tied to any particuliar bookstore like a kindle. A tablet would be too big and heavy, I don't need a colour screen for text, E ink is much easier on the eyes than a LCD or OLED and does the second that it takes to turn a page matter.

If you want music, games and movies a tablet is better but for simply reading books e-readers have them beat.

Everything stated above is personal opinion and not FACT.

I don't do research for others. Those who are truly interested will look it up themselves. Those that make your kind of protest are either not truly interested or have already made up their minds.

The display on a kindle is far better on the eye than a tablet, there is no lag turning a page and you don't have to charge it every few hours. Given the amount of Kindles and other dedicated readers sole I believe your idea of people heading over to tablets is utter tosh to be honest. You come across as being fixated with tablets/ipad.

No, that's just a personal preference. I'm not going to provide a list of links but here is one.

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20.../#.UamSyue9KSM


Yes, there is a lag. Current E-ink technology makes that so. No, you don't have to charge a tablet "every few hours." An iPad mini, for example goes well over 12 hours.

LCD/OLED displays on tablets using either iBooks, Kindle or Nook apps are faster for single page turns and dramatically faster for flipping through pages, with the fastest being iBook's scroll mode. This is easy for anyone to see for themselves in an electronics store.


What I like about small tablets as E-readers is that you are not limited to stores you can buy books from, as you are with a dedicated E-ink reader, plus you can flip through books much quicker, you can take adavatnge of color books and they serve other purposes. Those are not opinions, those are facts.

If none of that matters to you then E-ink readers are excellent choices.