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Best open e-Reader (piefed.zip)
submitted 2 weeks ago* by to c/ereader_community@lemmy.ml
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Was is currently the best eReader that isn’t forcing you into an ecosystem (like Kindle)?

Preferably smaller screen size and no colour display.

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[–] 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

I just got a Kobo Clara Colour and it was painless to get KoReader working on it. It runs well, is very responsive, and the battery life is great. It is not as powerful as some other options but for the price it is quite nice. The black and white version is about $30 cheaper here, so it is a fairly good value proposition.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Kobo Clara BW and PocketBook Verse Pro have the same prize at my place. What are the pros for Kobo, as I appreciate the buttons of the PB?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago

    Honestly, if buttons matter to you I would not recommend the Kobo. It has one button, on the back strangely enough, which is the power button. Other than that it is all the touchscreen. In KoReader you can customise everything so different areas mean different things, but it is not at all physical, no actual buttons to press.

    That said, the process for getting KoReader working was so easy it was almost like it was intended, it is just dropping files in and rebooting. On a Kindle you have to type a bunch of commands in and use an exploit, which with any update could potentially be overwritten. Kobo seems to be willing to have your custom software without an issue.

    As for my experience, it has been a delight. The battery lasts a long time, the front light can be warm or cold and really quite bright, and software is quite fast and responsive, and colour is good enough for manga which is good for me, the black and white rendering is really nice for text and the fonts are quite nice. Overall a great experience, well worth the money for me. The only gripe I have is the lack up upgradable storage, but that is the same for all of them, nobody wants you to be able to buy a massive microsd card rather than pay huge amounts for their inflated internal storage.

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    • [–] 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Xteink makes good tiny readers that have opensource firmwares. The new model will have a backlight and touchscreen. For larger e-ink, check out Boox. They run android and one of the few with gpu acceleration for the eink.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago

    I've really enjoyed the x4 with crosspoint loaded onto it.

    If you pick one up, grab a developer version as it makes it slightly easier to flash the custom firmware (takes 1-2 minutes using a web installer)

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago

    I also have an X4 that I’ve been liking a lot. There’s a few different custom firmwares to pick from, and the experience has been very nice. Simple, truly pocket sized, and sort of an “as many features as you like” situation with picking between the firmware options.

    I also own a bigger Boox and phone sized Hisense Touch. They are both well made devices, and offer a very pleasant reading experience, but the simplicity of the ESP32 based X4 makes it feel more like a book. All the layers of android on top of the hardware on the other two really take away from the experience.

    If there was an android rom specifically for liberating e readers that would be awesome.

    The Hisense is also a hi-fi audio device so I keep it around for listening to my audio collection in lieu of owning a record player.

    I’m interested in the Commodore Callback and could really see myself enjoying a modernized flip phone and the X4 as my daily EDC devices.

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    • [–] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (1 child)

    Kobo Libra Colour. It's amazing!

    Plus they partnered with ifxit so all parts of your ereader can be replaced if there's an issue.

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    • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    I have a Boox Onyx Go Color Gen II and I love it. Uses Android.

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    • [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago

    The Xteink x4 has some aftermarket firmware available. I've loaded mine up with a bunch of epubs. It works well.

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    [–] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Well, I saw this just today:

    https://liliputing.com/crowdfunding-begins-for-open-book-touch-an-open-source-ereader/

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    • [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago

    Writing this on a BigMe S7. Great e-reader with Cantook, but obviously can do more than just ebooks. Came with a pen that I never use, but it's my ebooks, podcasts, maps.

    Mine is color, but I'm pretty sure you can get a b&w version. I had an old Boox Poke and hated the interface, but I have two BigMe devices and like them both.

    That, or an old Hisense A5 are my readers of choice.

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    [–] 2 points 2 weeks ago

    Gotten myself both a large-screen Kobo Elipsa 2E, which does wonders with KOReader. Haven't used the pen much though, since that's not what I got the device for.

    Also got myself an Xteink X4 and loaded it with the crosspoint firmware, which does amazingly for some casual reading on the go.

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