i am looking for an e-reader to use here abroad in europe. and no, please no kindle suggestions. i can't use nook devices either. any recommendations appreciated!!


MUST HAVES

screen

• touch function

• scroll

• press buttons

• turn pages

• in color (NO lcd please!)

support

• of multiple formats (.lit, .epub, .html, .pdf etc.)

• transfer files via usb/wlan/bluetooth

• usage in europe (!= USA)

battery

• long battery life

resistance

• water and dirt resistant

• high impact shock proof casing withstands drops, falls and spills

NICE-TO-HAVES

• dim brightness

• social networking (thinking of goodreads here)

• recharge via usb

• extend memory/storage space

• calendar

I'm not 100% certain but the only color readers without LCD are mirasol ones. It's a fairly new technology that's not on a lot of e-readers. You can find out more about them here: http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/
Not sure about where you can use them because the official places to buy mirasol readers are in Asia.

It's not possible to have a device that can handle both epub and mobi because they are different proprietary formats that refuse to play with each other but it's fairly simple to convert one format into another.

Other than that, I'd suggest a Sony Reader.
https://shop.sony.co.uk/shop/Reader-eBo ... 5985615390

I'm not 100% certain but the only color readers without LCD are mirasol ones. It's a fairly new technology that's not on a lot of e-readers. You can find out more about them here: http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/
Not sure about where you can use them because the official places to buy mirasol readers are in Asia.

It's not possible to have a device that can handle both epub and mobi because they are different proprietary formats that refuse to play with each other but it's fairly simple to convert one format into another.

Other than that, I'd suggest a Sony Reader.
https://shop.sony.co.uk/shop/Reader-eBo ... 5985615390

ahh, mirasol! i've heard about this technology it's been in use in asian countries mostly (taiwan, china, korea) and is not available in europe as of yet. i think i'd rather wait for full color mirasol displays to reach my part of europe instead of settling for a mediocre sony e-reader even if it'll take awhile, but then again the price will decrease too, by then. a win-win situation, i'd say...

i'd suggest a kobo touch reader if you were looking for something abroad

Runs on e-ink pearl technology with a decent between 1-2 week battery that can go up to 1 month as it's based on page turns which is usb rechargable and wifi enabled running on epub (you can't get both mobi and epub on the same reader), the device is touch don't believe it has a calender but it has a clock storage is 1.4gigs works out to around 800-1000 books, built in dictionary and highlighting tool with word search quick nav functions. Reader also reads pdf and sony epubs which is easily sideloaded by ADE as well as comes with built in access to kobo store with 2.5 million titles.

Device doesn't have a solid web browser and does not have color in the touch reader but I feel the pros out live the cons and besides if you're looking for something to read who'd want a color screen when you take it outdoors as currently there's no e-ink color on the market.

I've had my Kobo touch reader since june/july and never had issues with it great investment and I love the fact that there's tons of epubs on the forums here I can download and put on it

thank you, b0red28, i'll keep that kobo in mind, although i might wait a bit since i want my reading device to have a colored display (besides being able to support lots of formats and be comfortable in its usage including a long battery life)!
i'm not so nitpicky about the storage and such.. ^^

I noticed the kyoobo mirasol from south korea had a reflective light screen and a grey reading surface it looked great for reading outdoors though movie's comic and websites wouldn't be that great for read on it as it's not like an LCD screen

the music feature was just a bar and a play and pause button and the storage was only 1gig with an optional micro sd card slot

i'd say the processor wouldn't be as good as a B&N Tablet or Kindle Fire as it's only 800-1gig single core with a 512mb of ram

but it would do the job as a color reader with some small functions like wifi web browsing

I think it is almost impossible to get a reader with all your must haves. I have an Aluratek black and white and I am reasonably happy with it. The company now has a colour ereader so check it out.

The build quality on mirasol is shit and there are a lot bugs with the software...haven't you read the reviews on it? But then again I facepalmed when I read your list of requirements. Nothing like that out there exists or will exist for a few years. e-Readers are by definition, cheap tablets made solely for reading. They aren't built to be thrown around. You drop it one too many times, you're screwed. You won't find a heavy-duty e-reader. They're mass-produced cheap low-tech ware.

I predict at least a year before the main companies roll out a full colored e-ink with a back lit display. Amazon and Nook haven't yet mastered the color e-ink displays and the backlits will be out en mass this year, with Amazon following behind Nook's Glow. European companies aren't exactly on the leading edge of gadgets. You won't find a euro company doing e-readers anytime soon.

But if you rule out the "resistance" section there is an e-reader out there that fits your requirements:

http://www.jetbook.net/

Be prepared to splash out 500 heavy bucks for that.

I know you said that you couldn't use a Nook, so I'm not sure if this will help, but it's possible to "root" a Nook Color and get what is basically a standard Android tablet. This will allow you to run any sort of Android app you want, including all of the popular social networking apps, multiple reader apps so that you can read any format you want, as well as allowing you to expand the memory capacity with miniSD cards (up to 32GB). You can also charge it via USB (I think--I charge mine via the wall outlet as it's faster, so I'm not sure about this), and you can definitely transfer files from your computer to it via USB.

The only things it doesn't have are a long battery life--you'll get about 5 hours of "normal" use unless you're really good at tweaking settings to get the maximum usage out of it unless you're using a lot of WiFi for web surfing or running a lot of processor intensive apps--and it's probably not as durable/resistant as you're looking for. It *feels* sturdy, but I wouldn't be too rough with it, and it's certainly not resistant to water or other spills.

If you are still looking try to track down a Sony PRS-T3, it is a very good eReader. If you are just looking for a reader to read ebooks.

[Beetzart]

Nice article "what to consider when choosing an ereader".

https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic ... n-e-reader

Goodereader.com is an excellent site with many reviews and overviews of the erader market and the market developments.

My standard eBook viewer is a 7" Android tablet. I use that rather than an eInk device because eInk is monochrome, and I need color support. Too much of what I read uses color in things like embedded images, and gray scale conversions are painful. (There actually is a color eInk display, but it's 12 bit, which is inadequate for my purposes, and only one obscure Chinese vendor had produced a device using it the last I knew.)

The books are actually stored on a 32GB microSD card, so support for external storage was another requirement. In practice, I pop the card from the tablet, plug it into an adapter, and drop books from the master library on the desktop machine directly onto the eBook directory on the card from the host. There are other ways to do it, but it's quickest for me.

I use the open source Calibre program to create and maintain the master eBook library, and use Calibre to transfer books to the card, and it creates the needed sub-directories as required. (Calibre stores books in directories by author name, and more than one book by an author will go in that directory.) Calibre can also convert between supported formats, and I do so with a caveat - conversions from PDF usually fail, and I've stopped trying. Too many things about a PDF just don't convert, and the results are painful. See https://calibre-ebook.com for info and downloads.

To view the books, I use the open source FBReader for Android applicat6ion. FBReader gets the nod for support of multiple formats. It dispalys ePub, AZW3, Mobi and FB2 files among others native. It displays PDFs, CBR/CBZ (Comics) file, and DjVu files via plugins. I prefer ePub, and convert Mobi and AZW3 files to ePub as the storage format, but for the most part, I don't have to care what format a book is in. FBRFeader does not handle books with DRM, but I don't get such things and don't care. FBReader is highly customizable, and I get a page display about like that of a mass market paperback. FBReader has a free version and a payware premuim version. I happily bought the latter. The Premium version builds in the Bookshelf view that requires a plugin in the free version, and builds in PDF support as well. See https://fbreader.org/ for info and downloads. It's also available on Google Play.

My device is LCD, but good luck on finding color support in a reader that doesn't use it. The advantage a lot of people like in eInk readers is battery savings. Once an eInk display is painted, it requires no power to maintain it, where an LCD requires a constant trickle to keep the screen refreshed. Folks with eInk readers report going for weeks between charges. That's nice, but I need color and simply made it a reflex to charge my various devices regularly. My eBook viewer tablet tends to live on the charger overnight when not actively used.

[pharsyckle]

i'd suggest a kobo touch reader if you were looking for something abroad

Runs on e-ink pearl technology with a decent between 1-2 week battery that can go up to 1 month as it's based on page turns which is usb rechargable and wifi enabled running on epub (you can't get both mobi and epub on the same reader), the device is touch don't believe it has a calender but it has a clock storage is 1.4gigs works out to around 800-1000 books, built in dictionary and highlighting tool with word search quick nav functions. Reader also reads pdf and sony epubs which is easily sideloaded by ADE as well as comes with built in access to kobo store with 2.5 million titles.

Device doesn't have a solid web browser and does not have color in the touch reader but I feel the pros out live the cons and besides if you're looking for something to read who'd want a color screen when you take it outdoors as currently there's no e-ink color on the market.

I've had my Kobo touch reader since june/july and never had issues with it great investment and I love the fact that there's tons of epubs on the forums here I can download and put on it

Agree 100% with this. Battery life very good, super display, touch is very sensitive; I had a mosquito land on the screen and got the "water on screen" message! Downside is they're a bit on the expensive side; I think they're about 190€? That's for the H2O, which is waterproof to a limited extent which is a plus. Further good thing I found when I got my last one; they sent a 1,5m charging cord and a 1,5m extension cable. Both very high quality. I hasten to add that I bought a second one in case I lost the first one "You can have my mobile, my credit cards, my drivers' license, but I'll fight you to the death for my Kobo!"

Whatever mark you have/are looking to buy I would urge getting a cover for it. The odds of dropping and cracking it mount the longer you have it. It'll cost you serious money to get a replacement, where a case will cost you about 20€.

PS. This is not an ad.

[pharsyckle]

The build quality on mirasol is shit and there are a lot bugs with the software...haven't you read the reviews on it? But then again I facepalmed when I read your list of requirements. Nothing like that out there exists or will exist for a few years. e-Readers are by definition, cheap tablets made solely for reading. They aren't built to be thrown around. You drop it one too many times, you're screwed. You won't find a heavy-duty e-reader. They're mass-produced cheap low-tech ware.

I predict at least a year before the main companies roll out a full colored e-ink with a back lit display. Amazon and Nook haven't yet mastered the color e-ink displays and the backlits will be out en mass this year, with Amazon following behind Nook's Glow. European companies aren't exactly on the leading edge of gadgets. You won't find a euro company doing e-readers anytime soon.

But if you rule out the "resistance" section there is an e-reader out there that fits your requirements:

http://www.jetbook.net/

Be prepared to splash out 500 heavy bucks for that.

Please be aware that clicking on the link in the text above creates a Security Alert from Mozilla. Copy and paste into your browser works fine, however.
Regards
P.

[pharsyckle]

e-Readers are by definition, cheap tablets made solely for reading. They aren't built to be thrown around. You drop it one too many times, you're screwed. You won't find a heavy-duty e-reader. They're mass-produced cheap low-tech ware.

Agree with just about everything there.
Additionally. DO invest in a cover. Most eBooks have a magnetic on/off switch and a decent cover will provide this functionality. Upside: It prevents damage to the screen when the cover's closed. Downside: makes it a little thicker and heavier. AFAIK, not many provide waterproofing, but the Kobo Aura H2O certainly does: the MicroUSB slot, reset pinhole, slot for microSD card and audio socket are hidden by a tight-fitting rubber bung jobbie. Dunno where you're at, but Amazon will provide both the eBook and the appropriate cover (not confined to the following). Pick the Kobo above and you're talking 190 EUR, plus the case about 22 EUR (as of Oct 2019). Slide brightness on the RHS, very long battery life. Possible downside to this particular device, and it may just be a perception thing, but I found if you load more than about 100 books on the thing, it seems to slow down a lot. Note that it reads the metadata, which means that you can name the file anything you want and it'll be ignored. This has an effect if you carefully number each book in a series then sideload, all your numbering disappears. Most eBooks do the same.
Hope this helps.
P.