Wednesday, July 20, 2011

We still don't have the ideal ereader

It ain't heavy, it's my e-reader: a review of the Nook Color, review.

I found this while looking up the weight of the Nook Color.
I do most of my reading on my iPad on a book-stand. I love this. Best of both worlds. But I tend to zip back and forth between many books, articles and videos, so sometimes a book can slip into the background even though I'd intended to to read it soon.
So I am experimenting with using more than one ereader, one of them dedicated to the current top book. So I tried out:

The Kindle 3: Wonderful size and weight. But the grey screen needs much more lamp light than I like. Some people say backlit screens strain their eyes. But for me, a grey (not white or light-grey) screen is a worse strain for mine.

The iPhone 4: Actually surprisingly good. The screen is amazing. But still it's not meant to be an ereader, it's small and you have to flip pages often.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab: my current choice. It's very good, especially after I pasted rubber pads on the back.

I don't have the Nook Color, but I decided to forget about it after I found out via the review at the top that it's actually heavier than the Galaxy Tab.

My ideal is the Galaxy Tab (or a similar iOS device), but with the high screen resolution of the iPhone 4 (or roughly in the neighborhood), and a bit thinner, and maybe 200 grams lighter. And easier to hold without dropping or touching the touch-screen or buttons by accident. Ribbed rubber backing, and a re-think of how hard you have to touch a button might do it. (For something you have to hand-hold, I think it's best for a button to only react to a distinct press, not the mere presence of a hand.)

Sadly it seems that Apple has decided that the sizes in-between an iPhone and an iPad 2 is not good for much, except a dedicated ereader, and I don't think they'll make something that "limited". (Single-digit millions sales are probably "limited" in Apple's world.) But maybe Amazon will do something interesting soon, the world is holding its breath.

1 comment:

TC [Girl] said...

Just read (and watched the 2 vids) this. He's waiting for the next Kindle as well! :-D