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Seeing the sub-$200 price tags on the latest generation of e-readers has finally convinced me to consider one. I was thinking about a tablet, like the ipad, but then I realized all I would do with it is read. The Kindle 3 and Nook 2 are cheaper by far than even a beat up, used since release day ipad 1 and with better battery life and outdoor visibility too.
Has anyone tried either of these devices? Are they usable for reading your average Paizo PDF? Does the lack of a backlight get in the way? Are there any reading lights that are non-clumsy and/or rechargeable? And does either device let you takes notes that aren't annotations, i.e. plaintext notepad style text notes?
Thanks everyone!
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My wife has a nook (she lost her color one on the train and bought one of the new basic nooks), and one of my coworkers has a Kindle 3. I think the nook is the best for simple, basic reading. The Kindle handles PDFs better than the nook, nonetheless, I wouldn't recommend it if you're serious about using it to read PDFs.
So, if you want a simple e-reader, I'd buy the nook basic. If you want a little more, I'd buy the nook Color. If you want something bigger, I'd buy the Kindle DX.
If you want to read Paizo PDFs, I'd buy a tablet.
Reading Paizo PDFs: tablet; neither nook or Kindle are particularly suited for graphics-heavy PDFs, like Pathfinder.
Reading a book: nook basic
Reading a book and surfing the web (simple surfing) and searching wikipedia while you read: nook Color.
Reading a book, bad eyesight, nook too small: Kindle DX
The screen refresh is much better on the new nook, and only refreshes about every six or seven pages, depending on font size and whether there are any graphics. The refresh on the Kindle is every page and very noticeable.
The backlight, or rather lack thereof, is only an issue at night. But then, I have to dial the screen brightness down all the way, literally, to comfortably read the iPad in the dark. It's strange to me to see my wife reading her nook with an old fashioned booklight clipped to it, but it works. my wife's booklight is LED-lit and powered by a watch battery. She uses it most every night, and has never changed the battery. It's almost a year old.
Notes are annotations. iPad lets you export your notes; not nook or Kindle.
The iPad is virtually unusable in very bright situations, like outdoors, no shade--the sun sets off the temperature shutdown failsafe in minutes, and it's honestly hard to find a shady enough spot to read comfortably. Setting the screen brightness to max works, but it drains the battery in a couple hours.
Again, if you only want to read books, I'd buy a nook basic. If you want to do anything else, I'd get a tablet.