Impossible Umbrella   Apr 11

Hello friends. I am looking to purchase an #eInk #eReader – and I wonder if the wise denizens of the fediverse might be able to advise me...

I have a fairly specific use-case. I have a large number of PDF files that I want to be able to read (ranging from books I have purchased as PDFs, through to free or out-of-print books from archive.org, academic papers, articles or blog posts which I have "printed" to PDF to read later on a bigger screen than my phone, etc.)

I am currently doing this on my iPad – but this isn't ideal because a) it's not always easy to read the screen in bright light (I like to read outside when it's nice), and b) because of my #AuDHD brain, I get easily distracted – and having *everything else* on my iPad means that I easily lose focus, and find I've not actually managed to read anything.

I want a device with the largest screen possible (ideally A4 / US letter sized), with a good resolution – color optional (but a "nice to have" since many of the documents have pictures or other illustrations).

I'm thinking about a #ReMarkablePaperPro – because it has a large (and by most accounts very good) screen; but none of the review I have read focus on what I want to do with it. They're all either about how amazing it is to write on (nice, and occasional annotation would be helpful; but fundamentally not my central use-case); or how terrible it is as an #eBook reader because it doesn't have a eBook store / doesn't support certain (often proprietary) file-types.

So has anyone here used one for reading PDFs? Does anyone have any other suggestions for this use-case?

Thanks in advance.

Show threadOrontee

@ImpossibleUmbrella I own a #remarkablePaperPro.

The Paper Pro is a strange device. It looks beautiful, the software is stable, intuitive and has a polished user interface. But I never use it to read anything longer than newspaper articles, and honestly it's so simpler to have the articles available on my other eink device that I almost never use the Paper Pro.One of my children likes to draw with the Paper Pro. No more usages here, unfortunately.

Apr 11 at 7:27pmTuba
Show threadOronteeApr 11
@ImpossibleUmbrella First, with the cover, the weight is too high to read for hours. The margins are very small so you don't know where to put your fingers, and there's no button to turn pages that would allow to lock the screen. The ink main color is a dark purple which is not pleasant for the eye when you're used to read on paper. The backlight can't be adjusted precisely and I can't imagine reading with this device by night, thing I regularly do with my other eink device.
Show threadOronteeApr 11
@ImpossibleUmbrella It's not viewed as a USB storage by computers, one must open a web browser, remember the IP address to upload files one by one to the device. On my other device I drag and drop, or copy using rsync or scp.
Show threadOronteeApr 11

@ImpossibleUmbrella There's no dictionary! Not speaking of an encyclopedia.

There are software updates but they almost bring nothing: "Dear users, You can now move the toolbar from one screen side to any other screen side; Be happy with that and wait for six months for next unbelievable update", wahoouuuh .

No centralized view on your book annotations. No OPDS support. Dead developer community.

Show threadOronteeApr 11

@ImpossibleUmbrella I confirm that the writing experience is incredible. But when taking notes in conferences, I found the device with its cover too thick for my wrist and finally realized that a notebook would have been for more confortable. Most editing commands (cut, paste, enlarge selection, etc.) are slow and the user experience is very poor.

I am very, very disappointed. Note that I am a regular ebook reader and love the technology.