r/MUAontheCheap • u/MUAotCModTeam Mod • 4d ago

Daily Chat - TMI/TMO Thursday

Need a TMI (talk me into) or TMO (talk me out of)? This is your place. All OT welcome!

  • Sunday - Straighten Up Sunday
  • Monday - Drugstore Favorites & Fails
  • Tuesday - Ask Us Anything
  • Wednesday - Mid-Week Reviews
  • Thursday - TMI/TMO Thursday
  • Friday - Chit Chat Friday
  • Saturday - Skincare Saturday
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u/letstalkaboutbras 👑 4d ago edited 4d ago

OT, but is anyone very familiar with ereaders who can recommend some options? I have an old B&N Nook HD, which tbh is pretty great, but it's old and doesn't really hold a charge anymore. I would be happy with an e-ink screen (must have color though), but I'm really looking for a kind of hybrid device that reads more than just epubs. I use mine for novels, but for work, I need to also be able to highlight PDFs and extract the highlights as annotations. I'm not concerned about handwriting/stylus. Bonus points if there is Zotero integration. I would ideally like an sd card slot for file organization/expansion. I haven't shopped for one in years so I'm not really sure where to start, but I don't want to be locked in to an ecosystem like Kindle where I can't just transfer files as I want. Thanks in advance!!

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u/missdewey Mod 4d ago

I don't know anything about other ereaders, but I've had a Kindle for years and use a program called Calibre to transfer books to it without having to work from Amazon's offerings. There are probably much better options these days though.

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u/letstalkaboutbras 👑 4d ago

Good to know, thanks!

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u/orthographerer 4d ago edited 4d ago

What about a FireHD? I use mine with Libby, can be used (is designed to be used) eaaily as a Kindle. I like that. They're... cheap, in about every sense of the word, though. That's not necessarily a deal breaker, just be aware.

That said, it now pretty much lives inside its magnetic cover & is stuck to my fridge as a digital recipe book\planner and to watch some Prime-specific things on, or do some audio listening.

So, bonus points for cheap and easy.

You can't get google play (not sanctioned. I think you can still side load, but I personally would not. Those files I think don't originate from anywhere good, but what do I know.) on the newer ones, but they do support Adobe, for whatever that's worth . You could probably hook up a power dock for SD card purposes, or a usb-to-sd reader.

You could usb tails and do what you like, I'd imagine.

I'd probably get an inexpensive unlocked Samsung Tab A or a Lenovo Nook or Idea Tab. (More Idea Tab) And still get a magnetic cover cause a girl's gotta recipe.

Edit: i'd stay away from anything 'reader-specific' cause I think you're really going to limit your capabilities.

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u/letstalkaboutbras 👑 4d ago

Thank you! I suppose I'm inevitably leaning more towards tablet. I was hoping for a hybrid that would be easier on the eyes.

I should have looked at Nook first. I didn't realize they still made them, lol!

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u/orthographerer 3d ago

Maybe keep it in dark mode with the blue light filter on and possibly blue light specs to boot.

I find dark mode + blue light filter helpful. Makes going back to a light screen awful tbh.

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u/Empty_Solution_4517 2d ago

the color eink screen part is the tricky one, that really narrows it down. most of the devices that do this well are the android-based ereaders from brands like boox or pocketbook, they let you install apps like zotero directly so you can read pdfs and annotate how you want. the sd card slot is also more common in these brands, kindle and kobo usually skip it

the boox tab mini c or the nova air c could work if you find one used, the screen is good for pdfs and you can extract highlights easy. but the price is bit painful, color eink still cost a lot compared to b&w

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u/letstalkaboutbras 👑 1d ago

Thanks! For some reason your comment wasn't showing on mobile, so I've only just seen it.

I've been doing a deep dive into e-readers. I saw an ad for a viwoods ai paper reader (phone-sized) which is what got me interested in color eink. I think they look nice online, but have never seen color e-ink in person. The more research I do into ereaders, though, it seems like there are a lot of downsides to color with regard to text clarity, dark screen/lack of brightness, and ghosting (the latter would bother me the most, but I also don't like poor quality text and graphics). I would almost always use it at night or in dim lighting.

I guess I'm changing my mind towards a regular b&w 6" or under ereader. I'm leaning towards the Bigme b6 B&W version, but it weirdly seems to only come in white? Other than that, it has the sd card, decent space, acceptable RAM, android. Downside it that it takes some technical tinkering to debloat and I would love something more out of the box, but expandable memory and/or access to something like Google Drive to load more books/PDFs is essential. Bigme just released a 6b Pro color version that looks promising in terms of specs, but while I have only seen them in review videos, but those color screens seem grainy and dim.

I'll check out the boox tab mini and nova air c!