Best e-readers

@pandrew3 I’ve tried buying Amazon gift cards but can’t seem to do it on the Australian site. Is that your experience?

@pandrew3 I wonder if the Kindle Unlimited deal will be worthwhile in Australia. There are rumours that Amazon Prime VOD will be released here soon and bundled with this service. Do you know if there’s any truth in this?

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I tried that too a few months ago, probably about March and it failed. There were a few other things I tried too and didn’t work and have gone back to the US site and have not been back since.

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I have not seen anything about this. I looked at unlimited and then looked at my reading over 4 months. On average I am only reading about 6 books per month and most are 99 cent titles. I am very comfortable with this rate and did not want to get into a situation where the pressure was on to make sure my reading exceeded the monthly cost of the service. Most of the magazines I read are not available on Amazons.

@pandrew3 Interesting. I thought the same thing but have registered for the one month’s free trial of Unlimited and will see how I go. As you say, there a plenty of cheap books there so would really have to churn through the books to make Unlimited worthwhile.

A post was split to a new topic: Tiny pictures on Kobo Glo ereader

The Choice result is at odds with with every other test/review I have found on the internet, including cnet, pcadvisor & pcmag. They all say the Oasis is the best ereader ever made.

I’m happy to respond to any specific concerns you have with our test - if you think we may have been unfair to the Oasis. We conduct comparative testing, rather than testing a single reader in isolation, and we don’t alter our testing to ensure that our results agree with anyone else’s.

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I haven’t seen the test, so can’t comment directly. But I note that the Kindle Oasis is priced at $449 at Officeworks, while a Kobo costs only a small fraction of that. So perhaps, as so often, the judgment was based on best-value rather than highest-quality. The ABC provided this comparison between a Kobo Glo and a Kindle Paperwhite a while back, and the Kobo came out on top, the book format availability for the Kobo appearing to be the scale-tipping feature –

http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2013/03/18/3717940.htm

Fans of a dedicated ereader using eink may suggest that the reading experience out-ways the convenience of having a single device, but the choices available remain better than ever however you want to enjoy your next book.

I was simply making an observation. Furthermore, the other reviews of course made comparisons with other models. The only comment I would make about the Choice test is that you obviously weighted the Voyager’s auto light adjustment function more heavily than other reviewers. This may not be so important to everyone.

I love my Kindle too. On my second. Wouldn’t be without it.

Just a quick note on Kindle failure. There is a Chinese factory that can supply new screens for your Kindle right back to the V2 with the keyboard. While they are not easy to replace they can be done with a little care. The replacement screens are about $30 each for most screens unless you are replacing the colour screen. I cannot find the web address at the moment but a quick Google search will bring up the site. And also get yourself the plastic toolkit that allows you to split things like iPhones and tablets. The tool kit is extremely expensive, I paid $25 for the top brand!! (attempted humour).

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Thank you for your advice. Will keep it in mind.

Just want to point out that there are libraries in Australia which let you borrow e-books: I’m lucky enough to have access to the Rockhampton Municipal Library which is a member of ‘Borrow Box’! One can borrow e-books and audio books. Just borrowed one on my tablet.

We’ve updated our ereader reviews.

Which do you prefer - book, ebook reader or tablet? Answer our poll below.

  • Books
  • eReader
  • Tablet
  • All of the above

0 voters

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I see that in Jan 2021 e book readers are tested in the Choice magazine. A few years ago I bought a Sony reader and was generally quite happy with it but we decided a second reader would be a good idea for when we go caravanning to keep ourselves occupied during covid. So the next reader was a Kobo. Since that purchase the Sonly died so now we would like another and, as I’m not delighted with the Kobo, I was happy to see that there are others to be reviewed - but disappointed in what those reviews don’t tell me. For instance little is said about downloading free books though OverDrive is mentioned in some 'Good Points", not in Kindles, and I find that my library, Central Coast, is best accessed through Borrow Box which is not mentioned. More than possible that I just don’t understand enough about how downloading it all works and I’m happy to be pointed in the right direction.

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Welcome to the community @Rel

I moved your query into this older topic.

For completeness as you mentioned the newest review is 14 Jan 2021.

Perhaps some ebook users can answer your questions, and Choice might take your questions on board for future buyer guides or tests.

Hi @Rel, and welcome.

There are many complications to ebook readers. The process of accessing content is complex and prone to failure. For a start, could you outline the process by which you access ebooks from your library?

You might find some answers in this thread:

I’ve never borrowed an ebook from a library. Nearly all of my reading is in the public domain. There’s more than a lifetime’s reading, freely available from sites such as:

Project Gutenberg’s Australian incarnation: http://gutenberg.net.au/
The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/
and the Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/

For the record, my reader is a Kobo Clara HD. I’ve never tried the options built in to the reader for purchasing books. After figuring out how to download books to my PC, then copy them to my reader, there hasn’t been a hitch. Yet.

I had a message from PhilT saying he had moved my conversation to an older topic for completeness ?? however part of what I wrote refers to the e book readers review in Jan 2021 so I don’t quite understand? Does this mean it is now under an older topic and under the newer topic?

When the Sony was usable (in its younger days it was very good and downloads were easy) I used BorrowBox - Sony now dead and can’t be replaced. The Kobo Libra H20 will only use OverDrive and on the whole I’m not finding anything to do with it user friendly so far. I have also been able to borrow a book on my iPhone (only one borrowed so far) by logging onto the Central Coast Council website then downloading it through BorrowBox. I don’t intend using my iPhone while away in the caravan as we will usually be free camping, with power only available every week or so, so an e book reader - pre loaded - has to be it the way I do it. We would like to buy another reader and I wanted something other than a Kobo but it seems it’s either Kobo or Kindle isn’t it? I just want something easy that works every time I want to borrow!!!