Why you should skip the #Kindle Paperwhite and opt for these e-ink alternatives
The e-book reader market is no longer in a monopoly position. Amazon’s advantage is real, but not absolute. If you’re considering a Kindle Paperwhite and can’t decide, you still have options. Good ones
Let’s talk about your direct competitors. Do you want built-in front-lighting? Check out the Kobo Glo. The price is around $150. The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight is marked down to $119. Both use e-ink screens. Both use infrared touch screens.
The Kobo matches the resolution of the Paperwhite. The Nook does not. The old lower resolution of previous Kindles is used. The lighting is also different. Nook places an LED light on top. Kobo puts it at the bottom. Still, both provide the consistent, shadow-free lighting you need in an e-reader. No ads. Wall charger included.
“All other e-readers have a micro SD card slot that allows you to expand your memory up to 32 GB.”
Next up is the Sony Reader PRS-T2. Not enough light. The price is between $130 and $150. The screen size is 800 x 600 pixels. It’s old technology. When there is less screen space and no backlight, you have to pay more. Why? Maybe you just like Sony.
Each of these devices handles basic functions. Sync with other apps. Lend a book to a friend. They all beat Amazon on storage expansion. The Micro SD card slot offers up to 32 GB of additional space. The Paperwhite does not offer this feature.
Format compatibility varies. You can’t just switch devices and expect your library to follow you without work. Amazon’s store is still the largest. This cannot be denied. But others have libraries too. It’s just small.
Tablet compromise
Some people don’t want their own e-reader. They want a tablet. Nexus 7, iPad. Kindle Fire. These are multipurpose machines. Comes with a color LCD screen. Backlit screen.
This is important for textbooks. Cookbooks. magazine. comics. Any color images.
But look at the battery. The tablet lasts several hours. E Ink readers last weeks. The difference in weight is considerable. Tablets are heavier. And what about glare? For LCDs, this becomes a problem in bright sunlight. E Ink doesn’t have this problem.
E-ink has its own characteristics. Ghost images. A faint image remains from the previous page. Blinking. The brief screen reset. New readers have alleviated most of these problems. It doesn’t make the text hard to read. However, tablets don’t have them at all.
If you don’t want to buy any equipment, just use existing equipment. Amazon offers a free Kindle app for almost all computers and mobile phones. Cloud Reader allows you to read from a browser. No software installation required.
The hardware is a loss leader. Amazon Makes money from books. The device is just a door. But if you’re standing at the door looking at the Paperwhite, remember there are other doors. Their openings are the same width.
