I wanna buy an ebook reader but i don’t want any amazon or other companies shit in there, just something i can connect to my pc, pass ebooks in different formats into it and read.
I’ve looked into this in the past and settled on Kobo. You can disable the telemetry and never use the the Rakuten account part and have a very good ereader… And you can install the open source KOReader software.
https://github.com/koreader/koreader
MobileRead forums and wiki are a good resource for ebook stuff.
For example, a breakdown of the hidden configs on Kobo devices https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Configuration_Options
Boox run android, so that might fit your title.
From your post content though it actually sounds like you’d be happy with a Kobo. You can easily transfer books and you can install third party open source reading software too.
Second on kobo, sure the OS is proprietary, but it’s good enough that I forget. And as the previous comment said, you can install third party reader software. I like koreader, it pretty much replaces the entire UI of the device
Look at OnyxBoox
Seconded, i love my Boox. it just runs android (with tweaks for e-Ink) and you can install what you want from the play store, it’s not locked down.
You can even install the Kindle app if you ever do want an Amazon ebook, works really well.
It’s also nice for using apps of various newspapers.
Plus the ones with a stylus make for a great notebook.
I wouldn’t recommend the color ones, it’s nice for comics but the colors just aren’t vivid and it’s not there yet in terms of quality.
I have the first Boox Nova (color) and while it’s true that the colors aren’t vivid, it actually makes for a great comic book (and manga) reader. The color pallete in comics is generally limited anyways, plus the grainy low-DPI image reminds me of how comics used to look like back in the day. So ironically the limited display actually makes it a great fit for comics.
But of course, it’s not ideal if you have want to read full-color high-res content like magazines and modern webcomics (you can, but the performance isn’t really that great).
For me though, as a manga/comic reader, instead of the display, the most limiting thing I found was actually the RAM - after a long comic reading session it would run out of RAM, bringing the OS to a crawl, and forcing me to restart my apps. But it’s not a huge issue, or maybe there’s a memory leak in Tachiyomi. Regardless, I feel 3GB isn’t enough for any large device these days.
Still, right now, this is the best “open” ereader that you can actually buy, that doesn’t lock you into any subscription (like the reMarkable tablets) or proprietary apps.
Do you know if there are any issues using either the Marvel or DC apps? I read one review of a color eink tablet (forget which) and the review said sometimes controls didn’t appear correctly for certain apps and now I’m paranoid about getting one (I was looking at boox) and worrying somehow the apps won’t work. I don’t have anything but that random review from some forum but it was enough to worry me.
Not sure about DC/Marvel apps sorry, I don’t use them (I usually avoid apps which have a dependency on the Play Store). I use Comixology and Tachiyomi for my comics instead, and don’t have any issues with either of them. That said, generally speaking apps that aren’t optimized for e-readers can in fact behave a bit odd, but this is why Boox included a per-app optimization tool, thru which you can customize the DPI, background color, fonts, refresh type etc for each app. For instance, Comixology has a dark background by default which doesn’t look nice on e-ink, so you can tweak it via Boox’s tool to display a bright background instead (the comics themselves display properly).
Does it support a web browser? Cause I’ve also been considering ditching play-dependent apps and could theoretically just use their web site for comics.
Yep, it comes with a skinned version of Chrome. It’s just standard Android without Google Play Services, and a custom launcher. So you’re free to install any browser or a third party app/store. I use F-Droid and Aurora Store to install my apps. They do have their own app store as well, but it has a very limited selection of apps.
Awesome, thanks for the info!
I think it depends on how invested you are in ebooks, and how much time you wanna spend on it. I would advise a Kobo if you aren’t up for Tinkering or an iPad if you are flexible with the screen.
But if you are up for a challenge a Chinese ePaper Android Tablet like Onyx Boox or Bouyee, so long as you can get Google Play to work. Or a Pocket Book if you can sort out DRM removal for ebooks.
Here are the pros and cons bellow
Kobo is the easy option.
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Adobe Digital Editions for non-kobo DRM, and library access. Its able to read DRM free books like you find on Project Gutenberg or Humble Bundle.
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Major downside is that you can’t read Amazon without effort (or a kindle serial number), book sorting kind of sucks without Calibre, and the storage size is small if you are into Comics.
iPad is the safe option
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Apple Books app is convenient and can read anything. It can sync with your iCloud if you wanna so you can continue on your iPhone. And DRM isn’t an issue since you can just download the apps.
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but its a LCD Tablet, and no ePaper display. iTunes isn’t the easiest to figure out to move books and iCloud can get verrry expensive if you are syncing comics.
Android Tablets are kind of in the same boat but…
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with KOReader even an old (but not too old) tablet is viable. Side loading official apps.
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OS updates are kind of hit or miss, support for older android is worse than iPad, and the devs don’t put as much effort in their Android ports.
Android ePaper tablet (Onyx Boox)
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Usually steals KOReader as its base, if its new probably has pen support so you can use it as a writing tablet, if it has Google Play you can get official apps
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But its expensive, there is often no updates to the OS, usually no MicroSD card, and has a lot of preinstalled bloat which is hard to trust.
Kindle Tablet/fire tablet
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Cons, its made by Amazon and will track your every movement.
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Pros keep it offline and it can read converted DRM free ebooks converted to AZW3 via Calibre. Fire Tablets can be made into cheap eReaders with side loading. But more importantly if you do give your kindle an Amazon account you can decrypt ebooks with its serial number. So you can get cheap books on a better eReaders.
Bought an android tablet, installed Moon Reader+. Never looked back
I just bought the onyx boox page and I’m not seeing much, if any bloat. It’s a premium ebook reader ($250), but I bought it to replace my aging Kindle Oasis. I use moon reader pro instead of the built in reader. Google Play worked fine straight out of the box. It has a micro SD card slot for more storage as well.
Overall I’m very satisfied with it and it is completely comparable to Amazons premium ereaders (honestly way longer battery life than my oasis ever had).
Time will tell on OS updates, but truthfully I don’t really care much about that. At least until my apps stop working.
I have a Nova 3 Color and 2 like books.
The likebooks never got OS updates, but the Nova got updates, but they were updating the default apps.
I don’t like moonreader, as I found it to be a battery hog. KOReader is my favourite and its the default reader (or a skin of it is)
By bloat I am referring to the Onyx store which is on my home screen and is not removable.
With that said my Nova is my preferred eReader, especially when I kill the WiFi. 2+ week battery life FTW
That’s fair. Using moon reader makes the library and store tabs useless. I have the store ‘disabled’ but the tab remains. Moon reader doesn’t like it when I open books via the library tab (creates a duplicate) so I stopped using it. Personally I rarely need to exit the moon reader app, so the base UI really doesn’t impact me much.
Haven’t noticed moon reader hogging the battery. I keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off and use a decent amount of backlight and still get a couple of weeks out of it. Which is so much better than the 2-4 days my oasis got.
Part of the reason I love mine is that it supports TTS so I can create my own audiobooks. Currently using Google wavenet to read books to me. This is nice for car rides especially cause I read a lot of books that will never get audio book versions (translated Chinese cultural cultivation fantasy)
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