Dedicated ebook reader vs. tablet or phone with an App

[Pengyou]

I often hear people talk about ebook readers being easier on the eyes - especially the "White" reader.  If any of you have one of the dedicated ebook readers, can you share your experience?  I sometimes spend as much as 12 hours a day working on some kind of electronic device.  If something is going to lessen the stress on my eyes I will consider getting it.

 

Related ?:  How well do ebook readers and apps render Chinese characters?

[889]

Have you tried those glasses that block a degree of blue light? Can't vouch for them; I've just read some mixed reviews.

[艾墨本]

21 minutes ago, 889 said:

Have you tried those glasses that block a degree of blue light? Can't vouch for them; I've just read some mixed reviews.

Had a friend that worked an office job and started at computers all day then went home and played computer games all night. He swears by those glasses.

 

@Pengyou Yes, ebook readers most certainly reduce eye strain and do a wonderful job displaying Chinese character. The Kindle series are all wonderful. If you are particularly interested in reducing eye strain, get one with a higher PPI/pixels per inch (any but the cheapest series). They simply look like paper in a real way. The backlight also makes lighting on you reading material consistent which I love. E readers don't do PDFs well due to the need to scroll around. Refresh rates are low, so every change of the screen takes time, but thats the trade off so that they are easy on the eyes and have month-long batteries (assuming daily use).

 

If you want to read ebooks and text files, though, they are perfect (.mobi, .txt, .epub). You can also then enjoy http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

For a student of Chinese, the kindle also has a built in Chinese-chinese and Chinese-English dictionary that is inconvenient enough to use (see above regarding refresh rate) that it helps the learning process rather than become a crutch I go to immediately like when reading a book in Pleco and a quick tap shows a definition.

 

Oh, it can also read the book to you if you want and don't mind the sounds of human-ish robot voices. The 阿姨 at my dorm does that all day and it doesn't seem to bother her.

[Mati1]

Last time in the electronics store I looked closer at a Kindle again and was surprised and very disappointed that even under the dim artificial light, if you look at it at the wrong angle the reflection is so bright that you can't read the text anymore. So much for "paper-like". Fortunately most books are not printed on glossy paper.

However, due to the lack of alternatives (also size-wise) I still want one of the better ones ... but I do most of my reading on paper or in the browser.

[HuayangAcademy]

I read a lot on my laptop but notice if I have a heavy day my eyes and head gets a little sore, 

I also have a paperwhite Kindle which is fantastic, you can set in the settings that you are a language learner and it is very useful for language learning. 

 

No issues with glare unless I am outside in very very strong sunlight 

[Balthazar]

Mati1: I've never found reflections to be a problem with my 1st gen. Paperwhite (which I've owned for a good five years now). Admittedly, I haven't used it much in direct sunlight or with a dedicated reading lamp.

 

 

PS: I've been too embarrassed to ask this question for a few years now, but here goes: how does one quote member posts (without manually tuping in the code) on this forum?

[Mati1]

There is a relatively new forum feature which pops up a quote button when you select the text someone wrote.

[Shelley]

1 hour ago, Balthazar said:

PS: I've been too embarrassed to ask this question for a few years now, but here goes: how does one quote member posts (without manually tuping in the code) on this forum?

Highlight the text you want to quote and then a Quote this button will pop up, click this and it will appear in your reply box as my quote of your text has here.

 

On my tablet when I use the E reader I change the background colour to a light straw colour this cuts down on the high contrast between paper and text. I also adjust the brightness of the screen depending on surrounding ambient light.

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

 

10 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

For a student of Chinese, the kindle also has a built in Chinese-chinese and Chinese-English dictionary that is inconvenient enough to use (see above regarding refresh rate) that it helps the learning process rather than become a crutch I go to immediately like when reading a book in Pleco and a quick tap shows a definition.

 

 

In Pleco can you read any ebook style file or is it just limited to those graded readers and TCB content? 

[mikelove]

Can read other formats too if they’re not copy-protected, currently text / PDF / EPUB on Android (though with EPUB files we strip out some formatting) and all of those plus HTML, DOC/DOCX, and RTF on iOS (and less stripped-down EPUB). On Android you can also use our Screen Reader function with some (but not all) other e-book reader apps, or our Screen OCR function with nearly all of them. And pretty much any other non-copy-protected e-book format can be converted to those with the free app Calibre (https://calibre-ebook.com/download).