Hi,
My Kindle won’t boot anymore and keeps getting stuck in boot screen, so I thought this might be a good time to get away from Amazon, even though that device was great.
So, what non-kindle readers would you recommend?
It should have color and background light and it shouldn’t be huge so I can keep it in the back pocket.
And, since I don’t have any experience outside the Amazon ecosystem: how is the experience of buying and transferring books to non Kindle readers?
Update: I did research based on your recommendations. Thanks for all the input, that was way more than I expected! I settled for the Kobo Clara Color since it seemed to almost perfectly match my needs and Kobo and the model itself got heavily recommended here and on the web.
The Kobo is great. Very moddable, you can set it up in sideload mode so you never even need to register for an account, just move files to it via USB.
I have a boox for bigger screen reading and a Hisense touch for on the go. I like them both. Wish I could more easily tweak the boox, and wish I could more easily ditch all the vendor crapware off the Hisense, but they do their jobs well enough. Hisense gets bonus points for being a hi-fi device that can drive my IEMs.
A lot of people will recommend Kobo readers, but also look into Pocketbook readers. I have their Basic Lux, which is a barebones eReader with a black and white screen. Even though it’s lower screen size and resolution, I use it for manga and I think it looks great. They have color ereaders, and some that even run on android (but that takes away from battery life).
Seconding Pocketbook. I’m using the older Touch3HD, which works just wonderfully and comes 100% without any DRM BS.
They do have their own store but I haven’t used it yet.
I think Kobo is the best choice, I use it since 10 years with Calibre.
I’ve researched this and I’ll be buying a Kobo once my Kindle finally dies (it’s lived a hard life). I’ve bought DRMed books from some non-Amazon sources and had to go through the steps to strip their DRM so I could read them on the Kindle - this was using Calibre. Mostly those other sources were using Adobe Digital Editions (DeDRM can handle it).
I have yet to find if there’s a self-hosted option that would replicate what Amazon does - i.e. tracks read position and lets you download and read via an Android app or a website. I do have Calibre-web set up, but haven’t fully looked into what it can do yet.
Look into koreader. They host for you without an account. All you need is a username. You can read the same book and track your progress on different devices through koreader. If that’s what you mean
I just use the free kindle app on my phone or ipad
I use the app too, but I don’t want that as my main reading device because e-ink feels way more comfortable on the eyes.
I use a Kobo, sideloaded with KoReader. I use Calibre to manage my ebooks, which takes a bit of a learning curve, but is definitely worth learning!
Kobo for sure. Great devices.
You bought the kindle books, Amazon took away what you bought. Anna’s archive without any guilt - boom, your kindle books are now yours to read on any device of your choosing again.
You don’t need to fiddle with calibre or managing files. This website works great for transferring books to the kobo. https://send.djazz.se/
You’re welcome :)
I have a Vivlio, a French ebook reader, and I’m quite happy with it. I have a Kindle Paperwhite too for Amazon purchased books, but mainly use the Vivlio. I’m not sure if it’s available in the States, or even outside of France.
I’d recommend a Kobo Clara. They do do a colour variant but the next part of my recommendation might not be able to cope with it, I don’t know.
That next part is KOReader - you can install it ‘over the top’ of the standard Clara software so it becomes the working environment. Its got so many pluses I don’t have time to list them all but it plays nice with Calibre, you can SSH to it, FTP to it, even access it from some cloud services. I can’t say if it supports colour or not though as I don’t use a colour Clara.
Transferring your current collection is probably a non-starter due to the recent limitations Amazon have put on downloading files. Getting new ebooks is up to you, there’s loads of both legal and not so legal places to source books from, depending on how you feel about DRM.
In terms of transferring books - as well as the ways I mentioned above it also supports OPDS and of course standard USB cabled transfers too.
Boox go 10.3, check mydeepguide on YT for a review.
Kobo Libra 2 checking in. The ability to directly load epub files (and other formats) directly onto the drive and bypass the store is a game changer.
I also have a Libra 2 and it’s great! Nice size screen and very lightweight. Just to note as the OP asked for colour, the Libra 2 is B&W but they now do Libra and Clara colour versions :)
Not defending Amazon, but you can do this with Kindle too. I’ve had my kindles in airplane mode since I bought them (for me and my wife) and I’m adding books directly with Calibre anytime I want. You don’t need their whole “ecosystem”.
Kobo is the way. Open system. Not locked like kindle. You can “jailbreak” it in 5 seconds. Linux based. They send you firmware updates even when it’s “jailbroken”. You can bring your own books and they won’t fuck with your book covers like kindle does (I would use calibre to convert your books to kepub to get all the features on a book). No ads on the lock screen. I love my kobo Sage. I’m waiting for them to release a 10" one with high PPI so I can buy it. In all honesty, even the android ones are better than kindle. Basically, almost all non-kindles are good, except for a few random Chinese brands that have their own weird OS.
I read some tests about Kobo. Nice to know people are satisfied. Definitely will look at it again.
To play devil’s advocate, is there any way you might be able to fix the Kindle? I’ve saved two for family members by swapping batteries and it’s not that hard if you have a spudger and decent set of screwdrivers.
I just use an old Kindle, but I’m considering buying an SPC Dickens Light 2 Pro. They’re sold out, right now.