Low spec Tablet as an E book reader only - feasible?

[Thai Chi]

Instead of carting 20 - 30 books down to Bangkok a few times a year to exchange, I am toying with the idea of changing to E books.

 

My research so far leads me to believe that an E book reader on an Android tablet would work.

 

I have been unable to find any minimum specs required to run such app on a tablet.

 

I realize there are many different E book formats and there is possibility of needing more than one app.

 

Considering how small  E books are, I am guessing I wont need a huge amount of storage.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the back light /  brightness / page layout and page turning are features of the app, not the tablet.

 

To that end, would the following specs be OK?

 

CPU : Dual Core 1.5 GHz

RAM : 512MB

Memory : 4GB 

Display : 7.0"  (800x480)

OS : Android 4.4.2

Battery : 3500 mAh

 

All comments appreciated.

 
 

 

[Forkinhades]

It would serve as an ereader ok, but most of the memory would be taken up by the operating system. That said you should still be able to store a few thousand books.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[Digitalbanana]

40 minutes ago, Thai Chi said:

I realize there are many different E book formats and there is possibility of needing more than one app.

 

I use Calibre to convert ebook formats so they are all mobi type that the free Android Kindle app reads OK. Got them all on my 6 inch smart phone for convenience so only one device to carry.

[impulse]

When I put a book up on my 4K (3840 x 2160) big screen and saw the clarity of the fonts matching the clarity of print on paper, I finally realized why I have never enjoyed reading books on the screen- especially a small screen.  I read thousands of pages a month for work.  But never for pleasure and I didn't know why.

 

To make a comparison, it's like the difference between listening to music through my smartphone speaker and then putting on a great pair of headphones- except with my eyes.  Yeah, I can listen through the speakers, but I don't enjoy the music.

 

Bringing it back to the OP, I suspect you'll be disappointed with the 800 x 480, regardless of the size of the screen or the OS.  I'd be able to read them, but I'd get tired of it long before the end of the first chapter.  And probably not realize why.

Edited January 20, 2017 by impulse

[guzzi850m2]

OP why not buy a Kindle reader if your objective is reading books?

 

You can get them for about 80$ in the Amazon store but there is a store in Bangkok that sells them too.

 

The Kindles last min 2 weeks on a charge and are much lighter than a tablet. My PaperWhite are back lit which means I can read in the bed room at night without disturbing the wife. 

 

I sometimes uses my Ipad mini as Kindle reader as well and that works fine too and the e-books I bought on Amazon can be moved around on both devises as I pleases as the books you bought there are in the "cloud", so they are yours for life no matter if you keep them on the devises or in the cloud.

 

Then there are the free books that can be found by Goggling around so endless options.

 

Despite all above, I like to sit out on the patio at my house and read a real book sometimes, I actually just bought 2 paper books from Amazon, don't know when they arrives, paid 500 baht for shipping.

[Thai Chi]

12 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

 

I use Calibre to convert ebook formats so they are all mobi type that the free Android Kindle app reads OK. Got them all on my 6 inch smart phone for convenience so only one device to carry.

 

Just came across Calibre. Looks good and would solve the multi format problem.

[Thai Chi]

11 hours ago, impulse said:

I suspect you'll be disappointed with the 800 x 480, regardless of the size of the screen or the OS.

 

That was one of my main concerns.

 

I will test run Calibre on a mates low spec tablet to see if I am comfortable with it.

 

If not, I will start looking at something with a higher resolution. 

[tutsiwarrior]

9 hours ago, guzzi850m2 said:

OP why not buy a Kindle reader if your objective is reading books?

 

You can get them for about 80$ in the Amazon store but there is a store in Bangkok that sells them too.

 

 

where can one buy an amazon kindle in Bangkok? last time I looked amazon won't ship electronic devices to Thailand...

[impulse]

1 minute ago, Thai Chi said:

 

That was one of my main concerns.

 

I will test run Calibre on a mates low spec tablet to see if I am comfortable with it.

 

If not, I will start looking at something with a higher resolution. 

 

Just a few years back, that higher resolution would have been expensive.  Nowadays, it seems that HD or full HD is the new normal in all but the cheapest units.

[Sophon]

4 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

 

where can one buy an amazon kindle in Bangkok? last time I looked amazon won't ship electronic devices to Thailand...

 

They do ship the Kindle to Thailand, but it's not easy to find the correct link on Amazon for the versions that do. If you follow this link you can order directly from Amazon. You can also get them from a reseller on Lazada.

 

I just received my new Kindle Paperwhite yesterday, and so far I must say that I am hugely disappointed. My problem is that there are eight text sizes to choose from, but for my less than perfect eyes five of those are far to small. Number six is close, but just a little too small which quickly tires my eyes. And the jump between number six and seven is far too big, so when choosing number seven there are only half the number of words on each line compared to what I get with number six (on average about four to five words per line). There is simply no text size that allows me to read comfortably.

 

I think the problem may lie with the increased resolution to 300 dpi. With my old Kindle 3 I had no problems finding a text size that suited me.

 

Sophon

[guzzi850m2]

22 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

 

where can one buy an amazon kindle in Bangkok? last time I looked amazon won't ship electronic devices to Thailand...

Goggle is your friend:

http://kindle-thailand.in.th/

I got my first Kindle (still have it) from Amazon but that is some years back.

Got the PaperWhite from above shop in Thailand. They are not an approved Kindle shop as such.

 

Yes agree with others, if you go for a tablet, get a full HD one. Those low res one is like looking though murky water, so in order to save money, you are in reality wasting your money.

 

I am going on an off-shore course next week in Malaysia for 5 days and I will travel super light, so I will only bring my Ipad mini and not the Kindle so I can surf the i-net as well. Synchronizing the book I am currently reading so I am on same page when starts reading, cool. 

 

It's a hard question if one should use a tablet or a Kindle, it all depends. I would not like to be without my Kindle but the tablet is much more versatile as you can obviously use it for many other things than reading books but a Kindle is hard to beat as a book reader only, that's why I got one of each, ha-ha. 

 

I just saw Sophon's post and I don't have that problem, hmm, I find the text options just fine.  

Edited January 21, 2017 by guzzi850m2

[Thai Chi]

10 hours ago, guzzi850m2 said:

OP why not buy a Kindle reader if your objective is reading books?

 

Good point.

 

I have done a bit of Googling and thus far I have found only one place that sells Kindles (B2S)

 

The base (cheap) model runs at 5500 Baht - 6" screen no WI-fi - resolution is 600 by 800 at 167 points per inch , so not much more than the El cheapo tablet I am looking at.

 

The Kindle Paper White are between 8 and 10000 Baht.

 

I am trying to keep this as a low cost project, as like yourself I do like the real thing.

 

Just saw your post guzzi re: Kindle Thailand. Good to see a spec sheet there, That will give me some good info to make a decision, Thanks.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Thai Chi

[tx22cb]

7 minutes ago, Thai Chi said:

 

Good point.

 

I have done a bit of Googling and thus far I have found only one place that sells Kindles (B2S)

 

The base (cheap) model runs at 5500 Baht - 6" screen no WI-fi - resolution is 600 by 800 at 167 points per inch , so not much more than the El cheapo tablet I am looking at.

 

The Kindle Paper White are between 8 and 10000 Baht.

 

I am trying to keep this as a low cost project, as like yourself I do like the real thing.

No WiFi? If this is the case, choose a different model, as you will need WiFi for updates and other downloading.

[Sophon]

If you buy from Lazada you can get the Kindle for less than 4,000 Baht and the Kindle Paperwhite for less than 6,000 Baht. Both are the WIFI only versions that includes "special offers" (read advertising).

 

Sophon

Edited January 21, 2017 by Sophon

[uptheos]

14 hours ago, Forkinhades said:

It would serve as an ereader ok, but most of the memory would be taken up by the operating system. That said you should still be able to store a few thousand books.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thaivisa Connect mobile app
 

 

Who would store a few thousand books and for what reason?

 

Surely not for reading?

Edited January 21, 2017 by uptheos
Add on

[Sophon]

23 minutes ago, guzzi850m2 said:

I just saw Sophon's post and I don't have that problem, hmm, I find the text options just fine.  

 

Your eyes are probably better than mine, what text size do you use? Try changing to six and imagine that that is a little too small for you and then change it to seven. The difference is huge.

 

My old Kindle 3 just came back to life (temporarily?), it's been dead for the last week. With the Kindle 3 text size five is more or less the same as text size six on the new Paperwhite, and if my eyes get tired I can change up to six and still have a fair amount of text on the screen. So the text is definitely smaller on the new Kindle (probably because of the better resolution), forcing me into using the bigger range of text sizes where the jumps between the sizes are far too large.

 

Sophon

[Smokin Joe]

33 minutes ago, Thai Chi said:

 

Good point.

 

I have done a bit of Googling and thus far I have found only one place that sells Kindles (B2S)

 

The base (cheap) model runs at 5500 Baht - 6" screen no WI-fi - resolution is 600 by 800 at 167 points per inch , so not much more than the El cheapo tablet I am looking at.

 

The Kindle Paper White are between 8 and 10000 Baht.

 

I am trying to keep this as a low cost project, as like yourself I do like the real thing.

 

Just saw your post guzzi re: Kindle Thailand. Good to see a spec sheet there, That will give me some good info to make a decision, Thanks.

 

 

All kindles have Wifi, including the cheapest base model. Other models  come with 3G in addition to Wifi.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZV9PXP2/ref=fs_ods_fs_eink_eb?th=1

[robblok]

38 minutes ago, Thai Chi said:

 

Good point.

 

I have done a bit of Googling and thus far I have found only one place that sells Kindles (B2S)

 

The base (cheap) model runs at 5500 Baht - 6" screen no WI-fi - resolution is 600 by 800 at 167 points per inch , so not much more than the El cheapo tablet I am looking at.

 

The Kindle Paper White are between 8 and 10000 Baht.

 

I am trying to keep this as a low cost project, as like yourself I do like the real thing.

 

Just saw your post guzzi re: Kindle Thailand. Good to see a spec sheet there, That will give me some good info to make a decision, Thanks.

Even a cheap kindle will have paperwhite screen.. that reads 10x better than a tablet (especially in the sun)

[Thai Chi]

17 minutes ago, Smokin Joe said:

All kindles have Wifi, including the cheapest base model. Other models  come with 3G in addition to Wifi.

 

You are more than likely correct Joe.

 

Not sure where I got that tidbit from?

 

Probably suffering from "Google" overload :-)

Edited January 21, 2017 by Thai Chi
spelling

[guzzi850m2]

22 hours ago, Sophon said:

 

Your eyes are probably better than mine, what text size do you use? Try changing to six and imagine that that is a little too small for you and then change it to seven. The difference is huge.

 

My old Kindle 3 just came back to life (temporarily?), it's been dead for the last week. With the Kindle 3 text size five is more or less the same as text size six on the new Paperwhite, and if my eyes get tired I can change up to six and still have a fair amount of text on the screen. So the text is definitely smaller on the new Kindle (probably because of the better resolution), forcing me into using the bigger range of text sizes where the jumps between the sizes are far too large.

 

Sophon

I use test size 4 + reading glasses which for me is about the same size as most book you buy.

[Henryford]

Personally i think it is worth spending more to get a better tablet which you can use for things other than just reading books. I always used to say readings books was better but now i am used to my tablet i wouldn't be without it. Great for books, the internet, magazines, videos/films, music and works as a phone. With a decent size memory 32gb + you can get masses of stuff on the tablet. For example i recently bought the Huawei M3 8.4 in 32 gb + micro SD, great device for just over 10,000 baht. I would avoid the Kindle readers, too limited.

Edited January 22, 2017 by Henryford

[khunano]

I use two laptop computers for my real computing stuff, however I do not owe a tablet since I don't really need it because there is also a smartphone for simple browsing/reading newspapers, etc. However I got myself a Kobo eReader about two years back and I wouldn't want to miss it. It is back-lit so I can also ready in the dark and first-of-all the display can be well read also in bright sunlight like for instance when relaxing on a deckchair next to the pool or sea. I can store hundreds of books and the battery lasts for months and should probably for at least a few weeks if reading for a couple of hours each day. 

[masuk]

On 20/01/2017 at 10:26 PM, guzzi850m2 said:

OP why not buy a Kindle reader if your objective is reading books?

 

You can get them for about 80$ in the Amazon store but there is a store in Bangkok that sells them too.

 

The Kindles last min 2 weeks on a charge and are much lighter than a tablet. My PaperWhite are back lit which means I can read in the bed room at night without disturbing the wife. 

 

I sometimes uses my Ipad mini as Kindle reader as well and that works fine too and the e-books I bought on Amazon can be moved around on both devises as I pleases as the books you bought there are in the "cloud", so they are yours for life no matter if you keep them on the devises or in the cloud.

 

Then there are the free books that can be found by Goggling around so endless options.

 

Despite all above, I like to sit out on the patio at my house and read a real book sometimes, I actually just bought 2 paper books from Amazon, don't know when they arrives, paid 500 baht for shipping.

Agreed:  I also use a Kindle Paper White, and find the battery lasts at least 2 weeks.  The back light is great as I can keep on reading in aircraft cabin when the lights are off.

Calibre is also extremely useful and I've got about 5 years worth of books stored on there, but only the latest on the Kindle.

One advantage is that I download free e-books, just published,  from my local library and I'm set for weeks of travel.

BTW:   The Paper White is heaps cheaper than colour versions.

[jobsworth]

any computer with suitable software can read the epub format. there is even an addon for firefox.

[recom273]

On January 21, 2017 at 9:03 AM, uptheos said:

 

Who would store a few thousand books and for what reason?

 

Surely not for reading?

 

Thousands?

 

 I have plenty of lonely planets and travel guides, a library of text books that I need for uni, a selection of novels, granted many that I will never read, but it's good to have a wide selection.

 

The kindles don't hold thousands of books, but you can store them on a cloud.

 

The joys of a Kindle to me are, I'm not distracted to press a button and play a game, there's no banners to say I have an email. It's 'distraction free'

 

The screen doesn't reflect. I have just ordered a paper white and in the past had 2x regular ones.

 

The battery life is amazing, if you had a back-lit tablet, how long will the battery last? I don't own a tablet so I have no idea, but I don't have to worry about charging the kindle every night or whenever, a charge before a week trip is sufficient so need to carry charger or cables.

 

I love my Kindle, it's light and always in the pouch of my backpack.

[maxcorrigan]

On 1/21/2017 at 9:30 AM, robblok said:

Even a cheap kindle will have paperwhite screen.. that reads 10x better than a tablet (especially in the sun)

Well you have said what i was going to add, i have three kindles the last being a kindlefire, also a samsung tablet and have books on all, albeit transferred from kindle to kindle and the samsung tablet, the major benefit of the kindle, and it is a big benefit, is as pointed out, to read in sunlight on beach etc. on the tablet difficult to impossible to see in sunlight, as regards your query for purely reading the kindle wins hands down in my opinion!

[Flinstone]

Slightly off topic... my apologies. 

Dies Kindle and the like support the Thai script? Can Thai language books be downloaded.... if they actually exist?

my dear old MIL  loves reading and it is sad to see her reading or reading floppy eared old books. I'd love to buy her an e- reader if it was useful.

thanks for any comments/advice/ knowledge of the subject

[ozmeldo]

If anyone interested, I have an Amazon HD Fire 8" brought back from states.I bought it in October. Just use it as news aggregator and Internet. I hate the Amazon operating system. No apps I want in the store and many on apkmirror won't run.

 

I knew it had Amazon ads on the lock screen and was sorta OK with that. I was going to root it when that came available.

 

What I was totally unaware was Amazon totally customized the OS/ROM for sales and Kindle. Ive only owned Nexus phones and tablets and it's driving me nuts. Root has not arrived and on XDA looks dubious.

 

I've tweaked it out, stopped ads and modified launcher (all redone under reset).

 

You can have Thai keyboard on this tablet.

 

16gb internal, 128gb SD micro

 

B3500

Edited January 22, 2017 by ozmeldo

[guzzi850m2]

4 hours ago, Flinstone said:

Slightly off topic... my apologies. 

Dies Kindle and the like support the Thai script? Can Thai language books be downloaded.... if they actually exist?

my dear old MIL  loves reading and it is sad to see her reading or reading floppy eared old books. I'd love to buy her an e- reader if it was useful.

thanks for any comments/advice/ knowledge of the subject

I doubt it but can't say for 100% sure regarding the books but a Kindle will show the script I think, it's just a file after all but I can't see any Thai books in the Amazon store expect learning Thai language ones but perhaps you can get a Thai searching in Thai via Goggle?

Some Kindles support audio books so perhaps you have an option there.

Good on her that she loves reading books, not often see Thais doing that, so why don't you go and buy real books for her in the many Thai only book stores? My wife often buys her books there as she likes reading too.

[kmcken]

If the primary reason is to read books then I recommend a Kindle. I have a Samsung tablet with the Kindle app but rarely use it as it is second rate compared to the Kindle. I read outside a lot and there is no glare on the Kindle, a major plus, and the weight of it means you can hold it one handed and 'turn' the next page easily. If you buy a low end tablet I would suspect the battery life would be pretty disappointing even just using the Kindle app as well.