How to Buy eReaders
eReaders are some of the hottest new tech toys around. With these handheld digital reading devices, you can read anywhere and almost anything. The average eReader holds hundreds to over a thousand ebooks at a time. The Kindle, available from Amazon, is currently the leader of the pack, but whole hordes of eReaders are nipping at its heels, like the Sony eReader, the Nook and the Alex. In addition, there are still more digital book readers coming to the marketplace with improved bells and whistles and lower prices. That is good news for consumers, but it still leaves us all with a big unanswered question: just how to you buy a eReader?
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Instructions
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Look for an eReader that feels comfortable in your hand. These electronic book readers are thin and lightweight, but don't expect any standardized sizing. The newest Kindle, an already downsized version of the original, is 8" x 5.3" x 0.36" while the Sony Reader Pocket Edition is much smaller at 6.25" x 4.25" x 0.40". If you can, test out the feel of these digital book readers before buying. In the case of products only sold online, like the Kindle, try to find someone who already owns one and will will to let you to take it for a test read.
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Choose an eReader with a good screen, resolution and reflection. Again, there's no standardization and each manufacturer produces different size screens and as well as resolution. Presently, eReaders are not available with color screen options so the resolution and gray scale of the black and white screens need to be considered to avoid eyestrain and fatigue. Also make sure to choose an eReader with a good reflective screen so you can read outside without reflection problems from the sun.
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Determine how many books you want to carry on your digital book reader. Storage size varies from device to device with some like the Nook available with an internal 2 GB memory (big enough to carry 1,500 ebooks) and the others like the Sony Pocket Reader with 512 MG memory (supports about 350 ebooks). It may come time to what's more important: size or quantity of books.
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Check out the ebooks available for each of the digital readers. An eReader is only as good as the ebooks available to read. It is important to understand you will only be able to buy ebooks from certain retailers for each of the type of eReaders, so ebooks for the Kindle are only available from Amazon and the digital books for a Nook can only be purchased from Barnes and Noble.
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Determine how much battery life for your eReader you will be happy with. Some eReaders can go for one to two weeks without recharging. Some eReader manufacturers refer to battery life as "page turns." The more page turns, the longer time you have to read before recharging.
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Look into the extra features that are important to you, like text-to-speech, downloading books directly to the eReader wirelessly, colors of the case and availability of other reading material, such as newspapers, magazines and blogs.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure the eReader you chose supports a variety of file formats, like PDF, DOC, HTML, and TXT, as well as the proprietary formats for the individual eReaders.
Resources
- Photo Credit S.M. Scarborough
