I think I’ve seen this asked before on Lemmy but I can’t find it now.
I prefer to get physical books when I can, but I have so many gaming PDFs that I’ve gotten as bonuses from Kickstarters, humble bundles, etc I feel I might as well read them. It’s just the experience of reading them has never been ideal for me. They’re often too big and annoying to read on my phone, so there’s a lot of zooming in and scrolling. I could use a full laptop, but then they’re harder to hold while cuddling on the couch under a blanket or while in bed, like I would a book.
Is there any particular device people prefer for this? I’m guessing a large screened tablet but not too expensive (doesn’t need too many bells and whistles since it’s for a fairly simple purpose) but should be quick and responsive when loading full color pdfs or turning their pages.
How expensive is “too expensive”? I have a boox note 3 and read TTRPGs all the time on it. Their color eink screens are really good. You can get the go series for 200~250-ish
https://shop.boox.com/products/go7
I can post a picture later today (busy atm) of my boox with a color PDF if you want to see how it looks
I’d love to see that. 200-250 doesn’t sound too bad.
note that this is the air 3; its a bit more expensive than the go, which is the ~250ish model i mentioned above. The go is also only 7 inches instead of…i think 12 on this? They use the same sort of color eink on all their tablets, though
I use Librera it has option to cut pages in half (left-right), bookmarks, auto-scroll, change of colors, define app to use for translation of marked text, etc. IMO best reader there is
This sounds exactly like what I want
In my experience reading PDFs is a really light requirement so you can do it on otherwise ancient hardware. I’ve got an old nexus 9 which is painfully slow for web browsing or games, but I use it for the exact situation you need, reading TTRPG books.
Save some ewaste by digging out an old tablet or picking up one for a few quid on eBay!
I bought an iPad Pro 12.9 inch (IIRC) back in like 2018 or 2019. If you can get an old second-hand iPad I’d highly recommend it. It’s fast enough to be really smooth even on very large heavy PDFs, and it’s nearly A4 size, so the reading experience is excellent.
But bought new it’s insanely expensive. I really wish companies would separate screen size from power. Not everyone who wants a big screen also wants the highest of high-end stuff, damn it!
I’ve got a kobo libre color and it’s decent. Not the size you’re looking for, but it’s eink
Pretty good for reading rpg full color pdf’s and stuff? Not too slow or anything?
EDIT: The picture just loaded for me. That doesn’t look too bad.
It’s yellowed because it has nighttime settings on. It’s quick enough for reading
My amazing iPad does this well. You can get a 10th generation starting about US$250. ALSO, look out for November deals.
How big is it? I’d prefer like 10-13" if they get that big.
The iPad has a variety of sizes up to 13”.
Honestly nowadays, even with fancy pdf, my 200€ Xiami does it. It’not 2015, even simple tabs have a lot of ram
