Kindle, Kobo or Nook? Help please

Thrifty-saver

Hubby wants to buy me a Kindle for Xmas. Not sure if this will be best one - i.e. price, quality, cost of downloading books, etc.

Also what's the benefit of having Wi-fi addition?

Any advice would be very much appreciated, especially what model (basic Kindle or Kindle Fire) is better.
Obviously, I appreciate opinions are personal ones & not necessarily what experts think.

penrhyn

None of the above, buy a Nexus 7. However if you want to read outdoors you need an e-ink Kindle.

Thrifty-saver

Thanks for replying. Can you give me any reasons for suggesting Nexus? I am looking to take this on holidays abroad so would want to use outdoors in sunshine.

macman

Kindle will lock you into Amazon's proprietary e-Book file system. if you're happy with that, fine. If not, choose any other e-books reader that uses e-Pub (all of them). Kindle does not support e-Pub.
The Kindle's are probably the best pure e-book readers. What penrhyn is saying is that a similar size (7") tablet will read e-books and do many other things beside.
But if you want to read in sunlight as a priority, then you need a dedicated e-book reader with an e-ink screen, not an LCD like a tablet.

Thrifty-saver

Thanks "macman" for your reply. The more I'm reading the more confused I'm getting. Someone on F/book has suggested a Kobo e-ink screen. As a "silver surfer" that reads a lot too I'm more bewildered than ever now.Beginning to wish I hadn't asked, although responses have been helpful in trying to save me money on something like the Kindle Fire, that ties me to Amazon

macman

The first choice is: dedicated reader with e-ink screen, or tablet with LCD screen? You hav already answered that I think.
The second choice is: Kindle with lock in to Amazon's AZW file format, or another reader which uses e-Pub?
If you are happy to buy most of your content from Kindle, then it has the best devices.
The Fire and Fire HD are designed to sell you not just e-books, but everything else via the Amazon portal, hence the heavily subsidised price.

kevsan

You can read other e-books on a kindle, you need to convert them to read them, yes, but it is a fairly trivial matter.

Use something like Calibre to manage it and youre good to go.

I have a kindle and its brilliant. Most of the books i am reading at the moment are non amazon format.

pattycake

I got the base model Kindle last Christmas when it was priced at £99. I think it is down to £69 this year after the introduction of Kindle Fire.

Any how, I think it is absolutely brilliant. I have had three beach holidays this year and used my Kindle instead of stuffing my luggage with weighty paperbacks. Most of the content I have had free from Amazon. There is a wide selection of free books to download which change constantly.

I have only actually paid for about 6 books which I really wanted to read. I am not technically savvy but I had no trouble getting free books from Amazon.

grizzly1911

kevsan wrote: »

You can read other e-books on a kindle, you need to convert them to read them, yes, but it is a fairly trivial matter.

Use something like Calibre to manage it and youre good to go.

I have a kindle and its brilliant. Most of the books i am reading at the moment are non amazon format.

+1 for this.

I have a kindle touch brought as a present. It is good but as I used to read mainly second hand books - expensive.

Wifi is good for down loading and mine has a basic browser too.

My daughter has a Nexus7 (tablet).

I would choose the Nexus over the Kindle fire or HD it is better IMO and gets around the Amazon lock in.

If you just want a reader the kindle is good and has a good battery life (weeks/months). the Nexus/Kindle Fire will last a much shorter time measured in hours. The LCD screen on a tablet will also be more difficult to read in sunlight.

macman

kevsan wrote: »

You can read other e-books on a kindle, you need to convert them to read them, yes, but it is a fairly trivial matter.

Use something like Calibre to manage it and youre good to go.

I have a kindle and its brilliant. Most of the books i am reading at the moment are non amazon format.

Not so straightforward if the e-pub books are DRM'd, which all commercial titles will be.

compmad1

kevsan wrote: »

You can read other e-books on a kindle, you need to convert them to read them, yes, but it is a fairly trivial matter.

Use something like Calibre to manage it and youre good to go.

I have a kindle and its brilliant. Most of the books i am reading at the moment are non amazon format.

Same here. I use Calibre (which is a free program) to convert epub books. I have never paid for anything, apart from the Kindle. You need a device with e ink as you won't be able to read a tablet outside. There are other e readers that have e ink, like the Nook. Go somewhere like John Lewis where they will have them on display and you can test them out.