Digital books or printed books? There is often debate. Fans of the former defend the small size of e-readers, their memory capable of carrying an entire library and their price slightly reduced.
Fans of the latter praise the beautiful printed objects, their tactile aspect, their smell, the possibility of loaning the works… without forgetting the contact with their bookseller. Often irreconcilable, we will soon find them on the beaches or by the pool looking at each other out of the corner of their eyes, the former brandishing their latest e-readers in an attempt to convert to e-books the second. 20 minutes has already spotted their machines …
The one who lends her books: Bookeen’s HD Diva
Under her white dress, this French reader with a 6 ” screen (1448 x 1072 for 300 dpi), hides its specificity: its DRM solution open source (called Readium LCP) allows its content to be lent, which is not the case with all of its competitors.
Adapted to ambidextrous people thanks to its integrated gyroscope which flips the text when the e-reader is turned over, the Diva HD can load up to 15,000 books.
Its backlighting and night mode are triggered manually, as needed, and are modulated to increase reading comfort, which also has 16 gray levels. We regret that in 2021, the manufacturer / publisher is not offering an e-reader that can resist splashing water, or even immersion.
Screen: 6 ”. Memory: 16 GB. Weight: 245 g.
Price: 139 euros.
The one who loves water games: Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite
Dating from 2018, this e-reader remains one of Amazon’s bestsellers. Available either in Wifi or in Wifi / 4G, the PaperWhite is compact and has the merit of being waterproof (IPX8 standard), which, combined with its non-slip coating, can constitute real safety if you like to read by the pool …
Its 6 ” screen (1400 x 1080 pixels for 300 dpi) offers good reading quality even if the large onboard black borders date the object somewhat. Regrets: Amazon does not integrate in its PaperWhite of Night mode to relieve the sight according to the ambient light in the event of night readings, nor of filter for the blue light.
Remember also that this e-reader operates in a closed universe, with a proprietary reading file format and a non-compatibility with the format. ePub. Finally and as for its tablets, Amazon offers to deliver the device weighted or not with advertisements (at each start). 10 euros more with the purchase make it possible to avoid this potential invasion.
Screen: 6 ”. Memory: 8 GB / 32 GB. Weight: 182 g.
Price: From 139 euros.
The one who tells stories: Vivlio Touch HD Plus
Fitting in the palm of your hand, this 6 ” screen reader has a particularity: it incorporates a text-to-speech system. Aim: to transform the written text into read text which can be listened to using an audio headset (wired or Bluetooth). The proposal of the Touch HD Plus is relevant and may appeal to visually impaired people.
But here, the voice synthesis remains quite electronic and without a real soul. Admittedly practical, the function thus does not create an “audio book” in the true sense of the term (read by an actor). For its part, the reading comfort is at the rendezvous, but the screen of the Touch HD Plus (1072 x 1448 pixels for 300 dpi) remains quite small.
Screen: 66 ”. Memory: 16 GB. Weight: 155 g.
Price: 159 euros.
The one that makes you read and write: the Kobo Elipsa
With his new e-reader Elipsa available since June 24, Kobo turns a page by offering on the one hand a 10.3 ” screen e-reader (1876 x 1404 pixels for 227 dpi), on the other hand a notebook with stylus. The idea here is to be able to annotate books and documents read (e-books or PDF), but also to create handwritten notebooks.
Fairly light (383 g) despite its respectable size, Elipsa has the ComfortLight mode which adapts the brightness of the screen to that of the ambient light so as not to strain the eyesight. For its part, the transcription of texts written manually is very efficient, the documents generated can be automatically saved locally or on a Dropbox account.
Screen: 10.3 ”. Memory: 32 GB. Weight: 383 g.
Price: 399.99 euros.