Need a new PDA/ebook reader

June 12, 2004 7:33 PM

I miss my Palm Vx. I need a new PDA to act as an ebook reader (my mpx200 handles my multimedia/organisational needs). Good battery life, decent screen required - lightness would be a definate plus. As would student-wallet friendliness (I'm not scared of ebay either).

Oops, forgot the question - any tips on good models to look out for/good software for these? I'm thinking palms will have the best battery life?

posted by Mossy to Technology (5 answers total)

Palm's used to have the best battery life because they were still black and white while the rest of the world marched on with colour. However, now they've finally caught up, the gap is a lot closer but still tipped in Palm's favour.

Since you don't need any organisational things, and you're on a tight budget then a Zire is probably your best bet. There are three models, ignore the 72 as it's overkill for a reader and you're looking at the 31 (with a colour screen) or 21 (without). Although the 31 will be harder to read in bright sunlight (due to the colour screen), it comes with a MMC/SD slot so you can store your books on there. The 21 does not and you'll have to use the internal 8 meg (of which several meg of it will already be used by the Operating System) to store your ebook application and associated books.

The Zire 31 is priced at $149. Personally I'm a PocketPC fan, but thats because I use Outlook on a daily basis and need the PIM capabilities.

With regards to eBook readers, there are plenty of them for the Palm device (many are free). Best thing to do is search for "best free ebook reader group:comp.sys.palmtops.pilot" in google groups
posted by ralawrence at 1:57 AM on June 13, 2004

Maybe I'm spoiled, but I would not be willing to read on the small screen that the Zire has.

I've got an old Palm IIIc and I love it as a reader. Sure, the colour is uneccessary. The screen is large and is great for reading in the dark. The built in battery lasts for quite a while and I don't have to change AAAs all the time (I had the IIIe before). It is quite large though and not very light.

I've been half shopping around for a new handheld, mostly because the back of mine has cracked. Some of the circuitry is exposed (!) and the stylus keeps coming out. I'd like to know what you end up with. What I'll probably do though is just buy someone else's busted IIIc and fix mine with the parts.

Oh, and I use cspotrun as a reader. It's awesome.
posted by ODiV at 7:05 AM on June 13, 2004

I've found the small Zire screen to be just fine for ebooks, and I would never want a colour screen for reading on: in my experience, anything remotely back-lit quickly becomes a strain on the eyes. I can read off of my monochrome palm, however, for hours on end.
posted by Marquis at 9:13 AM on June 13, 2004

Really? I haven't had that problem. I find that as long as it's LCD (rather than CRT) my eyes have no problem. I wouldn't mind a B&W screen as long as it was the same quality as my colour one.

Have they improved the lighting on the b&w screen at all? On my IIIe it was a joke.

I had an iPAQ for a few months. I bought it second hand, so I don't know if I got ripped off, but the battery was severly lacking. The ability to play video was cool (if useless) though.
posted by ODiV at 9:52 AM on June 13, 2004

(Obviously I haven't seen a handheld with a CRT. That'd be pretty neat though.)
posted by ODiV at 10:19 AM on June 13, 2004