EBook Reader Hardware

In order to read ebooks you need to have something to read them with. Originally, this site was dedicated to Handheld devices. More specifically, PalmOS devices or Windows Pocket PC devices. A lot has changed since I first put it up. When I first put this site up, there were a lot of things one had to consider when buying a device to read ebooks. The resolution of the screen. Should you get monochrome or spend the extra for color? What type of batteries should it use? All of these differences had a price tag tied to them and even devices with fairly limited features were quite expensive. Today, this has all changed. There is still a huge range of hardware available, more than there has ever been, but even the most basic of basic PDA's that you could buy today would far exceed any and all requirements that used to need to be considered. Now, there are even more devices dedicated for reading ebooks with even more things that need to be considered, such as display types, battery life, and perhaps most importantly, what you can read on them. In that regard you need to consider whether you want to buy a proprietary device from a provider that offers digitally protected books, or a more open device that may not have access to some content.

It seems ebooks may have finally made it. I first created HANDebooks in 2001 thinking everyone would be using them in no time. Even when I first started this site, stand alone ebook readers like the Rocket ebook, first introduced in 1998, already existed. They didn't take off the way I thought they would until almost six years later when Amazon released their Kindle ebook reader. It wasn't the first, it hasn't been the last, but it got more attention than any ebook reader before it, and since then, ebooks have been talked about a lot more than they had before and there are more to choose from now than ever before.

Let's look at some of the hardware characteristics to consider when buying a device to read ebooks on.

The screen type
Devices consist of two basic display types at the moment. Backlit LCD, or something known as e-ink. Traditional LCD displays require power at all times the display is being shown. E-ink displays on the other hand only require power when the display changes. This means e-ink displays use much less power and can use smaller batteries and have longer battery life. They are however monochrome displays. They do not currently offer color.

Size of the screen.
The size of the screen consists of two attributes. The physical dimensions, and the resolution. The first device I used for reading ebooks on was dimunitive in both aspects, but was still perfectly functional when it came to reading ebooks. It was a Palm device with a 160x160 display on maybe a 3x3 screen. I later moved to another device with much higher resolution at 320x320 in the same area. It couldn't really display any more text, but the text was somewhat clearer. For reading text based books, it worked well, because it could present a paragraph or so of text at a time, which is all you can really read. Most of the dedicated ebook readers work more on the idea of presenting a familiar book size. They generally tend to be about the size of a paperback. Although I don't find the larger screen neccesary for text based books, it does allow the display of pages as they would appear in traditional media. Therefore they can be used to display newspaper and magazine type pages as well.

The books you can get for it
This may in fact be the most important factor in determing which ebook reader to purchase. If you buy a device and you want to read any newer, non public domain books, chances are pretty high that if you are able to buy them in digital form at all, they are going to be protected with Digital Rights Management. If they are not offered in a format that your device can read, then your ebook reader will be nothing more than a paperweight. You will also want to make sure that you can put on your own content. It should be simple for you to read ebooks of your own that are not protected by digital rights management on your ebook.