E-readers are good for linear fiction. Books that you read from start to finish and don't need to jump around much.

For PDFs and non-fiction manuals and guides I highly prefer a proper powerful tablet with a color screen. E-readers just don't have the power, refresh rate or UX to handle browsing around in 300 page books with pictures.

I found reading technical books on any computer platform to be somewhat awkward. I much prefer physical books for this: even with the best software it's just so much easier to flip back a bunch of pages.

Funny enough, I found this holds true especially for things like programming books where I very frequently go back to see if I understood something correctly, and having a book separate from my computer in front of me is also useful.

Libraries are very important, and Kindle supports borrowing from them (for free): https://help.overdrive.com/en-us/0431.html

So does the kobo (at least in the US). Kobo devices have the overdrive app installed on them and you can search for and borrow library books from within the device.

Funny you mention this, because Kindle support for libraries was amongst the last. For a number of years after buying my ereader libraries did not support Kindle. They've supported epub since at least 2010, possibly even before.

So does Kobo! https://help.overdrive.com/en-us/9988.html

This was the primary reason I chose a Kobo. You can use the pubic library entirely on the reader.

Only in the US. In Australia, you need a Kobo for that.

To borrow from the library on Kindle, just use the Libby app. Very painless and easy. You can send to your kindle as the last click of checkout.

https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby

To borrow from the library on Kobo, just use your Kobo. There is no need to pull out a second device.

It's not available in all countries.

> Like a screen big enough to comfortably read PDFs. IMHO that makes the Kindle only really useful for fiction.

There is plenty of non-fiction that doesn't come in PDF form. It is quite readable on a Kindle.

That's true but technical books always felt a bit tight even in landscape orientation on my Kindle.

Things like code or diagrams don't always reformat well and scrolling is a pain in the arse.

Life is just much easier with a bigger screen. Where I'd really come unstuck is when someone gives me a whitepaper or customer documentation that is only in PDF format. No reformating even if you want to.

Amazon used to sell the bigger Kindle DX but they stopped making it. So if you're buying a new device anyway there doesn't seem to be much downside to switching to Kobo, that I've found anyway.

Bigger screens are essential for scientific papers that have lots of charts and other figures. For eink-type screens there's not a lot type choose from. Fujitsu has a couple of A4 size models that look pretty good. If you can deal with traditional screens, the biggest iPad Pro is great.

Remarkable and some other companies have A5 or 10.3" screens but these are too small IMHO. You will still end up zooming and panning.

For a while Kobos had warm backlights, while Kindle still only had their harsh cold light. But I think Kindle has caught up with that feature.

That’s what lead me to switch to Kobo a few years ago, and it’s been great. Though some small press releases sometimes skip the kobo store still.

How does the screen on the Elipsa compare to the old Kindle DX screens? I'm babying my pair of old DXs, and it would be nice to have a replacements.

I can't say for sure how they compare but the DX was what I was originally looking for. Unfortunately I've never actually seen a Kindle DX in the wild and they're rare as rocking horse poo on ebay here in the UK.

The Kobo Elipsa is the first ebook reader I've used where I can read PDFs without zooming, which is a game changer for me.

In general I think DX or Elipsa sized screens are more useful for text books even in epub format.

It's much faster than my old Kindle but I was never really that bother about the old Kindle's page turn speed. The Elipsa also has much crisper text but again I thought my anchient Kindle was mostly good enough.

The Kobo search features are much better. My old Kindle's search was too greedy which made it pretty much useless as I couldn't narrow results. e.g. I couldn't search for "act" without getting results for "actor" as well.

The only irk I've had with Kobo is that the default PDF reader doesn't let you set a zoom level to reduce margins as you read. You can zoom in but you need to zoom out again to turn the page.

That's only a very minor issues though, I can still read things fine with the default margins. Installing KOreader or Plato was as simple as dragging a file onto a USB drive and give you every ereader feature you could want including margin stripping PDFs.

I considered a Remarkable 2 but I'm not really one for hand written notes and I wanted a frontlight, which the Elipsa has but the RM2 doesn't.

I actually wish I could have bought the Elipsa without the bundled case or pen as I don't use either. The handwriting to text or drawing to flowchart conversion is fun to play with but it's not something I need, I'm strictly using it as a reading device.

I'd guess that the Elipsa would be a good replacement for a Kindle DX but that's caviated by how you personally want to use it. There's something very pleasing about keeping an old ebook reader going though so it might be fun just to keep using your DXs until they absolutely die and then see what's on the market at the time.

Hope that helps.

The child labourers of DRC will thank you for supporting their livelihood when you buy that Kobo you don't really need.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/12/p...