Of course I dream of something with feature parity with the US and Eastern alternatives, but I am not interested in color or touch. Mostly care about format support and rendering.
You could look into PocketBook. It was founded in Ukraine and is now based in Switzerland.
I second this. Here is a comment I made about my PocketBook a while ago: I still have a Pocketbook Lux 3 in use. It must be about 10 years old now and still works beautifully (even the backlight). One battery charge usually lasts me weeks, even with heavy backlight use. They are made in Europe (Switzerland) and run some flavour of Linux. They‘re not rock-bottom bargains, but the cost of the entry-level model seems quite fair in my opinion (€107). https://pocketbook.de/
Do not look into pocketbook. Owner of many years here. My touchscreen failed. The e-ink screen is completely fine. It was never dropped and been babied for all the years I owned it (always transported in its own hard-shell case). It just spontaneously failed and they charge two thirds of the price of a new device for a new touchscreen. A touchscreen of this size costs about 20 euros. They charge 260 euros. (InkPad X) and no, you cannot use any mouse or keyboard, not via USB-C nor Bluetooth. Either your touchscreen works or the device is totaled. Stay away from this trash company. And yes, it is glued together. Because of course it is.
Sounds very much like my experience with Boox.
Does it support uploading e-books and pdf files?
Also, I see it has Android, can you install any android app?I own the InkPad Color 2. It runs on an, I guess, embedded Linux not Android. So no Android apps.
You can upload your e-books through USB or download them e.g. through the PockeBook-Shop or the installed webbrowser.
Not the OP, but interested anyways.
For the PockeBook-Shop have a wide selection in a variety of languages? Does it mean I could buy an e-book from Amazon then upload it to the InkPad?
Amazon usually has DRM, I’d suggest you find a DRM-free alternative, to ensure long-term access to your books.
I know humble bundle books are usually DRM free.
The problem that I find the most limiting is really availability of books. I read a lot and I am picky, I usually look for specific titles in many languages. I haven’t been able to find a real competitor to Amazon’s wide library yet (even if I don’t like it)
Unfortunate, but understandable.
I’m sadly not happy with my PocketBook InkPad 4.
My PocketBook developed a crack near the charging port very soon after I got it. I got into contact with the company, and they handled it well, but I some time back saw it had developed a crack there yet again. Clearly it’s a structural issue.
The software is also mediocre at best. If you read pdfs, there’s this really weird issue where it fails to register long presses, but only in landscape mode. It simply stops very soon after the first press, so panning and pinch-to-zoom don’t work. I tried both pdf readers (it has two if I remember correctly) but it doesn’t matter. I also got into contact with PocketBook over this, and they were very receptive and seemed to want to understand and fix the issue, but it’s been more than a year now and it still isn’t fixed.
There’s also a minor (but to me major) graphical flaw when reading epubs, where the top margin is often ignored, meaning the text begins at the very top of the page. It annoys me, especially considering this is an expensive device developed specifically for reading epubs.
My main reason for picking PocketBook was that it supports lots of file formats, but, needless to say, I wouldn’t buy a PocketBook anymore.
Owner of poketbook here, I have one of the older models. Battery life is great, had no problems with it whatsoever.
PocketBook is from EU. I had the cheapest one and it worked great.
No, Pocketbook is Swiss. I think Polish InkBook is the only EU option. They don’t manufacture in Europe though. Maybe German Tolino would qualify as well depending on your definition since their readers are based on Canadian Kobo.
I recently bought an inkBook Focus Plus (black and white Carta 1300 screen, 7.8"). For me a strong argument was that I needed the reader to support my local library’s book lending app now that they are moving away from Adobe-based DRM due to the upcoming EU directive. So if you plan to use any library service, make sure to check their technical requirements. It can vary even within countries.
For file transfer the reader has WiFi, USB, and a memory card slot. There is also an individual email address you can use to send books to your reader. Wifi drains a lot of battery so don’t keep it on unnecessarily.
You can install Android apps from APK files. There is a built-in “app store” called inkPLUS so you can easily install from a short list of recommended apps. You can also install APKpure which is another source of apps, like an app store. I’ve installed apps like Pressreader and Deepl translate. No problems.
The built-in pdf reader leaves a bit to be desired, such as margin trimming for texts. The built-in book reader is ok but one problem I’ve found is that the clickable list of content is truncated after 50 items. This probably doesn’t matter for most novels etc, but it’s a big drawback for many textbooks etc. It’s possible to manually add bookmarks. I would also have wished for some “back feature” like keeping a thumb in your physical book and going back to the page you were perviously on. As a Nordic person I think the list of supported languages could be more extensive if they want to be truly relevant in all of Europe. The file system is a bit opaque and it’s not at all easy to move documents.
There are physical buttons for page turning. They work for the built-in apps but normally not for third-party apps in my experience, and the buttons are not programmable as far as I know. So in those cases you have to tap or swipe the screen.
Bloatware-wise the built-in translation is based on Google translate. I’ve installed the Deepl app. It also has Google cloud available. I honestly don’t remember if it was preinstalled and I uninstalled it when I first got the reader, but it’s anyway available in the inkPLUS list if apps. But if you don’t plan to use it you don’t need to link the reader to any Google account. I log in to my local library account to borrow books or to use Pressreader.
I’ve had a Tolino for years and was always quite happy. It’s just a rebranded Kobo though, running their own software (which is an adapted android).
What model are you on right now and can you sideload?
I use an older Tolino Epos.
What do you mean by “sideload”? Just the books? You can just copy book files to the reader via USB easily. You can also upload books you bought anywhere to the Tolino cloud system, so that’s all open. Apps or the system? Dunno, tbh. Never looked into that.
prosereader. get it at fdroid.
Maybe I should have specified that I am asking about hardware.
ahh…remarkable.com norwegian e-ink tablets. a bit expensive, but great.
Yes! It should be mentioned that Remarkable is based on Linux, but not on Android. Which is rather unique in this space.
I have a very old ecoreader i bought in 2009 (hanlin v1)… I upload my books via usb. No DRM. No external control. Can hand mobi, pdf, .doc. .jog, epub, txt, pretty much anything i’ve thrown at it. Fckn love it.
Look into Kobo readers. We love ours.
Kobo is definitely not European (Canadian company owned by Rakuten). But I can’t deny they are really good. Me and my family own several of them and they all are solid, reliable and very open.
Kobo is not EU-based, am I right?
True, but it’s not an American piece of shit like the Kindle.
I love my Kobo Libra Colour… I can read books from my Google Drive and saved Articles from InstaPaper.
Have you liked the colour? I’ve started reading some light novels, and that made me wish I could see color for some of the occasional illustrations instead of pulling out my phone for them.
I read a lot of comics and manga and I’m always happy when I can read the colored comics on my Kobo.
I don’t read ebooks but my wife does and she’s on her second kobo, the first one worked for many years and she just upgraded for a few new features and new battery. Also happy with the second one.
But I don’t think they are European, are they?
I bought one for under a 100€ almost ten years ago. It still works great except a couple times when the screen froze and I had to wait a couple minutes but I’ve dropped it so many times it’s probably my fault honestly.
Really easy to add books with calibre too so you don’t even have to use their only store. I really like it.
If you don’t care about the price Remarkable Pro move could be worth considering. Comes with a pen and let’s you doodle and take notes, colour screen, and the usual ebook stuff. But you can for sure find way cheaper options out there if all you want to do is to read books.
