I don’t think mine is a pro version like @omk3, but mine is also 9.7 inches and checking the specs from where I ordered it, 16.5 ounces. I don’t have it in a case and I mostly read it sitting on the couch so it’d be resting against my legs, but I’ve also used it on long plane and bus rides and never found the weight problematic.
I used to have a Kobo and I found I hated the slowness of e-ink and how grainy it looked. I fiddled with some Kindles at the store and felt the same about them.
3 Likes
I use a Kobo Libra 2 and I love it. The quality of the built-in dictionary is so-so. On Kobo devices, you need to click and drag to highlight the word you want to look up in the dictionary. If you need to look up words in the dictionary often, I think a iPad would be a better solution (though, I’ve never used one personally). I rarely look up words anymore, so I think the e-reader is a much better experience. They’re lighter weight, have better battery life, are easier on the eyes, and are less distracting.
That being said, I’ve recently started to visit my local library here in Japan. I’ve borrowed a few books so far and I’ve been really loving it. I think it’s an even better experience than an e-reader as long as you’re comfortable reading without a dictionary. Books from the library are great because they’re free, weigh even less than an e-reader, and don’t require space to store them afterwards.
8 Likes
Since I’m torn with the iPad models or the Kindle Scribe, I remembered I had an old Surface laying around, so I’ll settle with that for now.
Ttsu + Yomichan and potentially Anki Connect eventually. It runs Windows so it can potentially also play stuff like visual novels if so I desire.
10 Likes
Love your keycaps! 
5 Likes
Thanks! Maybe an ipad mini would be a good reader!
Most of the books I read are from my local library too! E-books are good for stuff that I can’t find at the library though.
2 Likes
Thank you for that video. I have a kindle, but I prefer reading on my phone. I find it hard to select words when using the Kindle hardware.
1 Like
That looks and sounds like a good setup. Also love your keyboard!
2 Likes
I just screen shot the book and turn it into a pdf, put it in google drive, and off I go. I don’t use a tablet ever when reading though, just my desktop and laptop.
1 Like
A little hard to do for a 300+ page book though…
2 Likes
Oh not at all. Probably only about 10 minutes. I use a free auto screen capture program. I think I just have it set to 1 second intervals. I’ll start it, go fullscreen in the book/manga, and then just keep pressing left on my keyboard every second or so until I go through the whole thing. I look in the folder and remove any duplicates or unnecessary bits at the beginning or end. After that it’s easy to make into a pdf using a free site.
4 Likes
Good to know, thanks. But what are the benefits of turning it into a pdf? Surely having non-selectable text would be more of a drawback?
1 Like
I had no idea you could select text in anything on bookwalker. I mostly read manga right now. That’s good to know in the future.
You don’t have to have internet access to open a PDF. I often work on learning japanese in the down time at my job and bookwalker is blocked on our enterprise network. Even if it wasn’t, it’s not an appropriate site for children to see because of the content, so I wouldn’t go on it anyway. I don’t work with children, but I work around a lot of them.
I also just love making notes in my pdfs for words/grammar for if/when I come back and reread it in the future. I guess it just keeps me engaged and reading intensively if I can physically do something with that information, like type it out somewhere.
4 Likes
Oh, I see. Yes, a pdf must be perfect for keeping notes on manga. Text in manga is not selectable, but in novels it definitely is. As for offline reading, you can do that on the Bookwalker app, but not on a computer as far as I know. A pdf sounds like a good solution for that too.
3 Likes
For manga when reading on PC I use this tool for OCR quick look-ups
It’s also useful for games and such.
6 Likes
Not any of the above, but I use an Onyx Boox Nova 3 (linked to manufacturer product page, but many Boox devices also available via Amazon) because I like that it’s an e-ink screen but also a touch screen with a full Android OS. It’s 7.8" which is just about the perfect size for me.
I haven’t even touched my old Kindle manga edition since I got the Boox Nova because I like the screen size and features of the Nova so much better (so, yeah, if anyone wants a cheap 6" Kindle paperwhite manga edition circa 2017, let me know 
).
You need to do one weird thing when you first set it up to tell the Android play store that it’s okay to download apps to this device (basically the play store doesn’t officially support e-ink devices for apps, so you tell it you’re a developer and get a special key).
The same company also makes some color models. Prices are higher than Kindle, but since I can install apps for any place I might get books from (Kindle for Amazon JP, Bookwalker.jp, nook for Barnes & Noble, and Hoopla for some digital library books only available through that app) as well as side-loading PDF and epub files and installing other
apps I usually use on my phone like Japanese dictionary apps, it seemed worth it to me. It also comes with a stylus, though I usually just use my fingers.
If you already use iOS devices, then obviously the iPad mini/Air is good, but if you’re an Android user like me maybe take a look at some of the options from Onyx or other similar manufacturers.
Also, not to overwhelm you with options, but I stumbled upon this youtube channel a while back that seems to have reviews for almost every e-reader under the sun (though of course you can usually just google “XXX review” and find a youtube video by someone reviewing it.
6 Likes
Thanks for the suggestions.
I think for now I’ll stick with the old Surface Go. The new iPad pricing is ridiculously out of the budget I had for it, so unless I find a device that might work better than what I currently have in offer, I’ll stick with that, as it works.
I’ll take a look at those devices during black friday in any case, as they sound interesting.
1 Like
I also found this OCR online that is actually very good for quick OCR look-ups
Manabu OCR
I hope it helps too!
6 Likes
With the new hover feature on iPad Pro, I can’t help but imagine the possibilities of how awesome it is to look up words while hovering with the Apple pencil, and saving words when I poke on them.
Regarding deinflection and dictionaries on iOS, it’s a minor software issue. I ported Yomichan’s deinflector into the Dart language and loaded my own Yomichan dictionaries to build a custom iOS app for reading.
For those interested, more info here and here.
I actually prefer touch screens for looking up stuff over moving my cursor on PC. Now if only someone could lend me a brand new iPad Pro for me to test that new pen feature.
3 Likes
