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Tablet or  ereader?  Which should you buy for reading ebooks with?

Last year was definitely the Year of the ereader, during which new models were appearing almost every week, driving bloggers such as myself mad trying to keep up with them all.  It was a year of exciting technical developments on all ereader fronts, with considerable advances being made in the quality of the screen technologies being used, the methods for buying ebooks online and all such matters.  And perhaps most importantly, the prices for ereaders went down like a lift, starting the year at hundreds of dollars, and ending it with perfectly usable ereaders going for as little as .

All very exciting and encouraging for those of us who believed that dedicated ereaders were the way to go.

Then came the iPad and the whole thing changed.

Here was a device that allowed  one to read ebooks in comfort (well, relative comfort, it is sort of big and heavy) and also allowed us to view videos, listen to music, had colour and a whole heap of things which normally one would need a computer for.

This in its turn engendered the current flood of mostly Android based tablet computers that are arriving at the same sort of rate that new ereaders were appearing last year, and completely muddying the water when it comes to deciding whether to by a “real” ereader – such as a Sony or Kindle, or one of these new multifunctional devices.

All dancing, all singing ereading:

Increasingly one is seeing these tablets being touted as perfect devices on which to read one’s ebooks with as they offer publishers so much more in the way of multimedia content possibilities, beautiful colour illustrations, embedded videos, interactive ebooks , magazines and so on, all the things which a Kindle or Sony in all honesty can not really compete with.

However, all this said, there are a couple of what the Dutch call adders in the grass here, which you should consider before deciding which type of device to purchase if ereading is what you are interested in primarily.

As Joe, a regular commentator to this blog puts it, he wants a ereader for his ereading, not a 0 computer.   This is surely one hell of a large adder in the grass.

Further, real dedicated ereaders can be read happily in any situation that a normal paper book may be  read in…. outside in bright sunlight, or any other place with enough light to enable you to read easily, and for those darker places, there are numerous clip on lights to give you enough light to read in the dark, without bothering others around you.

Dedicated ereaders are much easier on the eyes than back-lit LCD screens – anyone who has stared at  a computer screen for a couple of hours will know what I mean by this, ePaper screens are exactly the same as ordinary paper when it comes to eye strain, and with the ability to enlarge the font size, no matter how good or bad your eyesight.

Multifunctional or dedicated?

The main issue here I feel is the point about whether a fully multifunctional (and relatively expensive) device is suitable as an ereader, and if all those extra functions add anything to the basic function of being able to read ebooks comfortably.

This is the crux of the matter I feel, and at the risk of seeming to be some sort of techie Luddite, I have to confess that in this instance, I personally prefer to read my ebooks on a device that is specifically designed for this function, and thus does it perfectly and doesnt tempt me to indulge in all manner of other activities when I want to read.  Having played with various tablets now, I find the fact that it tells me that an email has come in, or offers me some other form of activity when I want to read simply distracting… When reading a book, electronic or paper, I want to remain completely undisturbed by the world about me, so I can fully immerse myself in the book I am reading.  This is what a dedicated ereader gives me, and this is all important to me.  I have a small portable computer for all other online type activities.

I know all the arguments about tablets giving publishers the possibility to give us all manner of highly interactive ebooks, rather as if our huge unwieldy Coffee Table books have suddenly come to life, and started to talk to us.  I rather feel that we are dealing with two completely separate ideas here, and there is a real risk that we – and the  manufacturers – may well become lost in trying to unite them into one device.

What do we look for when reading ebooks, or paper books?

Most people when  reading a book (paper or electronic) want to simply slide into the world that the author has created, and not be bothered with  all manner of tricky extras.   Reading an interactive ebook of whatever sort, can be very educational, or even amusing in a video game sort of a way, but it is not the same as simply opening a book and sliding into happy solitude.   The two experiences are totally different.

I realise that one can simply read an ebook on any tablet, and with some of them even turn off all distracting programs that might be running on the device – but who actually takes that trouble?   I don’t know about you, but if I see that a new email has arrived, I find it almost impossible to ignore it, and if I am reading at the time, I am dragged out of the world of the ebook, and plunged back into my daily,  real, life… not what I want when reading.

I also appreciate that having as many functions as possible in one device has its charms too, only having to cart one device around rather than several is obviously an attractive idea, but I liken it to the so-called universal tools one can buy, you know, all those attachments for an electric drill – a jig saw attachment, and sanding attachment, a metal cutting attachment and so on, they all work, but do not work as well as a hand tool that is specifically designed to do a particular job, and I feel the same about tablets when considered as ereaders, they do the job, but a Kindle or Sony does it so much better.

If this trend continues, I shall find myself writing yet another blog on all manner of computer matters, rather than specifically about ereaders, which I am not really sure I want to do.

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So, am I simply a backwards looking idiot, refusing to see the wonderful advantages of a tablet, or am I right?   Do share your views on this argument with us here.