Best e-reader for a non tech-savvy parent?

[ohmygodlinda]

I have a sort of weird puzzle I've been trying to solve for my bookworm mom for a while now, and hoping the e-reader aficionados of this forum can help.

My mother is a huge reader--but, not within any of the English language ebook ecosystems: rather of Chinese web novels, which she accesses via online archives, and sometimes (although rarely) will download as ebooks. She's on her iPad, conservatively, 25 hours a day, and it's causing her significant eyestrain. She's open to swapping to an e-reader.

I'm wondering what my best option is for her that gives her the flexibility to navigate/read on the web, but won't be too confusing for her to operate otherwise. She's been strictly in the Apple ecosystem, but I'm happy to get her set up on an Android eink tablet to get her started if we can identify a good workflow for her to leverage on reading on a regular basis without my intervention, since I don't live anywhere near her.

I personally have a Boox Page and really enjoy it, but I like a certain amount of fiddly friction in my technology she has no patience for.

Any suggestions? Open to all price points and brands!

[Quoth]

TCL Nxtpaper 11
Almost like eink / paper, but real colour and a better tablet than an iPad, at 1/4 price, if you don't mind Android.

A dedicated eink or ereader is too poor for Web content.

I've compared the same apps on it and a friend's iPad. I have an Android eink and many dedicated eink ereaders and they are only good for offline content, particularly novels.

[Aleron Ives]

Onyx Boox or another Android brand is pretty much your only option if she needs a decent web browsing experience. The Note Air 3 (or 3C if she needs colour) would probably be good choices.

[Quoth]

I'm sceptical that there is such as thing as a "good" web browsing experience on any eink and I'm a great fan of eink for novels. I think I might currently have 9 working models from 4.7″ (no Internet) to 10.3″.

Colour is abysmal and half the resolution.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ohmygodlinda

I have a sort of weird puzzle I've been trying to solve for my bookworm mom for a while now, and hoping the e-reader aficionados of this forum can help.

My mother is a huge reader--but, not within any of the English language ebook ecosystems: rather of Chinese web novels, which she accesses via online archives, and sometimes (although rarely) will download as ebooks. She's on her iPad, conservatively, 25 hours a day, and it's causing her significant eyestrain. She's open to swapping to an e-reader.

I'm wondering what my best option is for her that gives her the flexibility to navigate/read on the web, but won't be too confusing for her to operate otherwise. She's been strictly in the Apple ecosystem, but I'm happy to get her set up on an Android eink tablet to get her started if we can identify a good workflow for her to leverage on reading on a regular basis without my intervention, since I don't live anywhere near her.

I personally have a Boox Page and really enjoy it, but I like a certain amount of fiddly friction in my technology she has no patience for.

Any suggestions? Open to all price points and brands!

It looks like the Boox Page has web access? How do you think that would work for her (consider if it had a larger screen)?

As an alternative, maybe you could do the legwork for her getting her books (this may be a lot of work for you):

1) Have your mother browse to find what she wants on her iPad
2) convert any web content to epubs, or get the epubs for her
3) upload them to drop box
4) she downloads them from drop box

Good luck.

[Anghirrim]

I agree with @Quoth . I recently acquired a Boox Page (after more than 10 years of Kobo devices).

I was ready for it, really wanted to read my RSS news on it, in addition to my epubs, as well as sometimes some minimal web browsing.

In the end... The appeal of the snappy screen of my smartphone got me back on it for the RSS reading. And web browsing is a pain on small screens (I don't like web browsing on anything but a computer, and never on screens below 13").

I wouldn't recommend a e-ink device unless everything you're reading has been converted into a properly sized epub.

But this definitely wouldn't match his mother's use case.

[Tarana]

Rather than switching devices, consider getting an anti blue light filter for her iPad. Also, I was looking briefly at this and it requires an app to play a lot of the novels. Most ereaders don't use apps primarily because they don't have the computing power for it.