E-reader comparison table & tool

[Guido]

Hi everyone!

First post here, but I've come across this forum quite a few time already! I noticed that the Kobo e-reader comparison table that I made was shared on this forum before, so I thought I'd let you guys know that I've also been working on a comparison table & tool to compare e-readers from multiple brands as well: https://comparisontabl.es/e-readers/

It currently has 135 e-readers (from 10 different brands) to compare on all specs and features. You can use filters to only show e-readers with specific specifications or features (for instance to only show Android devices with a color display), and sort the columns (high-low, A-Z, and the other way around.

There's also a separate tool to compare two e-readers side by side to quickly compare specs, for instance: Meebook M7 vs Kindle Paperwhite 5.

Currently it contains all e-readers ever released by Kobo, Kindle, Nook, reMarkable, Meebook, and Reinkstone. For Onyx Boox and PocketBook, it has the last 6-7 years worth of devices added, and there's also the last 3 models by Ratta Supernote (can't find all details on the older models), and the Lenovo Smart Paper. I'll be adding Bigme and MobiScribe devices next.

Very interested to hear your feedback as I've noticed there are tons of highly knowledgeable people around here.

I'm continuously working on adding more/new products and making any other possible improvements and corrections. So let me know if you have any suggestions.

There's also some missing data that I could use some help with. For instance, I can't find any good sources on some specs like the RAM, CPU's, and battery capacity in the oldest Kobo's. So if anyone has those devices and could check on this somehow, that'd be great!

[DNSB]

Minor nit is that the Kobo Forma is a eInk Mobius Carta screen. I was also noticing that Mobius screens seem to be referred to by multiple names, E Ink Mobius Carta or E Ink Mobius seem to be the most popular but Mobius Carta and E Ink Mobius Flexible have their spots.

Overall, a very nice list of ereaders past and present.

[Guido]

Thanks for the feedback! Corrected the Kobo Forma screen type just now. Will look into uniformly naming the rest of the e-readers with 'Mobius' screens. When entering data, I have mostly just entered whatever the manufacturer listed it as, so that's probably why I've ended up with multiple names for the same thing.

If I understand correctly, Mobius is always a flexible screen? Because that'll mean I can remove 'Flexible' from the naming scheme, even though manufacturers often seem to add that.
However, what I don't really understand is, is there such a thing as a 'Mobius' screen without it also being 'Carta'? E Ink themselves just mention E Ink Mobius here: https://www.eink.com/brand/detail/Mobius without mentioning Carta anywhere on that page, and they've got another page for 'Carta' which makes it seem like that's an entirely separate screen type. So that's a bit confusing to me.

[DNSB]

Mobius uses a plastic bottom supporting layer to replace the thin glass used in other eInk products. Carta/Pearl/Kaleido/ACeP are the eInk screen on top of the back plane. So far, all the Mobius screens I've seen mentioned in ereaders are using a Carta eInk layer though some old small displays (2.5" and less" used a Pearl layer on a plastic substrate.

[Guido]

Thanks for clearing that up for me. Will fix the 'Mobius' naming scheme soon.

I was also wondering about 'Carta HD' being mentioned by manufacturers - I've also used this in the comparison table whenever it was mentioned, but I'm not exactly sure what the addition of 'HD' means. Eink.com makes no mention of this whatsoever, and neither does the Mobileread wiki.

[rcentros]

It's a nice tool. Thanks for your work on this.

I see you have listed the Nook Glowlight 3 as "available" but these have been discontinued for a couple (maybe three years now). I doubt that Barnes & Noble will ever get them back in stock (even though they still have them listed).

Also, it's kind of an asterisk type note, but at some point the Kobo Mini went from VizPlex screens to Pearl screens and (apparently at the same time) they started using 4 GB SD Cards instead of 2 GB ones (although they only used 2 GBs of that 4 GB SD Card).

The Kindle 2 also upgraded its memory (even in the non-3G version) to 4 GB instead of 2 GB. So it's the same kind of thing as the Kobo Mini (unannounced) upgrade.

[JawadLeLogeur]

This is a godsend thanks

[Aleron Ives]

You might want to list the company names with all devices, e.g. Ratta Supernote and Amazon Kindle for people who don't know which company owns which device series. You could get information for the Ratta Supernote A5 and A6 from Voja's MyDeepGuide YouTube channel if you want to include as many discontinued devices as possible.

[Quoth]

Carta HD might mean 300 dpi. There are lower dpi Carta screens.

[Guido]

Just fixed the Mobius Carta naming scheme.

Originally Posted by rcentros

It's a nice tool. Thanks for your work on this.

I see you have listed the Nook Glowlight 3 as "available" but these have been discontinued for a couple (maybe three years now). I doubt that Barnes & Noble will ever get them back in stock (even though they still have them listed).

You're welcome! Have now listed the Glowlight 3 as discontinued. Thought it was just out of stock as the page was still up at Barnes & Noble (whereas the pages for other discontinued models have been completely removed), but if it's been out of stock for years then it's probably actually discontinued.

Originally Posted by rcentros

Also, it's kind of an asterisk type note, but at some point the Kobo Mini went from VizPlex screens to Pearl screens and (apparently at the same time) they started using 4 GB SD Cards instead of 2 GB ones (although they only used 2 GBs of that 4 GB SD Card).

The Kindle 2 also upgraded its memory (even in the non-3G version) to 4 GB instead of 2 GB. So it's the same kind of thing as the Kobo Mini (unannounced) upgrade.

Interesting. Will look into this, and think about how to best list it.

Originally Posted by JawadLeLogeur

This is a godsend thanks

You're welcome

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

You might want to list the company names with all devices, e.g. Ratta Supernote and Amazon Kindle for people who don't know which company owns which device series.

Fair point, will look into that. I left it out for some devices as it makes the 'Name' column wider, and I don't want that to take up too much space (especially on mobile). But It looks like I can fit 'Ratta' without widening the column.

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

You could get information for the Ratta Supernote A5 and A6 from Voja's MyDeepGuide YouTube channel if you want to include as many discontinued devices as possible.

Thanks, will have a look! And yes, I'm trying to include a lot of discontinued devices as well, as people will often want to compare what they currently have to newer devices to see what kind of upgrade they'd be getting. Also, there seems to be a quite active second hand market for some of these devices as well (and I'll be adding Ebay links for every discontinued device soon).
And annoyingly, most brands and retailers completely remove pages with information on their old/discontinued devices, so information is sparse. So compiling all of that info in my comparison table will hopefully address that issue. Have already done quite some 'internet archeology' to fill in some of the info.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Carta HD might mean 300 dpi. There are lower dpi Carta screens.

That's what I thought at first, but there seem to be a few exceptions to that: Lenovo Smart Paper is listed as having "Carta HD" but it's got a 227 PPI. Also the Nook Glowlight 4e is said to have a "Carta HD" screen, but it's only got a 212 PPI. The Nook Glowlight 4e also has a lower resolution than what is usually referred to as a 'HD' resolution (anything over 1280x720), as the resolution for the Nook Glowlight 4e is only 758x1024.

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink) says this about Carta HD: "E Ink Carta HD features a 1080 by 1440 resolution on a 6" screen with 300 ppi.", and list it as if it's a separate technology somehow. But that also doesn't seem consistent, as there are also larger e-readers with a larger screen that say they've got a Carta HD screen (Meebook P78 Pro, Lenovo Smart Paper, Boox Nova Pro).

Then there's also the mystery of what constitutes "Carta Plus", but only Onyx Boox seems to mention that type though.

[Quoth]

There is original Carta, Carta 1200, Carta 1250, Carta 1300.
The original Carta may have been renamed.
Pearl was the biggest incremental change and original Carta the 2nd biggest. Mobius is now of little value as the readers use ribbed rear flat front alloy plates for the screen. Some ereaders had a cutout for the LiPoly cell (battery) and then when it swelled the screen substrate cracked, such as Story Cover.
The mobius was intended for large screens where the ereader might flex. Likely the yield and lifetime is lower, as that's the case with flexible OLED.

[patrik]

Very nice, thank you! :-)

I run a Swedish forum about e-readers and one of the most common question is which e-reader to get which can be used standalone.

Having information about support for Adobe-drm reading, Adobe-drm full (i.e. acsm -> epub), Overdrive and Readium LCP would be very useful, I think.

Also, streaming services (like Storytel) are getting more and more popular. Which readers support all those apps would also be nice, although I guess "Android" could be indicator enough. (Most apps work surprisingly well in newer Android (Onyx), not so well in older versions.)

[Quoth]

HD
Can mean a particular number of dots, ie. 1920 x 1080. But 1920 x 1080 isn't really HD if the image is 72″ and 1m away.
Converesly System A TV, 405 lines, was about equivalent to about 320 x 377 and was HD in 1935, because 6" to 9" 5:4 screens using round tubes were common and it replaces 22 line to 180 line mechanical systems.
The USA 525 lines (VGA based on it so 640 x 480) was designed to be roughly equivalent to 16mm film. The 35mm is about x4 resolution in 1940s but was used (is still occasionally) with much larger screens and modern film stock needs scanned at about 8K to give post processing UHD (4K). Some cheaper BD is simply the 2K HD scan used as master for SD DVD instead of re-scanning at 4K.

HD has become slightly meaningless and HD Ready was always a marketing scam.

[Michal Jancik]

Well done! Really excellent work that must have cost a lot of time.
:

[Guido]

I have added the older Ratta Supernote A5 and A6 Agile to the table, and started adding Bigme e-readers as well (not done yet).

If you're missing any other devices, let me know! I'm looking to add as much as possible so you can compare practically any e-reader/e-note/e-ink tablet.

Originally Posted by Quoth

There is original Carta, Carta 1200, Carta 1250, Carta 1300.
The original Carta may have been renamed.
Pearl was the biggest incremental change and original Carta the 2nd biggest. Mobius is now of little value as the readers use ribbed rear flat front alloy plates for the screen. Some ereaders had a cutout for the LiPoly cell (battery) and then when it swelled the screen substrate cracked, such as Story Cover.
The mobius was intended for large screens where the ereader might flex. Likely the yield and lifetime is lower, as that's the case with flexible OLED.

Thanks for the info. As far as I know the original Carta was renamed to 'Carta 1000' but nobody really uses that term. Apparently there's also Carta 1100 but I haven't found any devices using that. Still not sure what Carta HD is supposed to mean (another thought that came up was that it could be a synonym for Carta 1100, but can't find any evidence for that, so probably not).

Originally Posted by patrik

Very nice, thank you! :-)

I run a Swedish forum about e-readers and one of the most common question is which e-reader to get which can be used standalone.

Having information about support for Adobe-drm reading, Adobe-drm full (i.e. acsm -> epub), Overdrive and Readium LCP would be very useful, I think.

Also, streaming services (like Storytel) are getting more and more popular. Which readers support all those apps would also be nice, although I guess "Android" could be indicator enough. (Most apps work surprisingly well in newer Android (Onyx), not so well in older versions.)

You're welcome! And I was already considering making a more detailed list for software and file-type support, and will likely do so in the future. Will be a bit of a puzzle on how to best implement that without making the table way bigger than it already is.

Originally Posted by Quoth

HD
Can mean a particular number of dots, ie. 1920 x 1080. But 1920 x 1080 isn't really HD if the image is 72″ and 1m away.
Converesly System A TV, 405 lines, was about equivalent to about 320 x 377 and was HD in 1935, because 6" to 9" 5:4 screens using round tubes were common and it replaces 22 line to 180 line mechanical systems.
The USA 525 lines (VGA based on it so 640 x 480) was designed to be roughly equivalent to 16mm film. The 35mm is about x4 resolution in 1940s but was used (is still occasionally) with much larger screens and modern film stock needs scanned at about 8K to give post processing UHD (4K). Some cheaper BD is simply the 2K HD scan used as master for SD DVD instead of re-scanning at 4K.

HD has become slightly meaningless and HD Ready was always a marketing scam.

Just looked into it, and yeah, HD can basically mean anything. Oh well. Still not sure what 'Carta HD' is, but I've just listed it if in the table if the manufacturer does for now.

Originally Posted by Michal Jancik

Well done! Really excellent work that must have cost a lot of time.
:

Thank you! Yes, took a ton of time to make this!