Hi,

My Kindle won’t boot anymore and keeps getting stuck in boot screen, so I thought this might be a good time to get away from Amazon, even though that device was great.

So, what non-kindle readers would you recommend?

It should have color and background light and it shouldn’t be huge so I can keep it in the back pocket.

And, since I don’t have any experience outside the Amazon ecosystem: how is the experience of buying and transferring books to non Kindle readers?

  • Riley@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    The Kobo is great. Very moddable, you can set it up in sideload mode so you never even need to register for an account, just move files to it via USB.

  • Arkhive (they/she)
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    2 days ago

    I have a boox for bigger screen reading and a Hisense touch for on the go. I like them both. Wish I could more easily tweak the boox, and wish I could more easily ditch all the vendor crapware off the Hisense, but they do their jobs well enough. Hisense gets bonus points for being a hi-fi device that can drive my IEMs.

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    I use a Kobo, sideloaded with KoReader. I use Calibre to manage my ebooks, which takes a bit of a learning curve, but is definitely worth learning!

  • Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    Kobo for sure. Great devices.

    You bought the kindle books, Amazon took away what you bought. Anna’s archive without any guilt - boom, your kindle books are now yours to read on any device of your choosing again.

    You don’t need to fiddle with calibre or managing files. This website works great for transferring books to the kobo. https://send.djazz.se/

    You’re welcome :)

  • ludrol@bookwormstory.social
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    2 days ago

    I have used PocketBook touch lux 5 but the screen cracked twice. (User error but still, screen is a weak link)

    KoReader made it so snapy I couldn’t believe it at first.

    Now I have got kindle as I received it as a gift, so I jailbroke it and also installed KoReader on it.

  • Libra00@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I’ve heard Kobo makes good ereaders and they have cool stuff like library integration. I’m very happy with my Kindle Oasis (because I largely ignore the Amazon ecosystem 🏴‍☠️), but if I had to replace it I would probably look at Kobo.

  • That Annoying Vegan
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    4 days ago

    i have a kobo which i adore. It’s a great little device. Pretty simple to sideload if that’s your thing. Just plug in, drag and drop to the root folder of the kobo, then eject drive and unplug. it auto imports them and stuff. The draw back though, kobo plus doesn’t have as many books as kindle unlimited, if that’s your thing. but all in all, kobos are great.

    As for transferring books from kindle to kobo, i don’t believe you can anymore. amazon closed that process down, and now I believe you can’t do it. Which sucks balls.

  • kat_angstrom@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Kobo Libra 2 checking in. The ability to directly load epub files (and other formats) directly onto the drive and bypass the store is a game changer.

    • calm.like.a.bomb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Not defending Amazon, but you can do this with Kindle too. I’ve had my kindles in airplane mode since I bought them (for me and my wife) and I’m adding books directly with Calibre anytime I want. You don’t need their whole “ecosystem”.

    • OmegaMouse@pawb.social
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      3 days ago

      I also have a Libra 2 and it’s great! Nice size screen and very lightweight. Just to note as the OP asked for colour, the Libra 2 is B&W but they now do Libra and Clara colour versions :)

  • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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    3 days ago

    Im running a Kobo Libra Colour before that an old model Kindle that crapped itself.

    Lots to like

    Things I don’t like

    • No charging LED so you know when it’s fully charged
    • My books are sidleloaded from Calibre and 70% of the time when i go to start reading a book that I’m part way through, it opens on a different page , often 20-40 pages away, so much confusion. Not sure if it also does this to books sourced from the Kobo bookstore, or its a Calibre thing
    • Used to piss me off the power button being on the back, flip the cover over to read, it covers the power button. Put the Libra down, come back to it, the kobo cover covered the power switch, DOH! . They have since allowed a work around in the firmware where you can press the page turn button to restart reading, so it’s no longer really an issue.
  • myrmidex@slrpnk.net
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    3 days ago

    I have an older kobo, the h20 Libra, some years old. I have my eye on a new version but I don’t replace things that aren’t broke. Let me tell you, that Libra will last me years to come still, amazing quality. I haven’t even mentioned the easy USB connect to add books, or the great Kobo store.

    My next one will definitely be a Kobo as well.

    • Niquarl@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      I have a kobo from 2016 that still works alright. I kind of want to buy a newer model but it’s not broken yet so…

      • myrmidex@slrpnk.net
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        3 days ago

        Terrible, such sturdiness. I’m starting to fear this will be my last e-reader ever… :)

  • DonutsRMeh@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Kobo is the way. Open system. Not locked like kindle. You can “jailbreak” it in 5 seconds. Linux based. They send you firmware updates even when it’s “jailbroken”. You can bring your own books and they won’t fuck with your book covers like kindle does (I would use calibre to convert your books to kepub to get all the features on a book). No ads on the lock screen. I love my kobo Sage. I’m waiting for them to release a 10" one with high PPI so I can buy it. In all honesty, even the android ones are better than kindle. Basically, almost all non-kindles are good, except for a few random Chinese brands that have their own weird OS.

  • Timmy Mac@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    I got a Boox about a year ago and am very happy with it. In addition to the built in reader, I have the Kindle, B&N, Kobo and Google Play books apps on it. I only buy epubs without DRM these days, and I’ve de-DRMed all my purchases from all these platforms and backed them up, but if there’s something I want to re-read, I find it’s easier to use the apps.

    I could put other apps on it, since it’s essentially an Android device, but I keep it strictly for reading.

  • ghashul@feddit.dk
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    3 days ago

    I got a deal on the Kobo Libra Colour recently, and I’m very happy with it as a replacement for my old Kindle. The way Amazon walls you in made sure it had to be something other than Kindle.

  • Leraje
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    4 days ago

    I’d recommend a Kobo Clara. They do do a colour variant but the next part of my recommendation might not be able to cope with it, I don’t know.

    That next part is KOReader - you can install it ‘over the top’ of the standard Clara software so it becomes the working environment. Its got so many pluses I don’t have time to list them all but it plays nice with Calibre, you can SSH to it, FTP to it, even access it from some cloud services. I can’t say if it supports colour or not though as I don’t use a colour Clara.

    Transferring your current collection is probably a non-starter due to the recent limitations Amazon have put on downloading files. Getting new ebooks is up to you, there’s loads of both legal and not so legal places to source books from, depending on how you feel about DRM.

    In terms of transferring books - as well as the ways I mentioned above it also supports OPDS and of course standard USB cabled transfers too.