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File: f388cbc486fe116⋯.jpg (708.12 KB,1000x1000,1:1,patchouli_knowledge_and_ko….jpg)

File: 230cdeab58935c3⋯.jpg (73.01 KB,883x462,883:462,kobo.jpg)

File: 18e7a2610c75bf6⋯.jpg (522.68 KB,1200x748,300:187,galaxy_tab_s2.jpg)

Comfy Reading Anonymous 01/03/20 (Fri) 22:37:47 No.11014

What's the best hardware for reading old PDF books, doujins, and manuals overall? Tablets and eReaders seem promising, but have certain issues:

Android Tablets:

>high resolution screen with IPS/OLED; portrait mode is great for long-term viewing

>light and portable

>expandable storage (if possible)

>can be found for cheap: ~$100-300

<limited to outdated Android botnet that often has poorly optimized apps for tablets; contains firmware blobs

<battery life varies, and newer tablets have no removable battery

<difficult to repair thanks to glue and almost no hardware maintenance manual

eReaders

>excellent battery life thanks to e-ink

>free OS is possible like okreader

>expandable storage for some devices

>can be cheap: ~$80-200 (might be less)

<black/white color only; color on e-ink is not available yet

<e-ink refresh rate is low; slow to control

<OS is usually limited to Amazon or Kobo botnet;some use outdated Android

<ghosting/banding may show for some e-ink displays

Laptops:

>some are light/portable, depending on what you find

>often easier to repair depending on model; ultrabooks are an exception due to glue and soldered parts

>OS options are greater: GNU/Linux, BSDs, etc. May require firmware blobs

<screen type varies: cheap screens have TN - common but low quality; expensive screens have high resolution and/or IPS

<resolution is usually widescreen; usually meant for media consumption and not the best for reading. High resolution can mitigate this, but High-DPI tweaks may be required

<battery life varies: older laptops have weak battery life; some can have multiple batteries at the cost of more weight

<almost all have Intel ME; can be neutered with me-cleaner, but limited to some coreboot compatible laptops

<usually not too comfy for reading; often bulky

I hear that ThinkPads have potential, but what about battery life? Also, does anyone read books with a monitor + tower PC in the current year+5?

____________________________

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Anonymous 01/03/20 (Fri) 23:19:28 No.11017

Android

>Gets slower and less responsive with updates as Google deprecates your device

E-Reader

>Locked down, hassle to get books on them

>Small screens

>Can't read books/manga on websites without extra work

Laptop

>yeah they're expensive. Just buy one and solve the problem for good instead of buying a half-dozen shittier devices and finding them deficient in some way

>(very) bad for reading on the go, while walking or on mass transit.

Get yourself a Dell XPS 12 XPS9250 and put CentOS Stream with Gnome3 on it. Compared to Android you won't even notice how bloated it is.

Unfortunately both the previous and next year's offerings are shit, and then Dell gave up and only makes "2-in-1" garbage now.

The Lenovo Tablet 10 looks like it might be good.

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Anonymous 01/04/20 (Sat) 09:39:38 No.11033

File: 96704c3b55b82d1⋯.jpg (26.24 KB,330x205,66:41,X61_Tablet.jpg)

>I hear that ThinkPads have potential, but what about battery life?

Check out the battery threads over on the thinkpad forums for older models and the best they can do with recelled standard sized batteries is 2-3 hours. That's with undervolting the CPU, stripped down modern OSes with power saving features enabled, an SSD and the aftermarket LED back lighting set to low. This is a dead end.

Unless you have small hands the x40 and x60/x61 tablet models are ergonomic perfection in a tough magnesium alloy package. The only issues are the outdated internals, shit battery life, fan that burns out and uncomfortable weight distribution in tablet mode. Also the swivel mechanism might become loose over time.

I've been thinking of doing a modification similar to the 51nb's updated motherboards(x62 and X210) by using a single board computer, possibly using the one being developed by the PPC notebook project depending on the final physical dimensions of it and price. Right now I'm not aware of any decent libre SBCs that would be suitable for such a refurbishing project. This guide by the fsf on the topic seems outdated

https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers

A panel from the 12.9" ipad pro might fit into the screen chassis with slight modification to the bezel and is really good at 2732×2048 problem is there's no eDP driver board available for it yet. Otherwise there's a 12.3" 1600×1200 external monitor that should do the job.

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Anonymous 01/04/20 (Sat) 14:52:02 No.11038

>>11033

You can ask 51nb to make a custom Thinkpad for you, with anything you may desire (I heard of the latest quad core mobile CPU, 4 nvme slots, the ability to put a blueray reader in the ultrabay, improved speakers and screen) in any chassis (the Z61t in that case), however, you need to have a lot of money (in that case, they asked for 8000 dollars) and one working Thinkpad which is to be the basis of the chassis (probably to "understand" it too, perhaps they could use one of their stock, but I'm not sure about that part). Apparently if you order it that way, they will assemble it for you too (as a gesture of courtesy?).

If it's an interesting combination (something some dozens of people would be interested in) then they may even add it to their standard selling offers.

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Anonymous 01/04/20 (Sat) 15:37:26 No.11040

File: 7b4b387963554a6⋯.jpg (116.58 KB,1280x720,16:9,thinkpad_x250.jpg)

>>11033

The only used Thinkpad that I could find that with a decent battery life is the X250. Besides the keyboard and Intel ME, what other problems do the nuThinkpads have?

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Anonymous 01/04/20 (Sat) 18:24:23 No.11041

File: 72f70aa6537e436⋯.png (61.77 KB,257x181,257:181,surfaceold.png)

Get a cheapo surface tablet.

You may be tempted to use it as a normal windows machine.

Don't. Cheap ones aren't very good at that.

Stick to innernet and text and you'll be fine.

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Anonymous 01/04/20 (Sat) 21:24:31 No.11042

>>11038

My plan is to take a cheap slate chassis from my thinkpile, throw in a $100-200 SBC maybe more if it's PPC based, spend $150-200 on a new 4:3 monitor and eDP driver board then probably around another $100 on miscellaneous parts(batteries, USB converter for thinkpad keyboard etc). It should be less than $500 total.

Both the monitor and SBC should work with standard 5V and ports so they won't be complicated to upgrade later on. A new x86 motherboard on the other hand that's both expensive and will be outdated in a few years.

>>11040

I don't doubt that the newer models have decent batteries but after this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfish#Lenovo_security_incident

I don't trust anything Lenovo does and avoid anything they release. Even on the x61t there's a lot of bullshit like a whitelist for PCIe cards and Computrace that can't be removed. It's only gotten worse with time.

>>11041

That's the worst advice. Those things aren't repairable and have terrible Linux support. You're probably better off getting a cheap Android tablet and installing a custom ROM on it.

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Anonymous 01/04/20 (Sat) 23:56:15 No.11047

>>11042

Sounds like a great and interesting project. PPC (alternative architecture), too... May you be lucky with it.

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Anonymous 01/05/20 (Sun) 01:22:08 No.11048

could people stop posting stupid as sin manga crap pics. Destroys all credibility

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Anonymous 01/05/20 (Sun) 18:47:18 No.11067

>>11048

>manga

>stupid as sin

>crap pics

>destroys credibility

You must be blind and stupid.

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Anonymous 01/09/20 (Thu) 20:04:24 No.11203

I've got an old Sony 5" eReader I bought used. It has no network connectivity and if you want to get books on it, you connect it via usb and you use it like a drive. I replaced the battery and it lasts forever. (literally, last full charge was months ago) There's also an upgraded firmware file floating around you can use which lets you do things like display epubs with custom css, and you can also put fonts on it and select whatever you want to read your ebook with. It runs some customized Linux. (no Android) Comfy reader without webshit that just works and fits in my pocket.

I used to have an 13" eink android tablet (there's only one made, so search yourself) and it was absolute utter botnet garbage and the only thing nice about it was the screen. Do not buy.

One day when I have the patience I'll roll my own solution with eInk like that other poster. I fucking love eInk. Also specific eInk screens refresh super fast (for eInk) - that Tablet I had managed about 8-14 FPS which is impressive to see live and is more than enough for console-based Linux which was the original idea. To keep the power usage down there's patial refresh. My dream machine would be something Z80 based (yes, the 8 bit one) that's fast enough to be a terminal or edit text and CP/M compatible and supports a disk drive. One day... Currently the parts are still plenty easy to get.

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