Should I buy an E-reader or tablet?
Should I buy an E-reader or a Tablet?
After all, a Tablet (or Pad, or Slate) can do everything an E-reader can, and more, right? If I buy a Tablet then I can’t go wrong, can I?
The answer depends upon a deeper understanding of how important reading is and the ‘comfortableness’ of the reading experience, including where you want to read, what you want to read and a few ergonomic factors.
Personally, when we want to relax and read a novel, probably the last thing we want is to be presented with another glaring light emitting LCD display! After a day in the office in front of a PC screen, or an evening watching TV, do we have to presented with yet another glaring light-emitting device barraging our eyeballs? This, therefore is one major reason why an E-Reader might be an important preference over a Slate. Of course, if you read outside in daylight, the reflective display technology of an most E-readers also means that you can easily read the screen in daylight. The lack of illuminated screen also helps to add to an e-readers typical battery life of weeks between recharges, as opposed to hours for a Slate.
That said, the display is (at present) only monochrome (grey scale), but colour is to appear before too long. The low power facility also means that the device is not as responsive as a Slate, and may not be powerful enough for display and happily scroll through a 20MByte technical book or magazine. Here, the Slate is clearly the winner, particularly as most slate also have touch screens, which are great for zipping around a technical document, particularly if it is heavily illustated
So, which one do you buy? the answer is easy – both of course! The E-reader is perfect for novels, bedtime and relaxation. The Slate is perfect for technical documents, email, internet and a zillion other applications. But come to think of it, my smart-phone does most of those things, its just that the screen can be a bit small for e-reading.
