Which eReaders are decent for RPG pdfs?

[changoo]

I've a bunch of RPGs on pdf now, thanks to (among other things) the DTRPG charity bundles, and so something that's decent for displaying those would be nice. The Kindle's 6" screen makes the full-page view of RPG pdfs a tad small to comfortably read, so I'm looking for something a little larger.

I realise that there's a bit of a tradeoff between colour+speed of LCD vs readability/battery life of eInk, and on the whole (especially after using the Kindle) I prefer the latter. (At the moment I'm reading the RPG books for enjoyment rather than reference, as I don't have any games on the go, so pageturn speed isn't that big an issue).

My first thought is the Kindle DX, but I don't really know what my second and later thoughts should be after that. I would welcome advice!

 

[jamorea]

Tenkar from this sight and Tenkar's Tavern (Tenkar's Tavern) has a lot of experience with PDFs and eReaders. He seems to prefer the iPad for reading his PDFs.

Concerning the Kindle DX, he says "at times the print was a bit on the small size, and some PDFs choked on the Kindle DX (not many, but enough to be annoying)".

I asked him some questions about the KindleDX on his blog and he was nice enough to answer them for me and I'm sure he'd do the same for you.

 

[CarlZog]

I've yet to find one that meets this purpose. The ipad is the closest so far, but the relatively short battery life and eye strain from more lcd reading has been a deal breaker.

I'm waiting for an e-reader/tablet pc with an 8.5"x11" full-color, ambient-lit screen that can display full-size, native pdfs and has a battery that can last at least a weekend away from a charger.

I figure I've got another year or so to wait.

 

[falcarrion]

It really depends on the pdf. If it has two or three columns the larger the display you should use. I have a Kindle DX and an Ipad. If all your going to use the device for is reading the Kindle Dx does fine. but the Ipad can do that and so much more.
I'm presently playing in to campaigns and use my Ipad for reference and my character sheets. All I need for a game now is my Ipad, figure and dice( i still perfer to roll actual dice). The zoom abilty on the Ipad beats the Kindle DX hands down. To read in the dark or very dim light on the kindle Dx would require a book light or simular device, where the ipad is backlit.

With the different android tables coming out you might want to check them out.
I'm still waiting on my Maylong android tablet to try it out. It was a lot cheaper then a kindle DX or the Ipad but the screen size is only 7. Read carefully what version of android the tablets use and if it it can be upgraded.

I also suggest you down load cutepdf program. When I run into a problem pdf I just run it through that and that usually solves the problem.

 

[Stormonu]

Short battery life? I don't know about other's experiences, but I just used my new iPad last session as a battlemat and it lasted the entire gaming session without a problem. That was easily a 4 hour game, and my iPad was on non-stop through the session. It also wasn't fully charged when I started using it (I believe it had about a 25-35% charge when I started).

The only difficulty I have found with my iPad as a reading device is that it renders the Pathfinder rulebook (~80MB) somewhat slowly, and the app I used to transfer the PDF didn't bring over the bookmarks (if anyone knows a better PDF reader than PDFReader, please let me know). It does much better with the Savage Worlds PDF (11 MB) I own. So I would be cautious if any of your PDFs are old scanned-book images (such as the WoD books or the pre 3E D&D books), which tend to have large files.

 

[falcarrion]

Are you talking bookmarks you entered? If not look under outline for the chapters.
You might also check out the Goodreader app. For $.99 it is a great pdf reader and some. But the delay with page turning will be the same as will be the font problem.
I haven't tried out the third printing pdf yet just the second.