I spent two years with inexplicable migraines. LCDs literally hurt. As such, I have an extensive collection of e-ink devices! Seriously, for a sad few, a typical display might as well be like hammering your skull every time you look at it. Hell, I even used the Windows Remote Desktop app on my Inknote just to do basic computing. (I got better.)

Primarily the reasons you gave in your closing. Battery and easier on the eyes.

But I also like that it’s dedicated to just books, without the myriad of other distractions that a phone brings.

I liked that my e-reader has a special screen, so you can easily read even in direct bright sunlight

and they’re also easier on the eyes

I found that’s the ultimate decision criterion for me. If you’re fine reading on your phone, i.e. you don’t lose sleep because of the extra light spectrum you beam into your face, just stick with the phone. It’s always there and you are already trained to keep it charged around the clock.

Reading ≠ reading; people have different concepts in their heads. There are people who need the haptics of an actual book. Some may think reading on your phone kind of cheapens the experience. It’s where the diarrhea stream of social media also comes through. Or work emails. I’ve talked with a colleague once and she insisted on a reader device because she didn’t want to give the impression she was on Instagram while reading at the airport. So you need to figure out these preferences as well.

E-readers do a good job of bridging the physical book feel with technology. I was of the same thought that a phone would be enough until I held a Kindle in my hands. The first thing that popped out to me was that the screen was super close to a real book. I doesn’t have that electronic screen look so it’s much easier on the eyes. And you can change the color temp to make it even easier. It’s also not silky smooth like a phone screen. There is a tiny bit of texture that makes it feel closer to paper. It’s subtle but noticeable.

The second thing I noticed was that it was slightly bigger than the special edition colored paperback version of Game of Thrones I was reading at the time. The size being slightly bigger as one of the most comfortable books I’ve ever held in my life did change my perspective on e-readers being a viable replacement. Get a folding case that looks like a book and the fact that you’re holding a Kindle disappears once you get used to it.

E-books don’t take up that much space either. My whole collection is just over 1.5GB. Like 215 books in various formats. That might be nothing to someone who reads a billion books a year, but that’s not me. My Kindle has 16gb of storage. Other models have much more and I feel like I would never fill it. I’m not gonna waste space on my phone for something I’m never gonna use it for.

I’m not tempted to stop reading halfway through a page to check social media when I’m holding my Kindle. I never needed to jailbreak my Kindle to put my own collection of books on it. I don’t know if I’m lucky or if Calibre on Linux is just that good. Get one. Use it to read a short book. If it clicks you won’t go back.

Kobo.

Eink is easier on the eyes, over long reading sessions.

I chose an e-ink ebook reader.

Specifically because I wanted the ability to turn backlighting off, and use a soft warm book light to read by.

And also the fact that it uses an extremely low amount of power is great. I still forget where the charging port is after a year and a half with it because I don’t need to charge it very often, even with the amount of reading I do. The biggest power drain is the lighting.

Plus I like being able to toss my phone away and not have notifications while reading my digital collection.

For me:

Better aspect ratio for large amounts of text. I just can’t imagine reading an entire novel on my phone.

No distractions. No notifications, no other apps I could be using instead.

Related to the previous point - e-readers are for reading. I’m much more likely to read a lot if I can compartmentalise “other stuff” to my phone. Not to mention other features like the ability to look up word meanings and change text size - all stuff in service of e-readers being “for reading”. (There might exist phone apps that can do this sort of thing, but my point is that on an e-reader it’s built-in).

Page-turn buttons instead of a touch screen (depends on the e-reader). This is a minor thing, but it lessens fingerprints, which makes the screen nicer to use.

Right now I am not using my reader. Because switching between text to speech and reading is too convenient right now.
But aside of that a dedicated book only device is way better for focus. Our phones do too many things. They can be distracting.
I will look into the jailbreak because last time I checked it only removed the screen saver…

The difference in cost for a black and white or colour ereader is fairly minimal now, mine was about $30 more than the black and white. I’m using a Kobo Clara Colour. I have installed NickelMenu and KoReader and absolutely love it.

The difference between that and my phone is significant. My phone has to be maximum brightness to be readable outside, but my Kobo is fine. Eink relies on reflected light so bright external lights like the sun don’t make it look bad, they actually make it look better. The size is also a bit more suited to reading, though you are correct that phones are often close to that size now. These are reasons, but they are not the main reason.

It can’t do music or web browsing, nor can it have much in the way of apps and games. It can’t get messages or emails, and notifications are not even supported. Why do I use it? To read. It is for reading while doing nothing else. I can decide that I will now read for an hour and just put my phone somewhere else, maybe on charge, while I do so. I can focus on that one task and smash it out without anything else getting in the way. It is glorious.

I am going to get an MP3 player soon given how great my experience of separating reading has been. Using my phone for everything is great for travel but the cost is the constant intrusions. I have notifications off for most things and that helps, but the availability of everything all the time is just not something I cope well with. I think my phone will continue to be my camera for the most part, and my communication tool as well, but moving music and reading off seems to be a good path.

I prefer reading on an ereader. I find them easier on the eyes, especially in the evening and you can bring them into bright sunlight - they will work even better.

Another topic is: an ereader is for reading. Not checking mail, discord or signal. Not for browsing Lemmy. Not to quickly check up on something. It’s for sitting down, relaxing and reading. That is worth the investment for me.

Also, they keep. I can still use my first gen keyboard kindle after 15+ years.

I since then upgraded to a pocketbook for reading and a onyx air 5c for ttrpg sourcebooks and I could not be happier.

Lack of distraction, easier on the eyes, larger screen, much easier to read if it’s sunny out.

I like to use it as an extra screen for when I’m taking notes on a pdf/ebook on my laptop, so I don’t need to dedicate half my laptop screen to the book. And like I said, it’s a bigger screen than my smartphone.

I like using e-reader because it’s cheap, better on the eyes, the battery lasts forever, and generally screens are bigger than the phone. Also not killing your phone battery showing text is a plus.

I’ve been kicking around a couple of nook simple touch for several years. it’s ancient, android 2.1! It was easy to jailbreak them and add a launcher, and a couple sane ebook readers (though you’ll have to find older versions of apps that will work with eclair). pop stuff on it over usb, and it’s on there. The ones with backlights are getting super rare, but if you don’t care about that you can probably snag one for round $20 places like ebay.

Really can’t beat that, costs more to get a power bank to keep from killing your phone reading things.

Backlit screens are often impossible to read in direct sunlight.

E-paper dominates on the beach or by the pool.

I will answer to some things

• they’re expensive, but they also outlast most modern laptops. A first gen Sony still fulfills its purpose of reading epubs. So in the end it isn’t as expensive. Secondhand it is also a lot cheaper and again, they don’t age that much
• most readers are waterproof
• e-readers have little storage, but a book is a few MB’s. So even with 16gb, you probably never fill it
• color is fun, but I’d recommend steering away if your end goal is reading books. You need to push the backlight way earlier than on a bw ereader. If you do read comics, it looks like an old newspaper in terms of picture quality. The colors are far from accurate, but you only notice this side by side with the actual comic/phone
• I would steer away from kindles. They’re known to just update and kill your setup. There are plenty of devices in which you can play around without this issue. Kobo and pocketbook are in my opinion the most viable options. Long battery life, supports many formats, supports koreader if you want. Boox is also fun, but due to android the battery life is a lot less. With the boox you’re able to run Android apps though, so you could more easily use it like a notepad with your familiar apps