I think I’ve seen this asked before on Lemmy but I can’t find it now.

I prefer to get physical books when I can, but I have so many gaming PDFs that I’ve gotten as bonuses from Kickstarters, humble bundles, etc I feel I might as well read them. It’s just the experience of reading them has never been ideal for me. They’re often too big and annoying to read on my phone, so there’s a lot of zooming in and scrolling. I could use a full laptop, but then they’re harder to hold while cuddling on the couch under a blanket or while in bed, like I would a book.

Is there any particular device people prefer for this? I’m guessing a large screened tablet but not too expensive (doesn’t need too many bells and whistles since it’s for a fairly simple purpose) but should be quick and responsive when loading full color pdfs or turning their pages.

  • eerongal@ttrpg.network
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    1 day ago

    How expensive is “too expensive”? I have a boox note 3 and read TTRPGs all the time on it. Their color eink screens are really good. You can get the go series for 200~250-ish

    https://shop.boox.com/products/go7

    I can post a picture later today (busy atm) of my boox with a color PDF if you want to see how it looks

  • INeedMana@piefed.zip
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    1 day ago

    I use Librera it has option to cut pages in half (left-right), bookmarks, auto-scroll, change of colors, define app to use for translation of marked text, etc. IMO best reader there is

  • smeg@feddit.uk
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    1 day ago

    In my experience reading PDFs is a really light requirement so you can do it on otherwise ancient hardware. I’ve got an old nexus 9 which is painfully slow for web browsing or games, but I use it for the exact situation you need, reading TTRPG books.

    Save some ewaste by digging out an old tablet or picking up one for a few quid on eBay!

  • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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    1 day ago

    I bought an iPad Pro 12.9 inch (IIRC) back in like 2018 or 2019. If you can get an old second-hand iPad I’d highly recommend it. It’s fast enough to be really smooth even on very large heavy PDFs, and it’s nearly A4 size, so the reading experience is excellent.

    But bought new it’s insanely expensive. I really wish companies would separate screen size from power. Not everyone who wants a big screen also wants the highest of high-end stuff, damn it!

  • Ziggurat@jlai.lu
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    2 days ago

    Honestly nowadays, even with fancy pdf, my 200€ Xiami does it. It’not 2015, even simple tabs have a lot of ram

  • Ross Winn@ttrpg.network
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    2 days ago

    My amazing iPad does this well. You can get a 10th generation starting about US$250. ALSO, look out for November deals.

      • nocturne@ttrpg.network
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        7 hours ago

        I use an iPad Pro 10" mostly for my ttrpg PDF reading. I also have an Apple Pencil and I use an app to take notes, write the campaign, manage my character sheet. The pro is overkill for this, and if I was getting an iPad for I would go with a normal iPad, which has an 11" screen on the current model starting at $349 USD for the current model.

        If I did not already have an iPad, I would get one of those color eink readers talked about elsewhere in the thread.