One of the biggest improvement isn’t event the e-ink screen, it’s the fact that erraders can be much lighter than most phones, my old 6 inch kindle is so light that I can comfortable hold it for hours where as my phone becomes tiring after like 20 mins, that alone makes it worth it. And beyond that you get the weeks of battery life, so if you are serious about reading it’s definitely better than using your phone or a tablet

I have a Supernote Manta that I use for note taking mostly, but it also is a great ebook reader. No light on it at all, the optimized for look and feel of writing on paper really well so the tradeoff is worth it.

Recently I use it mostly for taking notes from music instruction and stuff like which synth patches to use for certain songs, or which settings to use to recreate sounds on a synth where no close-enough patch exists

It’s nice to have a focused device that doesn’t distract me nearly much as my smartphone

The phone has a great deal more distractions on it than the e-reader does. The brain has a much harder time focusing on a task in a distracting environment (in this case, device choice). If I want to read, I use the e-reader since it’s got better proportions than the phone, it has a much easier to read screen than the phone, it’s definitely sturdier than the phone, its screen won’t get streaky from finger oils like the phone’s does, and best of all it lacks all the distractions that come with a phone. When one wants to read a book, one usually prefers to immerse themselves into it, and not to be popped out constantly by notifications of any sort. It’s an activity that should require an hour or two, which means it’s pretty bad for doing on the phone, whose battery will not last. Since the phone is important for other tasks, one prefers not to be caught out without power to use.

E ink displays are damn good in natural lighting. I’ve used them outdoors to read maps. Also larger screens are easier to read.

The smartphone represents the death of ergonomics.

A featureless and unremarkable slab of plastic, aluminum and glass. If one is to think that form follows function, then the function of an object should be obvious from analyzing its form. The smartphone defeats itself, its shape says nothing of what it does. Is it for taking pictures? is it for writing? is it for reading? is it for communication? When every answer is yes, then what is it good for? It’s not particularly good at any of those, it is just good enough. The most basic of the common denominator, an abstract rectangle, a basic black mirror of nothingness.

Ergonomics are about shaping an object so perfectly to its function and to human biomechanics that its use becomes spontaneous when the object is used and it doesn’t hurt or harms the user. “The maximum of comfort, security and efficiency.” The smartphone is not any of those, for any of the things it does. It is awkward to hold for a call, it is strenuous to read or even watch media in, it is uncomfortable to hold to take pictures with, touch control are inefficient for gaming or typing.

There’s one thing the smartphone is though, it is small and it is portable. That’s it.

When you experience the functions of dedicated devices, the shortcomings of the smartphone show up even more evidently. Holding even a hobbyist camera, reading on an e-ink screen, playing games with an actual controller (or mouse and keyboard), writing even on a basic mechanical keyboard. A smartphone will never compete on that level of tactility and comfort.

The smartphone is the death of ergonomics.

1. Easy to read in sunlight
2. No eyestrain
3. No distractions
4. Long battery life, and you preserve the battery of your phone
5. Doesn’t get warm in your hand like a smartphone

This is why I only use ereaders with true eInk screen (no LCD) and without Android

Plenty of reasons.

An e-reader is essentially what a book was 20 years ago, except it’s an entire library.

Using it doesn’t deplete your phone’s battery, and a good e-reader can stay powered for a week or more with constant usage. Your phone, given all the background services etc., would die within 8-10 hours.

Then there’s the display. Better aspect ratio for reading, better approach for readability (eink), better optimised for reading (cold-warm frontlight), the list goes on.

I will pick up my phone to look at the time, use it for 15 minutes, put it down and still not know what the time is. With ebook readers this is not the case

Backlit screens are often impossible to read in direct sunlight.

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

Yeah idk you can get a working e reader that is over 10 years old for 15€ so they aren’t that expensive.

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.

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.

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 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.

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