I love my Kobo. Pulling quotes and notes off of it is kind of an ordeal, but thats my only criticism.
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2026
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Idk if this hits all your points but there's Kobo readers and the Barnes&Noble Nook readers. I think Kobo is open for side loading, the Nook as well, but theres a size limit to that on one particular new model. Look it up on r*ddit theres a nook sub
I've read that the kobo app only syncs progress on kobo purchased ebooks. I want to sideload some theory and have my reading progress synced. Is that even possible, or is the ereader scene just a series of walled gardens in 2026?
edit: to clarify I want to sync progress/metadata for sideload epub across multiple devices
No, my kobo tracks epub progress, ive never bought a book on there
do you sync epub reading progress between different devices?
I do not, ive never considered it as an option. That would be cool though. I can try it and see if it works
that's good to know, older forum posts indicated that only kobo purchased books sync progress, so maybe that's been improved recently
Ive been a kobo user for a few years now, had an older one that I broke, then got a new one and it was much nicer. I use it all the time
Damn that sucks, I don't think it used to be that way! It kinda seems like they are walled gardens. People figure out how to hack them but its probably a pain in the ass
Its not true
That's good to know! Do you know of any Kobo readers that I can get that are under $100? I've tried to look on eBay but all of them seem to be newer for several hundred. I may also be tripping but would be nice to know what old model is decent
Wow, those have jumped up in price! Mine is a Clara 2e, my previous one was also a Clara, but I dont remember which particular model. I'm not seeing any on eBay for less than $150 either.
Idk if its something you would wanna take on but getting one of the broken ones off eBay and replacing the screen might be a way to go.
Re walled garden: You can install koreader on top of their firmware and do all your reading there. It's fairly simple to do, no risk of bricking AFAIK and has a ton of great features. I do it on my kobo Clara.
I have a Kobo Clara BW. You can turn on side-load mode to open and track progress on any epubs and pdfs that you happen to have files for. It looks and feels good and has a good battery life
I like my Supernote. The smaller one called Nomad is roughly kindle-size, and the larger Manta is like a Scribe or Remarkable.
- designed to be repairable. You can buy replacement battery, screen, and motherboard. E-waste is a significant problem with kindles and similar devices that are glued together for waterproofing. Downside: Supernotes are not waterproof.
- option to self-host for private cloud backup
- uses the EMR-type stylus that doesn’t require charging
- supports searching handwritten notes
- easily sideload proper reader apps like KOReader
- no front light. This is for better writing feel. In practice I like that it’s old school and forces you to use ambient light, as you would with a physical book
- it is a custom OS built on top of Android, sorry if that’s a deal breaker
Boox are on the pricier side because they're not tied to any storefront, so they make all their money selling the hardware. But it's so nice to have a natively android e reader that has a sturdy build quality and is easy to hold/carry. None other ticked all those boxes for me.
Librera FD, put it on an Android TV
i don't want an android based device
I apologize, theres just really no comparison to the convenience. Might make a good backup reader for edge cases.
I have a Kobo Clara Colour, initially I thought the screen might be too small to read comics on, but it's actually fine. Don't know about stores though, I download everything from Anna's Archive.
Big fan of the kobo too!
I also have a Clara but without colour. Still very happy with it
Are new kindles locked to amazon or something? i have an 11th gen i got used at one point, i havent paid for any books. Only downside is it only reads MOBI files but I use Calibre to convert them when i need to.
you can do pretty much anything with a jailbroken kindle. the process is a little annoying in that when you buy one you need to take steps to prevent it from auto updating. this means filling up storage to leave just enough megabytes to install the jailbreak but not enough for the full update file to auto download when you connect to wifi. you may also have to register the kindle to either a real or fake amazon account you make. afaik its still the cheapest ereader. you can buy the one with ads and disable them
But do you even need to jailbreak them or can you still just read .mobi files on the newer models?
You don't have to, but I really like KOReader over the stock reader. Also to remove ads. Plus I don't have to convert file formats
interesting, i never even looked into jailbreaking it since i just convert the mobi files. but jailbreaking sounds like kind of a hassle. i think i bought the ad free one, which i just got on ebay.
The technology peaked with the sony prs-600
My diptyx just arrived yesterday! I can't speak to battery life but reading through the manual was nice and it feels nice in hand, good build quality
I literally just found that for the first time when I was googling for esp32 readers. Glad to hear it's nice. It certainly looks cool and gives me an idea for my own reader.
How does it feel one handed? That's a 3d printed case, right? Any discomfort from the layer lines?
The only thing I could see leading to discomfort holding in one hand would be the weight. It looks 3D printed, but the majority of the cover is metal plate. The plastic is textured and any edges are smooth.
Neat. Good to know, thanks!
Android has several advantages, for example you can use specialized apps like Mihon if you read comics, einkbro for webnovels, or Pleco if you're studying Chinese. That said if you have no interest in reading manga any device that can run KOReader will do nicely. You probably want something with a 6, 7 inch screen or so and a front light with adjustable color temperature for convenient nighttime reading. Color is unnecessary unless you want to read comics, and it typically results in a slightly darker image compared to black and white e-readers. Personally, I think Kobo is not bad, at least not the last time I used it, but you won't have access to the Kindle store or weixin dushu on Kobo for example. The built-in browser on Kobo is not good so the sideloading workflow is superior to going to sites that have books for download, but you can sideload DRM-free ebooks on a Kobo even without KOReader.
KOReader has a reading progress sync feature btw, I don't think you can do that simply by using the Kobo software.
Or syncing it to Calibre, too.
I'm leaning towards a Pocketbook Verse Pro Color
Are there any ebook readers that don't let you read DRM free books your put on them via USB?