PocketBook InkPad Color 3 E Ink E-Reader 32GB - Enhanced 7.8'' Color E-Paper Display-Eye-Friendly Audio-Book & E-Book Reader-Text-to-Speech-SMARTlight, Bluetooth, Built-in Speaker-Waterproof

I've been testing a number of the Kaleido 3 e-ink screens to find the best one for both ebooks and comics, and thus far this PocketBook InkPad Color 3 is by far the best. While it's software is far more limiting than something like the Boox Note Air3 C (the Boox uses a customized version of Android, with full access to the Google Play Store; whereas the PocketBook uses a stripped down Linux OS that is more equivalent to the OS on a Kindle or Kobo ereader), it excels in what is designed for - reading!The biggest thing that sets it apart from other Kaleido 3 is the quality of the screen. I'm honestly not sure what PocketBook is doing differently than competitors, but the screen is both sharper and more vibrant. When reading a book, or anything black and white, the background is much closer to the neutral white of the latest Carta 1200 e-ink screens. Other Kaleido 3 screens have a grayish background, which reduces overall contrast and makes it harder to read without the use of the front light. Colors are also a far bit more vibrant and true to life (though nowhere near that of a traditional LCD or OLED display - understandably).My biggest complaint is the screen size. I find the 7.8" size a bit awkward, being a bit too big for ebooks and not big enough for comics. I would love a larger 10+" screen which would be great for comics, but still useable for ebooks. As it is, comics look good on the 7.8" screen, but can definitely be hard to read without some panning and zooming (which is not great on an e-ink screen, any e-ink screen).

A wonderful e-reader. Two-tone lighting - warm and cool. Not super bright, which I like. The speed is not fast, but to me, it is definitely faster than my old worn-out 10-year-old e-reader, and that's perfectly adequate for reading books rather than constantly scrolling through the internet.

Just rght!

Before I bought this I was reading the reviews and it seems to me that about half of them were by people who didnt read the product description (ironic on an e-reader) or do any research for this multi-hundred dollar device.So let's talk about some of the reasons people took stars off of this product:"It's not on Android"Correct, it doesn't say anywhere that it is. Check out Boox if that's what's important to you"It only has 32GB of storage"You knew that before buying this, right? Right?? Also most ebooks are around 1-10mb. You could easily fit 100 ebooks and 10 audiobooks and a nice collection of comics and not run out of room. If you can consume ALL of that without ever connecting to wifi a single time in between I'd be shocked. Seriously, just put your backlog on a cloud service of your choice and grab new books when you need them. You don't need 800 hours of books in your pocket at all times. Chances are if you can't find Internet you also can't find a charger, anyway."It doesn't have an SD card slot"It doesn't say anywhere that it does. Instead, you get waterproofing. And as I mentioned before, an internet connection gives you virtually limitless storage. Think of it that you only have 32GB of offline storage."It only has 1GB of RAM!"You're reading books, not playing games. Also this is another easily found fact before you make the purchase and not a reason to remove stars. This could be a valid reason to decide not to buy the product, but you don't get to complain after the fact that you got the thing you purchased."You can't use Kindle on this"Yes and no. First, of course Amazon isn't going to make it easy for you to leave their ecosystem. If you want easy Kindle access, buy a Kindle. That's like being upset your Android didn't boot up iOS when you turned it on. Second, you can download the Kindle software on your computer, download your ebooks. Transfer them to your Pocketbook, and then log into Adobe Digital Editions to authenticate and allow you to read your Kindle books on your Pocketbook. Google it for a more in depth guide"There are books in other languages installed on it!"Oh no! How dare you be subjected to other cultures!!! Ugh... Just plug it into your computer and delete all of the folders named after languages that aren't ones you speak. Problem solved"The screen is too small for comics"Find yourself a tape measure before you spend this much money on a product. The dimensions didn't change after you bought it. A comic book would have an equivalent "screen size" of about 12.2 inches. This is 7.8."Page turns require swiping, not tapping"Incorrect, at least on mine. You can also change gesture behavior in the settings if for some reason yours doesn't do this."Should have a better CPU"It is technically an upgrade from the previous model. Also, for reading, this doesn't effect anything"Only 2GB of free cloud storage"There's plenty of other free cloud storage choices. You can log into any of them from the built in web browser and download your files there. Bookmark the folder in the browser to make it even easier to access your stuffAlright so what's MY actual review? Well this is really long already so I'm just going to spill out random bits of info and opinions: yeah, I'd agree that the menus can be a little laggy. This CAN be annoying for the first 10-15 minutes you're setting the device up. But ultimately you're here to read books, not navigate menus for 30 minutes, right? When you're reading books pages load very quickly. Probably faster than you could turn a physical page. There's no ghosting issues, and the front light is very even. I experienced no eye strain after reading for several hours straight. The battery is still above 75% after reading 500+ pages with the light at about 50% brightness. The color is muted, but that will be the case with every single current generation color e-reader. From reviews on YouTube (Chalid Raqami, I'd recommend his videos if you're debating between a few models), this one is actually best in class for color reproduction. I personally find the screen a great size for books. The screen is clear unless you look really closely, then you'll see the texture of the color layer. This will be true for every single Keleido screen (current industry standard) because that's how the tech works, there's no getting around it. The back plastic feels a bit cheap but it doesn't effect my experience at all. The buttons are easy to locate without looking and in the dark. You can remap the buttons and change the gesture settings to your liking. Menus are easy to navigate despite being a little laggy. The device is lightweight and can fit into a large pocket (sorry to the unfortunate souls who wear women's pants) or a bag easily. Would recommend the screen cover if you plan on doing this though to keep it safe.I personally manage my ebooks with Calibre. I set up a local server and can pull my books right from my computer to my device from the Pocketbook browser when I'm at home. I also have Google Drive syncing my Calibre library folder to the cloud so I can access all of my books anywhere I can connect to the internet. I personally chose the Pocketbook over all the competition because it has the best and biggest screen for the pricepoint - which is ultimately what you're interacting with 99% of the time for an e-reader. If the price doesn't scare you away, then I think it's worth what you pay for it. If you want something a little cheaper and smaller, Kobo and Boox seems to be the top competitors outside of Kindle. Hope this review was helpful!

Dear pocketbook team, it’s 2025 outside and your e-readers are continuing having 1gb ram, seriously? Is it really hard to get rid of ghosting in 2025? Better cpu for the same price? greed will destroy you

I was very excited for this to arrive - I wanted a nice e-reader to read Comics on. I admit, that I assumed it was running Android like many other e-readers and when I started to set it up and couldnt find the Google Play store, I looked it up and found it that it runs a modified Linux, not Android. This means you cant install any reader like Marvel Unlimited.Aside from this, its is SO SLOW - you click on a button and can count to 2 or 3 before anything happens. It makes it a challenge to navigate the system - once you know how slow it is, you can get used to waiting, but its really bad. My 3 year old Onyx is 100x faster than this.It may work well for what you want to read - but if you want to use Android reading apps, this is not the e-reader for you.

Works as described. Easy to setup and use, the screen is very nice to the eye. Love that I can now read thru my big collection of comics!

Perfect e-reader. Color is meh, but what do you expect from an e-reader, temper your expectations. Books like nice, manga looks nice. It's also in on linux