For a bit I tried an eink display but the refresh threw me off and I caved and got a refurbished iPad, got the panels app and now I can’t go back.

Get a firetab 10 and a 500gb sd card. Prime day is next week, it’ll be on sale. It’s a less than $100 option and works great. It’s roughly the size of a comic book, and works great for just reading comics.

I use comicrack to organize the comics, and there’s a few workflows out there that people have made to organize and sort the comics. I can sync it all wirelessly from my pc to my tablet, pretty easy process.

If you do go with the furetab, Id recommend looking into the fire toolbox on xda that helps with some functionality

First of all, welcome to Lemmy!

When confronted to that decision, I ended up thinking that I’d want a tablet that had good image quality, and a screen close enough to that of a comic to be able to see a full page comfortably. When I looked (back in 2020), the tablet market was basically divided into 3: Amazon’s Kindles, iPad and Samsung. Amazon’s are pretty low-cost, which is enough to read comics, but the screen is quite low-quality, and reading comics on a screen instead of paper is already a step-down to appreciate the art. And I prefer to avoid Apple, which left me with Samsung as pretty much the only choice. The Tab A series don’t have AMOLED, and the only advantage the Tab S6 had was to use a stylus (which I wouldn’t have bought, or even used if there had been one sold with).

So I ended up buying a Galaxy Tab S5e. 10.5" is really great to be both light and portable while big enough to display a full comic page, and the super AMOLED screen is amazing. It’s been going strong for 3 years now, and I’ve used it daily to browse the web, watch movies or series, and of course mainly to read comics. When that one gives up, I will look for a similar form factor, unless a good, large enough color e-ink tablet comes out by then, in which case that might be what I’ll pick.

As for usage, I transfer everything through FTP and store the comics in the tablet’s storage. Then I use Perfect Viewer to read them. It’s old and hasn’t been updated in a long time, but I haven’t found any other reader as convenient. I’ve read that Tachiyomi is great to read comics and manga, but it requires a specific folder organization to read comics locally, and I’m not willing to give up mine to use a reader.

I use a larger sized (10") Amazon Kindle Fire. It’s really just an inexpensive Android tablet. There’s nothing forcing you to use Amazon’s e-reader software (and whatever Comixology is now).

It’s not a super amazing tablet, mind. They’ve updated it since I got mine as well.

I still like reading manga on the kindle paperwhite, the eink display is much more easy on the eyes and the weight and battery life are far better than any full blown tablet. Calibre can easily transfer/encode the comics to it, so no proprietary software needed.

Hi, this is my first time too, posting anything on Lemmy.

I just made an account last night since Apollo app is going offline. RIP Apollo.

Sooo, this probably isn’t going to answer your question since you’re looking for a colored screen to read comics ……buuuut, if you or anyone else was interested in getting a device to read manga….then I do have a pretty good suggestion. I currently use the Boox Nova Air for reading manga.

Boox Nova Air is e-reader android tablet, so it’s sorta like a kindle but way more powerful than that. It has 7.8" HD E-ink Carta Screen, so it’s not too big, not to small. This device is only in black and white, no color… so perfect for manga. And because it’s an android tablet, I can pretty much download whatever from the google play store app or side load any apks. It came with a stylus so I can write notes on here too or draw.

I currently use the Tachiyomi app to read manga and I love it. I’ve definitely been reading a lot more manga since I purchased this device, last year. I also use pocket and the Firefox browser to catch up on news articles on the web.

There is a new Boox Tab Mini C, which is a ereader android tablet that does support color. So maybe this one could suit your needs for reading comics, if you wanted an ereader experience. It’s also a 7.8in display and comes with a stylus.

I hope this helps your search and anyone else who happens to read this comment.

Happy reading!

I use an iPad mini. The sixth generation one is small and bright. I have Panels from the App Store and have all my comics in OneDrive. I did have a Surface Go so I understand the weight thing a bit. Panels works really well. I’ve had other readers and this one stands out.

Thanks everyone. I still haven’t decided, but at least I know a little better how various designs work and possibly how to get a good one on the cheap. How it helps other people too.