[mackandproud]

It just occurred to me, why carry around a couple of books that weigh several pounds, when I could carry around hundreds or thousands of books on an apple device at the same or much lower weight?

So, I am now on the market for either an ipad or iphone. I could get one or the other, but not both because of my budget.

With the iphone, I guess you could set up kindle and read that way.

On ipad, you could get just about any book as a pdf file and read that way.

Is the iphone a legitimate book reading device or is the screen too small?

Should I get ipad or ipad2 instead?

[Spheric Harlot]

You get iBooks on the iPhone, as well.

I doubt that the much crisper screen on iPhone makes up for the lack of size.

[ghporter]

Comparing a 3Gs to an iPad, if you're going to read on it, get the iPad. You can read books on the phone, but you'll be turning pages a LOT, and even with the iPhone 4's extra crisp display, it's still pretty small for any extended reading.

[aepple]

why would anyone want to read/view something on a 3-4 inch screen... when they can viewing/read something on a 10 inch screen. If reading is your priority, then a large screen device would be a better experience.

[-Q-]

While text does look awesome on an iPhone 4, the larger screen size of the iPad makes it a no-brainer for use as an e-reader.

It'll also be more expensive to have an iPhone in the long run, as well.

[imitchellg5]

It's pretty painful IMHO to read a book for more than 10 minutes on a screen any smaller than 4.3". You just can't make good progress.

[mackandproud]

It's a consensus then.

I've been a traditionalist as far as books are concerned, but reading a book recently on pdf, a rather big, and heavy on in print, was quite nice. Very convenient.

Will do more research on ipad, and ipad2.

[Moderator]

I can tell you from my experience that the current iPad's resolutions is inadequate for reading. The type is visibly blurry and it's just not pleasant. On the other hand the iPhone 4 display is as good as it gets...it's so good in fact that the iPad display will seem even worse if you have both. It was actually difficult for me to use my iPad after having been spoiled with the retina display.

Of course the 2nd rev of the iPad will probably not get the retina display but my bet it is it will be close enough to make reading a pleasure. If your interest is reading and you would like to do that on an iPad I would strongly encourage you to wait for V2.

[imitchellg5]

Oh come on, visibly blurry? If you're holding it at a proper distance you shouldn't be able to distinguish the font textures at a reasonable size.

[subego]

I have 20/20 vision*, and can see all kinds of aliasing artifacts on the iPad. Hell, I can see some aliasing artifacts on the iPhone 4.

I'm with everyone though that despite the clearer display on the iPhone 4, reading for any length of time is vastly better on the iPad.


*20/20 isn't really that great.

[niceemily]

if only for reading books, i prefer iPad, for it is more comfortable for reading

[Mike Pither]

I have now read a few books on my iPad and have found no problems, I don't notice any difference to reading a paper book now. I have been very pleasantly surprised

[driven]

I read lots of books on the iPad. No problem. Trying to read on an iPhone however is beyond painful. In fact, I'd rather have a Ceti eel invade my cerebral cortex rather than read a book on an iPhone.