I'm thinking of getting my son a device for Christmas. He would like to have a Kindle Fire to read books on. I would rather get him a Surface 2 RT or another Windows Tablet so he can use it for other things such as low end gaming (Minecraft,etc...) and other general use.
With a Kindle, he can check books out of our local library. My questions are: With the Kindle or Nook app for Windows 8 (x86 and ARM), can you check books out of your local library? Do these (or any other) apps provide a good experience for reading books? Should I just get him an "El Cheapo" Kindle for reading books then get him a device to play on?
Does anyone use their Windows Tablet for reading books?
Thanks for your input!
Ben
After look at the kindle/nook/nexus versions of tablets, and dismissing the surface as too big, and too limited I bought:
Hisense Sero 7 Pro, (at walmart, yuck). It's $129, quad core tegra, microsd, bluetooth, gps, wifi b/g/n, NFC, front/rear camera, 720p video recording, great speakers, long lasting battery (we've had two of these for 5 months now), STANDARD MICRO USB CHARGING PORT, and $10 more means it's replaced if shattered.
Low end gaming is nothing. Intensive applications like Google Earth, Body Explorer, and all the websites kids use run flawlessly, without a hiccup.
Kindle apps, Google Books, PDF's, and all the office document types via Polaris Office work great on this device.
Yes, checking out books from -our- local library works, I believe they're in ePub format or something. Audio books are great too.
If you get a splitter for the earphone jack, two kids can easily watch a movie, or read a book on tape (this is GREAT for youngsters just starting to read) on car trips, with no need for worry about battery life.
We tried the surface (too big, too limited), the ipad (too expensive and restricted like the surface), the Galaxy Tab 1, 2 and 3 (non standard charging UGH!), the nook/kindles (slow CPU and no cameras, along with missing nfc etc) and then looked at the Nabi.
The Nabi is a very close second. It's cheap, extremely good specs, and extremely tough. It lacks a standard charging port (i don't remember honestly) or there was some issue with charging vs the usb port, as it needs another connector instead of charging via usb.
If the surface was x86 and smaller, it would have been a good fit. Relying on -one- limited market for apps doesn't cut it, for us.
If the ipad was less restrictive (see surface) and not $500, it would have been in the running.
If the kindle/nook/fire weren't so expensive and missing things like standard usb charging, microsd, ffc/rfc, NFC, etc they would have been fine.
There is a product called "EARL" (no joke on the name) that should be out sometime spring 2014 that will be hardened, e-ink, offline gps, wifi, bluetooth, and a few other things aimed mostly at adventure motorcycling. It should make a -great- kids friendly tablet for READING along with it's real intended purpose: navigation.
If you find another high end + cheap tablet, please post up !