Member Avatar for shmay

I want a portable reader with which I can read pdfs. That's all. I am a poor college student, so price is a huge factor. Help! Thanks in advance.

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asked for a very low-cost way to read PDFs on the go. Thread replies suggested a range of approaches (handheld gaming devices, smartphones/touch devices, cheap laptops/netbooks and refurbished machines). The right choice depends less on brand and more on three things: what the PDFs look like, how big a screen is needed, and how much conversion/formatting is acceptable.

Text-heavy PDFs (single-column articles, plain lecture notes) work well on small devices if the files are converted or reflowed. Scanned pages, slides, or anything with figures and two-column layouts need a larger display (7"+ is a practical minimum for comfortable reading). E-ink readers win on battery life and long-session comfort but often handle complex PDFs poorly; tablets and netbooks handle arbitrary PDFs best but trade battery and weight for true WYSIWYG fidelity. ’s handheld idea is workable for short, simple files; ’s note about glitches is a good caution. and point out the value of multi-use devices (old phones, tablets, lightweight laptops) for a student budget.

Practical, immediately useful steps:

  • Test a representative PDF on any candidate device before buying or accept that some files will need preprocessing.
  • Reduce file size and crop margins for small screens; convert text PDFs to ePub for reflow when appropriate (Calibre is a common, free tool).
  • Quick Ghostscript compress example:
    gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=out.pdf in.pdf

For a tight budget, a second‑hand smartphone or an older, refurbished tablet gives the best balance of price and versatility. For heavy, diagram-rich PDFs, prioritize a larger screen or a cheap netbook/refurbished tablet rather than a tiny dedicated reader.

Recommended Answers

All 9 Replies

Member Avatar for dcc

Hope helps.

Member Avatar for shmay

Yeah, I looked over that before, but it was too broad. Yahoo Answers suggests the , which is only 22 bucks on amazon! But who knows if that can be trusted?

What do you guys think? I posted here so that I could compare all three pages and select the optimal product.

Member Avatar for shmay

Well I'm an idiot. That's only a recharger. Now you know how much help I need.

Member Avatar for shmay

Damn, what happened to the Warriors?

Member Avatar for OcheSpyKee

I read my ebooks on my psp. It's simple and easy to use. I can read anywhere I want and whenever I have time.

Member Avatar for TeejMonster

I would not drop any serious scratch on a dedicated PDF viewer. Instead, why not get a cheap first generation iPod Touch (~120 bucks on CL), or a netbook (~200 if you wait for a deal)? Both options let you do something beyond just read PDFs.

Member Avatar for ploo

Just get a cheap old windows 98 laptop off ebay, and install a small linux distro, or strip down '98, and install a lightwieght pdf reader viewer software. I myself use both this and my hacked psp to read pdf's.

Member Avatar for Noyman

IPAD with GoodReader app. That is the best portable PDF reader combo. I've tried all the other ebook readers and they're all crap.

Member Avatar for PaulDest

PSP glitches a lot when used as a .pdf reader. I would just suggest to use a cheap android phone. Touchscreen+not bad cpu - will be just what you are looking for.

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