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Ask HN: Best medium for reading papers

11 points by extasia ↗ HN
I'm starting my doctoral programme this week and will be reading a lot of papers. I usually read on my phone but this is not great.

What works for others, aside from the obvious "just print it lul".

14 comments

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elkos
I use a pretty cheap refurbed 10' Android tablet I got. But I would love to have a big e-ink tablet for further work.
gattilorenz
The Remarkable has been a game changer for me (also in academia).

It has no distractions (no mail, messaging, internet, notifications), I can edit stuff with a decently comfortable pen, and it syncs over wifi so I have my notes always with me on my phone if needed. Also the screen is large enough that I read A4 PDFs without zoom or reflow.

I used to print everything and take notes with a fountain pen, now I very rarely do - which is a pity, because I still love my fountain pens.

verdverm
Do you pay for the subscription? Can you move files without it?

The idea that I need to pay $3 per month perpetually to use it has kept me from buying

perrygeo
not OP but I've got a Remarkable 2 and don't use the subscription. There's a USB connection that starts a web server which you access the web UI at a set IP address. A little clunky but manageable.
verdverm
I ended up ordering a Supernote after considering each company's ethos and reading a number of reviews.
gattilorenz
I don't, as I bought one (second hand) before they introduced it, and got the hopefully-for-life subscription included.

Should they change their word on it, I'll be using GDrive to sync, since it's running Linux it is easy to do that anyway. In any case, you can move files via USB only.

__rito__
For me, an android tablet (Nokia T20) works the best. Owned a cheap Lenovo tablet (~$50) before this.

I have tried printing. But I tend to lose and forget to take stuff. Keeping all papers (and also books) in one place works the best.

It has a large screen. I write with a cheap "stylus".

As per apps, I use "PDF and DJVU Reader", the pro version of Ebookdroid.

I have Mega Sync set up on it and it syncs everything with my work laptop.

I once used a friend's Remarkable. The touch between pen and screen wasn’t smooth enough and gave me an extremely uncomfortable feeling of chalk-screech. I am very sensitive about it, and I use fountain pens on real paper.

Oh, and congratulations on starting your PhD.

nicbou
An iPad Air.

Yes, a Remarkable is nice, but something you can trivially send files to is nicer. The iPad lets you annotate PDFs with different apps and pick what works for your needs. It's not a one trick pony.

Notability is also an incredible note-taking app.

stonecharioteer
I bought a Samsung Galalxy Tab S7 Plus in 2020. I've been using that for reading anything technical. PDFs look great on it. I considered buying a Boox, and while I like it, I can not see the sanity of paying so much for it. ROI, I guess, IMO, the S7+ got me my last 2 jobs. It's paid more than 50x what it's worth so far. I'll get the S9 Ultra or whatever when its out if this device begins to lag. Until then, I am very satisfied.
hath995
I recently purchased a BOOX device, it is a large e-ink tabled which runs android. I have google drive sync a specific folder and it works seamlessly to read and markup pdfs, epub, djvu. The screen is excellent for reading and writing. I bought one of the 10 inch devices but they have full 13 inch models that are a bit more expensive.
leros
I can't effectively read a screen. When I was in grad school, I got a laser printer and printed out nearly a ream of paper a week.