Privacy on ebook eink reader

I’m looking for an e-book reader that does not require logging in to an account to use it, and its updates can be made without connecting it to a Wi-Fi network (It will never be connected to internet)
Size 6-7 inches, 300 dpi, with night illumination.
It would be good if it was on Android because then I could read comics.

Anyone have experience on this topic?
What would you recommend?

Pine64 has one that is all open source but its not consumer ready :frowning:

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PineNote as @exaCORE said above is a bit hacky at the moment to quote the store page:

NOTICE: The PineNote is an experimental device. PineNote software is still in it’s infancy and therefore it is ONLY suitable for experienced developers. At present time, there is no default OS for the PineNote.

with that said, you can see it here and maybe think about if it fits your needs:

I’d like to comment that the underlying board has been out a long time (RockPro64) and you should be able to put a GUI on it (but dont quote me on that). The problem lies in that with a monochrome screen, you may have significant difficulty navigating menus and GUI.


On a separate note, I think I’ve seen colored e-ink displays now but nothing privacy respecting at the moment.

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Though they don’t run Android, Kindles are very polished devices that don’t require an internet connection to load books (Calibre is great) or even update (you can manually update.) I run this setup myself, and though there is a small nag to “register your Kindle to view and download items from the Cloud” every time you go to the library screen, there’s nothing whilst reading, though the Wikipedia and translation features are unavailable, and you must load a dictionary onto it yourself to access the definition feature. The used market is pretty great for these too if you don’t feel like giving Amazon money directly. I can’t speak other e-readers personally as I have not used them, but I’ve heard good things about Kobo, and one particular advantage they have over Kindles is not requiring conversion of EPUB files into one of the few proprietary Kindle formats (though this is relatively simple to do with Calibre).

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I considered Boox several times, but wouldn’t put anything sensitive on it, and it surely will come with some bloatware, but it does not require you to use an account. Happy to see other suggestions here. Never thought to ask it here but this is a really good topic!

I did some research, did some reading, and my choice was the BOOX Poke5.

Here’s why.
It has a size of 6-7 inches, 300 dpi, night illumination, Android system and no activation required before the first launch.

What about google services and other ‘stock’ android downsides?

I am very happy with Koreader. It’s a FOSS alternative UI for consumer devices like Kobos and others. I can only personally confirm it works on Kobos. Their documentation says old Kindles are supported, but Amazon tries to make it impossible to jailbreak them.

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Another vote for KOReader on a Kobo. I really enjoy my Libra 2 and owned a Paperwhite previously.

I tried a Kobo Clara, but found it to be far slower and to have worse functionality than my early Kindle Paperwhite (no dictionary lookup for side-loaded books is bad for the privacy crowd) AND hoops to jump through for setup. I took a chance on the latest Kindle Paperwhite and was pleasantly surprised: If you get the version with the wireless charging, there are no ads, to begin with, so you don’t need to register it to remove them. It’ll frequently nag you to register, of course, but I don’t remember needing to do anything online to complete the setup, unlike the Clara.

I currently have a Kindle so maybe I will actually check if there is a JB for my version and try KOReader.
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions!

Just wanted to toss https://inkbox.ddns.net/ out there. It’s a secure, mature, and open source OS replacement for certain Kobo and Kindle eReader models. I’ve been thinking of picking up a used eReader solely because of this project. Would normally stick to buying used physical books if I didn’t have this as an option.

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