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If my own experience is any indication, this will cause for more eyestrain problems than people realise. My eyes have recovered somewhat only because I made a s

If my own experience is any indication, this will cause for more eyestrain problems than people realise. My eyes have recovered somewhat only because I made a serious effort to avoid nonessential uses of my smartphone, particularly idle reading. I feel much more physiologically comfortable reading on my Paperwhite or 10" tablet. Size is the primary factor, but so is light, contrast and resolution. And yes, my vision is properly corrected and prescription current. I didn't expect to end up with long-range glasses, computer glasses (a weaker version of the long-range prescription) AND prescription sunglasses at age 29, but so it goes.

rizzin 11y ago
That's what I thought immediately while reading the article. Frequent reading on a smartphone must be really horrible for the long-term eye health. Especially on smartphone, not a tablet. And as far as I know that is actually the reason for the existance of e-books: the e-ink technology makes reading on them similar to reading a book regarding the eyestrain. So if you read in a well lit environment, you should be okay. And I am not sure you can say that about a smartphone screen. I have had a Kindle Paperwhite for several years and have been really pleased by my reading experience so far. The only negative for me is that it is sometimes kinda slow in drawing pages (especially during interface navigation), I don't know whether it is caused by slow firmware, hardware or it is just because of the e-ink technology that causes the interface rendering to be slow; this makes me feel that the device is unresponsive sometimes.
- sliverstorm 11y ago
  It's limitations of the e-ink technology. Ever notice certain page turns are slower? They do a "fast refresh" 5 times, and then on the 6th page turn they do a "full refresh" of the screen to blank the slate and remove any ghosting left from the previous 5 times. Well, I think they have to do the "full refresh" when you're navigating menus. It's been getting better with each generation of Kindle.
icebraining 11y ago
I use a 7" tablet, but I up the font size quite a lot. There's no need to squint when you have a fully dynamic screen that can reflow text. The problem are the damn static scans of older books. Having to scroll sideways doesn't make for a fun experience.

rizzin 11y ago

That's what I thought immediately while reading the article. Frequent reading on a smartphone must be really horrible for the long-term eye health. Especially on smartphone, not a tablet. And as far as I know that is actually the reason for the existance of e-books: the e-ink technology makes reading on them similar to reading a book regarding the eyestrain. So if you read in a well lit environment, you should be okay. And I am not sure you can say that about a smartphone screen. I have had a Kindle Paperwhite for several years and have been really pleased by my reading experience so far. The only negative for me is that it is sometimes kinda slow in drawing pages (especially during interface navigation), I don't know whether it is caused by slow firmware, hardware or it is just because of the e-ink technology that causes the interface rendering to be slow; this makes me feel that the device is unresponsive sometimes.

sliverstorm 11y ago
It's limitations of the e-ink technology. Ever notice certain page turns are slower? They do a "fast refresh" 5 times, and then on the 6th page turn they do a "full refresh" of the screen to blank the slate and remove any ghosting left from the previous 5 times. Well, I think they have to do the "full refresh" when you're navigating menus. It's been getting better with each generation of Kindle.

icebraining 11y ago

I use a 7" tablet, but I up the font size quite a lot. There's no need to squint when you have a fully dynamic screen that can reflow text. The problem are the damn static scans of older books. Having to scroll sideways doesn't make for a fun experience.