Reading PDF - Cheap 10" vs Higher Cost 8" ?

[smjpl]

I am looking for a tablet for the sole purpose of reading PDF books. Don't care about games or extra features/cameras etc. Obviously I don't want to spend a hundreds of euros to be able to read PDFs (€100 is ideal budget).

 

As many of you know, 7 inch is just way to small for reading PDFs. Especially if they are PDF books where figures and what can have small fonts. The thing needs to be powerful enough to open and scroll through 200 page PDFs without any real trouble (lag). Don't particularly want to zoom loads and have to scroll around every page.

 

So anyone with personal experience with many tablets know what my options are? Is the 8" too small? Do I need to go for a 10" and if so, how cheap can I go? Are unknown brands a definite no go (even though PDFs performance is all I need)?

 

I have been basing my choices off Amazon UK but they look fairly limited. Majority of decent brands (Asus, HTC, Samsung, LG) are way too expensive. The only thing that isn't absurd is the Asus Transformer Pad TF103C at €165. Don't really want to spend this much tbh. Another decent alternative include a Lenova A8-50 8" tablet at around €105.

 

Am I mental to consider an unknown brand that puts a 9"/10" tablet closer to the €110 mark? Will even PDFs be too much for them to handle?  (I am pretty sure I already know the answer to this question)

 

Here is an example of the type (format) of PDFs that I am hoping to read:

http://index-of.es/Programming/Introduction.to.Java.Programming.8th.Edition.pdf

[N4dez]

what about an ereader, they are very pleasant to read, much better batterylife and around 100 bucks
But they are just black and white screens.

[smjpl]

what about an ereader, they are very pleasant to read, much better batterylife and around 100 bucks

But they are just black and white screens.

 

They don't work properly for PDFs that include pictures and what not. Basically they are really good at books that are meant for the Kindle but they suck at almost everything else. They require far too much zooming and panning around. You need an LCD pannel for what I want (hence the example of the PDF in post)

[d3sl91]

Pick one up in the store. Imagine holding it with one hand for an hour. 

 

My 8" Ipad Mini - I've read a few books on it, and enjoy it fine. 

 

My 11" Asus Transformer (Old Old Android tablet) Isn't much heavier, but, nope, would never read off that, too big. 

 

My 10" Asus t100 Windows convertable, I would, because it has a keyboard dock. However, not holding with one had. 1. too heavy, 2. To big. 

 

Now, Lenovo's tablets are a different story. Depending on the model, they have their units with all the junk on one side, which may make it easy to hold with one hand. 

 

Also, cheap tablets, are fine. They just, 1. wont last forever, and 2. Will usually be thicker/heavier and not have the most pristine screen. 

[Thorium19]

I read PDFs on my iPad mini fairly often and besides a small bit of lag, it runs fine, although if you got an iPad mini 2 or 3 then I'd take a guess there'd be less lag if any, due to the improved internals. Personally I think that 8" is fine for reading PDFs unless you're holding/placing it away from you, in which case a 10/11" would be a better bet.

[smjpl]

I am half tempted to go for http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/lenovo/a-series/a8/#tab-tech_specs. It uses a MTK 8121 processor which may be a bit laggy but should hopefully be okay. What do people think?

 

I read PDFs on my iPad mini fairly often and besides a small bit of lag, it runs fine, although if you got an iPad mini 2 or 3 then I'd take a guess there'd be less lag if any, due to the improved internals. Personally I think that 8" is fine for reading PDFs unless you're holding/placing it away from you, in which case a 10/11" would be a better bet.

 

Glad to hear 8" isn't that bad.

 

New Ipad Mini on Amazon is £175 which is roughly €220. It's a bit out of my budget?