iPad As Someone Who Never Owned an iPad, Should I Buy One Just for Digital Comics?

[nathansz]

I feel like comics, magazines, recipes etc are the perfect use case for an ipad

It’s never felt like enough for me to justify buying one, but maybe for you it is

 

[sracer]

Ok so I am about to buy an iPad. Should I go for the $229 9th gen or $349 10th gen? I watched YT videos saying the difference isn't much. But with my iPhone 15PM's USB-C, would be cool to just have one wire with the iPad. But then again, it is not really something that would bother me... just a bit of a hassle I can live with.

I am more worried about the future proofing of the 9th.

Ah... you said the magic word/phrase... future-proofing.

That isn't a real thing, but if that is your concern then get the 10th gen. The 9th gen still has a long life ahead of it... the battery will wear out before it stops running the apps you use, but I will never convince anyone to get a 9th gen if they are considering any other model.

 

[Pepperfection]

Ah... you said the magic word/phrase... future-proofing.

That isn't a real thing, but if that is your concern then get the 10th gen. The 9th gen still has a long life ahead of it... the battery will wear out before it stops running the apps you use, but I will never convince anyone to get a 9th gen if they are considering any other model.

Oh ok. I just want it to be supported as long as possible(security updates etc) cuz I don't think I will be upgrading iPads as much as I do my iPhones like I said. But good to know.

Anyway, thanks all.

What is the general consensus here for screen protectors and cases on iPads? Many do on iPhones, so the same? Or many just go nude? No experience with iPads, so not sure how easy they scratch, etc.

 

[DeepSix]

They double up as a great coffee coaster too.

 

[*~Kim~*]

If future proofing is a concern, I would suggest a Apple Refurbished Air 5. Double the RAM of the 10th Gen, a Pro level processor and the largest screen you can get without paying Pro prices.

The risk with a 9th Gen would be lack of compatibility with USB-C storage solutions and that you decide that you’d like to use the iPad for more than comics. The 9th Gen will struggle earlier with more advanced tasks.

 

[thecautioners]

Oh ok. I just want it to be supported as long as possible(security updates etc) cuz I don't think I will be upgrading iPads as much as I do my iPhones like I said. But good to know.

Anyway, thanks all.

What is the general consensus here for screen protectors and cases on iPads? Many do on iPhones, so the same? Or many just go nude? No experience with iPads, so not sure how easy they scratch, etc.

I have a generic paperlike protector (Benks, $8 on Amazon). I love the feel of it and it’ll protect against micro scratches which is what I mainly want to do, but it also feels good to the touch and when doing art with the Apple Pencil 2.

 

[darngooddesign]

Ok so I am about to buy an iPad. Should I go for the $229 9th gen or $349 10th gen? I watched YT videos saying the difference isn't much. But with my iPhone 15PM's USB-C, would be cool to just have one wire with the iPad. But then again, it is not really something that would bother me... just a bit of a hassle I can live with.

I am more worried about the future proofing of the 9th.

The iPad 10 has a larger screen, 1GB more RAM (4 vs 3), and USB-C when compared to the iPad 9. Of course a refurbished iPad Air 4 will give you a better screen than the iPad 10 and a refurbished iPad Air 5 will give you that better screen and 8GB RAM.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I would say yes. You are already in the Apple ecosystem so getting an iPad will give you additional ecosystem benefits over the android tablet you already have. The entry level ipad is better than any cheaper android tablet you will buy and the display will be better for reading comics.

To be honest it doesn’t matter if you pick up the 9th gen or 10th gen ipad because you will get a great experience with either and they will both be supported for years to come.

 

[adib]

The iPad 10 has a larger screen, 1GB more RAM (4 vs 3), and USB-C when compared to the iPad 9. Of course a refurbished iPad Air 4 will give you a better screen than the iPad 10 and a refurbished iPad Air 5 will give you that better screen and 8GB RAM.

As long as they're Apple Refurbished. 3rd party refurbishers are "iffy".

 

[Chuckeee]

Well I’ll commit the ultimate sin here:

If it’s a comic reader is your primary use case you should get a 10” Fire tablet. Inexpensive, good 1080p display, good battery life, SD card expansion. The problem is the processor is real slow (but good enough for comic reader) and you’ll have load the files manually (using an android tool on your Mac) and the cameras are awful. And it’s inexpensive (did I mention that?) Amazon has refurbished 10” Fire tablets for $68.

 

[sracer]

Well I’ll commit the ultimate sin here:

If it’s a comic reader is your primary use case you should get a 10” Fire tablet. Inexpensive, good 1080p display, good battery life, SD card expansion. The problem is the processor is real slow (but good enough for comic reader) and you’ll have load the files manually (using an android tool on your Mac) and the cameras are awful. And it’s inexpensive (did I mention that?) Amazon has refurbished 10” Fire tablets for $68.

The ultimate sin you committed is not in recommending a Fire tablet (I have a few threads here on MR dedicated to the Fire tablet line), but recommending it for general comic ereading. 😛 😂

Amazon's Fire app store lacks quality general comic reader apps. That means finding the app as a standalone APK or installing Google Services and picking one of the apps from the Google Play store. Some of the Play store apps require the presence of Google Services so one can't just install Google Services, install an app, and then remove Google Services.

There is only one (very narrow) comic reading use case where I would recommend a Fire tablet... Comics limited to what is available via Comixology. In that scenario, I agree with everything that you've said. 👍

 

[floral]

Tablets have way more uses than a comic book reader... but the budget iPad sounds like it would be a good fit for one, honestly

 

[rui no onna]

Amazon's Fire app store lacks quality general comic reader apps. That means finding the app as a standalone APK or installing Google Services and picking one of the apps from the Google Play store. Some of the Play store apps require the presence of Google Services so one can't just install Google Services, install an app, and then remove Google Services.

For DRM-free comics, Perfect Viewer has worked fine for me. That's what I used on the Nexus 7 and Asus Transformer. It's available on the Amazon Appstore. Not sure if that's the same as the Amazon Fire app store.

 

[sracer]

For DRM-free comics, Perfect Viewer has worked fine for me. That's what I used on the Nexus 7 and Asus Transformer. It's available on the Amazon Appstore. Not sure if that's the same as the Amazon Fire app store.

Yes, the Amazon Appstore is what I referred to as the "Amazon Fire app store"... totally "senior" moment on my part. 😂

Yes, Perfect Viewer works and when I was using older Android tablets and stock Fire tablets I was happy that an option was available. But not all DRM-free comics come in cbz/cbr format. There are many that are in PDF format. (the official Star Trek compilation of comics is one example that I own) Perfect Viewer doesn't support that format which prevents having all of my comics presented in one app.

But I am open to the possibility that I've been spoiled by PocketBook on iOS and Android. It has unified all of my ebooks, comics, vintage catalogs, magazines into a single library.

 

[Chuckeee]

The ultimate sin you committed is not in recommending a Fire tablet (I have a few threads here on MR dedicated to the Fire tablet line), but recommending it for general comic ereading. 😛 😂

Amazon's Fire app store lacks quality general comic reader apps. That means finding the app as a standalone APK or installing Google Services and picking one of the apps from the Google Play store. Some of the Play store apps require the presence of Google Services so one can't just install Google Services, install an app, and then remove Google Services.

There is only one (very narrow) comic reading use case where I would recommend a Fire tablet... Comics limited to what is available via Comixology. In that scenario, I agree with everything that you've said. 👍

I’ve just been using Calibre to convert CRZ and CBR comics to MOBI, and the transfer and view the MOBI using the Fire Tablet Kindle reader

 

[rui no onna]

Yes, the Amazon Appstore is what I referred to as the "Amazon Fire app store"... totally "senior" moment on my part. 😂

Yes, Perfect Viewer works and when I was using older Android tablets and stock Fire tablets I was happy that an option was available. But not all DRM-free comics come in cbz/cbr format. There are many that are in PDF format. (the official Star Trek compilation of comics is one example that I own) Perfect Viewer doesn't support that format which prevents having all of my comics presented in one app.

There's a PDF plugin available for Perfect Viewer.

Perfect Viewer PDF Plugin

This is a Perfect Viewer plugin which supports PDF files. To use this plugin you must install Perfect Viewer ver 1.7+ first. *Attention! please make sure Perfect Viewer is not running before install the plugin. Or you can reboot your device after install the plugin. This plugin is license under...

www.amazon.com

But I am open to the possibility that I've been spoiled by PocketBook on iOS and Android. It has unified all of my ebooks, comics, vintage catalogs, magazines into a single library.

Meanwhile, I prefer to keep my comic and ebook libraries separate.

I use Calibre to keep my ebooks organized.

For comics and manga however, I tend to manage those manually via folders.

 

[sracer]

I’ve just been using Calibre to convert CRZ and CBR comics to MOBI, and the transfer and view the MOBI using the Fire Tablet Kindle reader

Glad to hear that process works for you. And that is good a solution if one already has a Fire tablet, but as I mentioned previously, if someone doesn't already have a Fire, I wouldn't recommend that they go out and buy one specifically for that purpose.

 

[rui no onna]

Glad to hear that process works for you. And that is good a solution if one already has a Fire tablet, but as I mentioned previously, if someone doesn't already have a Fire, I wouldn't recommend that they go out and buy one specifically for that purpose.

Considering you can get a Fire tablet for under $50 on sale, I think it's fine for comic reading if one doesn't want to spend a lot.

You can buy a lot of comics with the $200 savings over an iPad 9th gen.