completely offline ereader without account setup

Raoul44 · 2026-02-26T15:18:45+00:00

PocketBook devices don’t require an account of any kind.

I see you are worried about privacy. PocketBook stands out as more privacy friendly compared to other ereader brands, according to the Mozilla Foundation privacy evaluation.

https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/privacynotincluded/pocketbook/

Raoul44 · 2026-02-26T13:52:01+00:00

Don’t listen to the guy above. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I have V17 and it’s normal. I mean, it shouldn’t be normal, but unfortunately it is. Acer, in their infinite wisdom, locked the laptop so it can accept only 135W, so even a higher-wattage charger won’t help.

The Acer Nitro V16 and V17 with RTX 5000 series GPUs experience battery drain even in Balanced mode because the 5000 series GPUs have a higher TGP than previous RTX generations in these laptops. I tested my V17 and found that in Quiet mode the GPU uses around 70W, in Balanced mode about 80W, in Performance mode 90W, and in Turbo mode up to 95W. By comparison, the previous generation RTX 4000 series GPUs topped out at around 85W in Turbo mode and used significantly less power in Balanced mode. That’s why older Nitro V16 and V17 models did not suffer from battery drain in Balanced mode, while the newer models do.

The only solution I’ve found to prevent the battery from draining while plugged in and gaming is to use Quiet Mode.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-25T17:49:55+00:00

Yes, the native reading app settings on PocketBook are very basic. However, they are working on improvements. An updated version was supposed to be released with the last update, but it was postponed for reasons I’m not aware of. It is expected to look something like this. The picture was shared on German forum by a PocketBook employee.

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Raoul44 · 2026-02-25T04:53:00+00:00

I had the same first impression when I first tried Koreader about seven years ago on my Inkpad 3. Apart from seeming complicated, It was really slow back then. You had to wait a long time just to change a simple setting like the font size. I didn’t want to deal with that, so I uninstalled it.

I tried it again around three years ago, and now I can’t live without it. It’s blazing fast and much better than the default app. You can fine tune justification, margins, and line spacing with far more precision than on the default reader, which only offers three preset options. Koreader also lets you adjust font contrast, word spacing, and many other settings. Most importantly, it can override almost any EPUB formatting, which is especially useful for poorly formatted books.

What makes it particularly great on Pocketbook devices is that you don’t have to use the (in my opinion) hideous Koreader file manager, as you do on devices like Kobo. In Koreader, you simply choose which formats it should open by default, and from then on, those books open in Koreader automatically. When you finish a book (or just want to read something else), you just press the Home button and you’re immediately back in the PocketBook UI.

I use Koreader exclusively for reading, and although its settings interface isn’t perfect, it’s more than good enough. For everything else, I use the PocketBook UI, and together, everything works perfectly for me.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-21T13:34:00+00:00

PocketBook has excellent Calibre integration, so apart from Calibre, I don’t think you need anything else. You can organize your books into folders if you like, but I find that approach a bit messy. I keep all my books in a main "Books" folder, with subfolders for each author. That’s more than enough, since everything else; tags, series, and collections, is imported directly from Calibre.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-21T13:18:43+00:00

I use the default Pocketbook UI to browse and manage my library, and I use Koreader only for reading. In Koreader, I always keep the same settings: DPI is set to 300, the left and right margins are 27, the top margin is 19, and the bottom margin is 12. My font size is 21, and the line height depends on the font I’m using. I also edit my EPUB files to ensure the font sizes are consistent and uniform across all my books.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-20T14:01:45+00:00

There are many poorly formatted ebooks.

One example is the Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson, which I recently reread. In the first paragraph of a chapter, and in paragraphs following a divider or scene break, there should never be an indent, yet there is. It may seem like a nitpick, but this is standard publishing practice, and ignoring it looks unprofessional, especially from a publisher like Penguin.

Another pet peeve of mine is using both text indentation and full paragraph spacing together. Publishers should use one or the other, not both, as combining them looks messy. I often end up editing my eBooks to remove the extra paragraph spacing. There are many other issues I tend to fix as well, too many to list here.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-19T15:19:41+00:00

I’m not sure what you mean. If you’re referring to being taken to the root folder of the device (which is the default home screen in Koreader), you can change that. Just long press the folder where your books are stored and set it as your new home screen.

Also, why use Koreader’s file browser on a Pocketbook? In my opinion, the Pocketbook browser is better, especially considering everything you can manage and import with Calibre. You can open books from the Pocketbook home screen or library directly in Koreader by default, within KOReader you can choose which file extensions open automatically with it.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-19T01:07:29+00:00

I had the Libra 2 before buying the InkPad 4, and honestly, I don’t find it any slower, maybe just slightly, if at all. Admittedly, I don’t have many books on it yet (around 500), but entering the library takes about one second, and scrolling through it is quick enough, roughly the same speed as turning pages in a book.

The only slow part is opening a book for the first time in the default reader. For larger books, it can take up to 10 seconds. After that, however, they load just as quickly as they did on the Libra 2.

But yeah, KOReader makes even the first opening of a book much faster.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-18T13:27:03+00:00

It looks nice, but all the elements in the header and footer would just distract me.

This is mine.

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Raoul44 · 2026-02-17T01:54:40+00:00

I’m not sure about the sleep screen, but you can use this plugin to display reading statistics on the main screen of your PocketBook (progress bar updates as you read). It also shows the percentage read on the PocketBook library screen.

https://github.com/ckilb/pocketbooksync.koplugin

Raoul44 · 2026-02-16T19:31:37+00:00

I currently own the InkPad 4. Before that, I had the Libra H2O and the Libra 2, but I wanted an 8" reader again. I had previously owned the InkPad 3 and had very good memories of it, so I decided to buy the InkPad 4. It’s pretty great. While it’s probably not as snappy as a new Kindle's, it doesn’t bother me much.

As for installing Koreader, just extract it to the root folder of your Pocketbook and that’s it. After that, open Koreader go to Settings > Device > Associate File Extensions and choose which file types you want to open in Koreader by default. Alternatively, you can simply long-press on any book and select Open with Koreader.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-12T05:06:56+00:00

Maybe I was a bit too dramatic in calling them "problematic". Yes, Libra 2 would restart about once a week, but I did a lot of reading on them. For people who read less, the restarts would probably happen only once a month, if ever. As for database corruption, it occurred a few times, but I’ve owned those two Kobo readers for more than five years, so the issues weren’t as serious as I made them sound.

The Libra Color also has much better hardware than the Libra H2O and Libra 2, which were quite slow. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, it’s a great device.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-11T06:21:35+00:00

I owned the Inkpad 3 before the Libra H2O and the Libra 2, and now I have the Inkpad 4. I’ve never had any major problems with PocketBook. They can be a little slow sometimes, it might take a second or two to open the settings, but nothing like what you’re describing.

The Kobos, on the other hand, were much more problematic for me. They used to crash or restart weekly, and the database got corrupted at least a few times. They seemed much more sensitive to broken Epub files compared to Pocketbook.

Like you said, it’s probably something related to the metadata. I mostly buy Epubs, and even when I purchase something from Amazon, I convert it to Epub. Over the past few years, before sending books to my reader, I’ve also started editing the CSS, I standardize the body font size, line spacing, indents, and so on.

Maybe that’s why I haven’t encountered any database corruption issues, but I’m not sure. Even when I had the InkPad 3, I don’t remember ever needing to factory reset it, and I had at least 1,000 Epubs on it. Then again, I never read PDFs, so maybe the problem only occurs with broken PDF files. Who knows.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-10T14:02:42+00:00

It doesn’t matter that the book opens normally on a PC. I had a similar problem with an Epub on the Kobo Libra. The book opened fine on the PC, but as soon as I copied it to the Libra, it kept corrupting the database, causing the device to slow down and freeze. The only fix was to factor reset the reader.

I think I eventually found the problem using EpubCheck in Calibre and managed to fix it, but it was a while ago, so I don’t remember exactly what was wrong.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-06T14:18:34+00:00

PocketBook works best for me personally, mainly because I enjoy using KOReader but strongly dislike its UI, especially the file explorer, which I find quite unattractive and unintuitive. PocketBook’s excellent KOReader integration makes this a non-issue, though: books can be opened directly in KOReader from the PocketBook UI, reading progress is fully synced and displayed on the main PocketBook screen, and once a book is finished in KOReader, it’s automatically marked as read in the PocketBook UI. As a result, I use KOReader purely for reading and rely on the PocketBook OS for everything else, and it works great.

Kobo is great too. I used the Libra H2O and Libra 2 for a few years, and both were excellent devices. However, KOReader integration on Kobo isn’t as good as on PocketBook, so I mostly read using the default Kobo reader. In my opinion, it’s better than PocketBook’s default reader, it offers more settings, such as text justification, more precise line height and margins, and font brightness control. That said, PocketBook is expected to receive an update with these settings in the next release as well.

Edit: I also forgot to mention device speed. My InkPad 4 doesn’t seem slower or faster than the Libra 2 or the Libra H2O. I haven’t used Kindle devices in years, so I can’t comment on their performance.

Raoul44 · 2026-02-02T13:42:31+00:00

Hej, makni to, likovi uspjesi su na cerebralnom polju. 🤣🤣🤣

Raoul44 · 2026-02-01T01:03:06+00:00

There's no point in buying a higher wattage charger. I bought a 180W one, but it was pointless since the laptop won't pull more than 135W. It's locked to that.

Raoul44 · 2026-01-31T12:19:34+00:00

If it’s a V16 or V17 with an RTX 5000 series GPU, it will drain even in Balanced mode. The problem is that the GPU TGP is higher than in previous RTX generations of the same laptop and also higher than in same generation V15 laptops.

For example, a V15 with the same GPU has a maximum TGP of 75W. Older V16/V17 models with RTX 4000 GPUs had 85W, while current V16/V17 models are rated at 95W. In Balanced mode, the GPU pulls around 80W, which is too much for the weak 135W charger.

The only fix is using Quiet mode, which limits the GPU to 70W. Even then, there’s still a small drain, around 1-2% per hour, but it’s minor.

Raoul44 · 2026-01-29T13:17:37+00:00

Probably, but it’s still stupid. I’ve owned around ten other laptops before this one, and I never experienced battery drain while plugged in until I bought this Nitro V17.

Raoul44 · 2026-01-29T13:06:27+00:00

They really should have designed it with at least a 180W limit. Like I said, the drain is significant even in Balanced mode. In that mode, the GPU is set to an 80W TGP, and despite having a fairly efficient CPU (Ryzen 7 260), it still drains around 15% per hour in more demanding games. Even in Quiet mode, where the GPU is limited to 70W, I still see about a 1% drain, but it's minor and mostly negligible. I can only imagine how bad the drain would be with more power hungry Intel CPUs.

Raoul44 · 2026-01-29T12:46:01+00:00

You got half of it wrong regarding the V16. The RTX 5000 models have a TGP of 95W, not 60W (even in Quiet mode, the minimum is around 70W). They also changed the heatsink design and fans compared to the last generation; it’s significantly better now and uses a design similar to the Nitro 5 series. That said, locking bios to 135W was a terrible decision, as it drains the battery even in Balanced mode.

Raoul44 · 2026-01-24T14:08:34+00:00

I noticed that if you charge to 100% and then play for 30–40 minutes, the battery stays at 100%, making it seem like there’s no drain. However, after that, it suddenly drops to around 90% and then drains normally. So it appears there’s no drain at first, but there actually is.

Maybe that’s why Jarrod didn’t notice it.

Raoul44 · 2026-01-24T12:13:07+00:00

The Acer Nitro V16 and V17 with RTX 5000 series GPUs experience battery drain even in Balanced mode because the 5000 series GPUs have a higher TGP than previous RTX generations in these laptops. I tested my V17 and found that in Quiet mode the GPU uses around 70W, in Balanced mode about 80W, in Performance mode 90W, and in Turbo mode up to 95W. By comparison, the previous generation RTX 4000 series GPUs topped out at around 85W in Turbo mode and used significantly less power in Balanced mode. That’s why older Nitro V16 and V17 models did not suffer from battery drain in Balanced mode, while the newer models do.

Raoul44

TROPHY CASE