Researching New Tablets, Suggestions?

I think I got my first ereader, a Kindle, somewhere in 2012. I had all kinds of issues with it and had the first one replaced by Amazon. When the second started having the same issues less than a year later and long after the warranty expired, I began coveting Hubby’s amazing Nexus 7 because it was so much more versatile. We did some poking around and found it was probably the best option at the time (I’m only guessing that the time frame was in 2014).

Initially, I was really skeptical about how I felt about ebooks as I was a hardcore, have to have it in my hands, gotta own it, book reader at the time. My Nexus changed my mind completely and I’ve loved it to pieces ever since. The last couple of years, the poor thing has just been limping along, though. Whatever app I’m using (usually Kindle) will lock up and I have to close out my app, clear the cache, do a force stop on the app and restart to get it working again. Most times, I have to go through this process several times before it actually starts working again. I’m often even forced to restart the device a time or two before whatever is causing the glitch to clear up. Over the course of a few hours of reading, I will have to go through this process at least a couple of times, and more recently and frequently, more than a dozen.

I have removed every single thing from it except my reading apps. I have done all kinds of things (update/upgrades, uninstalled and reinstalled software, factory reset) and nothing has helped. I ended up stealing Hubby’s from him (he never actually used his) hoping maybe it was just something wrong with mine. His was perfectly fine after a factory reset until I got everything set up and started reading when his started doing the exact same things mine was before I transferred.

In technology terms, my little Nexus is probably the equivalent of a crotchety 90 year old with a walker and chronic constipation. It has a very similar attitude in that it will only go when it wants to and nothing is going to push it even a millisecond faster than it wants to go.

I’m now faced with the daunting task of researching a replacement. I kind of hate it because my Nexus technically works. It turns on. The apps do run, just not well, but it is becoming nearly impossible to actually use. Every time it throws a fit and locks up, I wonder if this is going to be the time I can’t get it back up again.

I’m not a fan of proprietary devices such as the Fires or the Apple products. What I am seeing with the little bit of research I’ve done is that outside of those, your choices are extremely limited because people are either using their phones or their laptops. I still love the smaller size (my Nexus is only a 7in display) and being able to carry it around with me or to walk around while I’m reading, but you have even fewer choices in those smaller sizes. My phone screen is too far on the small end of the size scale, so that isn’t much of an option.

It doesn’t help that I’m experiencing extreme creative envy over the kids’ new Chromebooks this year as they have the most amazing drawing stylus included and the keyboard folds flat so it can act like a tablet. I did look, but these are just WAY too big for what I will mostly use it for. I already have a laptop, so I don’t want or need anything like that.

I love the Samsung products, but I’m not really 100% happy with any of my choices there. There is one that I’m drooling over, but it is bigger than I want and so much more than I want to spend on what I will mostly use just to read. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. I need to do something because my poor Nexus has come way to close to growing wings and learning to fly through the window one too many times lately.

If you read on a device, what do you use? Do you use it for more than just reading? What do you like or not like about it? Definitely looking for input if for no other reason than to try and convince myself I really don’t need that overly extravagant tablet to read my books on. Even if it does have the super nifty pen thingy.