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This is as much a software than a hardware question.

I use a lot of public transport and perhaps the best way to spend your time there is to read while listening to music.

Currently I use Nokia E90 and Adobe Reader LE 2.5 (full version).

I was wondering if there are any better alternatives?

Requirements:

  • at least 640px wide screen, preferably 800px
  • physical size of the LCD display matters, it should be large, but the phone itself should be as small as possible. This favors touchscreen models
  • PDF reader should be of high quality. It should render most PDFs correctly. Other important features include: full screen mode, keyboard controls for Page Down and page change, multiple zoom levels to adjust to the screen, opening recent documents at the last page read

Downsides of E90 + Adobe Reader LE

  • Phone is large compared to the display
  • It is hard to read the display at sunlight
  • Adobe Reader crashes the phone regularly, zoom could have more levels, doesn't remember last page

EDIT: Switched to iPhone and GoodReader. Smaller physical screen width compared to E90 is a disimprovement, but other than that I'm happy. GoodReader is the highest quality smartphone PDF reader I've seen so far.

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closed as not constructive by 8088, soandos, Simon Sheehan, Nifle, Mokubai Dec 3 '11 at 10:41

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3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

I think the iPhone with GoodReader (commercial app 4.99 US$) is the best choice at the moment. You can read PDFs in landscape mode, zoom in and out.

The application accepts password protected files and large files up to several hundred MBs.

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+1 My iPhone changed my whole concept of reading. I now even read full books while on flights or during transits. It has the right size screen and the touch interface makes navigation a breeze. – Diago Aug 18 '09 at 8:40
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How about an Amazon Kindle DX? It's not a phone, but it meets all your other requirements.

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I think the Samsung Omnia, or Omnia II outclasses any Iphone, and Windows mobile based, Lots of goodies for free!

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