# Can e-readers generally do email? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2024, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437 "2024-07-18T21:16:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/1 "2024-07-18T21:16:08Z")
I reading a fiction book in which one of the characters uses an e-reader to send and receive e-mails. Is this generally possible? Say for a Kindle, although the novel doesn’t specify. My e-reader, a Kobo, certainly can’t. It can connect to the internet but only to buy or download books. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/2 "2024-07-18T21:41:07Z")
The Kindle (some models at least) has a (slow, clunky) web browser, so presumably one could access web-based email. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/3 "2024-07-18T21:45:11Z")
Some e-readers have full tablet capabilities under the hood. The first generations of Kindle Fires were, as were many former and current Barnes & Noble Nook devices. For the Amazon products, they separated the Kindle e-reader line from the Fire tablet line a few years ago, but at first they were one device family. As tablets, they came with pre-installed email clients. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/4 "2024-07-18T21:49:40Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Some e-readers have full tablet capabilities under the hood. The first generations of Kindle Fires were, as were many former and current Barnes & Noble Nook devices. Yep. I had a Nook Color (which was stolen when I was seen using it while lounging at a waterpark; I assume the thief thought I had an iPad or something). It had apps for stuff, and I could almost certainly have set it up to do email. People used to actually root them to turn them into inexpensive Android-based tablets. My Kindle Paperwhite has, I believe, what they term an “experimental browser”. I expect I could set that up to log into my email account - but as noted, it’s very slow, and I’ve never been tempted to do so. So: plausible? yes. Common? No. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/5 "2024-07-18T21:51:14Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Some e-readers have full tablet capabilities under the hood. The first generations of Kindle Fires were The Fires were always tablets, though, as you note, the early models were called "Kindle Fire"s. I would only use the term “e-reader” for an e-ink device as opposed to a tablet, but it’s possible that @Hari_Seldon’s book didn’t make that distinction. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/6 "2024-07-18T21:53:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I would only use the term “e-reader” for an e-ink device You might, _now_. Ten years ago, e-reader marketing made no such distinction. And googling around, I see that there are actually a few freakishly rare devices which are e-ink Android tablets. How would you characterize that? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/7 "2024-07-18T21:57:06Z")
They are, naturally, being marketed as “paper tablets”: > **[Home](https://remarkable.com/)** > > Replace your notebooks and printed documents with the only tablet that feels like paper. That’s some form of Linux, at least (but does the underlying operating system matter for what it is called??) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/8 "2024-07-18T22:02:32Z")
This one is a 6.3" e-ink reader which happens to run Android underneath. > **[The Boox Palma Is a Nearly Perfect Phone-sized E-reader](https://lifehacker.com/tech/boox-palma-e-reader-review)** > > A review of the Boox Palma e-reader, an Android-based e-ink tablet that can download apps, play videos, and handle your email passably well—but which excels at serving up your e-books, and can handle books from Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Overdrive,... The distinction between “tablet” and “e-reader” is completely artificial. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/9 "2024-07-19T08:03:29Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > [Boox Palma Review: A Nearly Perfect Phone-sized E-reader | Lifehacker](https://lifehacker.com/tech/boox-palma-e-reader-review) > > The distinction between “tablet I wouldn’t say they’re all that rare, but maybe I’ve just been exposed to a lot of reviews of the newer devices coming out. The E-ink market appears to be broadly divided into three categories: - Just an E-reader (tablet form factor for reading books and maybe a few other text based activities like typing notes) - E-reader with writing/drawing capability - as above, but with a stylus for handwriting, sketching, etc. - E-ink tablet - a fully-fledged android tablet with an E-ink screen, with apps installable via Google Play (or sometimes some other storefront) - the E-reader and note taking capabilities being provided as distinct reinstalled apps. (it’s likely that some of the devices in the first two categories are actually some implementation of Android, but just very stripped-down so as to make the device an appliance rather than a computer.) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/10 "2024-07-19T08:12:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > The Kindle (some models at least) has a (slow, clunky) web browser, so presumably one could access web-based email. I can confirm this. There was a time when my only mobile devices were a dumbphone and a Kindle, and I was definitely able to get into my email using the Kindle’s browser. It was, as you said, slow and clunky. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-e-readers-generally-do-email/1004437/11 "2024-07-19T14:46:11Z")
I just tested the “experimental browser” on my Kindle Oasis. Went to two of my email providers web pages. One didn’t load at all. The other gave me a login page but failed on the password page saying I didn’t have JavaScript enabled. Per the browser settings JavaScript _is_ enabled. (One of a handful of settings that are accessible. Far too few. E.g., setting the home page to blank. It opened with crap from the Daily Fail.) Back in the day (early 2010s), I rooted and installed CyanogenMod on my Nook Simple Touch and Nook Color. I played with using Opera on the Simple Touch. “slow and clunky” is putting it mildly. Underpowered and e-ink, you know. The main thing was I was able to install apps like OpenSudoku which worked fine. I also installed FBReader which I much preferred to the default reader.