Dolino Shine 4 on test: the perfect reading companion for everyday life

Tolino Shine 4 is a fourth-generation e-book reader developed by the German bookstore chain Talia in collaboration with other booksellers. The development team has updated the model and given some exciting and useful innovations to the device. We tested the easiest e-reader for you.

Conclusion: My verdict on Tolino Shine 4 is good. Compact, simple design, water protection, backlight and large memory are definitely on the “have” side of the model. Surfing the web is not so favorable. If you don't have to wander around the store or transfer files, the new release is a nice, small daily companion for bookworms.

• Buy Tolino Shine 4 from Talia [AT/DE]

It's on Tolino Shine 4

Its predecessor, the Tolino Shine 3, has been available in stores since 2018, and the Shine 4 is now available from October 2022. Among other things, the Shine 4 can now be used for long baths and reading sessions in the bathtub. New IPx8 water protection protects the e-reader from accidental immersion in bath water. The e-book reader has a high-resolution 6-inch e-ink display that is comfortable to read in bright sunlight. Although the e-reader market has been moving towards larger displays in recent years, the Tolino Shine has stayed true to its display size. The resolution is 1448 × 1072 pixels. Unfortunately, there is no brightness sensor for automatic control.

Apart from the e-ink display, Tolino Shine 4 scores with its integrated lighting. It provides a comfortable reading experience even in poor lighting conditions. The weight of the Tolino Shine 4 also contributes to a pleasant reading experience – only 172 grams, it is light in the hand and comfortable to hold even for long novels. Battery life is around 13 to 16 hours of reading time (depending on brightness), which isn't exceptional compared to the competition, but that's okay.

Night mode is also practical as it sets the background to black while reading and provides a sort of “dark mode”.

Versatile shapes and compatibility

The e-reader gets another plus point with its wide range of e-book formats. Among them, EPUB, PDF and TXT help users read their favorite books in different formats. In addition, access to the Tolino platform provides a large number of digital books from various booksellers, making e-book collection easy. Another highlight Scoop-Buchflatrate, which allows users to browse over 400,000 titles. These are easy to borrow – 12.99 euros per month. Unfortunately, there were some issues syncing and downloading books from Scooby during testing.

With a double storage capacity of 16 GB, the Tolino Shine 4 offers enough space for even more books in your personal library, which corresponds to around 12,000 e-books. Additionally, the Shine 4 uses a modern USB-C port. Despite these upgrades, the device retains the proven features of its predecessor, including an eye-friendly Smartlight. The color temperature of this feature adjusts from cool to warm throughout the day.

The scope of delivery includes not only the Tolino device, but also a small operating manual and a charging cable with USB-A and USB-C ports. This allows the device's 1,500 mAh battery to be fully charged in 2-3 hours. After the first start, you set up an account or log in to an existing account and connect the device to your home Wi-Fi. It helps sync existing books by account and install firmware updates.

Faster, except when browsing

With its new quad-core processor clocked at 1.8 GHz and 1 GB of RAM, the Tolino promises “20 percent faster response times compared to its predecessor.” If you turn the page, you won't notice any difference. However, the quad-core processor won't help much if you want to surf the web with the Shine 4. For example, to bring an e-reader version of a newspaper to a device or connect to a public library service. This process takes an annoyingly long time and is not recommended, especially for those with short patience.

The price of Tolino Shine 4 is 139 euros. At Thalia you can have the e-book reader delivered to your home for free or collect it at the nearest branch.

• Buy Tolino Shine 4 from Thalia [AT/DE]

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