If you like taking your books on the go, you’ve never had more options. The best ereaders are slim, have batteries that last for weeks, have multiple screen sizes and types to suit you, and come at different price points. Let’s look at five of the best, based on your nominations.
Title photo by Hajime Nakano. Kindle Paperwhite photo by Tatsuo Yamashita. Kobo Aura HD photo by . Tablet reading picture from Shutterstock.
Kindle Paperwhite
Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite is Amazon’s most popular Kindle model. It’s a simple 6″ e-ink tablet with a built-in backlight, a battery that lasts for weeks on end, and enough capacity to hold thousands of books. It comes in Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/3G versions (costing $159 and $224 respectively). It’s light, easy to use one-handed, syncs wirelessly with your Amazon account, and allows you to track your reading place and your book collection on multiple devices. The e-ink display is great in bright sunlight and for subtle bedside reading. It’s also wafer thin with a depth of just 9.1mm and a weight of just over 200 grams.
Kindle Touch
It’s the cheapest model which Amazon offers ($99 for the Wi-Fi model), but the Kindle Touch is still a solid ereader with excellent battery life and a decent screen display. Like other Kindles, you still get all of the software features that make Kindles popular, including one-tap dictionary definitions and Wikipedia entries, synced book catalogues and reading places, and the ability to take notes and make annotations.
Kobo Glo HD
The Kobo Glo Hd is Kobo’s new flagship model, and won’t actually ship until May 1, at a price of $179.99. It’s a Wi-Fi powered 6″ e-ink ereader which offers a high-resolution display but doesn’t drain battery power. It sports Kobo’s customisation-heavy software, which will give you lots of font and display choices, as well as an adjustable light. It also offers the Kobo Welcome concierge service, which provides information on getting your reader set up.
Kobo Aura
While the Kobo Aura HD has been replaced with the Glo, the basic Kobo Aura model remains available for $159.95. The Aura packs a 6″ screen with a long-lasting battery, and a similarly portable-yet-premium design. Kobo’s software is worth commending as well, with its adaptive home screen that shows you modules and options based on the things you do with the tablet. If you read magazines, for example, it will bump your magazines to the front.
Your Existing Tablet Or Smartphone
Most major online book retailers offer apps for Android, iOS and other smartphone platforms, so you don’t necessarily need to invest in a separate ereader. A tablet offers plenty of screen real estate and is a great option if you want colour for comics or magazines, and a large-screen “phablet” is also a solid choice. The main downside? You won’t get the same battery life, and the high-contrast displays will play havoc with your sleep patterns if you read before going to bed.
Comments
4 responses to “Five Best Ebook Readers”
Hmm, not too many details here, for example, I bought the original KoboGlo, however I ended up giving it to my partner and getting the Kindle Paperwhite because the dimmest setting on the Glo was still too bright and hurt my eyes in a dark room (which is where I do most of my reading, before bed). Basically the Kindle had more options for brightness than the Glo did. So it would be nice to know how these ebooks compare and what the pros and cons are instead of just basic info that you could get off a website. Maybe some information about supported formats as well?
Comment removed.
If you’re going to avoid Kindles because of Amazon’s customer service and tax situation, then you might as well turn to self-sufficiency because every company has skeletons in its closet. It’s 2015; if you’re looking for perfection, you’re not going to find it.
Those are a lot of very pointless reasons.
Anyone know which device would be best to work with a Calibre Library. I have quite a library of DRM-free books from way back when and whilst I can access it on my Phone, it’d be nice to sync to an eReader without having to connect it to a PC and manually sync them across