For those who simply desire a approach to learn ebooks, you have already got what you want in your pocket along with your smartphone. However in order for you one thing that’s much less distracting and simpler in your eyes, it’s possible you’ll wish to go together with an ereader as an alternative. Because it stands, the market is at present dominated by two manufacturers. Amazon’s Kindle has captured the most important share by far, however Rakuten Kobo units are a profitable different — in actual fact, the Kobo Clara Colour is our present prime decide. Smaller corporations like Onyx Boox and PocketBook produce Android tablets with e-paper screens that may do extra than simply show books.
Different issues, corresponding to whether or not or not you want a coloration show or the flexibility to write down on the display for note-taking, will decide which ereader to purchase. Elements like library dimension, compatibility with rights-managed content material and extra additionally come into play. Over the previous two years, we’ve examined out greater than a dozen units to create a information that will help you decide the most effective ereader for you — and provide help to get probably the most out of your new gadget when you get it.
Desk of contents
The perfect book readers for 2025
What to search for in an ereader
Loads of apps, together with the Kindle app, will allow you to obtain and skim digital books on a telephone or pill. However what makes book readers completely different is the display: almost all of them use know-how from an organization known as E Ink. It manufactures digital paper shows (EPD) composed of three sheets: one containing thousands and thousands of microcapsules stuffed with black and white ink particles sandwiched between clear electrode layers. When a cost is utilized, both the black or white particles shift to the highest, forming letters and the whitespace round them.
Colour ereaders add a color filter array on prime of the usual black and white microcapsule layer. The result’s two completely different resolutions on one display — the colour readability is 150 dpi whereas black and white photographs and textual content are nonetheless 300 dpi.
As a result of these shows are so completely different from commonplace backlight LED panels, you’ll be able to anticipate most ereaders to do quite a lot of issues effectively. They’ll be simpler to stare at for lengthy intervals of time and simpler to learn in direct daylight. Additionally, since E Ink shows solely require energy to rearrange the ink, these units have for much longer battery lives than even the most effective tablets: we’re speaking weeks on a single cost, not days.
The ereader market isn’t as saturated as, say, the smartphone market, however there are nonetheless loads of choices on the market they usually do have small however vital variations amongst them. They have a tendency to vary from round $100 to greater than $400, although normally the upper finish choices are stylus-enabled learn/write E Ink tablets just like the Kindle Scribe. Past worth, it’s best to think about bodily properties like buttons, lights, storage and backbone, in addition to how the software program permits you to discover and entry books.
Studying options
With any ereader, you’ll navigate the OS by way of faucets and swipes, and a few add bodily page-turn buttons. Most with built-in buttons have an auto-rotating display so you’ll be able to press along with your proper or left hand.
As E Ink know-how has superior, decision has drastically improved – even the price range Kindle ereader has a 300 ppi show. You’ll be able to nonetheless discover fashions with decrease decision, however we don’t suggest them.
Some ereaders have entrance LEDs that help gentle temperature adjustment. Meaning you’ll be able to change to a hotter gentle after the solar goes down, which can really feel simpler on the eyes. For those who’re involved about blue gentle, it’s best to go for a reader with that function. Lastly, darkish mode is obtainable on most later mannequin ereaders, permitting you to invert the black and white textual content and background, which some individuals discover simpler to learn in low-light settings.
Different options
The capabilities of those pocket libraries have advanced significantly because the early days. Along with storing books, some allow you to browse the online, run apps and play music. The display’s body charge can’t deal with gaming, but it surely’s ok to point out you the Wikipedia entry for Striver’s Row when you learn Criminal Manifesto.
For those who hearken to audiobooks, it’s your decision a Bluetooth-enabled ereader able to taking part in them. A lot of the fashions we examined have that capacity, with the notable exception of the Nook ereader we tried. Remember the fact that audiobook information can take up more room than print information so you will in all probability desire a machine with the next storage capability in the event you plan on doing loads of listening.
Above all, it’s best to think about the place and the way you propose to seek out books to learn. Most ereaders make it best to buy by means of their very own digital bookstores, however all of them (even Kindles) will now allow you to obtain titles from different sources, like libraries, unaffiliated book sellers and free public area websites.
Find out how to get books on your ereader
Kindle, Nook and Kobo all have their very own shops that you just entry immediately from every model’s units. Costs are the identical amongst all sellers, too. Publishers set the value of an book, not the retailer, so a title will price the identical at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, eBooks.com and the Kobo retailer.
Amazon provides Kindle Unlimited for $12 per 30 days, and it consists of 4 million titles from which you’ll decide your subsequent learn. It consists of audio and ebooks, however you received’t discover many massive, new releases or older bestsellers. Kobo has a subscription known as Kobo Plus with about 1.3 million titles: it goes for $8 per 30 days for ebooks solely, $8 for audiobooks solely or $10 for each.
Shopping for a e-book from a proprietary retailer immediately delivers it to your machine, offered you’re related to WiFi. It additionally syncs your studying throughout units and apps, so you’ll be able to decide up the place you left off in your telephone in the event you forgot your ereader at dwelling. It actually is probably the most handy approach to go, however in the event you don’t wish to be locked into one model’s retailer, or in the event you go for an ereader with out its personal market, you do have choices.
Find out how to add ePubs onto an ereader
Shops like ebooks.com and Google Play have thousands and thousands of ebooks on the market as digital rights-managed (DRM) ePub information, which Kobo, Nook and PocketBook readers can learn of their native ereader apps. Kindles don’t help DRM ePub information in any respect and Boox units require third occasion studying apps (of which there are a lot of) to learn these information. Titles from Apple Books are solely readable in iOS units.
Titles from some publishers like Tor and public area classics from websites like Project Gutenberg are additionally bought as ePubs, however with out the added DRM. Consequently, Kindles and the Boox Neoreader do help these information. Books you get from third-party sources will look similar to ones you purchased from a proprietary retailer, because of the flowable, formatted nature of ePub information. Whereas these device-agnostic book collections offer you additional choices for locating your subsequent learn, they require just a few extra steps to get the information onto your ereader.
To take action, you’ll sometimes want a pc operating a free program known as Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). After shopping for and downloading the ePub file, open ADE and plug your ereader into your laptop (all readers right here have a USB-C port for charging and information transfers). Your machine ought to pop up within the left panel. Drag and drop the ePub file out of your downloads folder into the principle panel in ADE. The file will show as a picture of the e-book cowl. Drag that picture onto your machine on the left panel. If the file consists of digital rights administration (which protects in opposition to unauthorized copying) you’ll have to authorize your ereader, which requires utilizing or making a free Adobe ID. When you’ve completed including information to add, eject the reader out of your laptop to finish the switch course of.
Kindles use a web-based uploader as an alternative of the ADE methodology. However since Kindle makes use of its personal proprietary DRM know-how as an alternative of Adobe’s, the one information it could actually settle for from third events are non-DRM information, corresponding to from Tor Publishing or Venture Gutenberg. After downloading a suitable ePub file, drag and drop it into your browser with the Send to Kindle web page open. So long as you’re signed into Amazon, this wirelessly transfers the information to your related machine.
Boox additionally makes use of a browser uploader known as BooxDrop (together with many other methods) to ship ePubs to the machine. Open it from the Boox App menu and also you’ll see a device-specific url. Kind that into your browser to entry a file supply portal that uploads to your library. Boox’s built-in ereader app, NeoReader, additionally doesn’t help information with DRM, so that you received’t be capable of learn present titles from most publishers utilizing that app. Thankfully, Boox units run almost each ereader app on the market, Kobo and Kindle included, letting you entry ePubs any variety of methods.
Just lately, Bookshop.org, the web vendor of bodily books that helps indie bookstores, began promoting ebooks and up to 100 percent of the profits will go to native booksellers. The corporate makes use of a distinct rights administration system than ADE so, proper now, you’ll be able to solely learn titles you purchase from them on the Bookshop.org app, however the firm is working with the makers of each Kindle and Kobo to increase compatibility to these ereaders.
Find out how to learn library books on an ereader
Your native library card permits you to borrow audio and ebooks by means of a program known as Overdrive and its companion app Libby. On a Kobo, you could have have built-in entry to Overdrive in a separate tab. When you’ve linked your public library card, the search perform will embody outcomes for titles out there out of your native library system; just a few faucets will add your choices to your machine for the size of the mortgage. I personally discover it best to borrow the title I would like by means of the Libby app on my telephone. After that, the e-book pops up on my Kobo’s dwelling display as soon as the machine syncs.
To learn library books on a Kindle, you’ll be able to both undergo the Libby app or the Overdrive part of your library’s web site. When you click on Borrow, you’ll see the choice to “Learn now with Kindle,” which takes you to Amazon’s website to register. After that, the e-book will probably be delivered to your machine the following time it connects to WiFi.
For different ereaders, you’ll undergo your library’s Overdrive portal and obtain the ePub after clicking the Borrow button. You’ll be able to then use the ADE course of we described above. Gadgets that run exterior apps, like Boox’s Web page, Go Colour 7 or Palma, assist you to learn library books by way of the Libby app, simply as you’d on a smartphone or iPad.
You too can use the Libby app to borrow audiobooks, however you received’t be capable of entry them by means of your ereader. (The exception is an ereader, like a Boox machine, that permits exterior apps). I discovered it was simpler to hearken to an audiobook on my telephone anyway, no matter whether or not I borrowed it by means of Libby or purchased it from Kindle or Kobo.
How we check ereaders
When placing collectively any information, the very first thing we do is spend hours researching the sphere. We have a look at what’s out there, what’s new, and what buyers {and professional} reviewers need to say. Then we slender a listing to the most effective candidates for hands-on testing.
Over the course of the previous two years, I’ve examined simply over a dozen ereaders, representing 5 completely different manufacturers: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Boox and PocketBook. I purchased, borrowed and uploaded books for every machine utilizing the strategies above. I used each for between just a few days to some months. I evaluated each within the areas of e-book entry, ease of studying, additional options and total worth. Right here’s the whole lot we examined up to now:
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Amazon Kindle (2022)
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Amazon Kindle (2024)
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Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021)
Different ereaders we examined
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft
Amazon’s first color Kindle impressed with its fast page-turns and cargo instances, auto-adjusting entrance gentle and, in fact, a decently putting coloration E Ink show. However at $280, it’s costlier than the entire different coloration ereaders in its dimension vary, together with the Kobo Libra Color and the Boox Go Colour 7.
Additionally, some Colorsoft house owners reported seeing a yellow band on the backside of their ereader’s show. This challenge didn’t have an effect on our first overview unit throughout the authentic testing interval, however it will definitely appeared. An Amazon spokesperson instructed Engadget: “A small variety of clients have reported a yellow band alongside the underside of the show. We take the standard of our merchandise severely—clients who discover this could attain out to our customer support workforce for a substitute or refund, and we’re making the suitable changes to make sure that new units won’t expertise this challenge shifting ahead.”
Amazon despatched us a brand new Colorsoft ereader on the finish of 2024 and it does seem that the fixes the corporate made resolved the yellow-band challenge. The display on our second overview unit seems hotter total, however not overly so. It’s extra akin to the display on the Kobo Libra Color, and that’s a great factor.
Ereader FAQs
Which ereaders can learn Kindle books?
Amazon’s Kindle ereaders are the apparent reply, however different units able to operating apps may also learn titles from the Kindle retailer. For instance, you’ll be able to obtain the Kindle app on a Boox ereader by means of Google Play (the shop comes commonplace within the Boox app menu). You’ll be able to then signal into your Kindle account and entry all of the books in your library — the identical method you’d learn Kindle books in your telephone or pill.
Can you purchase Kindle books with no Kindle?
Sure. You should buy Kindle books by means of the Kindle app or by means of Amazon’s web site by way of a browser. You’ll be able to learn these titles on a Kindle or any machine that may run the Kindle app, corresponding to a smartphone, pill or laptop. Simply bear in mind that Kindle titles can solely be learn by means of one in every of Amazon’s ereaders or the Kindle app. The corporate makes use of proprietary digital rights administration on all ebooks it sells that may’t be learn by different ereader apps like Kobo or Adobe ADE.
What is the distinction between Kindle and Kobo?
Each Kindle and Kobo are manufacturers of devoted ereaders that help looking, shopping for, downloading and studying ebooks from their very own shops. Each additionally help borrowing books out of your native library by way of Overdrive and Libby.
The distinction is that Kindle is owned by Amazon and makes use of the Kindle retailer, whereas Kobo is owned by Rakuten and its books come from the Kobo retailer. Each shops come pre-loaded as a tab on their respective ereader and each carry most in-print books. Every retailer additionally carries their very own unique ebooks as effectively, however Amazon’s library of Kindle-only books is far bigger than Kobo’s. Amazon additionally provides Amazon Original tales to learn on the Kindle, that are free quick fiction and nonfiction reads which are free to Prime members.
Which ereader is finest for library books?
Each Kobos and Kindles have easy programs for borrowing library books. Different ereaders, like Boox, allow you to borrow books after downloading the Libby App. Solely Kobo ereaders allow you to seek for and borrow books immediately on the ereader, with a devoted Overdrive tab. Kindles, however, make the most of a handy “learn on Kindle” perform from the Libby app or web site. You’ll be able to ship a borrowed e-book to your Kindle simply by signing into your account. Each strategies are fairly straightforward, so which is the most effective for you in all probability is determined by different elements than simply the library-book function.
Latest updates
March 2025: Added information about Bookshop.org entering into the book market. Up to date details about price-setting by publishers.
January 2025: Up to date the “Others we examined” part to incorporate impressions of the second Kindle Colorsoft overview unit we obtained.
August 2024: Changed our Android pill decide with the brand new Go Colour 7 ereader from Boox. Up to date e-book titles to present examples. Added an FAQ part to elucidate the distinction between Kobo and Kindle ereaders and additional element library-book help on completely different fashions.
November 2024: Following the discharge of Amazon’s new Kindle ereaders, we examined and reviewed the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Version, the base-model Kindle and Amazon’s new coloration ereader, the Kindle Colorsoft. Accordingly, we up to date our price range decide, added a premium decide and famous our expertise with the Colorsoft.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cell/tablets/best-ereader-130013808.html?src=rss
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