In case you simply need a technique 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 need to go along with an ereader as an alternative. Because it stands, the market is at the moment dominated by two manufacturers. Amazon’s Kindle has captured the most important share by far, however Rakuten Kobo gadgets are a successful various — in reality, the Kobo Clara Colour is our present high choose. Smaller firms like Onyx Boox and PocketBook produce Android tablets with e-paper screens that may do extra than simply show books.
Different concerns, resembling whether or not or not you want a shade show or the flexibility to jot down on the display screen for note-taking, will decide which ereader to purchase. Components 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 gadgets to create a information that will help you choose the very best ereader for you — and provide help to get probably the most out of your new gadget when you get it.
Desk of contents
The very best 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 browse digital books on a telephone or pill. However what makes book readers completely different is the display screen: almost all of them use expertise from an organization referred to as E Ink. It manufactures digital paper shows (EPD) composed of three sheets: one containing tens of millions 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 high of the usual black and white microcapsule layer. The result’s two completely different resolutions on one display screen — 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 normal backlight LED panels, you possibly can anticipate most ereaders to do various issues nicely. They’ll be simpler to stare at for lengthy durations of time and simpler to learn in direct daylight. Additionally, since E Ink shows solely require energy to rearrange the ink, these gadgets have for much longer battery lives than even the very best tablets: we’re speaking weeks on a single cost, not days.
The ereader market is just not as saturated as, say, the smartphone market, however there are nonetheless loads of choices on the market they usually do have small however necessary variations amongst them. They have an inclination 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, you need to take into account bodily properties like buttons, lights, storage and determination, in addition to how the software program helps you to discover and entry books.
Studying options
With any ereader, you’ll navigate the OS through faucets and swipes, and a few add bodily page-turn buttons. Most with built-in buttons have an auto-rotating display screen so you possibly can press along with your proper or left hand.
As E Ink expertise has superior, decision has significantly improved – even the funds Kindle ereader has a 300 ppi show. You may nonetheless discover fashions with decrease decision, however we don’t advocate them.
Some ereaders have entrance LEDs that help gentle temperature adjustment. Meaning you possibly can change to a hotter gentle after the solar goes down, which can really feel simpler on the eyes. In case you’re involved about blue gentle, you need 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 for the reason that early days. Along with storing books, some allow you to browse the online, run apps and play music. The display screen’s body price can’t deal with gaming, however it’s adequate to point out you the Wikipedia entry for Striver’s Row when you learn Criminal Manifesto.
In case you 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 capability, with the notable exception of the Nook ereader we tried. Remember that audiobook information can take up extra space than print information so you may in all probability need a machine with the next storage capability when you plan on doing numerous listening.
Above all, you need to take into account the place and the way you propose to seek out books to learn. Most ereaders make it best to buy via 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.
Learn how to get books to your ereader
Kindle, Nook and Kobo all have their very own shops that you just entry immediately from every model’s gadgets. 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 presents Kindle Unlimited for $12 monthly, and it consists of 4 million titles from which you’ll be able to choose your subsequent learn. It consists of audio and ebooks, however you gained’t discover many huge, new releases or older bestsellers. Kobo has a subscription referred to as Kobo Plus with about 1.3 million titles: it goes for $8 monthly for ebooks solely, $8 for audiobooks solely or $10 for each.
Shopping for a guide from a proprietary retailer immediately delivers it to your machine, offered you’re related to WiFi. It additionally syncs your studying throughout gadgets and apps, so you possibly can choose up the place you left off in your telephone when you forgot your ereader at house. It really is probably the most handy technique to go, however when you don’t need to be locked into one model’s retailer, or when you go for an ereader with out its personal market, you do have choices.
Learn how to add ePubs onto an ereader
Shops like ebooks.com and Google Play have tens of millions 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 gadgets require third celebration studying apps (of which there are a lot of) to learn these information. Titles from Apple Books are solely readable in iOS gadgets.
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 identical to ones you obtain from a proprietary retailer, due to the flowable, formatted nature of ePub information. Whereas these device-agnostic book collections offer you further choices for locating your subsequent learn, they require a couple of extra steps to get the information onto your ereader.
To take action, you’ll sometimes want a pc working a free program referred to as Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). After shopping for and downloading the ePub file, open ADE and plug your ereader into your pc (all readers right here have a USB-C port for charging and knowledge transfers). Your machine ought to pop up within the left panel. Drag and drop the ePub file out of your downloads folder into the primary panel in ADE. The file will show as a picture of the guide 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 must 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 pc 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 expertise as an alternative of Adobe’s, the one information it could settle for from third events are non-DRM information, resembling from Tor Publishing or Venture Gutenberg. After downloading a appropriate 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 referred to 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. Sort 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 gained’t have the ability to learn present titles from most publishers utilizing that app. Happily, Boox gadgets run almost each ereader app on the market, Kobo and Kindle included, letting you entry ePubs any variety of methods.
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 unique rights administration system than ADE so, proper now, you possibly can 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.
Learn how to learn library books on an ereader
Your native library card helps you to borrow audio and ebooks via a program referred to as Overdrive and its companion app Libby. On a Kobo, you’ve gotten have built-in entry to Overdrive in a separate tab. When you’ve linked your public library card, the search operate will embody outcomes for titles obtainable out of your native library system; a couple of 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 via the Libby app on my telephone. After that, the guide pops up on my Kobo’s house display screen as soon as the machine syncs.
To learn library books on a Kindle, you possibly can 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 check in. After that, the guide might be delivered to your machine the subsequent 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 may then use the ADE course of we described above. Gadgets that run exterior apps, like Boox’s Web page, Go Colour 7 or Palma, help you learn library books through the Libby app, simply as you’d on a smartphone or iPad.
It’s also possible to use the Libby app to borrow audiobooks, however you gained’t have the ability to entry them via 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 via 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 take a look at what’s obtainable, what’s new, and what buyers {and professional} reviewers must say. Then we slim an inventory to the very best 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 a couple of days to some months. I evaluated each within the areas of guide entry, ease of studying, further options and total worth. Right here’s every little thing we examined up to now:
Amazon Kindle (2022)
Amazon Kindle (2024)
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 hanging shade E Ink show. However at $280, it’s costlier than all the different shade ereaders in its dimension vary, together with the Kobo Libra Color and the Boox Go Colour 7.
Additionally, some Colorsoft homeowners reported seeing a yellow band on the backside of their ereader’s show. This difficulty didn’t have an effect on our first evaluate unit through the unique testing interval, however it will definitely appeared. An Amazon spokesperson advised Engadget: “A small variety of clients have reported a yellow band alongside the underside of the show. We take the standard of our merchandise critically—clients who discover this will attain out to our customer support staff for a substitute or refund, and we’re making the suitable changes to make sure that new gadgets is not going to expertise this difficulty 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 difficulty. The display screen on our second evaluate unit seems hotter total, however not overly so. It’s extra akin to the display screen on the Kobo Libra Color, and that’s factor.
Ereader FAQs
Which ereaders can learn Kindle books?
Amazon’s Kindle ereaders are the apparent reply, however different gadgets able to working apps may learn titles from the Kindle retailer. For instance, you possibly can obtain the Kindle app on a Boox ereader via Google Play (the shop comes normal within the Boox app menu). You may then signal into your Kindle account and entry all of the books in your library — the identical means you’d learn Kindle books in your telephone or pill.
Can you purchase Kindle books with out a Kindle?
Sure. You should purchase Kindle books via the Kindle app or via Amazon’s web site through a browser. You may learn these titles on a Kindle or any machine that may run the Kindle app, resembling a smartphone, pill or pc. Simply remember that Kindle titles can solely be learn via 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 out, shopping for, downloading and studying ebooks from their very own shops. Each additionally help borrowing books out of your native library through 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 nicely, however Amazon’s library of Kindle-only books is far bigger than Kobo’s. Amazon additionally presents Amazon Original tales to learn on the Kindle, that are free brief fiction and nonfiction reads which can be free to Prime members.
Which ereader is finest for library books?
Each Kobos and Kindles have easy techniques 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” operate from the Libby app or web site. You may ship a borrowed guide to your Kindle simply by signing into your account. Each strategies are fairly straightforward, so which is the very best for you in all probability is dependent upon 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 evaluate unit we obtained.
August 2024: Changed our Android pill choose with the brand new Go Colour 7 ereader from Boox. Up to date guide 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 shade ereader, the Kindle Colorsoft. Accordingly, we up to date our funds choose, added a premium choose and famous our expertise with the Colorsoft.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cellular/tablets/best-ereader-130013808.html?src=rss
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