The latest version is thinner, lighter, and has a 6.8-inch, 300 ppi (pixels per inch) glare-free touch screen that makes it feel like you’re reading text off a piece of white paper. When it comes to e-readers, Amazon has set the standard with its popular Kindle Paperwhite model. This feature hasn’t become standardized yet, but it’s getting there.

Waterproofing: If you like reading in the bath or on the beach, you’ll want an e-reader that can handle a splash or two. One thing to consider: an illuminated screen will use more power, so you may have to charge your e-reader more often. All of our picks have a lit screen, so you never have to worry about those problems. That’s not ideal if you’re reading next to a sleeping partner, or are in a crowded area like a plane or train. Screen lighting: Older e-readers didn’t have any source of built-in illumination, which meant you had to rely on a natural or artificial light source to read. We took this into consideration because you want to use multiple digital book marketplaces to build up your library, or store your own documents. Supported formats: Most digital books are available in a format called EPUB, but our picks can read a whole lot more. Storage: Digital books take up a surprisingly small amount of space - even the big ones! - so all the e-readers in this guide can hold hundreds of books, and some have expandable storage if you’d like them to hold larger files, like PDFs, photos, or audiobooks. We made sure the picks on our list had the highest possible battery life, so you aren’t stuck on a cliffhanger in the middle of a flight. You can easily go weeks without charging one if you read for an hour a day. The downside is that e-ink displays are only in black and white, which may be a deal breaker if your preferred genre has a lot of charts, graphs, or pictures.īattery life: E-readers are one of the most energy efficient gadgets because of their single-use purpose and black and white e-ink display.

E-readers have an e-ink display, which is anti-reflective, and looks surprisingly like paper. Screen type: Most electronics, from smartphones to TVs, have an LCD screen which reflects light, and makes it hard to read in the sun. There are many factors to consider when choosing the best e-reader for you below are the most important ones, which we considered while we were researching this list. We looked through the entire e-reader market and found two alternatives with features the Kindle doesn’t have.

While Amazon has cornered the market in recent years with their best-selling Amazon Kindle, they’re not your only option. Roughly the size of a paperback book or tablet - and much lighter than a hardcover tome - e-readers can hold hundreds of digital books at once, letting you carry a large library everywhere you go. When it comes to reading, many people still prefer print, but e-readers are quickly becoming a device of choice, thanks to their portability, ease of use and multi-function capabilities. If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Kindle reader