Whether you want to read in the bath or scribble notes in the margins, there’s an e-reader for just about everyone.
Any ebook reader will let you cram a *Beauty and the Beast*-sized library’s worth of books in your pocket, but so will your phone. An ebook reader offers a more book-like reading experience, with fewer distractions and less eye strain, and many include extra features, like adjustable frontlighting. Some really are pocketable. Others are waterproof or offer physical page-turning buttons, while a few even let you take notes.
I’ve been using ebook readers for more than a decade, and I’ve gone hands-on with dozens, from the Kindle Paperwhite to lesser-known rivals like the PocketBook Era. Whether you want something your kid can throw against the wall or a waterproof, warm-glow Kindle that won’t ruin your spa ambiance, these are the best ebook readers for everyone.
The best Kindle
If you mostly buy ebooks from Amazon, you’ll want a Kindle, and the 12th-gen Kindle Paperwhite is the best choice for most people. It’s $70 cheaper than the Kobo Libra Colour — my top non-Amazon e-reader — yet offers many of the same features, including a spacious 7-inch 300pi display with rich contrast levels. Unlike Amazon’s entry-level Kindle, it also features IPX8 water resistance and an adjustable warm frontlight that reduces blue light, which can interrupt melatonin production. The $199.99 Signature Edition Paperwhite also supports wireless charging, a rare feature in an e-reader.
Amazon dominates the US ebook market, so Kindle owners have access to advantages that owners of other ebook readers don’t. Much of Amazon’s hardware strategy depends on offering cut-rate discounts to pull you into its content ecosystem. If you have Prime and buy a lot of Kindle ebooks, the Paperwhite is the best choice because its ebooks and audiobooks are often on sale at Amazon, and Prime members get more free content through Prime Reading. Rivals like Kobo offer sales, too, but it’s hard for them to offer discounts as steep as Amazon.
There are downsides, though. The Paperwhite includes lockscreen ads unless you pay $20 to remove them, and its size can make one-handed reading uncomfortable. More significantly, like all Kindles, it uses a proprietary format and doesn’t natively support EPUB, the open standard used by most other ebook stores. If you often shop from Kobo’s bookstore, Barnes & Noble, or Google Play Books, you’ll need to convert and transfer file formats in order to read them on a Kindle. If you mostly stick with Amazon, though, you’ll be more than happy with the Paperwhite.
Read our full Kindle Paperwhite review.
The best non-Amazon ebook reader
The Kobo Libra Colour is a great alternative to Amazon’s ebook readers, particularly for readers outside the US or anyone who prefers not to buy into Amazon’s ecosystem. It offers many of the standout features found on the 12th-gen Paperwhite — including waterproofing, USB-C, and a 300ppi display — along with a few extra perks. Most notably, it uses E Ink’s latest Kaleido color technology, delivering soft, pastel-like hues that still pop in direct sunlight. Resolution drops to 150ppi when viewing color, but it still makes viewing a wider range of content more pleasant, even if images aren’t nearly as vivid as those on a traditional tablet or the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition.
Unlike Amazon’s Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, the Libra Colour also works with a stylus (sold separately), letting you highlight in multiple colors, annotate books, and use Kobo’s integrated notebooks. It borrows some more advanced tools from the Kobo Elipsa 2E, too, including handwriting-to-text conversion and math-solving, allowing it to double as a small digital notebook. It also includes physical page-turn buttons, lacks lockscreen ads, supports more file formats (including EPUB), and makes borrowing from OverDrive libraries relatively straightforward. A recent update even provides support for Instapaper, letting you save articles, blog posts, and other content for offline viewing.
However, at $229.99, the Libra Colour costs $70 more than the entry-level Paperwhite — and that’s without Kobo’s $69.99 stylus, which is required to perform certain tasks. The gap widens further when the Paperwhite is on sale, which happens more frequently. The Libra Colour also can’t easily access Amazon’s ebook library, either, so longtime Kindle users may need third-party tools to convert their purchases. Still, if those things don’t matter or apply to you, the Libra Colour offers the most versatile and enjoyable reading experience of any e-reader on this list. It remains my personal favorite.
Read our full Kobo Libra Colour review.
The best cheap ebook reader
The base-model Kindle ($109.99 with ads) is the best cheap ebook reader. Its