You can get a low-end model that costs less or a larger model that costs more, but ebook readers at this price point tend to strike the best balance between screen quality and size. If you're reading mainstream fiction or nonfiction books, the sweet spot right now is $100 to $150 for a good 6- or 7-inch Amazon or Kobo device. And for an in-depth comparison of supported formats across various ebook readers, check out Wikipedia's article comparing ebook formats. Many of them are self-published and not very good, but Amazon definitely has the advantage in quantity.įor more, see our article on how to put free ebooks on your Amazon Kindle. But Amazon also has exclusive authors and imprints. Books by big publishers generally appear in the Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo stores. Amazon sends you through the library's website to pick books that push to your device.īook selection, size, and pricing vary from store to store. You get a free year of it when you buy the Kindle Kids Edition.įor public library lending, Kobo readers let you use the popular library app Overdrive as a native store, which is convenient. For kids, the Amazon Kids+ subscription service unlocks a lot of children's books and starts at $2.99 per month.

Amazon Prime subscribers can access a smaller library as part of Prime Reading without paying extra. Amazon Kindle PaperwhiteĪmazon's Kindle Unlimited offers more than three million ebooks for $9.99 per month. It's also gotten much harder to strip the protection specifically from Amazon books in recent years. Removing the copy protection is possible, but you might also remove features such as formatting and character summaries in the process. The ebook reader you choose determines which ecosystem you can use.Īmazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo all use copy protection on most of their books, which prevents you from reading titles on other brands' ebook readers. That feature synchronizes words that appear on the page with those you hear aloud. Oddly, Amazon saves its slickest audiobook feature, Immersion Reading, for its Android app. Kobo uses a proprietary audiobook format, for comparison. Kindles can now connect to Bluetooth headphones to play Audible audiobooks, and many Amazon books can synchronize with Audible audiobooks on Kindle ebook readers. Sometimes you'd like to read and listen at the same time. Amazon Kindle Scribe The Best eReaders for Audiobooks

We detail which file formats are supported in our reviews. In general, they let you annotate on PDFs and other kinds of documents, plus take freehand notes on a blank page. Some have digital pens that let you take notes directly on the screen. The Best eReaders for Taking NotesĪll ebook readers let you highlight or tag particular phrases for later reference. Amazon and Kobo both make models that can withstand some amount of submersion in water, and we note it in each of our reviews. If you like reading in the bath, by the pool, or on the beach, consider a waterproof ebook reader. We've tested a few, and while they aren't perfect, they show some of the exciting possibilities of color E Ink. We've recently seen a breakthrough in color E Ink displays, with several readers implementing the E Ink Kaleido or E Ink Kaleido Plus technologies. Because of its high-quality screen and general power, however, we recommend the base-model iPad for most people trying to read rich, full-page color content. Even lower-cost tablets let you browse the web, stream video from Netflix, Hulu, and others, play music, and run apps. Magazines and comic books look great on larger tablets. If you need to read more than books, tablets with color screens offer many other benefits. Frequent, startling screen flashes are really a thing of the past. If you haven't updated your ebook reader in many years, you might be stunned by how much more responsive the latest E Ink readers feel. Amazon and Kobo's latest readers go one step further with Carta 1200 technology, which enables faster page turns and even better contrast. Some older Kindles use 167ppi displays that look rough and jaggy compared with the 300ppi displays on more modern models. Screen resolutions and quality also vary.

We've found that you start to have balance issues with one-handed reading at a screen size above 7 inches, however. Most E Ink readers in the past had 6-inch screens, but the panel sizes are slowly growing.

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