The Best Ereaders for 2024 (2024)

Step away from the monitor and give your eyes a rest. Ebook readers, also called ereaders, rely on E Ink screens that let you read for long periods without the brain burn from a radiant LCD or OLED screen. They have long battery life and look terrific in sunlight. Amazon's Kindles dominate the ebook reader market in the US, but if you're shopping around, it's a good idea to also look at models from Kobo, Nook, and Onyx.

Here are the best ebook readers we've tested, followed by everything you need to know before deciding which one is right for you.

Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks

Buying Guide: The Best Ereaders for 2024

What's the Best Ereader Screen Type and Size?

Basic ebook readers use monochrome E Ink screens to display text. E Ink, or digital ink (often manufactured by the E Ink company), looks a lot like paper, but it's easier on your eyes for reading over long periods than text on a traditional digital display. More affordable models don't have backlights, however, so you might need a light to see the text, just as you would with a printed book. Others now include adjustable edge lighting. On the lowest settings, you can read in the dark while your partner sleeps undisturbed next to you.

In all cases, E Ink is much easier to read in bright sunlight—glossy color touch screens on traditional tablets tend to wash out and show distracting reflections.

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

Screen resolutions and quality also vary. Some older Kindles use 167ppi displays that look rough and jaggy compared with the 300ppi displays on more modern models. Amazon and Kobo's latest readers go one step further with Carta 1200 technology, which enables faster page turns and even better contrast.

Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight 4 (Credit: Sascha Segan)

If you haven't updated your ebook reader in many years, the responsiveness of the latest E Ink readers might surprise you. Frequent, startling screen flashes are really a thing of the past.

The Best Color Ereaders

If you need to read more than books, tablets with color screens offer many other benefits. Magazines and comic books look great on larger tablets. Even lower-cost tabletslet you browse the web, stream video from Hulu, Netflix, and others, play music, and run apps. 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.

Onyx Boox Note Air 3 C (Credit: Sarah Lord)

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. We've tested a few, and while they aren't perfect, they show some of the exciting possibilities of color E Ink.

The Best Ereaders for the Beach

If you like reading in the bath, by the pool, or on the beach, consider a waterproof ebook reader. Amazon and Kobo both make models that can withstand some amount of submersion in water, and we note those ratings in each of our reviews. Other readers aren't as resilient.

The Best Ereaders for Taking Notes

All ebook readers let you highlight or tag particular phrases for later reference. Some include digital pens that let you take notes directly on the screen. In general, they let you annotate on PDFs and other kinds of documents, plus take freehand notes on a blank page. We detail which file formats each model supports in our reviews. A larger screen usually works best for annotating documents.

The Best Ereaders for Audiobooks

Sometimes you'd rather listen than read. Sometimes you'd like to read and listen at the same time. Kindles can now connect to Bluetooth headphones to play Audible audiobooks, and many Amazon books can synchronize with Audible audiobooks on Kindle ebook readers. Kobo uses a proprietary audiobook format, for comparison.

Oddly, Amazon saves its slickest audiobook feature, Immersion Reading, for its Android app. That feature synchronizes words that appear on the page with those you hear aloud.

Where Can You Get Ebooks?

The ebook reader you choose determines which ecosystem you can use.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo all use copy protection on most of their books, which prevents you from reading titles on other brands' ebook readers. Removing the copy protection is possible, but you might also remove features such as formatting and character summaries in the process. It's also gotten much harder to strip the protection specifically from Amazon books in recent years. Ereaders with access to the Google Play Store are convenient because they let you download and use whatever reading apps you prefer on a single device.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (Credit: Sascha Segan)

Amazon's Kindle Unlimited offers more than three million ebooks for $9.99 per month. Amazon Prime subscribers can access a smaller library as part of Prime Reading without paying extra. For kids, the Amazon Kids+ subscription service unlocks a lot of children's books and starts at $4.99 per month. You get a free year of it when you buy the Kindle Kids Edition.

For public library lending, Libby has mostly replaced Overdrive. If you have a Kobo device with built-in Overdrive support, however, you can continue to borrow and read books as normal. Libby just lets you send books to Kindles and others that support Adobe Digital Editions.

Book selection, size, and pricing vary from store to store. Books by big publishers generally appear in the Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo stores. But Amazon also has exclusive authors and imprints. Many of them are self-published and not very good, but Amazon definitely has the advantage in quantity.

For more, seeour article on how to put free ebooks on your Amazon Kindle. And for an in-depth comparison of supported formats across various ebook readers, check outWikipedia's article comparing ebook formats.

How Much Should You Spend on an Ereader?

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. 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.

Onyx's tablet-sized readers cost considerably more than other ebook readers. But they're also much more powerful, letting you run multiple reading apps, annotate PDFs, and read large-format documents on big screens. We see these primarily for academics, lawyers, and doctors.

If you're getting a Kindle, check out ourAmazon Kindle tips every reader needs to know. And if you'd rather a device that can also handle your entertainment needs, head over to ourtop tablet picks.