The Best E-Readers of 2021

The Kobo Elipsa (32GB model tested) with its 10.3" front-lit display, is the best large-screen e-reader around. The fact that it can take handwritten notes is just icing on the cake. Currently, the Elipsa is only available as part of a set that includes a protective leather and rubber case and a battery-powered stylus.

The Elipsa offers access to over three million books via the Kobo Store, as well as the ability to peruse saved web content via Pocket or library books using Kobo's OverDrive service. It's game-on for side-loaded content as well: the Elipsa is compatible with 15 different file types. If you want to read it, this device can likely handle it.

Despite its large size, the Elipsa weighs just 13 ounces, making it comfortable to hold and read for an extended period of time. However, its protective case doubles this weight. But that's OK: while you can hold it like you might a magazine, this is a device designed to be cradled in the lap or used on a tabletop.

During testing, I found the Elipsa to be very responsive: page turns and display refreshes were pain-free. I was pleased to find that the Elipsa is no slouch in the note-taking department, either. Using the device's active (a nerdy way of saying that the stylus is battery-powered) stylus, I found that its pen latency was a very close second to what users of the reMarkable 2 enjoy. You’ll be glad this is the case as you use the stylus to highlight and markup passages in PDFs or ebooks. The Elipsa can handle hand-written notebooks as well. User notebooks can be synced to Dropbox for reference on other devices.

That said, there is considerable room for improvement. For starters, the Elipsa isn't waterproof: use it in the bathtub to your peril. There are two buttons that allow users to highlight content or erase pen input that are built into the shaft of the Elipsa’s stylus. These buttons can be frustratingly easy to press by mistake.

There are some software issues as well. Hand occlusion (the way that a touchscreen device ignores the palm of your hand while accepting input from your fingers or a stylus) while writing on the Elipsa is spotty at times, making it occasionally impossible for the device to recognize stylus input. I was also less than impressed with the limited number of templates available to write and draw on. Fortunately, all of these irritants can be corrected with software updates—an area that Kobo has always excelled in.

The PocketBook Inkpad 3 Pro comes with a built-in bookstore, its offerings are, to be blunt, are pretty awful. However, it could be a good option for anyone comfortable with sideloading content from their personal digital library of DRM-free e-books.

I liked its bright 7.8-inch 300 PPI display and front lighting controls. However, I did notice some significant ghosting (barely visible letters and images from the last page you read, that are there when you ‘turn’ to the next page of an e-book) between refreshes. The Inkpad 3 Pro’s reading software makes navigating a large collection of e-books easy and provides a number of features that allow for a customized reading experience. Users can use a row of physical buttons or its touchscreen to interact with the device.

The Inkpad 3 Pro is waterproof. However, I have concerns about its build quality: I found that its plastic body routinely cracked and popped.

The Onyx Boox Nova 3 is really more of a tablet with an E Ink display than an e-reader. It comes preloaded with a number of apps, including an excellent e-reading app and a note-taking application that can be used with the tablet’s included WACOM stylus. When writing or drawing on its screen there was a noticeable amount of input lag, which was jarring. The Nova 3’s bright 7.8-inch 300 DPI display was easy on the eyes, in all lighting conditions. During testing, I found the tablet felt sturdy and I appreciated that it charges and transfers data via USB-C.

The real draw of this device, however, is that as it runs a customized version of Android 10, it’s possible to add a wide variety of apps to it, such as Amazon’s Kindle app or Comixology—provided you’re able to install the Google Play app. Doing so vastly expands the number of outlets to draw reading material from.

Unfortunately, despite owning an Onyx device and having previously gone through the process, I found that installing Google’s app services to the Nova 3 took three attempts. That the device is this fussy, out of the box, could make it less accessible to less tech-savvy users.

Running on the same Android operating system as the Nova 3, the Boox Poke 3 lacks the Nova 3’s WACOM digitizer display. At 153 x 107 x 6.8mm in size and weighing a mere 150 grams, it’s small and light enough to use, one-handed, for hours at a time. Its crisp, six-inch 300 PPI display, will make you want to use it, often.

Unfortunately, it’s similar enough to its larger sibling to be subject to many of the same shortcomings. The Google Play store can be installed on the Poke3, but doing so can be a frustrating process. Additionally, the ability to install games and social media apps, and the pop-up notifications that come with them, could make your reading experience on this device less immersive.

Finally, the Poke 3’s smaller size means that it contains a smaller battery than the Nova 3. That these two e-readers are so similar in function means that you’ll get less use out of the Poke 3 than with Onyx’s larger e-reader, before it needs to be recharged.

If I had to use one word to describe the Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight Plus, it would be ‘slow.’

While setting it up for the first time, it took forever to turn on. It took ages to find my WiFi network and a long time to create a user account. The device lets you use Gmail or Facebook accounts to sign in, but when I tried both, neither allowed me to continue with the setup process. The e-reader's snail’s pace continued once the setup was complete.
While typing with its on-screen keyboard, It took so long for what I had written to register that I was left wondering whether or not the e-reader’s operating system had accepted my input.

However, the GlowlLight Plus isn’t without its charms. Its library management system makes it easy to categorize and keep track of any books on the device. Barnes and Noble’s Nook Bookstore has a very respectable selection of reading material to choose from and it’s possible to sideload books from other sources onto the device from a computer. Whatever you choose to load on it, you’ll find that the GlowLight Plus’ crisp text and excellent color temperature-controllable front lighting make reading a pleasure—provided you can stand how long it takes to move on to the next page in your book.

If you read a lot of large-format books, like academic texts or PDFs, the reMarkable 2 is for you—with a few significant caveats.

When I tested it, the reMarkable 2 was only capable of opening two file types: ePub-formatted e-books and PDF files. This limitation could, for anyone that wants to use the device to view other file types such as Microsoft Word documents or e-books published as a .mobi file, be a deal-breaker. Another knock against it is the fact that it has no front lighting. So, you can only use it when there is enough ambient light to view its large 10.3-inch, 226 PPI display.

That said, the reMarkable 2 offers the best electronic writing experience that I have ever encountered. It was created for note-taking, drawing and annotating documents. Those PDFs and ePub files? You can write on and highlight sections of them to your heart’s content.

Using its included stylus to scribble on its display nails the feel of writing on paper. There’s no noticeable input lag—a technical feat made possible, in part, by having no front lighting to get in the way of the device’s digitizer. There are plenty of pen types and line options to choose from, making it easy to customize the device to your scribbling needs.

If scads of handwritten notes are a part of your everyday life, you’ll love this thing. Those looking for a more substantial e-reading experience should buy something else.