Screen size: 7” e-ink display
Storage: 8/32GB
Waterproofing: IPX8
Battery Life: Weeks of battery life
File support: Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PMP through conversion; Audible audio format (AAX).

With its waterproof, aluminum body, physical page turn buttons, and glass display, the Kindle Oasis’ form and features feel luxurious when compared against the dependable functionality of a Kindle Paperwhite. As with the last two generations of this device, the 2019 Oasis’ wedge-like design and page-turn buttons make one-handed reading super easy.

The latest iteration of the Oasis brings readers a minor reduction in weight and a small increase in battery capacity over previous iterations of the device. These changes are slight enough that users of the last generation of the device likely won't notice. More significant is the introduction of front lighting with varying color temperatures on this flagship e-reader. Text read on the Oasis can be lit up with the traditional bright, blue spectrum light that Kindle users have become accustomed to, or with warmer, yellow hues that in testing, proved easier on the eyes. As blue-spectrum light can stymy melatonin production, this upgrade is a huge win for anyone that enjoys reading before they nod off for the night.

The illumination level of the Oasis’ 12 LEDs can automatically change thanks to a built-in ambient light sensor, which makes this luxury buy feel all the more decadent. You won’t find better e-reader lighting anywhere. Period. Additionally, if you love listening to podcasts and audiobooks, the Oasis has your back. As with the other Kindles in Amazon’s current lineup, it allows users to listen to audiobooks from Audible via a pair of wireless headphones.

The Oasis’s price may raise some eyebrows, though, as it can cost almost twice as much as a current-generation Kindle Paperwhite. Given that the Paperwhite performs almost as well and comes packing many of the same features as the Oasis, it’s hard to recommend this device to anyone but the staunchest of ebook aficionados.

Other E-Readers We Tested

Screen size: 10.3” e-ink display
Storage: 32GB
Waterproofing: None
Battery Life: Weeks of battery life
File support: 15 file formats supported natively (EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR), Kobo Audiobooks**

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 borrow 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 formats. 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 Kobo has always excelled in.

Screen size: 7.8” e-ink display
Storage: 16GB
Waterproofing: IPX8
Battery Life: Weeks of battery life
File support: ACSM, CBR, CBZ, CHM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, EPUB(DRM), FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTM, HTML, MOBI, PDF, PDF (DRM), PRC, RTF, TXT, MP3, OGG (via micro USB adapter and Bluetooth)

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.

Screen size: 8” e-ink screen
Storage: 32GB
Waterproofing: IPX8
Battery Life: Weeks of battery life
File support: 15 file formats supported natively (EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR), Kobo Audiobooks

You’d be forgiven for mistaking the Kobo Sage for our Best Overall pick, the Kobo Libra H20. They both boast an eight-inch front-lit display with adjustable color temperature. Their design language is similar, too: both e-readers come packing a pair of navigation buttons built into a large bezel, which makes using the buttons and holding either of the devices quite comfortable. The Sage is waterproof and offers all of the reading features that the Libra H20 does. However, the Sage does a party trick that the Libra H20 can’t match: it can be used to create digital, handwritten notes and document annotations.

Unfortunately, you’ll need to purchase a Kobo Stylus for that, which adds to the overall cost of ownership for the Sage. Additionally, I was disappointed to note a considerable amount of input lag while writing notes or drawing on the Sage’s display. This, along with its lack of writing templates and the fact that its note-taking functionality is hidden away in a submenu, makes it difficult to recommend over the Libra H20, or Kobo’s more capable digital notepad, the Elipsa.

Screen size: 6” e-ink display
Storage: 32GB
Waterproofing: None
Battery Life: Weeks of battery life
File support: TXT, HTML, RTF, FB2, FB2.zip, DOC, DOCX, PRC, MOBI, CHM, EPUB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PDF, DjVu, MP3, WAV, CBR, CBZ

At 153 x 107 x 6.8mm in size and weighing a mere 150 grams, The Poke3 is 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. In truth, it's more of a tablet than an e-reader, as it runs a deeply modified version of Android OS. The built-in e-reader app that the Poke3 ships with is great for readers who prefer to sideload their books. However, its companion bookstore is less than impressive, offering a very small miscellany of copyright-free content and works from lesser-known authors

Fortunately, as the Poke3 is an Android device, it is possible to install the Google Play store. Doing so gives the device's users access to their favorite e-reader services by downloading apps from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo, for example. However, installing Google Play is not a straightforward process, even after following a Youtube tutorial created by Boox, I had to make several attempts before the store showed up on the Poke3's home screen and allowed me to sign in. What's more, while being able to download reading apps from the Play Store, makes for a better reading experience, the fact that one can also install games and social media apps, along with the pop-up notifications that come with them, could make your reading experience on this device less immersive.

Screen size: 6” e-ink display
Storage: 32GB
Waterproofing: None
Battery Life: Weeks of battery life
File support: ePub, PDF, Adobe DRM ePub and PDF

With its six-inch 300PPI E-Ink Carta HD display, The Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight 4 is smaller and lighter than most of the devices in this guide.

During testing, I found that text on the GlowLight 4 was crisp and easy to read under all lighting conditions, thanks to the device's adjustable front lighting. That the lighting's color temperature can be tweaked made reading a book on it all the more pleasant.

Despite its readability, I was aggravated by the fact that the GlowLight 4 display is recessed under the device's wide plastic bezel—something I would expect from a last-generation device or, at least, a less expensive one. During testing, I found that dust and small pieces of debris easily became wedged between the bezel and display. That said, this large bezel does serve a purpose. You'll find page-turn buttons embedded into both sides of it, making it a reasonable option for left or right-handed readers.

Like all of the e-readers in this guide, the GlowLight 4 is designed to go for weeks at a time before you'll need to recharge it. When the time comes to top off its battery, the device's built-in USB-C port allows users to do so, quickly.

Unfortunately, while it has a number of redeeming qualities unless you already own a large library of Barnes & Noble e-books, I can't recommend this device to most people. For around the same price point, there are a number of other more capable e-readers out there, the Kindle Paperwhite among them.

Unlike the Paperwhite or some of the e-readers Kobo offers, the GlowLight 4 isn't waterproof. Nor does it provide access to the extensive collection of books and periodicals that Amazon and Kobo devices do. And, even if a significant portion of your electronic book library consists of side-loaded files stored on your computer, the GlowLight 4 is still less than ideal, as it only supports two file types: PDFs and EPUB.

Screen size: 10.3” e-ink display
Storage: 8GB
Waterproofing: None
Battery: 3000 mAh
File support: PDF and ePUB

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.

How We Test E-Readers

The Tester

I’m Séamus Bellamy, the Updates Editor at Reviewed. I'm a voracious reader who doesn’t have space in my home for more than a handful of paperbacks. Over the past five years, I’ve relied on e-readers to satisfy my passion for reading. I’m familiar with most of the e-readers on the market and, in the past, have reviewed them for multiple publications.

The Tests

The best way to test an e-reader is by reading—a lot. I spent several weeks with each device, using them to PDF files, trashy mystery masterpieces published in a number of e-book file types, digital comic books, and image files, in an attempt to get a feel for how each one performed. I also noted the amount of content that could be accessed by each e-reader.

I paid attention to the quality of text displayed on its screen, its refresh rate (how often the device erases the artifacts left on its display from the previous pages you’ve perused), and the effectiveness of its front lighting. I noted how responsive its user interface was.

What to Consider Before Buying an E-Reader

Screen Size

A good e-reader should have a large enough screen for easy readability, but be compact enough to slip into your bag without having to shuffle things around. For that, you’ll want something around 5” to 6.8” max, but if you’re looking for a big device to read on from home, a larger screen is perfectly fine.

Storage

eBooks don’t take up much space (8GB of storage can hold anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 books depending on file size), but you’ll still want to make sure you’ve got enough room to hold your entire eBook library. If you’re planning on reading comics as well as eBooks, an e-reader with larger storage will come in handy.

Battery Life

Unlike our smartphones, e-readers should typically last at least a couple weeks on a single charge, but ideally more. Whether you like to carry it in a bag to get a few pages in between tasks or on your commute, or you tend to travel with your trusty reader, you don’t want to lose power just as you’re getting to the good part.

File Support

Many e-readers support a wide variety of file formats, but the most crucial are ePub for general purpose, .mobi or .AZW3 for Kindle devices, as well as .txt and .pdf for other general files. Outside of those, any other file formats supported may come in handy, but they also may not depending on what you plan to do with your device.

More Information About E-Readers

E-Readers vs Tablets

Most e-readers are designed for one task: the consumption of literature, be it in print or narrated as an audiobook. Some models are smaller and lighter than a tablet, making them more comfortable to hold during long reading sessions. Others are as large as an iPad, making them ideal for perusing PDFs or comics. In most cases, an e-reader’s non-reflective display and adjustable front lighting make it possible to use them in any lighting condition.

E-readers are also great when it comes to battery life. Even with moderate use, a tablet, like an iPad, needs to be charged often. Depending on your reading habits, you may be able to go for weeks at a time before your e-reader’s battery requires charging.

There are also now e-readers with color displays, but they’re a relatively new development. We’ll review them as the technology matures, but right now we don’t recommend any for full-time book reading while the technology is still improving.

What’s The Difference Between a Kindle and an E-Reader?

Nothing! Kindle is simply the brand name of the line of e-readers that Amazon sells. The Amazon Kindle is arguably the best-known e-reader brand in North America. Think of it along the same vein as when someone asks for a Kleenex, they’re actually asking for a tissue.

Only Amazon Kindle devices and Amazon’s Kindle apps for iOS, Android and computers can read the e-books you’ve purchased from the Amazon Kindle Store (with a few exceptions that we’ll talk about, in a moment). This is because Amazon’s e-book files are protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). You can remove that DRM if you’d like, but we only endorse that for books you already own and want to manage outside of Amazon’s ecosystem.

This isn’t a practice that’s unique to Amazon, however: most e-books from Barnes & Noble or Kobo’s digital stores, for example, are also protected by DRM. So, they can only be read using Barnes & Noble’s or Kobo’s hardware and apps, respectively.

Where Can I Get E-Books That Aren’t Protected by DRM?

If you’re like me, you believe that the digital content you own should be able to be used in any way you see fit. Investing in DRM-free e-books allows you to do this, as they can be read on most any e-reader, tablet or computer. You can also get DRM-free content from sites like Project Gutenberg, SmashWords, or even a select few on the Kobo bookstore.

E-Reader Terms to Know

There are a few terms we discuss in this guide that may not be familiar to you but are important to know when shopping for an e-reader:

E Ink Carta or electronic paper display: Types of low-powered displays often found in an e-reader. Small electrical charges are used to move microcapsules towards and away from the surface of the display, forming text and images. The content shown on most e-reader displays is monochromatic. These displays consume far less power than traditional laptop and tablet displays do.

Ghosting: The outline of letters and images leftover from reading previous pages of a book.

Refresh Rate: How often an e-reader clears its display of all content before loading new content. The more frequent the refresh, the less ghosting you’ll see.

Front lighting: A ring of LEDs embedded in an e-reader’s display bezel.

Sideloading: Using a computer to transfer content to an e-reader.

DPI and PPI: Dots Per Inch and Pixels Per Inch: Measures of an e-reader’s display resolution.