Why Buy an eBook Reader?

You can go anywhere, just take a look, it's in a book. From the African jungles in Michael Crichton’s Congo to the farmlands of China in Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth to right at home with the magazine Martha Stewart Living, books expand horizons. We’ve all heard since shows like Wishbone and Reading Rainbow that books have the power to take us anywhere. One library, so many possibilities.

eBook readers take it one step further. One device holds about a library and gives you as many of your favorite book titles at your fingertips as you could ever really want. Plus, they make it easy to take notes, save clippings of quotations and highlight passages we want to be able to find again. They’re convenient, portable and good for the environment. In fact, the only real downside we can see to an electronic book over a real paper book is that you’ll have a few more problems if you accidentally spill your coffee on it or get splashed at the pool.

Find out if an eBook reader is right for you, in this site we give you some of the reasons for switching to digital. Here at TopTenREVIEWS you’ll find reviews and comparisons of the best eBook readers out there some of the content that can be available. Because, at TopTenREVIEWS, we do the research so you don’t have to.™

What to Look for in an eBook Reader

Most people only know Kindle. But there is a variety of eBook readers available, some with other features that may be more attractive than the Kindle. Here are the factors we considered to effectively compare these electronic books.

  • Features: From touchscreens to LED backlights to the Read to Me feature on the Kindle 2, there are a lot of features that will help your eBook reader disappear so it’s just you and the text. Features like the touchscreen, screen size and type and the wireless capabilities were given more weight.
  • Content: Some of the eBook readers have hundreds of thousands of titles available from a dedicated service while others can support a few files found on the internet. We rated the number of content available for the device and how many different types of book files each device can support.
  • Value: We rated the price over the features set. Does the price really reflect the number of important features you are getting?
  • Tech Support: With every electronic device there is a potential for problems, or you may really spill your coffee on it. Before you purchase an eBook reader, know what kind of support you can expect.

The best eBook readers will have a good combination of each of these and will disappear as you read, just like a normal book would.
 

 
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eBook Reader Review

Portable Library

eBook readers take reading to a new level of ease no matter where you are. Bring the whole library; whether it’s to India or the backyard.

Rank #1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10
Excellent score   Excellent
Very good score   Very Good
Good score   Good
Fair score   Fair
Poor score   Poor
Kindle 2 Kindle DX Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-700 iRex Digital Reader COOL-ER Sony Reader PRS-505 Astak 5" EZ Reader Astak EZ Reader Cybook Gen3
Kindle 2 Kindle DX Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-700 iRex Digital Reader COOL-ER Sony Reader PRS-505 Astak 5" EZ Reader Astak EZ Reader Cybook Gen3
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Lowest Price Buy Kindle 2
$259.00
Buy Kindle DX
$489.00
Buy Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600
$267.50
Buy Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-700
$299.00
Buy iRex Digital Reader
$859.00
Buy COOL-ER Classic
$249.00
Buy Sony Reader PRS-505
$279.99
Buy Astak 5" EZ Reader Pocket PRO
$199.00
Buy Astak EZ Reader
$239.00
Buy Cybook Gen3
$350.00
 
Overall Rating Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Very Good Very Good Very Good Very Good Very Good Very Good
Ratings
Features Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Very Good Very Good Very Good Very Good Very Good
Content Excellent Excellent Excellent Very Good Very Good Excellent Very Good Very Good Very Good Very Good
Technical Support Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent Very Good Very Good Very Good
View Specifications Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
View Screenshots View Kindle 2 screenshots View Kindle DX screenshots View Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600 screenshots View Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-700 screenshots View iRex Digital Reader screenshots View COOL-ER screenshots View Sony Reader PRS-505 screenshots View Astak 5" EZ Reader screenshots View Astak EZ Reader screenshots View Cybook Gen3 screenshots
Content
Dedicated Content Service Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark   Check Mark Check Mark    
Newspaper/Magazine Check Mark Check Mark    Check Mark      
Blogs Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark    Check Mark
Features
Screen Size (diagonal inches) 6 9.7 6 6 10.2 6 6 5 6 6
Text to Speech Check Mark Check Mark       Check Mark   
Touch Screen    Check Mark Check Mark Check Mark      
Screen Type E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink E-Ink
Wireless 3G, Whispernet 3G, Whispernet    Wi-Fi, Bluetooth      
Battery LIfe 2 weeks 2 weeks 2 weeks 2 weeks 24 hours 2+ weeks 2 weeks 2+ weeks 2+ weeks 2+ weeks
Resolution 600 x 800 1200 X 824 800 x 600 600 x 800 1280 x 1024 600 x 800 600 x 800 600 x 800 600 x 800 600 x 800
Grayscale Levels 16 16 8 8 16 8 8 8 4 4
Storage Space 2 GB 4 GB 512 MB 420 MB 1 GB 1 GB 256 MB 512MB 32 MB 512 MB
Weight (ounces) 10.2 18.9 10.1 10 20.1 6.3 9 6 7.8 6.13
Overall Size (Inches) 8x5.3x.36 10.4 x 7.2 x .4 6.9x4.8x.4 6.9x4.9x4 11x8.5x.5 7.2 x 4.6 x .4 6.9x4.8x.3 6x4.1x0.4 7.2x4.7x.4 7.4x4.7x.4
Recharge Time 4 hr 4 hr 4 hr 1 hr USB/2 hr AC 5 hr USB N/A hr USB/2 hr AC N/A N/A N/A
Audio Formats MP3, Audible MP3, Audible, AAX MP3, AAC MP3, AAC N/A MP3 MP3, AAC MP3 MP3 MP3
Document Formats Kindle (AZW), TXT, MOBI, PRC Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, MOBI, PRC BBeB, PDF, Word, EPUB/ADEPT BBeB Book (LRF and LRX), PDF, TXT, RTF, ePub PDF, TXT, HTML, Mobipocket PRC PDF, EPUB, FB2, RTF, TXT, HTML, PRC BBeB Book (LRF and LRX), PDF, TXT, RTF, ePub PDF, DOC, ePub, LIT, PRC, MOBI, WOLF, DJVU, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, PPT PDF, DOC, ePub, LIT, PRC, MOBI, WOLF, DJVU, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, PPT PDF, HTML, TXT, Mobipocket PRC, PalmDoc
Convertible Formats PDF, DOC, HTML HTML, DOC, RTF DOC, HTML, others DOC, HTML, others    DOC, HTML, others    
Image Formats (Converted) JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP JPEG JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP BMP, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF BMP, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF JPEG, GIF, PNG
 
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Lowest Price Buy Kindle 2
$259.00
Buy Kindle DX
$489.00
Buy Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600
$267.50
Buy Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-700
$299.00
Buy iRex Digital Reader
$859.00
Buy COOL-ER Classic
$249.00
Buy Sony Reader PRS-505
$279.99
Buy Astak 5" EZ Reader Pocket PRO
$199.00
Buy Astak EZ Reader
$239.00
Buy Cybook Gen3
$350.00
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