eBook Reader Review

Why Buy an eBook Reader?

Have you been hesitant about making the switch from holding a physical book to holding an eBook reader and reading an electronic book? We understand. Many of us have had the same reservations; however, with the low price of eBooks and the affordable price of eBook readers, along with their convenient storage, portability and versatility, more and more users are making the switch to eBook readers every day.

So why should you buy an eBook reader? Convenience. Instead of going to a bookstore to make a purchase or ordering a book online and waiting for it to arrive, you can purchase and download an eBook anytime, from any location with a Wi-Fi connection. Several classic books are free to download because their copyrights have expired, and when you don’t have to pay for printing, you don’t have to pay.

Want more than one book? That’s fine. The memory of eBook readers is large enough to hold several hundred books. eBook readers are the only way to carry countless books with you wherever you go, and keep the weight under a pound.

You want more convenience? eBook readers make it easy to save your place, take notes, clip and save favorite quotations, and highlight passages you want to find again. eBook readers are designed for readability and to make your reading experience as enjoyable as possible. Find out if a reader such as the top-ranked iPad Mini, Kindle Fire HD, or Nook HD is right for you as 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 available, as well as more information and articles on eBook readers.

eBook Readers: What to Look For

With the variety of eBook readers available, you really get the opportunity to pick and choose the features and design that fit you best. Here are the factors that we took into consideration when ranking and comparing eBook readers.

Design
Some eBook readers offer E-Ink technology that makes you feel more like you are reading an actual book, while others offer LCD color screens that make images and movies come to life. Some offer button navigation and some have touchscreen navigation. Which is better for you? Does screen size matter? Do you want to know how much they each weigh? While some design aspects will depend on the user (E-Ink vs. LCD), we were able to find the eReaders with the best resolution, the easiest navigation and the most impressive build.

Content
Some eReaders 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 amount of content available for the device and how many different files each device can support. Obviously, the more file types the better, because that gives you more reading options.

Memory/Battery Life
The battery life of your eReader is crucial. Nobody wants their reading devices to run out of power before the climax of their novels. The number of pages that you can turn on a single charge and the amount of memory available for storing books are important for making the eReader experience more enjoyable.

Additional Features
There is always room for extra features to enjoy while reading a book. Some of these include the number of grayscale levels, audio formats, image formats, text-to-speech feature, apps, email, internet surfing and so much more.

We found that the best eBook readers have a good combination of abilities in all of the above categories. They offer convenience and the opportunity for the eBook reader to disappear in your hands, just like a physical book would, as you dive into the world of reading.

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Electronics » Other Electronics » eBook Reader
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Rank #1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9
10-9  Excellent
8-6    Good
5-4    Average
3-2    Poor
1-0    Bad
iPad Mini Kindle Fire HD Nook HD Kindle Paperwhite 3G Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light Nook Tablet Nook Color Kobo Glo Wireless eReader ECTACO jetBook Lite
iPad Mini Kindle Fire HD Nook HD Kindle Paperwhite 3G Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light Nook Tablet Nook Color Kobo Glo Wireless eReader ECTACO jetBook Lite
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Lowest Price
Visit iPad Mini
Visit Kindle Fire HD
Visit Nook HD
Visit Kindle Paperwhite 3G
Visit Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light
Visit Nook Tablet
Visit Nook Color
Visit Kobo Glo Wireless eReader
Visit ECTACO jetBook Lite
Ratings
9.90
9.80
9.75
9.73
9.65
9.63
9.23
7.50
3.63
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
9.88
10.00
9.63
10.00
9.75
10.00
9.75
9.75
9.50
10.00
10.00
9.63
9.38
10.00
9.38
10.00
10.00
9.38
10.00
9.38
9.38
9.50
10.00
9.63
8.75
9.38
9.38
9.38
7.50
7.50
7.50
7.50
5.00
2.50
5.00
2.50
 
Design
Touch Screen
 
Screen Size (diagonal inches) 7.9 7 7 6 6 7 7 6 5
Screen Type LCD IPS IPS Paperwhite Built-in Light E-Ink LCD LCD E-Ink TFT LCD
Resolution 1024 x 768 1280 x 800 1440 x 900 212 PPI 600 x 800 1024 x 600 600 x 1024 1024 x 758 640 x 480
Overall Size (Inches) 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.28 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.4 7.65 x 5 x 0.43 6.7 x 4.6 x 0.36 6.5 x 5 x 0.47 8.1 x 5.0 x 0.48 8.1 x 5.0 x 0.48 4.5 x 6.2 x 0.39 6 x 4.3 x 0.5
Weight (ounces) 10.9 13.9 11.1 7.8 7.0 14.1 15.8 6.5 7.4
Content
Dedicated Content Service
 
Newspaper/Magazine
 
Blogs
    
eBooks in Bookstore 1.5 million 1.6 million 3 million 1.6 million 3 million 3 million 3 million
 
Magazines in Bookstore 6900 500 850 500 800 800 800
 
Newspapers in Bookstore 900 200 43 200 43 43 43
 
Memory/Battery Life
Internal Memory 16GB / 32GB / 64GB 16GB / 32GB 8GB / 16GB 2GB 2 GB 16GB 8GB 2GB 112 MB
Battery Life (Hours) 10 11 10 28 30 11.5 8 Up to 70  
Removable Memory    up to 32GB   Up to 32GB 32GB Up to 32GB Up to 32GB Up to 32GB
Document Formats
Kindle (AZW)
 
     
PDF
TXT
 
DOC
 
  
MOBI
 
   
PRC
 
    
HTML
 
   
EPUB
 
 
PPT
 
  
  
BBeB Book          
Additional Features
Text to Speech
       
Grayscale Levels n/a n/a n/a 16 16 16 n/a 16 16
Recharge Time 2 Hrs 4 Hrs 4 Hrs 4 Hrs 3.5 Hrs. 3 Hrs 3 Hrs. 5 Hrs n/a
Audio Formats MP3, MP4, AAC, AIFF, WAV, Apple Lossless, MP3 VBR, Audible formats 2, 3, 4 MP3, MIDI, PCM/WAVE, OGG, WAV, MP4, AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1, HE-AACv2, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, HTML5, CSS3, MP4, 3GP, VP8 MP4, M4A, 3GP, AAC, MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, AMR    MP4, 3GP, WEBM MP3, AAC   
Image Formats JPEG, GIF, PNG, JPG2, PSD, SGI, BMP BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG BMP, PNG, GIF, JPEG JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Internet Capabilities
Wireless Wi-Fi / 3G Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Wi-Fi