The best e-readers of 2024, tried and tested

Whether your home is crowded with too many books or you simply want to bring an all-digital library on vacation, now’s a great time to invest in an e-reader for your at-home and on-the-go reading pleasure. The displays are optimized for reading, and without the distractions of messaging, games and video found in phones and tablets, you’ll get a more focused reading experience. Over the past years we’ve tested more than 14 e-reader models, and these three stood out above the rest:

Best e-reader: Kindle Paperwhite (11th Gen)

The Kindle Paperwhite retains the best features of the previous-generation Paperwhite while adding a bevy of upgrades, making it our pick for best e-reader. Its 6.8-inch, glare-free screen looks great in the dark or in the sun, with a 300-pixels-per-inch resolution that makes text appear crisp. It weighs just over 7 ounces, so it feels light and comfortable whether you’re reading one-handed or with both hands. The bezels here are also much slimmer than on the previous Paperwhite model, which gives the screen and the text on it ample room to breathe while making for a much sleeker device. For those who enjoy reading during a bath or poolside, the Kindle Paperwhite earned an IPX8 waterproof rating, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally dropping it in water or getting caught reading in the rain.

Like the higher-end (and now discontinued) Kindle Oasis, the Paperwhite allows you to adjust warmth in addition to brightness. This allows you to filter out blue light for a warmer, orangey hue that could be beneficial to your eyes. We believe this feature alone is worth upgrading from your older Kindle. The Paperwhite also now uses a USB-C connection for faster charging, meaning there’s one fewer device-specific cable you’ll need to bring along with you. Not to mention one charge will power the Paperwhite for a whopping 10 weeks of use. That means even the most avid readers will only have to charge their device a handful of times a year.

That said, there is some reason to consider upgrading to the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. For an extra $40, you get a handful of perks starting with an ad-free experience that Amazon charges $20 for on the Paperwhite and regular Kindle. Our other favorite feature of the Signature Edition is its automatically adjusting front lighting. This means you won’t be fidgeting with its settings to adjust the brightness when you move between spaces with different ambient lighting.

Otherwise, the only thing absent from the Paperwhite are page-turn buttons, which are only available on the Kobo Libra e-readers. But with all its great features, we didn’t miss them here. Reading on the Kindle Paperwhite is a joy, and at a reasonable price point, it’s a no-brainer purchase for yourself or a gift to someone else.

Best color screen e-reader: Kobo Libra Colour

Kindle competitor Rakuten Kobo is leading the e-reader market out of the black-and-white “Pleasantville” aesthetic and into a brave new world of hues. The Libra Colour, which launched alongside the smaller Clara Colour, is an e-reader we love for more than just its 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 screen.

Yes, a color e-reader feels long overdue, but this tablet also has physical navigation buttons that Amazon doesn’t offer anymore (RIP Kindle Oasis). Those who want to actually scribble in the margins, which you can’t even do on the Kindle Scribe, will also be pleased to see you can write on the pages with the optional Kobo Stylus 2.

Check out our full Kobo Libra Colour review to learn everything we love about this e-reader and if it’s a viable Kindle alternative for you.

Best e-reader for kids: Kindle Paperwhite Kids

The Kindle Paperwhite Kids is nearly identical to the new 11th-generation Kindle Paperwhite in that it boasts a 6.8-inch screen, waterproofness, 300-pixels-per-inch resolution, 8GB of storage and adjustable warm light. The difference? It comes with a kid-friendly sleep cover and one year of Amazon Kids+ for free, which offers access to a large library of popular kids’ books.

The upgraded screen real estate, water resistance and optional Amazon Kids+ subscription make this the ideal e-reader for kids, usurping our former favorite pick for kids, the Kindle Kids. Bonus: If you see this version of the Kindle Paperwhite on sale for less than the 11th-generation Kindle Paperwhite, snatch it up for yourself because there’s no difference in the software or hardware between the two, and it will allow you to read adult books on it as well. Oh, and there are no lock screen ads on this model either.

How we tested

We spent hours reading a multitude of books on each e-reader over the course of a month, noting special features like waterproofness in addition to accessibility features, ease of navigation of the user interface, overall design, screen size, library support and battery. Below are the criteria we used to judge each e-reader.

Other e-readers we tested

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story featured since-discontinued e-readers such as the Kindle Oasis, Kobo Forma, Kobo Libra H2O and earlier generations of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Kids e-readers.

Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is identical to our best e-reader pick, the 11th-generation Kindle Paperwhite, except for two new premium features: wireless charging and an auto-adjusting front light. While both offer more convenience, we don’t think they’re worth the extra $40 for everyone, because you’ll rarely have to charge your Kindle anyway and adjusting brightness isn’t that difficult. You do, however, get the ad-free experience included, as opposed to the $20 free for this service on the regular Paperwhite.

Kindle Scribe

This 10.2-inch e-reader looks and feels like someone merged a Kindle with an iPad in an attempt to build the ultimate tablet. Not only does it offer the standard Kindle experience on its massive screen, but it also converts handwriting to text, which is an utter game changer of a feature. Unfortunately, it’s a bit pricey and its software came up a bit lacking when compared to the excellent ReMarkable 2 E Ink tablet. For more on why this model doesn’t merit its lofty price tag, check out our Amazon Kindle Scribe review.

Kobo Sage

The Kobo Sage, much like the Libra Colour, lets you use a compatible Kobo Stylus to highlight passages or jot down notes in books. You can also keep notes or drawings on the Sage, giving it some tablet-like functionality. All this is done on an 8-inch screen — one of the largest e-reader screens available —?so if a large screen size matters to you, this could be a good option. However, its large size makes it difficult to read one-handed, and its flat, difficult-to-press page-turn buttons are spaced too far apart to make reading with them comfortable.

This is a great device for writers or college students who could benefit from the stylus functionality, but for those looking for an e-reader above all, you’re better off with the Kindle Paperwhite. It, ultimately, features a better design and more intuitive page-turn buttons.

Kobo Libra 2

The Kobo Libra 2 improved upon our previous favorite Kobo device, the Kobo Libra H20, with a crisper 7-inch HD E Ink Carta 1200 screen, Bluetooth technology for listening to Kobo audiobooks and 32GB of storage versus the Libra H20’s 8GB. Additionally, it keeps many of the same features we loved about the H20: waterproofness, page-turn buttons and ComfortLight Pro color temperature adjustment.

This e-reader provides a similar experience to our beloved (and no longer available) Kindle Oasis, and it costs nearly $100 less. However, it lost points in our testing due to its plastic frame in which dust and crumbs easily got stuck and its hard-to-use, poorly spaced page-turn buttons.

Kobo Nia

The Kobo Nia is a no-frills e-reader that’s similar to the original Kindle. It boasts a 6-inch screen that feels a little small, and its battery life was weaker than the competition. We preferred the screen on the Kobo Clara HD for those interested in a Kobo over a Kindle device.