The 7 best e-readers to buy – including Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Aura, Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight

No more lugging huge paperbacks around! We now live in the world where you can go somewhere without having to worry about how much reading material you should pack. We now have e-readers that can store thousands of books in one tiny little shell so we don’t have to worry about where we are going to find room in our luggage. Just make sure your library is on there, stick it in your bag, and be on your way. But which e-reader should you go out and buy? There are so many! Well we’re here to help you there, with our list of the 7 best e-readers which are suited for different functions from reading in the dark to going on holiday. Tom Pritchard reports 

 

1. The best e-reader/tablet: Amazon Fire HDX, from £329

E-readers are great, but they are a bit limited. You might want something with a bit more functionality, like browsers, games, and the option to watch TV and movies. For some reason Amazon’s latest line of tablets have ditched the Kindle name, but they still retain the same Kindle functionalities that the old Fire tablets have — including access to the Kindle and Amazon app stores.

Launched last November, the HDX 8.9″comes with an 8.9-inch QHD display, 16, 32, or 64GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, a 12 hour battery life, 4G, and a 2.5GHz quad-core processor all running on Amazon’s Fire OS which is a customised version of Android KitKat.

 

2. The best dedicated e-reader: Amazon Paperwhite, £109

Amazon claims that the Paperwhite is designed to deliver the ultimate reading experience, and it’s not hard to see why it’s saying that. The Paperwhite has a very minimalist interface that is designed to be easy on the eyes, and the e-ink display means that it’s bright, without using up enormous amount of power and causing screen glare. In fact the Paperwhite has an eight week battery life, so you shouldn’t have to worry about charging it every day either.

All that, plus direct access to Kindle Unlimited and the 650,000 books that are available at a moment’s notice. It’s also pretty light, so your arms aren’t going to get tired if you’re in the middle of a mass reading session.

 

3. The best e-reader to take on holiday: Kobo Aura H2O, £195

When you’re going on holiday you’re going to want something that can handle the trip, and the Kobo Aura H2O is the perfect e-reader to take. Not only does it have a two month battery life, so it’s not the end of the world if you leave your charger at home,  it also offers over four million books and comics through its online store. What’s more, the Aura H2O is water and dust proof, lasting up to 30 minutes on one metre of water. That makes it the perfect choice for wherever you want to go. Whether it’s a pool holiday, a beach holiday, or heck even a sightseeing holiday, it’s definitely worth taking away with you.

4. The best e-reader for reading in the dark: Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, £65

One of those irritating things about books is that they’re just paper and you can’t read them without a light source. That means if you want to read late at night, you have to sit there with the light on. Even that can be a pain because you need to get the angling right to see the words on the pages. So when you have an e-reader you want something that’s actually usable in dark and low-light situations, which is where the Nook with Glowlight comes in. The Glowlight comes with an adjustable light system that lets you choose what lighting level is comfortable for you. Plus it works just as well in the sunlight, glare free, so you should be totally fine with whatever nature throws at you.

5. The best budget e-reader: Kindle, £59

If you’re looking for an e-reader on the cheap then you can’t go wrong with the device that really kicked off the e-reader trend in the first place: the Kindle. It costs just £59, which means you’re not going to get something fantastic, but really it does everything you need. This isn’t the first Kindle to be released, they discontinued those a long time ago. You get a touchscreen, but there is no blacklight or 3G connectivity. But you do get a device that’s lightweight, reads e-books, and boasts access to Amazon’s e-book catalogue. That’s not bad for less than £60.

6. The best e-reader for battery life: Nook Simple Touch, £40

The wonderful thing about e-readers compared to conventional tablets is that e-readers only need to be able to create words, and maybe very basic images in their respective online stores. That’s why e-ink is so great, because it can do that while still providing you with a great user experience at the same time as only using a fraction of the power an LCD display would need. This means a lot of e-readers can last on a single charge for weeks at a time. The Nook Simple Touch, on the other hand, promises to go two whole months provided you don’t drain the battery by leaving the Wi-Fi on all the time. You don’t want to have to worry about battery do you? Imagine how irritating it would be to want to read and finding your reader has no power left? With this one you won’t.

7. The best e-reader for storage: Kobo Aura HD, £129

E-readers don’t really have the same level of storage that other mobile devices do, not that they really need it. Saying that, if you still want plenty of space to store your books, the Kobo Aura HD comes with a 4GB internal SD card which can hold up to 3,000 books. If that’s not enough for you, you can also expand that by a further 32GB with a microSD card. That’s enough room for a lifetime of books with some space left over. It’s also got a hefty battery life and access to the Kobo e-book store thrown in.