Over a hundred new e-readers and e-notebooks were released in 2024. Some are available worldwide, while others are only in domestic markets, such as China, Taiwan, South Korea, and France. There are some compelling reasons to buy specific brands due to the features they offer. Rakuten Kobo and Pocketbook are popular due to the inclusion of physical page turn buttons and colour e-paper screens. Bigme, Onyx Boox, and Remarkable focus on the digital note-taking experience. Some have WACOM screens and colour e-paper with a stylus to take notes, edit PDF files, and freehand draw. The most popular e-readers in North America focus on the book-buying experience and solid hardware, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Rakuten Kobo. What type of features do you look for in an e-reader?
Most of our Good e-Reader audience is in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. So, I will not discuss or focus only on the domestic e-readers in China or Taiwan since most of these products are from iFlytek, iReader, Hyread, Hanvon, Huawei, or Moaann. Most of these products typically support Chinese; only a few have English, but bookstores comprise Chinese ebooks.
The most popular e-readers in the Western world stem from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo. These e-readers are sold online and in many bookstores, big box retailers or tech stores. This allows customers to try before they buy and see if it is right for them. If anything goes awry or a customer wants to return it, it is easier to do this in retail. Some brands, like Pocketbook and Onyx Boox, are easy to buy; most are sold on Amazon, which has a liberal return policy.
Most people focus on a few different things when buying an e-reader. Does it have a good bookstore where they can purchase digital books, comics, magazines, newspapers, or manga? What operating system does it run? Linux is the most stable, but there are plenty of Android e-readers and e-notebooks with Google Play, where they can download millions of free and paid apps. Some people like colour e-paper screens with technology like Kaleido 3 or Gallery 3, while others prefer black and white e-readers. Screen size is also a factor to consider; 6 inches used to be the gold standard, but it is easy to find them in all sorts of different sizes, all the way to 13.3 inches.
Hardcore enthusiasts look at the things above but consider some very different things. For example, the screen’s PPI? The higher the PPI, the more precise the text will be when reading for hours. Does the screen have a flush screen and bezel or a hollow one? Processor, RAM, storage, or the inclusion of an SD card are also important. The operating system and version number are also crucial; if it runs Android, what version is it? Some e-readers ship with Android 11, while some have Android 13 or 14. The higher the version of the operating system, the more likely it is to support all of the mainstream and fringe apps for a long time before the developers no longer support it because not many people are using it anymore.
When you are looking to buy a new e-reader, what are the main things you are looking for? Hardware design, software experience, a brand you have heard of, or a liberal return policy? What about the official or third-party accessories to modify your e-reader? Sound off below.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
