The best e-readers of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed

The Kindle Paperwhite is a top-notch e-reader. It has all the familiar features of a Kindle (300 ppi e-ink screen, long battery life, and adjustable warm light). Amazon just updated the Kindle Paperwhite this fall, and its biggest draw is faster performance: Amazon said it features 25% faster page turns and 20% overall faster performance. 

Aside from speed, the Paperwhite gets up to 12 weeks of battery life (compared to 10 weeks from the previous Paperwhite generation. Staff writer Maria Diaz tested the Kindle for two weeks and never had to charge it. “After two weeks of daily reading on a single charge, some days for up to three hours a day, my Kindle Paperwhite’s battery is still at 32%,” she wrote in her review. 

Review: One of the best E Ink readers I’ve tested isn’t made by Boox or Kobo

The new Paperwhite also has a larger, 7-inch display (the previous generation was 6.8 inches), and it’s thinner as well, making it even more comfortable to hold while reading for hours. It also comes in two new colors: raspberry and jade. 

There is still a Signature Edition to the Paperwhite as before, and for $40 more, you get wireless charging, 32GB of storage instead of 16GB, and an auto-adjusting front light sensor. 

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite tech specs: Display: 7-inch 300 ppi e-ink screen | Storage: 16 GB | Colors: Black, raspberry, jade | Weight: 7.4 ounces | Dimensions: 7 x 5 x .30 inches | Connections: USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Battery life: Up to 12 weeks 

Amazon also updated the base-model Kindle this fall. The upgraded 12th generation Kindle features faster page turns, a higher contrast ratio, and a front light that is 25% brighter at the max setting—as bright as the new Kindle Paperwhite. The price increased slightly from the previous generation, from $100 to $110, but it’s still the cheapest e-reader you can buy. 

Associate editor Nina Raemont spent a weekend reading the new Kindle and said it’s the most value-packed device. “While I was reading, I noticed that the page-turning and book-loading speeds were significantly quicker than on my Kindle Oasis or Kindle Paperwhite from 2022,” she wrote. “I tested my old Paperwhite and my new Kindle and found that the new Kindle turned pages a smidgen quicker than the Paperwhite.”

Review: I spent the weekend reading on Amazon’s newest Kindle – and it’s more useful than ever

Raemont also commented on the Kindle’s more vivid display and brightness. Speaking of color, it also comes in a new exterior color: matcha green. 

Its 300 ppi remains the same, and the anti-glare display makes it easy to read in any light, and dark mode is a warm welcome when you’re trying to read at night without letting blue light interrupt your sleep cycle. 

Amazon Kindle tech specs: Display: 6-inch, 300ppi glare-free | Storage: 16GB | Colors: Black or matcha | Weight: 5.56 ounces | Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.3 x 0.32 inches | Connections: USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Battery: Up to 6 weeks

Boox is an e-reader and drawing tablet with a vivid color display, so your e-book’s illustrations will pop as you read, and so will your color-coordinated notes. Speaking of which, the note-taking templates on the Tab Mini C are handy. Whether you’re a student taking notes, a desk job employee making an hourly plan for your day, a musician crafting a piece of sheet music, or a historian drafting a timeline, the Tab Mini C offers a template for that. 

With adjustable warm and cool lights, you can customize your desired blue light level to tone the display before bedtime for an easier-on-the-eyes reading experience. While Boox itself does not have an e-book library, you can download apps to your Boox device, meaning it can access the Kindle store or Libby (to borrow and read library books). 

ZDNET editor Nina Raemont, has been using the tablet to manage her work-life calendar, build lists for grocery shopping, meeting agendas, and more. It’s become Raemont’s deskside companion and staple note-taking device. Because of its lightweight and effortless portability, it has replaced the trusty Moleskin notebook she avidly used to plan her day. 

The robust battery life lasts many days to a week or two, and the e-reader comes with a magnetically attached stylus with pressure detection for drawing. The tablet’s sleek design has a minimalist feel and careful use of popping colors. However, Reddit users note that you may have to tinker with the tablet’s settings to maximize your experience. 

Boox Tab Mini C specs: Display: 7.9-inch screen, electronic ink | Storage: 64GB | Colors: Black | Weight: 11 ounces | Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.33 inches | Connections: USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Battery: 5,000mAh Li-ion Polymer

New this year to the Kindle lineup is its first color e-reader: the Kindle Colorsoft. It features the same 300 ppi display that’s standard for e-readers, except it also has a 150 ppi display for color images, along with up to 120 nits of brightness to really make your pages and color images pop.  Depending on your color preferences, you can customize the color settings to standard or vivid. 

The Colorsoft’s color features don’t stop there: you can also highlight passages in your books in different colors and organize them into categories (i.e., quotes in yellow, facts in blue, characters to remember in purple, etc.).  

I was able to go hands-on with the new Kindle Colorsoft, and was impressed by how its color didn’t drown out when in direct sunlight. I even paired it next to a Boox e-reader and noticed a more obvious pixelization on the Boox’s color display, as opposed to the smooth color that the Kindle provides.

Review: Kindle Colorsoft: One of the best E Ink tablets I’ve tested

This color Kindle would be great for those who often read comics or Manga, and it even provides panel-by-panel reading for comics, making it easy to see the elements the author intended for each panel. In addition, a pinch-and-zoom feature allows you to really see the color images in detail.

However, if the books you read are mostly black and white, I don’t think the color is worth the almost $300 price tag. 

Kindle Colorsoft tech specs: Display: 7-inch, glare-free color screen | Storage: 32GB | Colors: Black | Weight: 7.07 ounces | Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.30 inches | Connections: USB-C, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Battery: Up to 8 weeks

Kobo has been making e-readers since 2016, and they have become more competitive with Kindle. This Kobo e-reader has a 6-inch glare-free E Ink Carta 1300 HD touchscreen display with 1448 x 1072 resolution with Dark Mode. It also has ComfortLight PRO as its front light, which can adjust brightness and color temperature specifically for blue light reduction so your eyes strain less while reading at night. 

Kobo offers more than 5 million e-book titles to choose from, including audiobooks. You can also borrow books from your local library. With 16GB of storage, Kobo says you can download up to 12,000 eBooks or 75 Kobo Audiobooks. 

Like the Kindle Paperwhite, the Kobo Clara has a waterproof rating of IPX8, so you can read in the bath or by the pool. It also comes with 13 different fonts and over 50 font styles, so you can customize your reading experience to your liking. 

Reddit users also note that the Clara BW has a really strong black and white display that “takes reading to another level.”

Kobo Clara BW tech specs: Display: 6-inch glare-free E Ink Carta 1300 HD touchscreen | Storage: 16 GB | Colors: Black | Weight: 6.14 ounces | Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.4 x .36 inches | Connections: USB-C and Bluetooth | Battery life: Up to 7 weeks

For those tried and true Barnes and Noble fans, the Nook is another e-reader option. The Nook first debuted in 2009 to compete with Kindle, but it’s since been upgraded to feature more modern features. The GlowLight 4 Plus has a waterproof design (IPX7), a 300 ppi screen with GlowLight technology that’s easy on the eyes, and audiobook access via Bluetooth or a headphone jack. 

The Nook is also the only option on our list that has physical buttons to turn pages and go back to the home screen, which is great for those who are less tech-savvy with touchscreen devices. 

It’s also the only e-reader on this list with a 3.5mm headphone jack, which means you’ll be able to listen to audiobooks via wired headphones without having to connect to Bluetooth–another plus point for those who are less tech-inclined. 

Reddit users note that this is by far the best design Nook has had so far, saying, “This Nook model has probably the best build quality I’ve ever seen on a Nook. It has that premium feel and a very nice step up from the more plastic-y [Glowlight 4]. I also appreciate the symmetric design.”

Nook GlowLight 4 Plus tech specs: Display: 7.8-inch  high-resolution 300-ppi | Storage: 32GB | Colors: Black | Weight: 10.05 ounces | Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x .31 inches | Connections: USB-C, 3.5mm headphone jack | Battery: Up to 3 weeks