Whether you’re on a budget, looking for an easy way to read when you travel, or want one for kids, here are our picks (they’re not all Kindles)
Bookworms may still cherish the feel of leafing through pages, the whiff of new-book smell, and stacking their shelves with beloved tomes, but nothing beats an e-reader for convenience.
You can bring your entire library on vacation without an extra suitcase. If you’re working through a 1,349-page novel such as Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, your wrists will thank you. And unlike a phone, your e-reader won’t constantly interrupt you with news alerts and texts, so you can lose yourself in a new world or focus on learning something new.
While e-readers evolve more slowly than say, phones, the latest batch are lighter, brighter, and more capable than ever. I evaluated six of the most popular models to see which belongs on your nightstand in 2025.
Why you should trust me
As an avid reader all my life, I embraced the convenience of ebooks years ago, starting with an early Kindle model. My local library has a vast catalog, and my virtual queue is always full. Most weeks, I’ll get through a book or two or three. Even when I’m not reading, I’m listening to podcasts to find out which book to pick up next.
I’m also a veteran tech journalist with more than eight years of experience testing and reviewing products. At various times, my house has been cluttered with dozens of smart light bulbs, robot vacuums, and artificial Christmas trees (though usually not all at once).
How I tested
For more than a month, I tested six e-readers, using each for the same amount of time and putting them through the same tests. That included carrying them around in a backpack, knocking them off a nightstand, and even submerging the waterproof devices in water. I also evaluated other factors, such as battery life, charging time and extra features, such as Dropbox integration.
To test content availability exhaustively, I created a list of 26 popular and more obscure books in a variety of genres, including mystery, romance, sci-fi, and young adult. I noted which books were missing, and calculated the total cost to purchase them all. I also timed how long it took to get an ebook from my local library onto the device itself, loaded them up with PDFs and epub files, and connected Bluetooth headphones to listen to audiobooks.
Most of all, I read. I paged through fiction and nonfiction, children’s books, a graphic novel, and scientific PDFs on each device. I scored each device based on how easy it was to navigate, the options of changing fonts and layouts, and the brightness and crispness of the display.
After my read-a-thon, I returned the e-readers to their manufacturers or donated them to the Seattle public library.