Best E-Readers 2025–2026

The devices we have not touched

We should be straight about something, because most buying guides are not.

We have personally used the older devices on this site — the Paperwhites, the Oasis, the Sonys, the PocketBooks, the Tolinos. Some of the current-generation hardware above we have not yet had on the bench: the Colorsoft, the Libra Colour, the newest Scribe. What we have written about those comes from specifications, from the people who buy them from us, and from watching what turns up broken.

That is a weaker claim than "we tested it for six weeks," and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Reviews of those devices are coming as we get hold of them. If you want the picks we can vouch for personally, they are the used ones — and they are also the ones we would most often recommend anyway.

Why so much of this list is second-hand

Because the value is there, and because nobody selling new hardware will tell you.

The jump from a 2015 Paperwhite to a 2026 one is real but small: a slightly bigger screen, a faster page turn, a warm light. The jump in price is not small. For most people, most of the time, a used Paperwhite in good condition is the correct purchase and the newest model is a want rather than a need.

There are exceptions and we will name them. If you read in the bath, buy something waterproof — that is a genuine feature, not a marketing one. If you annotate PDFs, buy the Scribe or a large PocketBook, because nothing smaller will do. If you borrow from a library, buy Kobo and save yourself a decade of workarounds.

Everything else is preference.

What to check before you buy used

Two things, and they take a minute.

The battery. Ask the seller how long a charge lasts in real use. An e-reader that needs charging weekly has a tired cell. Replacements exist but you are then doing surgery on a forty-dollar device.

A photo of it switched on, showing text. This is the one people forget. A dead or damaged E Ink screen looks completely fine in a photograph taken while the device is off. If the listing has no powered-on photo, ask for one. Sellers who have nothing to hide send it within the hour.

A note on colour

Colour E Ink is the thing people ask us about most, and the thing we most often talk them out of.

It is genuinely good now for comic covers, for highlighted textbooks, for children's books. It is still lower resolution than black-and-white on the same device, and the colours are muted in a way that surprises people expecting a tablet. If you mostly read novels, colour costs you sharpness on the thing you actually do.

If you read manga or study with highlighters, it is worth it. Otherwise, spend the difference on books.