The Rugged Guide to eBook Readers

They’re everywhere lately – coffee shops, break rooms, even the very places they were designed to replace: bookstores. EBook Readers are quickly gaining steam as the must-have devices for bibliophiles due to their light weight, eInk displays and ability to store thousands of books at a time.

The choices are many, with several companies competing for your cash – most notably Sony, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Each brand has its strengths and weaknesses and I’m here to sort it all out, so you can get back to reading. Seriously, put down the Chuck Norris biography and read this; those glorious literary roundhouse kicks can wait.

Why eBook Readers are So Popular

There are a variety of reasons why eBook readers are gaining popularity, even among self-proclaimed “purists” (those who like to stare at paper). These devices allow avid readers to carry a small, lightweight piece of electronic equipment around, rather than schlep a 400-page tome from place to place. It alleviates the back and arm strain caused by the last Harry Potter book and Stephen King’s Under the Dome.

More importantly, price factors in quite heavily – not so much the prices of the readers, which range from $200 to $500, but rather, the prices of the books available for download. Usually, eBook prices are 50%-70% cheaper than their print counterparts, due to lack of printing and shipping costs. This means you can probably download an eBook version of a New York Times bestseller right now for half the price of the hardcover edition. If you read a lot, these savings add up quickly.

Finally, eBook readers possess a distinct advantage over computers, smart phones and other content devices (read: iPad). EInk. An eBook reader’s eInk display renders text over a gray, non-backlit screen in a way that makes it look like a printed page. This means no eyestrain after long reading sessions and batteries last much longer since the displays don’t require any power.

What to Look for When Choosing an eBook Reader

EBook readers may all fundamentally do the same thing – store and display books, but each brand’s offerings are completely separate from one another in very different ways. These differences are what you want to base your choice on, since you’re going to be spending a lot of time with your new reading device.

Screen Size and Battery Life:

The majority of eBook readers have generally the same 6″ screens. This size is ideal for reading 95% of available content – novels, non-fiction, history, etc… If you’re a student and looking for something to accommodate textbooks and PDFs, the Amazon Kindle DX has a 9.7″ auto-rotating eInk display, which is perfect for large-form content.

Almost all eBook readers offer about a week of standby battery life and several days if you’re an active reader. Should you keep the extra stuff on, such as WiFi, that battery life will shrink quickly.

Amazon Kindle

eBook Selection:

Not all eBook stores are created equal. Some have more books than others, some have lower prices than others.

Amazon touts over 450,000 books in its store, as well as over 1.8 million free, public domain books available for download to its Kindle eBook Reader. New York Times bestsellers start at $9.99, unless marked otherwise. With the introduction of the iPad and its new pricing scheme, expect those prices to increase over time.

Barnes & Noble offers over a million titles for its Nook eBook Reader, as well as over a million free results from Google Books. Compound that with the Nook’s ability to read ePub and Reader formats and you’ve almost infinitely increased the amount of reading material available for the Nook. Depending on the current month’s promotion, some Nook eBooks can be purchased for as little as $4 – not too shabby!

Another eBook retail outlet with the same “over a million books available” claim is Sony’s Reader store. However, included with their 1+ million books are the free ones from Google. Sony isn’t giving up any info on exactly how many eBooks are available for purchase for their Reader devices, so I expect that their selection is not nearly as vast as Amazon’s or Barnes & Noble’s. The Reader store’s prices seem arbitrary and don’t follow any conventional pricing scheme. One popular book could be $15.37, another could be $6.64 – you never know what you might pay for a bestseller.

Sony's Readers

Compatibility:

There’s a format-war waging among eBook reader manufacturers. Actually, it’s really between Amazon and everyone else.

Amazon’s eBooks use a proprietary format (AZW), which means you can only read Kindle books on a Kindle. Forget about switching from a Kindle to a Nook or a Sony Reader and taking your content with you. However, if you decide to upgrade/switch from one Kindle to another, you will be able to transfer your content.

The Nook and Reader, on the other hand, support the open-source ePub format. Most, if not all, of your content should transfer over if you decide to switch from a Nook to an Reader, or vice versa.

Furthermore, the Nook’s eBooks can be lent from one Nook to another for up to two weeks and Sony Readers can check out eBooks from participating public libraries for about the same amount of time.

In summary, if you like to switch up your gadgets and don’t want to be locked into a specific eBook format, avoid the Kindle.