The best e-readers to take with you on vacation- Although fewer and fewer people are reading books, the popularity of e-readers continues to grow. Is it something for you to take with you this holiday? At first, you might think you’re going to miss holding a real book in your hands. Once you get used to an e-reader, however, these prejudices disappear like snow in the sun and you don’t want to go back. I was exactly the same in it, but after a few months of reading on the e-reader again I had a real book in my hands I noticed how clumsy, heavy and clumsy a real book really is. A best e-reader makes you spoiled.
You can of course take ten real books with you on holiday, but you will soon reach your maximum weight that you can take with you on an airplane. You put hundreds, thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of books on an e-reader and the weight really doesn’t change. In addition, the special E Ink screen of an e-reader is gentle on your eyes. Especially with the latest e-readers you have the idea that you are looking at a real page instead of a screen. You can easily turn pages by clicking on the side or, if available, via the physical buttons. In the long run it is of course also better for the environment, you save space in the house and it is really much more comfortable to read than a real book once you get used to it.
Buy a subscription or individual e-books
You can buy plenty of e-books online of all the popular, and less popular, books you can think of. You can then put this on your e-reader, but you can also opt for a subscription. For a price of half a book per month you have access to many hundreds of thousands of books. Consider, for example, a service like Kobo Plus or Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited. Kobo Plus only works on a Kobo e-reader. A subscription costs 9.99 euros (read only) or 12.99 euros if you want access to tens of thousands of audiobooks in addition to reading hundreds of thousands of e-books. The service has plenty of Dutch books, including many bestsellers. The first 30 days are free, so you can always give it a try this holiday.
Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s subscription service, but is not yet active in the Netherlands. You can take out Kindle Unlimited via Amazon’s German website, but then you don’t actually have any Dutch books. Do you still have an Amazon Prime subscription in Germany? Then you have free access to Prime Reading, where you can read various free e-books at no extra cost. Kindle Unlimited has yet to launch in the Netherlands and you do not have access to Prime Reading via the Dutch Prime subscription.
Buying individual e-books can of course be done almost anywhere. Putting an e-book on your e-reader differs per brand, but is never difficult. Pay attention to the supported file formats, so that you can be sure that you can read the e-book on your new e-reader. The following e-readers are our tips to take with you during your well-deserved vacation:
Best e-readers: Kobo Libra 2
The Kobo Libra 2 is the successor to the Libra H20 and was released late last year. The Kobo Libra 2 is a 7″ model with a resolution of 1,264 by 1,680 pixels. This equates to 300 pixels-per-inch. The storage memory is a bit larger with this successor, namely 32 GB compared to 8 GB of the predecessor. FYI, that’s enough memory for 24,000 e-books. The dimensions are 144.6 x 161.6 x 9 mm and the weight is 215 grams. New to this successor is the bluetooth support. You can also listen to audiobooks on your e-reader with a connected Bluetooth headset or Bluetooth speaker.
The nice thing about this e-reader are the physical buttons with which you can also turn your page. In addition, this model is ideal to take with you on holiday (or in the bath), because it is waterproof. So reading quietly by the pool is no problem at all. Thanks to ComfortLight Pro lighting, the Kobo Libra 2 is easy on the eyes. You can filter out the blue light and also adjust the color temperature and brightness yourself. You can also effortlessly set fonts and font styles yourself.
The Kobo Libra 2 is ideal to use in combination with a Kobo Plus subscription, but of course you don’t have to. You can also buy individual e-books yourself. The Kobo Libra 2 can handle the following formats: EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR. The price of the Kobo Libra 2 is 189 euros.
Pocketbook Touch Lux 5
The Pocketbook Touch Lux 5 features a 6-inch E Ink Carta HD display. The resolution is 758 by 1,014 pixels. This equates to 212 pixels-per-inch. You can adjust the brightness and color temperature yourself thanks to the Smartlight technology. The dual-core processor ensures smooth navigation and reading, and you can store thousands of books on the 8 GB storage. Pocketbook claims a battery life of about a month. The physical buttons at the bottom are very nice. You can easily hold this model in one hand while turning the pages.
Kobo Plus is not present on a Pocketbook, but it does not have to be. The following formats are supported: ACSM, CBR, CBZ, CHM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, EPUB(DRM), FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTM, HTML, MOBI, pfd, pdf (DRM), PRC, RTF, TXT, so there is always a suitable e-book to be found. The dimensions are 161.3 x 108 x 8 mm and the weight is 155 grams. The Pocketbook Touch Lux 5 is available in black and red and costs only 119 euros. It is important to be careful with water during your holiday, because this model is not water resistant.
Best e-readers: Kindle Paperwhite
The Kindle Paperwhite is from Amazon and has a 6.8″ screen. Last year, this model was again renewed and comes with various improvements. The downside of the Kindle Paperwhite is that it’s a pretty closed system. In principle, you buy the books through the Amazon website. Many popular formats are not supported, although Amazon is slowly opening its doors and you can finally upload .epub since last month. However, for more advanced users, there is no problem. With external software you can easily transfer files in a format that the Kindle Paperwhite reads, so you have no further restrictions.
However, don’t let this put you off, because qualitatively it is a really good e-reader. For example, the Kindle Paperwhite has thin screen edges and up to 10 weeks of battery life. The reflection-free HD display has 300 pixels per inch, so it’s sharp enough to see everything clearly, even in sunlight. The light is adjustable, the screen lighting is adjustable and the Kindle Paperwhite is also waterproof. The base model has 8 GB of storage, enough for thousands of books, and costs 149 euros. There is also a special Signature Edition for 189 euros. It has 32GB of storage, auto-adjusting light sensors, and wireless charging. Note that Amazon regularly has offers where you can purchase the Kindle Paperwhite tens of euros cheaper.
The Kindle Paperwhite measures 174 x 125 x 8.1 mm and weighs 205 grams. The following formats are supported by default: Direct: Kindle Format 8 (azw3), Kindle (azw), TXT, PDF, unsecured MOBI, PRC; via conversion: EPUB, HTML DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PMP.
