Guide to electronic books

Screen: 15 cm, e-ink
Storage: 3,500 books
Weight: 241 g
Price: $195

Perfect for: A commuter, frequent traveller or multi-tasker for whom avid reading means not only e-books but also magazines, newspapers and news feeds.

Pros: The Kindle’s crisp black and white e-ink display is easy to read and comes in a choice of eight fonts. Through the Whispernet 3G wireless connection, the Kindle store gives free and fast access to a million public-domain books and, with subscriptions, you can keep up on news blogs, periodicals and daily newspapers. You can also upload PDF documents and annotate what you’re reading.

Cons: The Kindle mostly supports only its own e-book formats. The unique text-to-speech feature that reads books, newspapers, blogs and documents aloud sounds tinny and robotic. The keypad, essential for the many value-added features that require typing, calls for nimble fingers.

Screen: 15 cm e-ink, reactive high-contrast touch screen
Storage: 1,200 e-books (plus memory-card slots)
Weight: 215 g
Price: $250

Perfect for: A student or a student of life — especially one that’s an ardent bestseller- list follower.

Pros: The Sony Reader’s black and white e-ink display was the easiest on the eyes out of all units tested. Pages can be annotated either using a virtual keyboard or by writing on the touch-screen with the provided stylus. The reader supports multiple e-book file formats, including industry standards PDF and ePub. That means more books, including over a million public domain titles via Google and free e-book downloads from your local library using Sony Library Finder. It’s also the only unit that comes with its own protective sleeve.

Cons: While we generally like the screen, the contrast is not strong enough for reading in dim lighting. Turning a page causes a distracting flicker.

Screen: 25 cm, full-colour, backlit
Storage: 16 GB and up
Weight: 680 g
Price: From $549

Perfect For: An internet junkie or gaming and computer geek who occasionally reads, rather than a dedicated bookworm.

Pros: The iPad has a fully backlit, highcontrast colour display that’s terrific for illustrated works. The iPad’s app for reading, iBooks, supports the ePub format. Touchscreen navigation makes flipping pages a breeze. You can select whatever type and size of font you fancy. Words and passages can be highlighted and annotated, and an instant pop-up dictionary is a click away. The landscape orientation provides two side-byside pages, simulating a real book.

Cons: The iPad’s size and weight can make reading cumbersome. Carrying it around all but demands a protective and generously proportioned purse or tote. The Apple’s iBookstore pricing per book is higher than other e-readers, and you’ll need an additional monthly paid wireless connection (or to rely on WiFi) to download data, whether it’s a book or the latest viral YouTube cat video.