eBook Readers: Reviews

ConsumerReports.org: ConsumerReports.org includes various versions of the latest Amazon Kindle in its current eReader report.

Laptop Magazine: This very thorough and lengthy review includes lots of illustrations and a dissection of almost every aspect of the e-book reader.

CNET: David Carnoy runs through the Amazon Kindle's design, features, display technology, specifications and performance in a direct, no-nonsense manner.

PCMag.com: The Amazon Kindle wins the Editors' Choice award for best e-reader at PCMag.com, supplanting the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch.

Wired: Wired's Michael Calore is bothered by the lack of a keyboard more than most other reviewers, finding it difficult to type much of anything on the e-reader.

Engadget.com: Brian Heater covers the Amazon Kindle in Engadget.com's typical in-depth fashion.

Pocket-lint.com: Harris finds the Amazon Kindle lighter, faster and smaller than previous models, and loves the inclusion of library lending.

TrustedReviews.com: Andrew Williams' review of the Amazon Kindle is exhaustive, with three pages of hands-on testing, a comparison against the previous model, and a video review of the device.

CNET: The hardware refresh of the Nook Touch (since renamed the Nook Simple Touch) earns an "Excellent" rating and an Editors' Choice award from CNET's David Carnoy -- at that was before a recent update brought battery and page speed improvements to the device.

PCMag.com: Reviewer David Pierce gives the Nook (now Nook Simple Touch) an Editors' Choice award and a 4.5-star (out of 5) rating, calling it cheap and light, with an "excellent touchscreen experience." One of the two major cons -- slow page refreshes -- has been addressed in a late-2011 software update.

Laptop Magazine: The Nook Touch garners a 4-star (out of 5) rating and an Editors' Choice award from Laptop Magazine.

PC World: "As soon as I removed the new Barnes & Noble Nook from its box, I could tell that this petite e-reader was going to be a worthy challenger to the third-generation Amazon Kindle," Melissa J. Perenson writes to open the review, and she goes on to call it one of the best e-readers available today in this long and detailed review.

PCMag.com: Although this review is of the Amazon Kindle Touch and not the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, reviewer Jamie Lendino makes constant comparisons of the two throughout.

Engadget.com: Like PCMag.com's Jamie Lendino, reviewer Brian Heater compares the new Kindle Touch against the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch throughout this critique of the former, and he comes away with a similar opinion."The Kindle Touch is as good as any touch reader out there, but there's nothing particularly exceptional about it -- including pricing," he says.

Engadget.com: This brief review describes Engadget.com reviewer Brian Heater's hands-on impressions of the Nook Simple Touch after it received a late-2011 software upgrade.

Wired: Wired reviewer John C. Abell gives the Nook Touch (before its rechristening) a rating of 8 out of 10 and says that despite its poor low-light performance and "half-baked" social media integration, it is in many ways an excellent device.

PCMag.com: The Barnes & Noble Nook Color wins PCMag.com's Editors' Choice award.

Laptop Magazine: The Barnes & Noble Nook Color is a great color e-reader with a beautiful, easy-to-use touchscreen and nice extras like web browsing, K. T. Bradford concludes after a full test.

CNET: With its "capable color touchscreen," useful extras and low price, the Barnes & Noble Nook Color earns a spot on CNET's list of the best e-book readers.

Gizmodo.com: More "a very fancy e-book reader" than a stripped-down tablet, the Barnes & Noble Nook Color still impresses tester Matt Buchanan.

PC World: Reviewer Melissa J. Perenson touches on almost every aspect of the Barnes & Noble Nook Color in this exhaustive review, which is much longer than the ones typically found in PC World.

ConsumerReports.org: ConsumerReports.org tests a number of e-book readers from multiple brands, including the Barnes & Noble Nook Color.

CNET: CNET is one of the few reviewers to devote much space to the iPad 2 as an e-reader.

CNET: CNET's David Carnoy does the best job in the early going of describing the iPad 2's prowess as an e-book reader.

PCMag.com: PCMag.com awards its Editors' Choice recognition to the iPad 2.

Laptop Magazine: Laptop Magazine gives the Apple iPad 2 an Editors' Choice award.

Macworld: Jason Snell finds lots to like in the iPad 2, granting it a 4.5-star rating (out of 5). While he spends more time addressing other aspects of the tablet, he notes that while the slimmed-down iPad 2 is easier to hold, "if you're planning on using the iPad 2 to read a lot, you'll still find yourself propping it against your chest or setting it on a table -- the tablet is still not light enough to hold in one hand for extended periods of time." He adds that the iPad 2 still weighs more than twice as much as the Amazon Kindle.

Engadget.com: Engadget.com gives the iPad 2 an overall thumbs-up.

DigitalTrends.com: In this video review, the iPad's e-book reader function (largely unchanged in the since-updated iPad 2) compares favorably with the Barnes & Noble Nook.

PCMag.com: This review focuses on the iBooks application, which remains the same in the iPad 2.

I4U.com: This review does a good job of explaining what it's like to buy and read books on the iPad, which remains the same on the iPad 2.

The Wall Street Journal: According to ophthalmologists quoted in this article, backlit screens are not more likely to cause eyestrain than other types.

Macworld: Stanza ties with the Amazon Kindle app for the highest rating of any free e-reader app at Macworld, which tests and rates all of the major apps.

Laptop Magazine: Stanza is "one of the most impressive eReader apps we've tried," K. T. Bradford says.

PCMag.com: Michael Muchmore calls Stanza "the most versatile e-book application for the iPhone," awarding it the Editors' Choice designation.

CNET: Stanza beats eReader Pro and Kindle for iPhone in this review, earning the title of best iPhone e-reader app.

148Apps.com: Stanza outclasses apps from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, earning a top rating on this app-testing website.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog: David Winograd calls Stanza "the most amazing e-book app I've come across." You can customize it to show e-books the way you like, and it has impressive features like a built-in dictionary and the ability to annotate.

iTunes Store: More than 500 users had rated the current version of Stanza when we checked.