The Best Third Party E-Books You Can Buy Right Now
If you’re looking for a great e-reader but don’t want to commit to the Amazon Kindle ecosystem, you have some good options. Sure, there are some fancy brands you can choose from, but if you really want the best non-Kindle ereader, you’ll find three brands that really fit the bill and offer a ton of compatibility.
Kobo
Perhaps one of the best and most famous Kindle alternatives is Kobo. Kobo e-readers, part of the Rakuten ecosystem, have many of the same design schemes as Amazon Kindles, making them an ideal alternative for users who like the look and feel of the Kindle but want something not tied to Amazon .
In particular, Kobo Libra 2 meets all the same requirements as Kindle and offers support for many different document types, including EPUB, EPUB2, EPUB3, PDF, FlePub, MOBI, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, CBZ and CBR.
The Kobo Libra 2 features a seven-inch CARTA 1200 e-ink display, 32GB of internal storage, and access to Rakuten’s massive Kobo e-book store. It’s not as big an offering as the Amazon Kindle Store, but it does have most of the well-known books you’d find in an e-book store. And since Kobo Libra 2 offers tons of compatibility with multiple types of formats, you can read almost anything on the device once you download it.
The Kobo Libra 2 retails for $189.99, which puts it on par with the Kindle Paperwhite. Oh, and did I mention it also has page turn buttons?
Bux
Another popular name that usually goes unnoticed when you talk about e-readers with Kindle fans is Boox. While the Boox is a bit more expensive than the regular Kindle, it offers a ton of compatibility across a variety of formats, and most of the company’s offerings are designed for larger display sizes. For example, the Boox Note Air3 C has a 10.3-inch display that can display both color and black and white images.
Boox Note Air3 C has wide compatibility options, including support for formats such as PDF (maximum 2GB), DJVU, CBR, CBZ, EPUB, AZW3, MOBI, TXT, DOCX, DOC, FB2, CHM, RTF, HTML, ZIP. , PRC, PPTX, PNG, JPG and BMP. It’s also an Android tablet, which means you can take advantage of several types of reading apps to access a variety of books, comics, and more.
It’s also great for taking notes, as the large display gives you plenty of space to work off-screen. If you’re looking for an e-reader that doubles as a tablet in many ways, the Boox Note Air3 C is a great option. It typically retails for $499.99, making it one of the more expensive options.
Pocket book
The last brand I want to highlight here, and one that I find particularly promising, is PocketBook. The PocketBook Verse ($129) is one of the closest options the company offers to the Kindle, and it features a six-inch, glare-free E-Ink Carta display. What’s even more attractive about the PocketBook is that it offers an expandable SD card slot, allowing you to expand the internal memory from 8GB using an SD card up to 128GB.
PocketBook Verse also supports 25 formats, including ACSM, CHM, DJVU, DOC, DOCX, EPUB, EPUB(DRM), FB2, FB2.ZIP, HTM, HTML, MOBI, PDF, PDF (DRM), PRC, RTF, TXT, AZW, CBR, AZW3 and CBZ.
Why choose a non-Kindle e-reader?
Deciding to ditch Amazon can be a daunting task, especially since Amazon offers the largest e-book store on the market. Of course, you could also choose another brand, like Nook, but if you’re trying to avoid Kindle, then chances are you’re also trying to avoid Nook. If so, then choosing one of the three brands listed above could give you wide access to great books while also freeing you from the clutches of the Amazon Kindle experience.
However, the downside to many of these non-Kindle e-readers is that you’ll be using much smaller online stores or downloading books to your device instead. However, it is not that difficult. If you’re looking to move away from the Kindle ecosystem, but don’t want to completely give up the ease of access that the Kindle Store offers, I highly recommend giving Kobo a try. It’s a solid brand with a great e-book store, and all of the company’s e-readers are priced the same as Kindles, so you won’t have to pay much more to achieve this success.