Comparison of e-readers

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An e-reader, also known as an e-book reader, is a portable electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading e-books and periodicals. E-readers have a similar form factor to a tablet; usually use electronic paper resulting in better screen readability, especially in bright sunlight; and have longer battery life when compared to a tablet. An e-reader's battery will typically last for multiple weeks. In contrast to an e-reader, a tablet has a screen capable of higher refresh rates which make them more suitable for interaction such as playing a video game or watching a video clip.^[1]

All electronic paper types offer lower power consumption and better sunlight contrast than LCDs. Some offer a backlight to allow low-light reading. With the backlight turned off, all have a similar appearance to "ink on paper" and are readable in bright environments.

• E ink: E Ink Corporation's 1st-generation technology, also known as E Ink Vizplex. Although "eInk" may be used to talk about all electronic paper displays, "eInk" and "E Ink" are trademarked by E Ink, which provides the majority of the electronic paper displays used in devices.
• E Ink Pearl^{[broken anchor]}: E Ink's 2nd-generation technology, which has higher contrast and a greater number of different levels of gray than their earlier technology. A further revision of Pearl is Mobius^{[broken anchor]}, which uses flexible plastic in the display.
• E Ink Triton^{[broken anchor]}: E Ink's 3rd-generation technology that featured the ability to show color in the display.
• E Ink Carta^{[broken anchor]}: E Ink's 4th-generation technology, which has higher contrast and a greater number of different levels of gray than their earlier technology; the displays have a pixel density between 212 and 300 ppi.
• E Ink Kaleido: E Ink's colour e-paper display supporting up to 4096 colours, used in various e-readers such as BOOX Go Color 7 and Kobo Libra Colour
• SiPix: A former competitor to E Ink, which had displays with almost instantaneous page turns. It was acquired by E Ink in December 2012.
• LG Flex: Electronic paper that allows a flexible screen; is still in development. With these displays, the user is able to bend the e-reader without damaging it and can fold it up to put in a pocket.

Electronic-paper readers come in various sizes. Many small e-readers have display diagonal sizes around 150 or 180 mm (6 or 7 in), while some of the large commercially available readers have display sizes around A5 (257 mm (10.1 in)) or A4 size (364 mm (14.3 in)).

Notes:

• Library DRM compatible – Can be used to borrow e-books from public libraries, e.g. the EPUB and/or PDF formats with digital-rights-management (DRM) are supported.
• "microSDHC" is the most popular format for external memory cards. Devices which support a different card have that format listed.
• Listed are only products for which either the product itself or its company is notable, as shown by having a Wikipedia article (without notability notice).

Some common hardware is resold in different national markets under various brand names. Below is the list of identical hardware:

• manufacturer device name→ screen model, compatible screen models (first is better) → rebranded devices
• Boeye C60 → ED060SCE(LF), ED060SC7(LF) → Gmini MagicBook Z6, Digma E605, DigmaE625
• Boeye G6 → ? → Amazon Kindle 2
• Boeye G10 → ED097OC4(LF) → Amazon Kindle DX
• Hanlin V3 → ED060SC8, ED060SC9, ED060SC4(LF), LB060S02-RD01, LB060S01-RD02 → BeBook : BeBook, Koobe, Astak EZ Reader, Lbook V3, Papyre 6.1 (E1/E2) (Spain)
• Hanlin V60 → ED060SC8, ED060SC9, ED060SC4(LF), LB060S02-RD01, LB060S01-RD02 or ED060SC7(LF), ED060SCE(LF) → LBook V60 (white or black), Papyre 613 (v1 or v2), E-Reader Onda Biblet TB600KT con WiFi e 3G, Koobe Be Free
• ? → 6" → Netronix EB001, Astak Mentor EZ Reader, Cybook Gen3 (200 MHz version)
• ? → 6" → Netronix EB600, Cool-er, eClicto, Elonex eBook, eSlick, Astaka Mentor EZ Reader, Cybook Gen3 (400 MHz version)
• ? → 6" → Condor eGriver touch, Medion OYO, Prestigio PER5062B, Icarus Sense, Pandigital Novel 6" Personal eReader, Qisda QD060B00
• ? → 6" → TrekStor eBook Reader 3.0, Prestigio Nobile PER3172B
• ? → ED060SC7(LF) → Papyre 601, Wexler E6003, Prology Latitude I-601, Ritmix RBK-600, Assistant AE-601, DNS Airbook EYT601, Texet TB-146
• ? → ED060SCE(LF) → Qumo Libro Basic, Woxter Paperlight 300
• ? → 6" SiPix Touchscreen display, 800x600px, 167ppi, 16 levels of grayscale → bq Movistar, bq Avant, egriver Touch (India), postitivo Alfa (Brazil), e-vrit (Israel), Papyre 6.2 (Spain).

See Comparison of e-book formats for details on the file formats.

The most notable formats are:

• .epub is a free and open e-book standard used by most e-readers.
• .azw is Amazon's first proprietary e-book file format used in Kindles.