Best E-Reader for PDFs, Bed, Mobile in 2026

2026 UPDATE: I ended up going with the Air5 C. The color filter concern (150 PPI effective) only affects pixels where color is actually present. B&W text renders at full clarity. It's still a touch softer than pure B&W, but it's working well for my use-case. If you need something now, that's my recommendation. See my video comparing Viwoods to iPad and Kindle at night for the original brightness testing.

I just spent a stupid amount of time down a rabbit hole in search of the Goldilocks of e-readers for my use-case. I wanted to report back on that research.

• Boox Note Air5 C is my current winner, best all-rounder available now
• Viwoods Aipaper Mini if you don't read in bed (the brightness at lowest setting is still too harsh for dark rooms)
• Boox Go 10.3 if you never read in the dark (no front-light, but otherwise excellent)
• Wait for the next Viwoods refresh. They're actively working on the front-light issue. When that's fixed, it'll be the perfect device (B&W, right size, warm/dim light).
• 99% almost-winners: iFLYTEK AINOTE Air 2 (but I don't trust it). Meebook M8 (but it's too small). iPad Mini (but I need e-ink). Bigme B1051 (slightly clunky).

Profile: "The Sleepy, Mobile Researcher." I'm a programmer / ML engineer, wanting novels & continuing education. Occasional note-taking & apps. Mostly in bed, sometimes traveling or outside.

• Requirements: E-ink (rules out iPad). Front-light. ~300 PPI (originally I thought this ruled out color devices - I was wrong, see update above). Android, so I can do Github, Gmail, and Workflowy (my Notion).
• 60% importance: bed-time reading. Reading helps you sleep via TPN activation; but best without LCD + blue-light. So front-lit, warm-light e-ink is a powerful sleep aid. And it's two-bird: spend this wind-down time with a novel, or catching up on research.
  • 10" is too big for holding in bed. Use an arm like this (better if one attaches to your headboard) with a magsafe adhesive affixed to the back of your device. Then cap that magnet with a magnetic pop-socket for when you're on the road.
• 20%: PDFs. Multi-column, images & diagrams. This rules out Kindle. As a machine learning engineer, I need to stay abreast with PDFs from arXiv, in a format incompatible with reflow. Most online recommend a 10" or 13" device. Unfortunately, few in these sizes have B&W + front-light. So you can settle with 8" in landscape if the device has strong PDF + landscape support (eg via KOReader).
• 15%: Mobility. The devices I found with the fewest compromises are 13", eg Boox Note Max. But they're just too big to bop around with.
• 5%: Writing. A nice-to-have. Most modern e-readers support it; so all else being equal, I weighed the quality of writing.
• And I prefer light-weight. I excluded some devices which met most marks, but were pointlessly heavy. 200-300 grams is ideal for 8", 300-450g for 10".

As you can see, everything has like one compromise killing it for my use-case. In fact, Viwoods Mini's primary compromise is: cold-light, bright lowest-setting front-light. Making it a poor in-bed device! I tested it extensively. Even with dark mode, the lowest brightness setting is simply too harsh in a dark room. The eye strain was real. So I returned it and went with the Air5 C instead. The color PPI hit turned out to be less of an issue than I feared (see note above), and the warm, dimmable light is excellent for bed-time reading. If Viwoods fixes their front-light in the next refresh (and they're reportedly working on it), that'll be the perfect device.

Note: I originally suggested avoiding color e-readers due to PPI concerns. After using the Air5 C extensively, I've softened on this. The color filter (which halves effective PPI to ~150) only activates on pixels displaying color. Black & white text still renders at full clarity. There's still a subtle softness compared to pure B&W devices, like a crisp new book vs a slightly older paperback. It's noticeable side-by-side, but perfectly readable day-to-day. If you want color for comics, diagrams, or highlighted PDFs, modern color e-ink is good enough. If you're a purist who only reads text, B&W is still crisper.

Ok, let's do use-cases and in-depth descriptions of these e-readers, and their compromises.

"I don't read outside"

Get an iPad Air or iPad Mini. Seriously, e-ink devices have major compromises as you see in this article. iPads are perfect for this profile, except for reading outside (yes, even with a paper-like screen protector). Regarding bed-time reading, LCD, and blue-light: you can turn on True Tone, Night Shift, and turn brightness all the way down. The negative impact on eye-health and melatonin are significantly reduced, and worth the overall benefits. It's outside reading that's a real no-go here. Trust me, I tried. I have an iPad 8th Gen since 2020, and am finally tossing in the towel (hence this post).

"I just want an e-reader, shut up"

You don't care about ethics & politics. You're non-technical. You just want something that works:

• Black & White (preferred): Kindle Paperwhite
• Color: Kindle Colorsoft
• With writing (stylus): Kindle Scribe

Again, B&W means 300 PPI; color means 150. So unless you need color, roll B&W here.

"I just want an e-reader, go on..."

You hate Amazon. Or, you have enough technical chops to exchange "buy a book and read it" for "fiddle just a smidge for superior hardware and software support" (KOReader is a huge jump in software quality, and supports PDFs).

• B&W (preferred): Boox Go 7
• Color: Boox Go 7 Gen II or Kobo Libra Colour

Both Boox & Kobo are beloved by e-book snobs. Kobo is closer to Kindle, in that you just buy a book and get reading. Boox - yes it's easy - but it's also powerful and extensible, being Android native. Both support KOReader, open source e-reader software which is significantly more powerful, customizable, clean, fast - just, better in every way - than Kindle's native ebook reader. And Boox / Kobo's native readers (which are already superior to Kindle's).

"I can wait"

If you can wait, wait for the next Viwoods refresh. Viwoods has confirmed they're working on the front-light issue (their current Mini has a too-bright lowest setting with no warm adjustment). When they fix this, it'll be the perfect device: 8.2", B&W (292 PPI, close enough to 300), Android 13, proper dimmable warm light, ultralight weight.

"I want a cheap beater"

MobiScribe Wave B&W! Jesus, it's $90, Android 12, 300 PPI, 7.8". Except for support, it's a powerful contender in so many categories! And with a stylus!? And "beater" because it's waterproof, and evidently quite durable.

Seriously, if you're not a picky snob, get this. Or hell, if you want something to hold you over until the next Viwoods refresh, get this. If e-readers wasn't something I take extremely seriously, this would be my guy, hands down.

What's bad about it? It's a rough experience, from what I've read. Software, mostly. Lag, crashes, been forever since an update. People say "you gotta want it" to work it. Kinda like an old car with 200k miles on it. You know you gotta baby it, but when people insult it, you get defensive. It's cheap because they're liquidating. They might be going out of business, so prepare for "never another update."

"I want big"

Get a 13"+ device. Definitely Boox; Boox Note Max kept coming up. But that's all I know, my research stopped there. Deep-dive this guy.

With those easy tie-breakers out of the way. The nuanced, sleepy, mobile researcher

Ok. Firstly, 10" is the best for this category. 13" is too big for mobility. 7" is too small for PDFs (even in landscape mode). 8", as you'll see, has the best devices with front-light; we're really pushing that PDF-happy size, but we really need a front-light.

10" perfect devices, but no front-light: Boox Go 10.3, Viwoods Aipaper (not Mini). If you never read in bed (or in dark settings), grab one of these. You have a winner. They're tied, I don't know which one I'd pick.

10" but color: Boox Note Air5 C. This is now my daily driver. I was nervous about the 150 PPI color concern, but after months of use, I can report: the PPI reduction only affects pixels where color is displayed. Text remains crisp. There's a subtle softness compared to pure B&W, noticeable if you're looking for it, but I no longer consider it a dealbreaker. The excellent warm, dimmable front-light makes this the best option for bed-time reading. If you need something now and read in bed, this is my recommendation.

Almost big enough: Meebook M8. 7.8", 265g, Android 14, 300ppi, dark mode, warm light. $260, Cheap! It doesn't come with a case +$20 or pen +$40. But even still, $320 is cheaper than most in this category. Really, really strong contender. If that 0.6" difference to 8.2" is splitting hairs for you, get this. For me, 8.2" was already pushing it (10.3" is the ideal).

The final round: Bigme B1051 vs iFLYTEK AINOTE Air 2 vs Viwoods Aipaper Mini

Bigme B1051. This guy is 10.3", Android 14, B&W 300 PPI, 435 grams (a smidge heavy, for B&W), $500-600. Some users complain about its software: laggy, crashy. Others say it's great; or to suck it up since B1051 is such a close mark. The software concerns were enough to steer me away, but if you want pure B&W 300 PPI with a front-light, this is one of your few options. Note: I had to disable Adblock to use their website. That took me forever to figure out, I thought their website was broken!

Viwoods Aipaper Mini vs iFLYTEK AINOTE Air 2

• Both: 8.2", 292 PPI
• Price: Viwoods=$400-500, iFLYTEK=$500-600 (ranges because accessories & coupons)
• Android: Viwoods=13, iFLYTEK=11

PPI. They both have Carta 1000 (HD), aka the oldest screen tech that E Ink has on the market. 2014 tech. Ridiculous. However! At this size, it's evidently a hair-splitting compromise. 300 PPI is the ideal; 200-220 PPI is "bad" (see what I'm saying about 150 PPI & color?). Most users of Viwoods & iFLYTEK say it's the PPI that matters here, much less than the nuanced technicals (refresh rate, tap responsiveness, etc) - and that 292 vs 300 is not noticeable. So as it turns out, this is only an issue on paper, not in practice.

So it boils down to two contenders. Front-light, and brand.

Viwoods Aipaper Mini has a front-light, unlike their non-mini model. However, it does not have a warm setting (reduced blue-light for better eye health, and better melatonin regulation for bed-time reading). And its lowest setting is too bright for bed-time reading. I tested this extensively. Even with dark mode enabled, the lowest brightness is simply too harsh in a dark room. The eye strain is real.

Verdict: I returned the Viwoods. If you don't read in bed or dark environments, it's an excellent device: ultralight, snappy, great screen. But for bed-time reading, it's a no-go until they fix the front-light (which they're reportedly working on).

iFLYTEK does not have the brightness concerns - it has a low lowest-brightness and warm settings. But the brand concerns remain:

iFLYTEK was added to the US Entity List in 2019 due to surveillance-related concerns, and the device's cloud-based transcription features mean your data is being sent to their servers. They've also been laggy with software updates. If you're privacy-conscious, this is worth researching before purchasing.

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So my recommendations are:

• Boox Note Air5 C if you read in bed. The color PPI hit is overstated, excellent warm/dim light.
• Viwoods Aipaper Mini if you don't read in bed. Otherwise excellent, but unusable in dark rooms.
• Boox Go 10.3 if you never read in the dark. No front-light at all, but great B&W device.

If you can wait, hold out for the next Viwoods refresh. They're fixing the front-light. When that lands, it'll be perfect.

Compare all the e-reader specs here.

Battery performance tests here.

Device	Size	Weight	Dimensions (in)	PPI	Light	Android	Price	Cons
Boox Go Color Gen II	7"	195g	5.4 x 6.1 x 0.25	150/300	10/10	13	$250	Small, Color
Kobo Libra Colour	7"	195g	5.69 × 6.34 x 0.33	150/300	10/10	NO	$230	Small, Color
Kindle Paperwhite	6.8"	211g	4.9 x 6.9 x 0.32	300	10/10	NO	$230	Small, Kindle
Bigme B7	7"	215g	5.46 x 6.17 × 0.23	300	10/10	14	$300	Small
Viwoods Aipaper Mini	8.2"	230g	5.43 x 7.52 x 0.20	292	5/10	13	$400 Coupon: GG30	Bad Light (no bed)
iFLYTEK AINOTE Air 2	8.2"	232g	5.4 x 7.6 x 0.25	292	10/10	11	$500 -ish	Scary Company
Boox Nova Air	7.8"	235g	5.4 x 7.6 x 0.25	300	10/10	11	$340	Unavailable
Meebook M8	7.8"	265g	5.51 x 7.6 x 0.28	300	10/10	14	$250 +$40 pen +$20 case	Clunky-ish
MobiScribe Wave B&W	7.8"	270g	5.75 x 7.63 × 0.25	300	10/10	12	$90	Clunky
iPad Mini	8.3"	293g	5.3 x 7.69 x 0.25	300	7/10	iOS	$500	Outside Reading (LCD)
Viwoods Aipaper	10.3"	370g	7.01 x 9.72 × 0.18	300	0/10	13	$540	No Light
Boox Go 10.3	10.3"	375g	7.2 x 9.25 x 0.18	300	0/10	13	$600 ?	No Light
Boox Note Air5 C	10.3"	420g	7.6 x 8.9 x 0.23	150/300	10/10	13	$500	Color (minor)
Bigme B1051	10.3"	435g	7.26 x 9.31 x 0.22	300	10/10	14	$500	Clunky-ish
iFLYTEK AINOTE 2	10.65"	???	???	300	???	???	$650	No Light, Brand
Kindle Scribe	10.2"	433g	7.7 x 9.0 x 0.22	300	10/10	NO	$400	Not Android