E Ink displays are wonderfully cooling for your eyes and feel fantastic to the touch. They offer great alternatives to traditional LCD and OLED screens and help save millions of trees each year. It’s only natural that you’d want to take your trusty e-reader along with you on your travels.
The best travel-friendly e-readers and e-paper tablets pack light and don’t require you to lug around too much gear. If you’d like to buy a dedicated E Ink device to bring along on your journeys, we have the perfect roundup right here. These are the best portable e-paper displays and e-readers that you can get right now.
Rakuten Kobo Nia
Small e-readers that are around 6 inches in size are perfect travel buddies as they are about the same size as modern phones. That makes it really easy to tuck them into pockets or backpacks. The Kobo Nia is compact and lightweight, featuring a 6-inch E INK Carta HD display. I personally take this along with me wherever I go, whether it’s to the dentist or a 3-day long road trip in the countryside.
What you’ll love about it is its seemingly undying battery life. Even if you forget to bring your Micro USB charging cable, it won’t hamper your trip. This thing lasts for weeks, it has a front light, and you can adjust the color temperature. You also get support for a wide variety of e-books as well as internet connectivity. The 8GB storage can hold thousands of titles so you won’t have a limited library. As a basic reading tablet that you can bring along on holiday, the Kobo Nia is a fine companion.
One of the benefits of more compact e-paper devices is the similarly compact price tag — if you catch my drift. Though you don’t get fancy features like waterproofing and a speaker, the Rakuten Kobo Nia costs only $149.99, making it one of the cheapest options out there.
Onyx Boox Poke 3
If you’re willing to pay a little more, the Onyx Boox Poke 3 is just the right portable e-ink tablet to buy with portability in mind. Just like the Kobo Nia, this one’s a dedicated e-reader as well. But it does have a few extra kinks that are quite handy. You get the same 6-inch E-Ink Carta HD touchscreen, front light, and color adjustment capability as the Nia.
Then you also get extras such as the generous 32GB onboard storage. It also has Bluetooth so you can connect Bluetooth headphones or earbuds and listen to your favorite audiobooks. The star of the show is the fact that the Poke 3 runs Android 10 and you get complete access to the Google Play store. That’s really something!
You will also find that the Poke 3 looks much more stylish than the other options on our list. As for the price, the travel-sized Onyx Boox Poke 3 will set you back $189.99 with a free case included in the price.
Pocketbook Color
Although most e-readers and e-paper displays have only been able to display shades of black and white, the winds of time are shifting. Nowadays, there are a decent amount of color E Ink tablets available in varying sizes. The cute and colorful Pocketbook Color is one such device.
You can pack the little 6-inch E Ink Kaleido e-reader in your luggage or your handbag. You’ll enjoy your retreat with the Pocketbook Color immensely as it can display mangas and graphic novels in 4k colors. Users can even adjust the color settings for each book and there’s a front light for night reading as well. Although you only get 16GB internally, the Pocketbook has an SD card slot to expand storage.
The Pocketbook e-reader runs Linux and you can install a few apps such as Dropbox, a chess game, or even a drawing app. It has Bluetooth and WiFi, in addition to audiobook and music playback via Bluetooth headphones. You can purchase the Pocketbook Color for $199.99.
Xiaomi InkPalm 5 Mini
Xiaomi is popular for its affordable phones in most places but the company sells a lot of other things as well. Electric scooters and food blenders aside, the brand also dabbles in E Ink tablets. There are regular 6-inch e-readers and then there’s the Xiaomi InkPalm 5 Mini e-reader that is in a league of its own (size-wise).
This miniature device sports a tiny 5-inch E Ink display making it even smaller than most smartphones of today. The phrase “cute as a button” describes it up well. Looks aside, the insides aren’t half bad either. It runs Android 8.1 and has 32GB of internal memory. Once you’ve switched the language to English — unless you can read Chinese — you can sideload apps as well.
Unline other e-readers, the InkPalm 5 Mini has more than just the one power button. There are volume buttons for sound controls but you can also use them to turn the pages. Since the minuscule Xiaomi e-reader is shaped just like a phone and weighs only 115 grams, it is the most portable E Ink display for your travels. The Xiaomi InkPalm 5 Mini costs $179.99.
Boyue Likebook P6
In terms of the thrifty price and the features, the Boyue Likebook P6 is an absolute steal. It’s small enough to fit in a carry-on or a knapsack. You get full access to the Google Play store on Android 8.1, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and 16GB of storage upgradable to a whopping 128GB via MicroSD.
Speaking of weight and size, the Likebook P6 has a 6-inch E INK Carta HD display and weighs 164 grams. The battery is also surprisingly large, coming in at 1,750 mAh. Factoring in the overall specifications and usage, this e-reader should last you a decent couple of weeks.
Apart from the dated Micro USB charging port, the tiny entry-level Boyue e-reader is a dream. Besides, almost all e-paper tablets and displays feature Micro USB charging. You can buy the Boyue Likebook P6 for only $119.99 or what we like to call the bargain of the century!
Namerah is a Technology Journalist with experience at leading online publications like Android Central. She has a passion for all things tech and gaming, and has been an honorary Goodreads librarian since 2011. When she isn't writing, she can be found chasing stray cats and dogs in the streets of Dhaka or slaying dragons in the land of Skyrim. Email her at namerah@goodereader.com
