The best e-reader for reading research papers (2026)

The right e-reader for papers depends on one question: will you read them as PDFs, or turn them into e-books first? The answer changes which screen you need, and the price can triple.

The question that decides it: PDF or EPUB?

If you read the PDF as it is, the screen has to fit a whole A4 or Letter page. Below 10 inches, a two-column paper means zooming and panning on every page. You need a big e-reader, and big e-readers are expensive.

If you convert the paper to EPUB first (with paper2epub, for instance), the text reflows to the screen like any novel, at the size you choose. Then a normal 6- or 7-inch e-reader is enough, and it’s lighter, cheaper and easier to read in bed or on a train.

Most people reading papers will be happy with the second option. The first one is worth paying for if you annotate PDFs with a pen, read a lot of scans, or need the exact page layout.

Small screens, 6–7 inches: for papers as EPUB

These are ordinary e-readers. With papers converted to EPUB, they’re all you need.

• Kindle Paperwhite (7"). The obvious choice if you already buy e-books from Amazon. Papers arrive with Send to Kindle, by e-mail or from the app. It doesn’t open EPUB files copied over USB, so you send them instead (how).
• Kobo Clara (6"). Small and light, and it reads EPUB natively: you copy the file over USB and that’s it (how).
• Kobo Libra Colour (7"). Page-turn buttons, which help a lot with long papers, and a colour screen, so figures and plots keep their colours.

What to check: page-turn buttons if you read for a long time, colour if your field lives on plots, and how you’ll get files onto it (e-mail and apps for Kindle, USB or cloud for Kobo).

Big screens, 10–11 inches: for PDFs and handwritten notes

These are the ones to look at if you want to read PDFs without converting them, or write on them.

• Kindle Scribe (11”, 2025 models). With a pen for notes, and in three versions: without front light, with front light, and Colorsoft, in colour. It also reads EPUBs you send it, so it covers both ways of reading.
• Kobo Elipsa 2E (10.3"). Kobo’s large e-reader with a pen. Good with EPUB and PDF, and it takes files over USB.
• Boox Note Air (10.3"). It runs Android, so you can install KOReader or any PDF app. More flexible, and more fiddly.
• reMarkable. Made for writing first, with reading PDFs and EPUBs second. Worth it if you take a lot of handwritten notes.

What to check: the weight, which matters on a 10-inch device, whether there’s a front light (not every big model has one), and the pen, if you’ll use it.

My advice

If you’re buying your first e-reader to read papers, get a 6–7-inch Kindle or Kobo, whichever fits the store you already use, and read your papers as EPUB. It’s the cheaper option, and in daily use the more comfortable one.

Go for a big screen only if you know you’ll read PDFs as they are or write on them. And whichever you choose, try a converted paper first: open a sample in the browser, or convert one of yours.

Models and versions change every year, so check the current one before you buy.