Best eReaders for Executives

Written By: Michaela McNamara

As a traveling business executive, it’s crucial to have your books and magazines with you while you’re on the go. Gone are the days of lugging around heavy hardcovers and flimsy magazines with the advent of the eReader—an innovation that allows you to carry your favourite reading materials electronically. Though the market is flooded with a number of eReaders, we’ve reviewed five of the most popular for business executives.

Amazon Kindle 3
Length: 15.2 cm (6”)
Weight: 247 grams
Cost: $189

Widely regarded as the most popular e-Reader, the Amazon Kindle comes with 4GB of built-in memory and a battery life of up to four weeks. The Kindle has built-in WiFi and global 3G coverage, making it easy to download books or magazines at anytime.

While the E-Ink display comes in quite crisp and clear, the device is not backlit. This feature is helpful when using the Kindle indoors, but difficult to use anywhere else. A light source is also necessary for reading at night. Quieter page turning means you won’t disturb your wife when you want to read the Amazon Kindle 3 all night, but you’ll probably still need the light on!

With Text-to-Speech, Kindle can read English-language content out loud to you. The e-Reader also supports a new dictionary lookup, notes and highlights, and can password protect PDFs.

BeBook Neo
Length: 15.2 cm (6”)
Weight: 298 grams
Cost: $569

This is the Mac Daddy of e-Readers on our list in terms of its hefty weight and hefty price tag. The BeBook Neo is small in size, but packs a punch with its multitude of features in its 15.2 cm design.

With its clean white, front facing display and aluminum back casing, this e-Reader looks sleek and stylish off the bat. There’s an easy-to-use nav pad, but also WACOM touch panel technology that serves as a touch screen with a supplied stylus. The touch screen allows you to use your BeBook Neo for sketching, annotations and text mark-up, making it ideal for business purposes.

There’s also Wi-Fi connectivity allows you to browse the web, as well as the capability of supporting a number of file formats, including MP3s for music and audio books.

iriver Story
Length: 15.2 cm (6”)
Weight: 284 grams
Cost: $399

Coming in as one of the most expensive eReaders on our list, the iriver Story isn’t exactly remarkable for its price tag. This e-Reader lacks Wi-Fi capabilities, dictionaries or an option for note taking. However, this may just be the best device for students, boasting a built-in voice recorder, MP3 player, diary and support for image file formats for comics, as well as ePub, PDF, TXT and Office formats XLS, PPT and DOC.

Its best feature is the E-ink film display technology to provide the same experience as reading on printed paper. In addition to a full QWERTY keyboard, there are also three sets of left/right keys on either side of the Story.

Kobo Wireless eReader
Length: 15.2 cm (6”)
Weight: 221 grams
Cost: $179

A vast improvement from its predecessor, the Kobo Wireless comes with a built-in wireless connection, and a new processor that drives faster page turns. This eBook Reader is also incredibly easy to use. The page turns are speedy, the fonts are quite clear and the menus and navigation are instinctive.

The Kobo Wireless comes with 100 pre-loaded classic books, as well as storage for an additional 1,000 books and expandable storage for 8,000 more. The Kobo Wireless eReader also uses a specialised E Ink screen with 16 grey scale levels to choose from.

Sony Reader Touch Edition
Length: 15.2 cm (6”)
Weight: 215 grams
Cost: $299

Though constructed from aluminum, the third-generation Sony Reader Touch is actually quite light—coming in at a feathery 215g. That’s because it lacks a QWERTY keyboard, making it one of the few e-Readers with a touchscreen. Unfortunately, it lacks Wi-Fi or 3G access.

The glare-free display reads just like a real book, even in direct sunlight. The Sony Reader Touch also boasts 12 built in dictionaries, 10,000 page turns of battery life, 2GB internal memory with Memory Stick PRO Duo and SD Card slots, as well as Audio Playback which allows users to listen to music while they read. The Sony Reader Touch also comes with a stylus, used for note taking or highlighting.