The best readers for just-plain-reading are probably the Sony line, although they're getting a bit hard to find. (Sony has a longstanding tradition of retiring every bit of hardware just as it reaches peak efficiency.)
Mobileread recently had a thread comparing different e-readers; it might be worth looking at that to see what different users mark as the *real* pros and cons.
The Nook Color is not an e-reader as much as it's an Android tablet. (It comes with most of the functions turned off but can be rooted to be a full-feature tablet.) Pros: App-ready, internet-able, color. Cons: short battery life, screen harder on the eyes than e-ink. (The battery life knocks it out of consideration for me.)
I've heard troublesome things about Kobos; apparently the firmware is sometimes glitchy.
The Kindle is very good. The biggest problem with the Kindle is that it has very limited PDF support and no ePub support. The Sonys have better ergonomics, and possibly the best PDF support of all the e-ink readers. They don't, however, have the best font support; the Jinke readers seem to have that. (Including font sizes; the Jinke line has 12 sizes; I gather the Kindle has 6 or 8; the Sony has 3.)
Mobileread also has a Which one should I buy? forum, but it can be hard to follow sometimes.
I'd second the Sony. The real question is what are your needs? Price? Portability? Ease of use? Independent from vendors?
The Sony Pocket is currently selling around $100-120 depending on the vendor and it's the most portable of the lot. It just barely fits in a pocket, though its text can enlarge enormously making it very easy to grab and go without sacrificing readability. It's also easy to sideload without having to go through other software and it's not tied to any particular bookstore, plus as Elfwreck points out, battery life is a consideration and the Sony does well.
I actually have a PRS-300 at the moment, but am finding it a bit dated for my needs since I use it for both work and play these days. I might have to look into getting another Sony though, price be damned, since it seems to be one of the few readers that doesn't seem heavily tied to one format or another.
Mobileread recently had a thread comparing different e-readers; it might be worth looking at that to see what different users mark as the *real* pros and cons.
The Nook Color is not an e-reader as much as it's an Android tablet. (It comes with most of the functions turned off but can be rooted to be a full-feature tablet.) Pros: App-ready, internet-able, color. Cons: short battery life, screen harder on the eyes than e-ink. (The battery life knocks it out of consideration for me.)
I've heard troublesome things about Kobos; apparently the firmware is sometimes glitchy.
The Kindle is very good. The biggest problem with the Kindle is that it has very limited PDF support and no ePub support. The Sonys have better ergonomics, and possibly the best PDF support of all the e-ink readers. They don't, however, have the best font support; the Jinke readers seem to have that. (Including font sizes; the Jinke line has 12 sizes; I gather the Kindle has 6 or 8; the Sony has 3.)
Mobileread also has a Which one should I buy? forum, but it can be hard to follow sometimes.
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The Sony Pocket is currently selling around $100-120 depending on the vendor and it's the most portable of the lot. It just barely fits in a pocket, though its text can enlarge enormously making it very easy to grab and go without sacrificing readability. It's also easy to sideload without having to go through other software and it's not tied to any particular bookstore, plus as Elfwreck points out, battery life is a consideration and the Sony does well.
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