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In a bid to streamline my gear, I’m wondering whether it’s better to read ebooks only on an iPhone, an iPad, or a Kindle.
Brightness — where do you read?
First you need to know where you read most often. For me it’s generally indoors, usually in the bedroom. But if you often read on the beach at lunchtime because you live in Bayonne, your use case will be completely different from mine.
Reading outside is doable on an iPhone or iPad, but at full brightness you’ll need to be in the shade and your battery will take a hit.
So as you’ve gathered, with an iPad or iPhone you can read sheltered from the sun outside, but only occasionally. For example, I sometimes read in a park during my lunch break. It’s quite pleasant to read under a tree, and I have no trouble doing it on my iPhone.
If you only ever read outdoors, I warmly recommend the Kindle — it’s a genuine treat for the eyes during outdoor reading sessions.
Choose the Kindle you will, if outside you shall read
The brightness of iOS devices can be a problem for night owls. Reading in a bedroom before sleep with the intense screen light from our phones and tablets — it has to be said, it’s not the best idea. If you haven’t already, you might want to check my article on how to dim brightness even further on an iOS device.
Personally I read on an iPad mini 5 in the Books app in the evenings using the “grey” background, because I find the black background tiring on the eyes.
Here again the Kindle is the better option. Especially since the Kindle Oasis update that lets you control the backlight temperature to reduce blue light exposure.
Love the Kindle you will, if Morpheus you plan to meet
Eye strain — protect your eyes!
Blue light emissions and radio waves on the nightstand: keeping your phone next to you while you sleep isn’t great. Note that there is a Kindle with a built-in modem and data plan, so remember to put it in airplane mode when you have it in your bedroom.
As I mentioned above, the latest Kindle Oasis lets you control backlight temperature, reducing blue light emissions. Combined with indirect backlighting, you have a perfect recipe for protecting your eyes from AMD .
iOS devices have supported color temperature scheduling since iOS 11. I turn it on from 8pm and set it to the warmest temperature.
The Kindle, at night, kind to your eyes it will be
You might say the best solution is to have a Kindle and read on your phone when you’re out and about? That’s actually very workable with the Kindle app, especially since reading position sync works really well.
Except it’s not that simple. I’m a big fan of the Books app, especially since iOS 12. It genuinely makes you want to read. Compared to its Kindle counterpart, Books looks modern and fresh — the Kindle app feels really dated on iOS.
Unfortunately there’s no way to read in Books and then find your position on the Kindle, so you have to pick one or the other.
Battery — are you always on the move?
As I mentioned earlier, battery can drain quickly especially if you’re reading on an iOS device outdoors. As Amazon neatly puts it about the Kindle: the tablet lasts hours, the Kindle lasts days.
To give something more concrete: on my iPad mini 5, with all notifications and background refresh disabled, I lose 10% battery per day for half an hour of daily reading. In other words, where I only need to charge my Kindle every two or three weeks, I absolutely have to charge the iPad every week — more often if brightness is higher.
When you’re on holiday or often away from a power outlet, you really should be reading on an e-reader (or just bring a good old paperback).
The Kindle you’ll reach for, if saving power you care for
Library management — the user experience!
On this front, Apple plays hardball. When you open Kindle and Books on Mac, the latter is beautiful by comparison.
Books makes you want to read on iOS, whereas Kindle — especially on Mac — is horrible. You can tell Amazon prioritizes the software on its own devices.
One thing worth noting though: the Kindle has a “read” filter that lets you filter books by read/unread. In Books I couldn’t find how to do this… I don’t like seeing my library mixed up with already-read books when I’m trying to pick something new.
File transfer
Books only accepts PDF and ePub formats. Similarly, Kindle is also limited in the number of supported formats (PDF and Mobi).
To send your own books to iOS devices, just open them (as long as they’re in a supported format — otherwise run them through Calibre, the go-to software for ebooks).
For Kindle it’s slightly more involved: you have to email the file to a special address Amazon provides for your device. Once it’s in the cloud, your book is accessible from any mobile device (but you can’t read sideloaded books on your computer — only purchased books appear there). You can load books via USB by plugging in your device, but that’s hardly practical.
Notes management
On an iOS device, you can take notes quickly — useful for those who make reading notes or summaries.
You can do the same on a Kindle, but it’s far less comfortable than on an iPhone. Fortunately you can highlight passages and find them on the Amazon website, which is a nice touch.
On both devices, you can export your notes for later use.
If you’re reading on an Apple Pencil-compatible iPad, you can highlight passages elegantly with the stylus.
Format compatibility
Have you ever tried reading a PDF on an e-reader? It’s atrocious! You have to zoom in unless you have a 12-inch screen — which is pretty rare on an e-reader — making it very uncomfortable.
By contrast, it’s a format perfectly suited to a tablet.
Comics and graphic novels are obviously much more enjoyable to read on a tablet. The choice is more debatable for Manga since those are in black and white and can be read perfectly well on a Kindle. That said, the screen is a bit small, especially if you go for the cheapest Kindle with a 6-inch display.
Dual-page spreads in Manga are common and will be unreadable on a Kindle.
Reading more than just books
If you read web articles saved in services like Instapaper, Pocket, or similar, it’s sometimes better to read on a tablet or phone. Likewise, if you subscribe to an online newspaper you’re more likely to find a dedicated app on iOS or Android than on your e-reader.
I personally subscribe to Le Monde digitally, yet I’d need to pay again to read it on Kindle. Whereas on iOS there’s an app for that 😂
Personally I read articles I save in Safari and I enjoy reading them on my iOS device using the “Reader” feature that strips out all the clutter (ads…).
For long reads, I love using the doepub.com service which converts a web page into an ePub or Mobi file. So I turn an interesting article into a “book” that I open in the Books app on iOS. Then I can read it comfortably on my tablet. I can also keep it as a reference in the same app.
For newspaper articles like Le Monde , I use a shortcut that stores them in the Reminders app to read later. And “later” usually means in the evening, relaxed on the iPad.
Conclusion — time to choose
If there’s one thing to take away from this article, it’s that the tablet is a medium that lets you read anything and everything. It lets you be more efficient about taking reading notes — in other words, to be productive while reading a book.
The Kindle (or any e-reader), on the other hand, lets you immerse yourself in a book regardless of external conditions. It faithfully recreates the paper reading experience while improving on it (adjustable font, zoom, and brightness).
You can very easily start reading on a Kindle and finish on the Kindle app on iOS or Android (or their desktop counterparts), letting you enjoy the best of both worlds.
In the end, you’re choosing between two ecosystems, both walled gardens. One offers, in my view, more possibilities and a more polished software experience. That’s why my personal choice is the iPad with the Books app (or iBook).
