Many years ago we fell in love with e-books. For many people, the lack of physical contact with a book, the rustling of paper and the smell of printing ink are unacceptable, but the group of people who only use e-books or audiobooks do not stops growing. Bookstores offer novelties and classic books in many formats, and the market for electronic book readers, ie tools dedicated to communication with literature in electronic version, is growing. Our reader ranking will help you choose.
But of course, you don’t need an eReader to read. Smartphone screens of a few inches will do just as well. That is why it is worth choosing a good application that will ensure the most successful contact with reading. And ideally, it should be ad-free and free. Here are our suggestions (all tested with the Samsung Galaxy A41):
Selected reading apps:
Amazon’s Kindle
A must-have app for people who use Amazon and have a player produced by that company. It offers access to the largest e-book library in the world, but mainly in terms of English books. But you can also read e-books from other sources with it. Books can be sent, for example, via the Send to Kindle function. A great option is also to sync books across devices. The app will automatically sync the book you’re reading to where you left off, including bookmarks, highlights, or notes, so you can start reading on one device and continue on another.
The interface is simple and using the app shouldn’t cause any problems even for novice users. You can adjust text size, font type, margins, text alignment and orientation (portrait or landscape), and whether pages turn left-to-right or scroll continuously. Plus, adjustable background brightness and colors, the ability to use dictionaries or track your reading progress. The downside may be the fact that it does not have a Polish language version.
electronic books
It is one of the most famous eBook reader apps for Android. It lets you connect to libraries that offer free e-books or read books downloaded from other sites. The manufacturer describes it as the most enjoyable book reader. It supports fb2, epub, pdf, doc, docx, mobi, prc, txt, rtf, odt, html, cbr, cbz, zip and rar files. eBoox is free and ad-free.
The app has a user-friendly interface and can sync files for Android devices. It syncs seamlessly with Google Drive. Books and fonts can be added from phone memory, SD card or network drive. And while reading, user can easily switch to another chapter, change background, font type and size, reading area, brightness and other settings.
Empik Go
An application prepared by one of the largest book selling networks. It offers over 100,000 e-books, audiobooks, comics, and podcasts, and can work both online and offline. This is an app for people who don’t mind paying monthly to access a wide range of ebooks and audiobooks. Pricing starts at $19.99 per month for the Go Mini plan.
Without an account and without a paid subscription, you will not use it. But if you use the subscription, for example with an e-book reader, it is definitely worth installing this application on your phone. First of all, thanks to the synchronization of purchased and downloaded books on the Empik Go account. I have no comments for the reader itself – it is intuitive, allows you to add bookmarks, change the font and the background color.
Google Play Books
The maker describes Google Play Books as the only app you need to listen to audiobooks and read e-books, comics, and manga. Without a doubt, it is the most accessible application for people who currently use the Google ecosystem. It not only allows you to use your own books, but also to make purchases there. No subscription is required for this.
It also offers free books and audiobooks. Features include changing font color and size, text size and alignment, margins, brightness and background color, it also has a built-in dictionary and an automatic translator. Synchronization is also a plus – you can easily read or listen across Android, iOS devices and browsers, even when the user is offline, and pick up where you left off – on any device.
Legimi
Legimi is an application that provides access to thousands of ebooks and audiobooks, as well as synchrobooks – books that can be read and listened to alternately without interrupting the reading. The user can use the application on many devices: smartphone, tablet, computer, having permanent access to his account and his library. Legimi requires a subscription order or the use of free codes which may be made available, for example, by libraries.
How much does a membership cost ? Without page limit, it is 44.99 PLN per month for a 12-month contract or 49.99 PLN if the contract is for an indefinite period. If you choose the option with a page limit, you will pay 29.99 PLN per month and the limit is 1500 pages (3 books on average). This is not an app for people who have their own book files, but rather for those who accept a flat rate to access a huge – and constantly updated – catalog of books.
Moon+ player
An example of a good e-book reader is Moon+Reader. It has a neat and user-friendly interface and a number of features that make it easier to read: 10 built-in themes, different ways to turn pages, day/night switch, smooth scrolling, smart paragraphs, eye protection features and Moreover. It also lets you adjust the screen brightness by sliding your finger along the left edge of the screen and using gestures.
Supports locally stored books in the following formats: txt, html, epub, pdf, mobi, azw3, djvu, prc, docx, odt, rtf, umd, fb2, chm, cbz, cbr, md, mhtml, webp, rar, zip and OPDS. The downside is the ads in the free version – devoid of them the Pro version costs PLN 44.99. In addition, it offers the option to launch the voice synthesizer by shaking the phone, more themes, background images and fonts, configuration of the playbar and optional password protection.
Drive
An application designed to be used for reading books, magazines, manuals and documents. It opens files in formats such as PDF, Word and epub (as well as mobi, azw3, Fb2, Djvu and others) and can organize them properly so there is no clutter in the collection – groups them together , for example, by authors and series. It also gives the possibility to merge and display two pages on the screen.
ReadEra does not contain advertisements and does not require internal purchases. The application does not oblige users to use certain services. The book reader works offline and is completely free. Version ReadEra Premium costs PLN 48.99. Compared to the free option, it lets you sync books from Google Drive across all your devices, adds a Quotes and Notes section, and lets you upload your own fonts. It also allows you to open several books and documents at the same time and offers a special mode for children.
Of course, the choice above is very subjective, and in the Google store you will find many other applications that will meet your expectations more, eg. Prestigio reading lamp, Facebook Reader, PocketBook Reader Whether Cool Reader. These are free applications whose task is to provide the most comfortable communication with literature, so by definition their interface and functionality will be very similar.