Review: 5 E-Book Readers for Less Than $175

When Amazon.com’s ground-breaking Kindle e-book reader came out in 2007, it cost $399. Now, some e-readers, including the most recent Kindle entry, can be had for just north of $100.

At the price of five or so hardcover books, it’s close to impulse-buy territory for many people. And if you give in to your desires, what do you get? Our test of five e-readers priced from $114 to $164 finds that cheap, in most cases, means good value.

All five have black-and-white screens that are about half the size of a paperback book. They can connect wirelessly to the Internet for e-book downloads.

I didn’t look closely at battery life, because with one exception, they all claim more than a month of use. The company time machine was occupied.

Here’s the rundown:

— Kindle with Special Offers ($114) is the cheapest Kindle model yet. It’s indistinguishable from a device that costs $25 more, except that it shows advertising as its screen saver and at the foot of the menu.

You don’t, mercifully, see any advertising when you’re reading, and overall the ads didn’t feel intrusive. The selection was limited, for the most part, to Oil of Olay, Visa and a car company or two, making us wonder if advertising companies are really sold on Kindle ads.. Read More [via abcnews]