Which is better: Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Libra Colour, or Kindle Colorsoft?

Choosing between these three e-readers mostly comes down to whether you want the best black-and-white reading, physical buttons and broader file flexibility, or Amazon’s color ecosystem.

• Kindle Paperwhite: the best pick if you mostly read text-based books and want a classic Kindle experience. It’s generally the strongest choice for black-and-white reading and is usually the most affordable of the three.
• Kobo Libra Colour: the best choice if you want color plus page-turn buttons. It supports note-taking/annotation with a stylus, and Kobo is known for being friendly to libraries and a wide range of file formats.
• Kindle Colorsoft: best if you want a Kindle-branded color reader. It fits neatly into Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem and has the same general 7-inch class of display as the Paperwhite, but it does not have page-turn buttons or stylus support.

Quick pick:

• Mostly novels/text: Kindle Paperwhite
• Want color and buttons: Kobo Libra Colour
• Want color inside Amazon’s ecosystem: Kindle Colorsoft

If you’re deciding mainly on reading quality for plain text, the Paperwhite is the safest choice; if you want color plus hardware buttons and more format/library flexibility, the Libra Colour is the better fit; and if you want color but prefer staying fully inside Amazon’s ecosystem, choose the Colorsoft.