E-readers are lighter and more portable than a stack of paperbacks and offer a library’s worth of choices at your fingertips. While I adore the convenience, I’m increasingly squeamish about the idea of big corporations tracking every action. I crave the ease of digital books, but not at the expense of the privacy a physical book offers. This struggle sent me on a quest for the perfect e-reader, one that balances convenience with privacy.

Amazon Kindle

In a twist of irony, my e-reader journey began in 2012 with the privacy-unfriendly Amazon Kindle 4. However, options were scarce back then – Amazon was practically the only game in town. While it served me well for nearly twelve years, its reign sadly ended last month with a tragic backpack mishap – a cracked screen.

Pros

• The Amazon store is undeniably massive. I don’t think there was ever a book I couldn’t find.
• The Kindle 4 lacked a touchscreen, which was normal back then. While touchscreens offer easier navigation, I actually prefer physical buttons. Accidental screen touches during reading can disrupt the flow, so an option to disable touch navigation would be ideal.
• Back in 2012, the Kindle 4’s price tag of $130, especially considering I opted for the more expensive ad-free version, felt affordable. This was likely due to Amazon subsidizing the device.

Cons

• My Kindle came linked with my Amazon account out-of-the box. Unfortunately, since my Kindle is broken, I can’t confirm if it’s possible to use a Kindle without Amazon account.
• The Amazon account ties you to their DRM store, making it more difficult to switch to a different e-reader in the future.
• It would be naive to think Amazon doesn’t track a significant amount of data from their Kindles. This monitoring was a major turn-off for me.

This constant feeling of being monitored with every page turn gnawed at me. It pushed me to explore other options. While jailbreaking the Kindle and installing KOReader offered some relief, it wasn’t a perfect solution. The alternative software simply runs on top of the existing system, leaving the core data collection in place. Never connecting to Wi-Fi might be the only real option.

Rakuten Kobo

Pros

• Kobo’s interface is the most polished I have seen, making the reading experience sharper and more enjoyable compared to a Kindle.
• The Kobo Nia’s touchscreen makes KOReader more intuitive. This is likely true for newer Kindles as well.

Cons

• Using a Kobo requires a Rakuten account, defeating my goal of avoiding tracking.
• Kobo wants to link with your local ebook store (Bol.com in my case), which I rejected during setup. Checking the settings later I noticed data sharing with Bol.com was enabled by default.
• Opening books or turning pages can be painfully slow, sometimes causing restarts. I suspect memory limitations – issues KOReader doesn’t experience.
• I violated their privacy policy as my daughter was 11 years old when she received her Kobo. The policy restricts use to 16+. My cynical side wonders if this is to avoid data collection regulations on children.

While the Kobo Nia met my daughter’s needs, it didn’t address my concerns about data collection. The forced activation also raises a red flag. What if the activation website goes down in the future? That could brick a perfectly functional e-reader, turning it into e-waste. Know that it’s technically possible to bypass registration by updating the Kobo database yourself.

PocketBook

Since my Kindle died I have a third opportunity to find a privacy respecting e-reader. After some research, Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included project led me to a promising alternative: PocketBook. Their privacy policy is a breath of fresh air – no collection of personal information, and even better, no account required! With that reassurance, I snagged a PocketBook Basic Lux 4 for €112. The Lux even has a fronlight, they all do now, but it’s a “newish” feature I seriously missed on my Kindle 4.

Pros

• Their motto, “Freedom. Through our products and services, our users have total freedom, wherever they are,” resonated with my privacy concerns. Here’s hoping they live up to it!
• Forget creating an account - none is needed with PocketBook. For the optional syncing services, sure, but not for reading books.
• Even though it has a touchscreen — it’s not 2012 — the PocketBook Basic Lux has not 1, not 2, but 3 physical navigation buttons!
• The 8GB of internal storage is plenty, but the microSD card is a nice plus. I’ll probably never need it tough, I never ran out of space on the Kindle’s 2GB.
• You can update the firmware over-the-air (OTA) via Wi-Fi or directly via USB – no internet connection required. I tried and it works as expected.
• While I hope PocketBook meets my needs, the device is compatible with KOReader if this relation does not turn out.
• PocketBook is local(ish), originally Ukrainian, now a Swiss company. Spending money locally always feels like a better alternative to Rakuten (Japan) or Amazon (US).
• Bonus points for the built-in RSS reader!

Cons

• The PocketBook’s interface might not be as aesthetically pleasing as Kobo’s, but it prioritizes functionality and gets the job done efficiently.
• The device comes preloaded with over 80 books in various languages. While a minor annoyance, you’ll need to remove them if you don’t want them cluttering your library.
• While the lack of reading statistics isn’t a dealbreaker (neither Kindle nor Kobo offer them), I’ve grown accustomed to KOReader’s local statistics and would appreciate a similar feature.

There might be some format-compatibility differences between PocketBook and its competitors (I don’t know all the formats out there) but, thanks to Calibre, ebook format conversion happens seamlessly behind the scenes. So, while format support might be a consideration for some users, Calibre eliminates that concern for me.

Conclusion

After a decade of digital reading, I might have finally found my perfect e-reader soulmate. It’s still early days, but so far, the PocketBook checks all the boxes. It’s a breath of fresh air – a clean, no-nonsense E Ink device that avoids the bloatware and enshitification infecting other e-readers.