7 Non-iPad Tablets That Make Great E-Readers

Let’s face it. The experience you get from reading e-books on an LCD-based tablet won’t come anywhere close to the one you get on Kindle or NOOK Touch. But tablets have their advantages too. They are far more versatile than e-readers and have color screens. If do not find Kindle or NOOK to be your cup of tea and do not want to buy an iPad (due to Apple imposing restrictions on publishers), these 7 tablets are worth a try:

Samsung Galaxy Tab: one of the most formidable challengers to Apple iPad. It comes very close to it in terms of style. It has a large 10.1 inch screen. It weighs 1.25 pounds and runs Android 3.1 at the time of this writing [video: mobile burn]

ASUS Eee Transformer: another decent Android tablet with an optional keyboard dock you can use to turn it into a mini laptop.

Toshiba Thrive: a superb Android tablet with user replaceable battery. It runs Android 3.1 and has a 5.0 MP rear camera with autofocus and a 2.0MP front-facing webcam. It features full USB and HDMI ports.

HP TouchPad with WebOS: WebOS has one of the most beautiful interfaces around. This tablet is the only one that runs it. Unfortunately, WebOS does not have as many apps as Android or iOS.

Acer Iconia A500: ships with Android 3 coupled with Acer UI. More affordable than most other tablets in this list. Its cameras are very decent [video: mini PC Pro].

Lenovo Ideapad K1: a great tablet for playing games, watching movies, and reading e-books on. It is fairly social media friendly too. Downside? It is a tad bit heavier than other top tablets.

XOOM WiFi: the first iPad challenger is still in demand. Motorola could have probably done a better job pricing this tablet at first. But with the recent price drop, XOOM is all of a sudden a contender again.

What’s your favorite tablet for e-reading?