Long dismissed as single-purpose gadgets, e-readers stand on the cusp of genuine versatility. Hardware makers now pack them with on-device intelligence and full Android operating systems. The shift promises to turn once-simple displays into tools that summarize chapters, answer questions about text, organize handwritten notes and run apps beyond proprietary bookstores. Traditional e-readers offered distraction-free reading. Their charm lay in black-and-white screens that mimicked paper and batteries that lasted weeks. Yet those strengths came with trade-offs. Users stayed locked inside Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem or Rakuten’s Kobo shelves. Note-taking felt basic. Complex PDFs often rendered poorly. That changes now. Partnerships between display specialist E Ink and chip designer MediaTek point toward readers that process AI tasks locally. Digital Trends reported on the development in late May 2026.…