I find the iPad perfectly adequate for reading e-Books. Granted, I don't read while I'm outside under direct sunlight, so the contrast issue has never really come up for me. In fact, I barely even use iBook to read. I do most of my PDF reading on Stanza, and if I do buy anything, I buy it from Kindle and use the Kindle app on the iPad to read it. I'm sure as a dedicated reading-only device, the Kindle would be better, but I also enjoy the other things I can do on an iPad.