What is a good alternative to a Kindle, possibly with a better handling of .pdf files?

So, my kindle broke down a few months ago, and today, after realizing my productivity has gone down significantly since I stopped reading while on transportation, I contacted the amazon customer service to ask how to send it in for repairs and how much I was going to have to pay.

As luck would have it, it turns out that a) they don’t repair kindles, they just discount you on a new purchase, and b) my model is only sold in the US (3g with keyboard) and therefore I would have to order it and have it shipped which, ultimately, would amount to buying it new.

Obviously my reaction was “fuck this shit I’m getting a new one” and I thought it would be a great idea to try and iron out some of the problems I had with it, one of many of which is the fact that it handles .pdf files as if they were not the most prominent e-pub format.

Right now I’m split between getting an actual e-book reader or just moving up to a tablet altogether, the pricing difference is quite prominent, but I know tablets are, on the whole, superior when it comes to handling large files and pages with pictures, like many of my RPG manuals.

Any suggestions?