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The first upgrade to Amazon's most popular e-reader in three years, the new Kindle Paperwhite the cheapest ebook reader on the market. It supports audiobooks and it has a new flat-front design, making it ideal for beach reading. Reading or listening to a book is also simply calming, centering, and often joyous. For the price, this is the best Kindle yet, and our Editors' Choice.
Price and Design
The new Paperwhite comes in three models: the default 8GB unit for $ 129.99; a $ 159.99 32GB version for people with a lot of audiobooks; and a $ 249.99 cellular-enabled unit for people who can not wait to download their next read. (The other two models uses 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to download books.)
The reader measures 6.6 by 4.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.4 ounces. It's noticeably lighter than the previous Paperwhite (6.7 by 4.6 by 0.4 inches, 7.2 ounces), and it's just a little bit smaller all around, so it does not fit into previous-generation cases. There's a range of boxes Amazon plans to sell, starting with a $ 29 water-resistant fabric cover in black, blue, gold yellow, and going up to $ 39 and $ 59 leather covers.
It has a matte black back and a flat front with no visible buttons; it's entirely operated by touch. (If you want physical page turn buttons, upgrade to the $ 249 Kindle Oasis.) The power button and USB micro port are on the bottom, like always.
Battery life is the same as before, and highly dependent on backlight usage. Pump it up to
The user interface is the same on Kindle–a mix of your books and Amazon's store interface. There are a few nice new touches, though. Most notably, you can save packages of settings (font size, spacing) and immediately jump to saved settings using a pop-down menu; that can help in families where different people are different with the same Kindle.
Kindle vs. Kobo
In the US, e-readers are pretty much a two-horse race. The two horses used to be Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but the Nook took a dive on the track. Now it's American thoroughbred Amazon and the Canadian stallion, Kobo.
Amazon owns Audible, the big audiobook company, and Goodreads. Amazon's audiobook experience is, thus, much better than Kobo's. The new Paperwhite will play Audible audiobooks through Bluetooth headphones. If a book supports it, you can also get back to the text and listen to it, keeping them synced, even if you were listening to the audiobook on another device. Not all books support this (most notably, it did not work with the new Beastie Boys Book), but it's very convenient when it works (as it did with Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes.)
Left to right: New Kindle Paperwhite, old Kindle Paperwhite
The Paperwhite does not support Immersion Reading, Amazon's read-along function where narration plays while it skips across words on the page. That's a pity, but only a tiny one.
As for the Goodreads integration, you can read it on your own, and you can read it on your own. I do not care for this, because I use e-readers to get away from social media. But it's a good-done interface if you like it.
Kobo owns Overdrive, the company that lets you borrow e-books from your local public library. Kobo's public library is a little better than Amazon's. To a book with a Kindle, you need to use the book with your PC and select the book using a pop-down menu; the site will then wirelessly send the book to you. Your library can just appear as the native store on Kobo.
The Kindle's hand downside is how it's locked into Amazon's store. Amazon's store has everything you'll want to read; it's just the principle of the thing. You'll be able to read books from Amazon, books from Amazon's Kindle Unlimited, or books from your local library borrowed via Overdrive. That's a lot of books! But there is not much of a competitive marketplace for Kindle books. You can reformat other books in Kindle format using Amazon's free email-to-Kindle service or the free software, but in my experience, they sometimes have formatting and spacing errors when you do. Kobo supports more
Other minor quibbles: The backlight, while adjustable, does not change color like the blue-to-yellow backlight on Kobo readers. And you should be reading books that are text, not pictures, as a six-inch screen is just too small for comics or manga. (For manga, we suggest the $ 279 Kobo Forma for Western comics, the $ 329 Apple iPad color.)
Reading Experience
This Kindle Paperwhite offers a near ideal reading experience, and certainly the best you'll get at this price. Amazon has bells and whistles, of course. There are a lot of fonts. You can use the X-Ray feature to double-check the page, you can make highlights, and you can consult a dictionary.
I enjoy the backlight, which lets me read while my daughter is falling asleep (though while adjustable, it does not change color like the cozy blue-to-yellow backlight on Kobo readers). I like the easy way to check the table of contents, make a bookmark, or pop back to a previous page because I forgot what happened to a character.
And reading on the Paperwhite is just plain enjoyable. When I use it, I do not open tabs. I do not respond to notifications or get caught in the internet rabbit holes, like I'm doing this. I do not stress out, I do not have a lot of stress, I do not have a lot of stress. (Hooray for Overdrive.)
I just read. That's what a Kindle does. And the $ 130 Paperwhite brings you to the most people can afford.
Which Kindle Is Right for You?
Kindles have very long replacement cycles, but it's worth looking at a new one now. If you do not have a
If you have a more recent Paperwhite, the new flat front is something to consider here. Older Paperwhites have a recessed screen with a raised bezel around it. That's
So does water, the biggest advance here. Kobo has had a $ 179.99 waterproof e-reader for a while (the Aura H2O), but if you wanted a waterproof Kindle, you had to go for the Kindle Oasis. The Oasis is great, but it's $ 250. You can practically buy a Paperwhite for you and a friend at that price.
For $ 130, the Kindle Paperwhite offers more for your money than any other ebook reader on the market. It's a great option for just about
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