During a presentation at a Black Hat convention in London, an ethical hacker revealed an exploit that could expose Amazon accounts and credit card information. For the most part, the best eReaders are safe from most hacks, but everything has a vulnerability.

Valentino Ricotta, an engineering analyst at Thales, gave a presentation during the conference where he created a malicious ebook that enabled him to exploit loopholes in the Kindle. After downloading the book to a Kindle, he was able to access the linked Amazon account.

“It can even buy books from the store with my credit card in a single click,” Ricotta said during the presentation, according to Cybernews.

It’s long been possible to side-load books onto your Kindle from third-party sellers by downloading the titles and then transferring them via USB or the Amazon website. Meaning the exploit can get onto your Kindle even if it's not connected to the internet.

How the exploit works

When a book, audiobook, PDF or image is placed on a Kindle, the system enters “parsing,” where it automatically scans the file to extract metadata such as the title and author and converts the content into a readable format. This parsing zone is where Ricotta found the fault.

“It’s about being aware of these kinds of threats, and not trusting third-party websites,” Ricotta added.

Ricotta claimed that the flaw could be turned into a code execution, which would allow an attacker to make the Kindle run their instructions. Because Kindles aren’t regularly turned off or reset like other devices, even though the exploit isn’t reliable, it could be brute forced through persistence in the background as the eReader sits on your nightstand.

Once the code gets through, it gains limited access to steal Amazon session cookies that keep you logged in. This could let hackers access an Amazon account without the password. From there, Ricotta showed how he eventually gained complete control of the device by chaining the original flaw to a second one that let him use the on-screen keyboard.

Ricotta reportedly informed Amazon of the flaws, which were deemed critical and fixed before he gave his presentation. He was awarded a $20,000 “bug bounty” for finding the vulnerability, which he says he donated to charity.

Similar flaws found previously

As Cybernews notes, this flaw seems very similar to one found in 2020 by security researcher Yogev Bar-On and his colleagues, who discovered a series of loopholes that would have let hackers take over a Kindle via an ebook.

The “KindleDrip” exploit also took advantage of code in the parsing and the “Send to Kindle” feature. Similar to Ricotta, Bar-On’s exploit was patched in December 2020, and he received an $18,000 bug bounty. As far as we’re aware, no active abuses of either of these flaws have been reported.

When asked about the flaws an Amazon spokesperson told Tom's Guide, "We identified and fixed vulnerabilities affecting Kindle E-readers and the Audible functionality on these devices. All affected devices have received automatic updates addressing these issues. We appreciate the security researchers who help us maintain high security standards for our customers."

We were also informed that there is no evidence that the vulnerability has been actively used outside of Ricotta's tests.

How to stay safe from Kindle exploits

A common thread between Ricotta’s exploit and the older KindleDrip is related directly to self-published titles. Amazon lets authors self-publish eBooks and audiobooks as a great way for newer authors to sell their stories.

However, as these vulnerabilities show, they can also be used to introduce malicious code to your Kindle. Before you download an eBook or Audiobook, make sure you do some research on the author or publisher. Check the ratings and reviews, look up the author or publisher to make sure they exist.

Additionally, you’ll want to be wary of free eBook offerings. Outside of apps like Libby, which pulls from your local library, or the long-running Project Gutenberg, which provides classic, public domain literature. Otherwise, you’ll want to avoid third-party sites, especially ones you’ve never seen before.

Fortunately, as mentioned above, this exploit has already been patched.

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Amazon finally brought color to its Kindle Colorsoft lineup in the last year, but the color e-paper displays may not be the best for reading.

Notably, the Good e-Reader spotted recently-updated FAQ pages for the Kindle Colorsoft and the just announced Kindle Scribe Colorsoft that assert the Colorsoft displays deliver a "high-quality reading and writing experience." However, they also note that other Amazon e-readers offer a "slightly crisper black and white" reading experience.

"You may notice that the texture or brightness of the display looks different than the Kindle Scribe display. That’s because of the color filter layer that creates the easy on the eyes color reading experience on Kindle Scribe Colorsoft," reads an excerpt of the FAQ.

The page goes on to recommend one of Amazon's monochrome readers for customers who want the crispest reading experience. And it's likely correct, which is a surprising and welcome admission from any company, let alone Amazon.

Display tech

The folks at Good E-Reader claim most color e-readers today (like the Kobo Clara Colour) feature a Kaleido 3 e-paper display, which halves the resolution to 150ppi when in color mode. So if you're looking at a page in color and hold it side-by-side with the same page on a monochrome e-reader, the black and white version should look sharper.

The color is pretty good for comics, magazines, and more colorful PDFs. In our Kindle Colorsoft review, Tony Polanco praised the e-reader for reading comics and manga. However, he has found that the Paperwhite is sharper for regular black and white.

I've found that it's not a huge difference, but you might notice a slight fuzziness in side-by-side comparison.

Colorful alternatives

One of the advantages of an e-reader is that the e-paper display is easy on the eyes, especially in darker rooms. Adding color gives you more reading options, but it may not be the best way to read graphic novels and other hued texts.

We've found that the iPad is an excellent way to read comic books. The iPad Pro OLED (one of the best iPads and best tablets in general) features a vibrant OLED display, and its thinner design makes it more comfortable to hold. As we found, it's especially good for double-page spreads.

If you prefer the size of the Kindle, the iPad mini 7 is a great alternative that's cheaper than the Kindle Colorsoft Scribe and only marginally more expensive than the 16GB Kindle Colorsoft, which costs $249.

The current iPad Mini, meanwhile, starts at $499 for the base 128GB model.

When we compared the iPad Mini and the Kindle Paperwhit, we found that Apple's tablet is perfect for manga or comics thanks to great contrast and a similar size to Amazon's device.

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When it comes to Kindles, Amazon has not had a great week. It started with reports that new Kindle Colorsoft owners were seeing a distracting yellow band at the bottom of the display.

Soon after, it was alleged that Amazon was cancelling Colorsoft shipments. The shopping giant has acknowledged the display flaws and offered refunds and replacements for affected Colorsoft owners. "We’re making the appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not experience this issue moving forward," a spokesperson told Tom's Guide. At the time, it was not revealed what might be causing the yellowing issue.

But now, we might have an idea of why the flaw appeared. Supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote on X that the issue has been traced to Amazon utilising a different version of a component for the Colorsoft display than the one used on the best Kindles with a monochrome screen.

Kuo wrote, "Amazon's use of a different OCA [optically clear adhesive] than that used in grayscale e-paper displays. This change was implemented to enhance the limited contrast capabilities of E Ink's Kaleido color e-paper technology. While component suppliers have developed several hardware solutions, Amazon seems to be leaning toward a software-based fix."

Assuming this is correct, whatever adhesive Amazon picked appears to degrade quickly, causing the yellowing problem.

We should note that in our review of the Kindle Colorsoft, the yellowing issue was never a problem. We've checked the device multiple times since the reports started coming and the Kindle we tested does not appear to have the yellow band.

Tom's Guide has reached out to Amazon to confirm that the adhesive is behind the yellow band and will update this article if the company responds.

Presumably, Amazon either via software or hardware fixes, will have the problem resolved soon so future models of the Colorsoft shouldn't have a yellow band.

Still, if you're looking to try the first Kindle with a color display and willing to roll the dice, it will hit the wallet for $279.99 / £269.99. As we said in our review, "this is the Kindle I've been waiting for. It really is a terrific device." Once the stripe issue is resolved, it might be the Kindle to get.

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In mid-October, Amazon introduced four new Kindles, including the company's first-ever e-reader with a color display on Colorsoft. As we go into November, devices are supposed to be getting into people's hands, but suddenly, they are encountering problems.

Earlier today, it was reported that new Colorsoft owners are reporting a strange yellow strip on the display. An Amazon spokesperson told The Verge that it was aware of the yellow issue and is looking into it.

The folks over at Good e-Reader are reporting that Amazon is "canceling" shipments of the Colorsoft, at least until after November 26. According to their report, the delay could be through November 18 in the United States and November 26 in the UK. 

Supposedly, Amazon is holding any pre-ordered Kindle Colorsoft e-readers in warehouses due to the yellow stripe on the display. Purportedly, Amazon is working on a software update, or that is, Good e-Reader is claiming Amazon has told customers. 

We are taking this report with a grain of salt, as they did not provide any sources or quotes from anyone who has dealt with Amazon reaching out to them about their orders or the display issues. It's unclear where the information is coming from.

Tom's Guide has contacted Amazon to confirm that shipments are being paused and to comment on the yellow stripe claims. We will update this story if Amazon responds. 

Here is what we do know regarding the Colorsoft display. According to customer complaints, some people see a yellow bar on the bottom of their display, which Amazon is aware of. Supposedly, turning off the e-reader and leaving it off for a few minutes before restarting the Kindle might resolve the yellow bar issue.

In our review, we did not notice a yellowing on the Colorsoft that we used. We found the newest Kindle, which was so good that it immediately made our best e-readers list.

Otherwise, one annoyance is that the Kindle Colorsoft does not have Dark Mode, which Amazon acknowledges on the Colorsoft store page. "Dark Mode is currently not available on this device. Customers can enable a similar reading experience within millions of books using the Page Color feature, which, like Dark Mode, inverts the book page color to black and the book text color to white." 

It's not quite the same.

If your order has been canceled or pushed out to a future November date, please contact us and share your experience. 

Amazon responds

Amazon responded to Tom's Guide and acknowledged the yellow band issue. 

“A small number of customers have reported a yellow band along the bottom of the display," a spokesperson said. "We take the quality of our products seriously—customers who notice this can reach out to our customer service team for a replacement or refund, and we’re making the appropriate adjustments to ensure that new devices will not experience this issue moving forward."

Amazon spokespeople did not confirm that shipping has been halted or that Kindle Colorsofts are just sitting around in warehouses. However, it was said that availability dates may shift as new and replacement devices are made available as the "adjustments" are made to remove the yellow band. What those adjustments are was not stated. 

It is unclear if this is a software or hardware issue, though since Amazon is offering replacements, we're inclined to think it's a hardware issue.

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Amazon could be readying the next device in its long line of Kindle e-readers for a surprise launch. According to a new report, the company could be so close to launching the next Kindle that we'll see an announcement as soon as next week (the week of September 30). 

While there hasn't been much in the way of leaks leading up to this news, this latest tip from GoodEReader (via The Verge) reveals some vital information about the next device from Amazon, including some specs. A listing appeared on the Spanish retailer MediaMarkt's website but has since been deleted.

Officially, we don't know the release date for Amazon's next Kindle, but the listing said the device would launch on October 1, which is right around the corner. The predecessor was shown off for the first time in October, so it would make sense for Amazon to put out the new one around that time.

Regarding specs, the listing mentioned that the 12th-gen Kindle offers a front-lit 300ppi display that is 25% brighter than the 11th-gen model. That puts it closer to the brightness provided by the more expensive Kindle Paperwhite, though with enough difference to make that model an upgrade worth considering. 

The listing claims the new device will offer smoother page turns and a dark mode that spans the entire OS for those who prefer that look. 

Before the listing was pulled (which adds some credence to its accuracy in a way), The Verge managed to snag a few screenshots with crucial information. You can see a more recessed screen with rising bezels in a "matcha green" color in one photo. 

Some other notable tidbits from the leak include 16GB of RAM, Bluetooth 5.1, USB-C charging and up to eight weeks of battery life on a single charge (up from six on the 11th-gen). 

Finally, the price listed was €119 (about $133), a big jump from the previous model, which retails for $99. Also adding credence to this leak is that Amazon shows the current model as out of stock with no date for when the devices will return.

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I never really got into Kindles when they were released. At first, I simply preferred using real books, but when I finally tried a Kindle there was something about the page look and the tablet layout that just turned me off. While I knew I could use the app on my phone to read books, I never considered the option — at least until I had to.

I recently started reading the Horus Heresy series from Warhammer 40K and hit a minor snag. One of the biggest issues with this series is that many Horus Heresy books are no longer being published, and most copies in circulation can easily cost up to £100. 

Luckily, one option was left open to me, because the books are all available on Amazon Kindle. With this in mind, I downloaded the app and got ready to see if this was a more viable option to continue with this series. Here is what I found over the last week using the app on both the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the Galaxy Z Fold 5.

Buying the books is more of an annoyance than it should be 

The basic premise of finding and buying a Kindle book is surprisingly streamlined. You purchase the book on your Amazon account, and it is linked to any Kindle App you sign into. It's the same process with your progress through the books you read too. However, that’s where the simplicity ends, and there is one minor aspect that is pretty frustrating because, for whatever reason, you cannot buy books in the actual app on either Apple or Android phones.

I was pretty surprised when I opened my app, went to the library and tried to buy the book I wanted to read. However, there was no means to do so; instead, all I could do was download a sample. This meant that, rather than instantly starting on the app, I had to go on a computer, buy a book there and then go back to the app. While this isn’t the end of the world, it is surprisingly tedious.

It should be mentioned that the Kindle versions of books tend to be considerably cheaper than buying a paper book, and there's Kindle Unlimited, a subscription-based service. However, books bought this way are linked to the Amazon account, so if you lose that, you lose the books.

Using the phone was less of a day-to-day hassle 

I live in London, and that means taking the train a lot. As many of you may know there isn’t a lot of WIFI on the London Underground, so people will either read or listen to music. I was one of the people who liked to read while on the train, but this came with its own complications. First and foremost, it means I have to have some form of bag to carry the book. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but sometimes you don't want a backpack, especially for a single book. 

The other issue is how much space you can reasonably have around you and if you have to stand up. If you’re standing on a crowded train you don’t have a lot of room to move and need one hand holding onto something so you don’t fall over. However, having a book on your phone lessens both of these issues. 

First and foremost, a phone fits in your pocket, and it's not like you wouldn't have a phone with you anyway. It is also much easier to hold in your hand and turn the page with only a thumb, something that books don’t allow. I could stand on a crowded train with the phone in my hand and continue reading without accidentally elbowing people or risking falling over when I had to take my hand off the railing and turn the page. 

I surprised myself by finding that I preferred reading the book on the iPhone over the Galaxy Z Fold 5. I originally thought the bigger screen would be an improvement, and I can see how a foldable phone might work for some, but I wondered why I wasn’t just reading an actual book as I still needed both hands to hold the unfolded phone.  

Actually reading the book on the screen went better than I thought

The real question is “How does it feel to read the book?” The answer is a bit complicated. Firstly, I was always conscious that I was reading a phone. I don’t think it would be possible to change that fact, and the page layouts still feel strange. The page-turning also took some getting used to despite being simpler overall. Some of these feelings lessened when I changed the overall theme of the app, which was set to black, but it still felt a little off initially.

The other issue was that I initially had to clean my screen more than usual as the smudges and fingerprints were a distraction. This was an issue because you had to tap the page to turn it. However, the smudges were much less noticeable when I changed the page color to white. For reference, you do this by pressing the Aa button and selecting the Layout tab. 

I also found that the paragraph structure is a little strange on the phone as it tends to cram everything in a bit. However, several options let you fiddle with how the screen looks so that can help. I also like the little timer at the bottom that tells me how many more minutes in a chapter.

Overall, reading the book started a little strange, but over time I did get used to it. I also found that the wealth of options to customize what I was looking at made the experience a lot more pleasant. I think that you need to tweak them a bit to get the best options, but otherwise, it is much better than I thought it was going to be.

Conclusion: would I recommend using your phone as an e-reader?

Honestly, depending on the book, yes I would recommend it. While I still think there is something special about having a real book I can see the benefit of the app and using the phone. However, I still wouldn’t recommend using a tablet. Their size means that you still need to carry them in a bag, and you still need both hands to use them. However, if you don’t have a wealth of space or, like me, have a series that is just a nightmare to either find or afford then go for it. I know I’m going to keep reading on my phone.

I did not expect to be convinced this thoroughly, and I’m excited to finish the Horus Heresy series…eventually… There are, like, fifty books or so. However, let me know if you like to use your phone or tablet as an e-reader. Do you prefer a real book and would never consider using an app, or do you see apps and Kindles as the wave of the future?

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Amazon didn’t need to reinvent the wheel with the Kindle 2022 ($99). E-readers can have all the bells and whistles they want, but in the end they have one job: to allow you to read. Well, more accurately, allow you to read a collection of books comfortably, all on one device. 

So it was a pleasant surprise when Amazon decided to refresh the Kindle in a noticeable way. This latest version’s e-ink display got upgraded to a 300 pixels per inch (PPI) resolution and Amazon swapped the old micro-USB charging input for USB-C. 

There are still enough differences to make the Kindle Paperwhite the superior choice. The new Kindle 2022 is still not waterproof and it lacks the softer display lighting options of its more expensive counterpart. It’s also smaller, but whether or not that is better or worse is subjective. If you want a Kindle and don’t care about it being waterproof, the $40 cheaper price point makes the Kindle 2022 the better value for most readers. 

Amazon Kindle (2022): Price and configurations 

If you’re someone who gets overwhelmed by choices, then I have good news. The Amazon Kindle 2022 comes in just a single 16GB model for $99. There are two color options though: Black or Denim. So if you want a little choice you’re covered there too. I tested the Black model and it was nice, though fingerprints did show up on the Kindle where I handled it.

Some may complain that the price went up $10 versus the $89 price point of the Amazon Kindle (2019), but at least you get something for that price increase. Between the upgraded resolution and the switch to USB-C, Amazon did at least make some improvements that could justify a price hike. 

Amazon Kindle (2022): Design 

The Amazon Kindle has always had a relatively simple design, and that has not changed with this latest iteration. The 6.2 x 4.3 x 0.32-inch Kindle (2022) is slightly smaller than the Kindle (2019), but you probably wouldn't notice. It remains comfortable to hold, and at 5.56 ounces it’s even easier to bring with you anywhere.

It also remains a no-frills device in terms of extra physical features. Aside from a power button and the USB-C charging port, there’s nothing else. To be fair, there isn’t really a need for anything else. Some people like to have physical page-turn buttons, but personally, I don’t view the lack of those as a negative. 

The only design change I would advocate for is upgrading the chassis for the Kindle to be IPX8 waterproof resistance rated. I think that Amazon could accomplish this without undercutting the more expensive Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, which still offers improved lighting options and a larger size than the base 2022 Kindle.

Amazon Kindle (2022): Display 

One of the biggest complaints about the previous iteration of the Kindle in our review was the mediocre display resolution. While the Amazon Kindle 2019 upgraded the display by adding four front lights, which allow for a better and more energy-efficient reading experience, it still featured a relatively low resolution at just 167 ppi. That's fine for reading, but noticeably below the resolution of the rest of the Kindle lineup.

Now, Amazon is fixing that with the Kindle (2022). This Kindle has an upgraded 300 ppi 6-inch display that felt incredibly comfortable for this former Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (3rd generation) user. The e-ink grayscale display looked fantastic and was easy to read. 

The biggest complaint I had was that I found the light to be a bit harsher than the warmer tones you can get on the Paperwhite. However, I found with a little tinkering — and turning on the Kindle 2022’s dark mode — I was able to land on an enjoyable display experience. 

Amazon Kindle (2022): User experience and features 

The Kindle user experience is pretty simple, and I found it easy to use and intuitive. When the Kindle boots up, you’re presented with a home page that displays some selections from your library and recommendations from Amazon. There’s also a search bar to allow you to just search for content directly from the home page.

At the bottom there’s also a “Library” tab that shows everything you have in your Kindle library. You can filter this library by using the filters icon located directly under the search bar, which is great if you’re in the mood for something you haven’t read yet or searching for an Audible audiobook.

Speaking of Audible, you can listen to your Audible audiobooks on the Kindle using Bluetooth. I found it easy to connect my headphones to the Kindle, but be warned — it may be loud at first. Make sure to set your volume using the Settings pull-down menu (drag your finger down from the top of the screen to access) once you’re connected. The volume slider only appears with Bluetooth connected.

Finally, our past reviews have spoken at length about the awfulness that is Goodreads, Amazon’s widely-disliked social network for recommending books. Unfortunately, it hasn’t entirely gone away. While I’ve had a largely Goodreads-free experience, when you open a new book there is an annoying “About this book” pop-up that appears. While technically not a Goodreads feature, it’s still an annoying distraction that the Kindle could do without. Still, overall Amazon largely didn’t overwhelm me with distractions, so it's a vast improvement over some of the previous Kindles in that regard.

Amazon Kindle (2022): Battery life 

While the 6-week battery life of the Amazon Kindle 2022 is less than the Kindle Paperwhite’s 10-week, it’s more than enough. Amazon claims that the Kindle can hit six weeks on a single charge based on 30 minutes of reading a day with Wi-Fi off and the brightness set at 13. Using the Audible audiobook streaming feature over Bluetooth will reduce battery life below this figure.

While I have not tested the battery life of the Kindle as rigorously as Amazon has (I haven’t even had 6 weeks to try and drain the battery) I can tell you so far I’ve been impressed. I’ve been using it for a while now and still have not had to charge it. While it may fall short of the six weeks Amazon promises, it won’t be by much.

Amazon Kindle (2022): Content

Content is both a major advantage and disadvantage of the Kindle ecosystem. Amazon Kindles, of course, have access to the massive Kindle Store and its millions of books. You also get access to Audible audiobooks, which as mentioned you can listen to using Bluetooth. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you can even download a free eBook a month from a selection of new books curated by Amazon. You even get free cloud storage for all Amazon content.

Unfortunately, alongside offering this wealth of content Amazon does everything it can to lock you out of other ecosystems. The Kindle can download eBooks from your public library through the Overdrive service, but other services (like Hoopla, which works on Kindle Fire tablets) don’t work on the Kindle 2022. And if you have Google Books eBooks, those won’t work either.

Amazon Kindle (2022): Verdict 

The Amazon Kindle (2022) is nearly a perfect device for what it is, and some of its flaws are more down to Amazon than the device itself. Being locked into Amazon’s ecosystem is a drag, but you can’t really knock the Kindle for that.

That’s not to say there aren’t improvements that could be made. The fact that the Kindle 2022 isn’t waterproof is probably the biggest reason that I couldn’t rate it above four stars, and the ability to adjust the warmth of the display light is something I sorely miss from the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) — though if you’re fine with using dark mode it’s easy to move past that shortcoming. Admittedly, if Amazon fixed those things there would be no reason to get the Paperwhite, so while I’m disappointed, I’m not shocked.

Ultimately though, the Kindle 2022 is probably the best Kindle for most people, dethroning the Paperwhite when both are at full price. It’s lightweight and comfortable to hold, the display is bright and crisp — a massive improvement — and the battery lasts for ages. Unless you really need a waterproof Kindle, it’s tough to advocate spending more than the $99.99 for the Amazon Kindle 2022.

When it comes to reading, note-taking and drawing, there's no better tool for the job than one of the best Kindles or e-readers. You're here to find the best of them, and we have just the expert tips to help guide you in picking the right one.

Amazon's Kindles and their many models are always a great shout, and the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite continues to be the best e-reader for most people. If you can afford to splurge on a premium device specifically for reading, I recommend the Kindle Colorsoft, as it's great for reading graphic novels and manga. And if you can afford the absolute best Kindle possible, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft lets you read and write in color.

But there are even more alternatives worth checking out. That includes the ReMarkable Paper Pro and its uniquely textured e-paper display that feels amazing to write on. With my team of experts reading and writing on dozens of these devices, you'll find all our go-to picks, advice and tips on finding the best e-reader for you right here. So, let's dive in!

The best Kindle and e-readers you can buy today

The best Kindle overall

The latest Kindle Paperwhite is a study in understated competence. The latest model sports the same basic look as previous Kindles and Kindle Paperwhite models, including the matte black shell and an e-ink screen, but the latest Paperwhite has a bigger-than-ever 7-inch screen that makes it easier to focus on what you're reading. I also love that the bezels are small and thin, so you tend to forget they're there when engrossed in a good book.

The Kindle Paperwhite's sharp 300-ppi display is supported by an array of 17 LED backlights, which affords you the small luxury of incredibly even lighting. Plus, it offers a robust level of waterproofing (IPX8-rated) protection. So while you probably don't want to take it in the pool, a quick drop in a puddle or bathtub might not spell the end.

The latest model is worth buying because it offers faster performance and smoother page-flipping than earlier Kindles. Flipping through pages is 25% faster than before, and black text on white backgrounds appears clearer and more defined. Though we wish the power button had been moved to the top, we like this e-reader's premium design and appearance.

The only shortcoming? The latest Paperwhite costs $10 more than the previous model. While that's a bummer, there are regular sales on Amazon that should help lower the cost if you wait for a good opportunity. But even if you pay full price, I think the Kindle Paperwhite is the best e-reader for most people thanks to its elegant design, premium features and robust library.

• Read our full Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2024) review

The best value

The Amazon Kindle is a great e-reader that meets every need by being bright, long-lasting and comfortable to carry on long trips. The fact that you're locked into Amazon’s ecosystem is a drag, but you can’t knock the Kindle itself for Amazon's customer-unfriendly business practices.

That's not to say it's perfect, of course. There's room for improvement, like the fact that it's still not waterproof. So while I recommend it as a great Kindle at a killer price, it's key that you don't take it in the bath with you. This remains the biggest differentiator between it and the more expensive Paperwhite, and it feels like a slightly arbitrary difference intended to justify charging more for the Paperwhite.

Also, I missed having the option to adjust the warmth of the display light, another minor but meaningful Paperwhite feature — though if you’re fine with using dark mode, it’s easy to move past that shortcoming. Admittedly, if Amazon fixed those things, there would be no reason to get the Paperwhite, so while we're disappointed, we aren't shocked that the base Kindle doesn't get these useful features.

Ultimately, this Kindle is probably the best Kindle for the money. It’s lightweight and comfortable to hold, the display is bright and crisp — a massive improvement over earlier models — and the battery lasts for ages. Unless you really need a waterproof Kindle, the Amazon Kindle is your best bet.

• Read our full Amazon Kindle (2024) review

The best premium

If you have money to burn and want the absolute best Kindle you can get, you want the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

When I reviewed this extra-large e-paper slate I called it the Cadillac of Kindles because it has (almost) all the fancy features you could want in an e-reader: a crisp 11-inch screen that's capable of displaying your books and documents in black and white or color, a packed-in stylus with a built-in eraser tool and extensions to let you easily move documents back and forth from your Kindle to cloud services like OneDrive.

And after using one for a few weeks, I'm pleased to report that it's a great device. Colors look nice and bright on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, although black and white looks even better since the display effectively halves its resolution when displaying colors (you get 300 PPI in black and white, but just 150 PPI when displaying color). And writing on the 11" e-paper display with the included Kindle Premium Pen feels pretty good (although not as good as it feels to write on the ReMarkable Paper Pro).

I'm not the biggest fan of the way you annotate documents on Kindle devices because you have two choices: either write your notes in an expandable margin that pops out of the side of the screen, or write/doodle your annotations directly "on" your document or text using the Active Canvas.

My issue is that the Active Canvas tech basically anchors your annotations between the text, so your annotations stay in the same place if you scroll or change text size, but are fundamentally disconnected from the text. That's a stark contrast from what it feels like to annotate documents on ReMarkable tablets, where you can simply write directly onto the text and count on your marks staying put no matter how you scroll or adjust the document.

I also need to let you know that the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft doesn't have any meaningful waterproofing to speak of, so you'll want to keep this pricey e-paper slate away from the surf. And frankly, since you'll pay basically the same amount for the ReMarkable Paper Pro, I personally would go with the Paper Pro over the Scribe Colorsoft.

But I've used both, and I will say that colors (and the screen in general) do appear brighter on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft than they do on the ReMarkable Paper Pro. So if you want to read and write in color, both are great choices!

• Read our full Kindle Scribe Colorsoft (2025) review

Best color Kindle

The latest Kindle Colorsoft brings everything readers expect from a Kindle, just in full color. Its 7-inch color e-ink screen is crisp and, in our experience, remains readable even in direct sunlight — so comics and illustrated books finally look as engaging on an e-reader as on paper.

What really tips the balance for color fans is the Kindle library itself. You get access to the largest ebook and magazine collection around, which means no hunting for obscure formats or worrying about limited selection for color content.

In terms of day-to-day use, the Colorsoft holds its own: battery life stretches up to 8 weeks, and the IPX8 water resistance means you don’t have to panic if it gets splashed. These are practical essentials for readers who want to enjoy graphic novels at the pool or on the go, without sacrificing reliability.

The only real catch is price: the Colorsoft costs noticeably more than the entry-level Kindle or Paperwhite models. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed my time testing this device. If color is your top priority and you want a Kindle that goes beyond black and white, this is the most balanced option Amazon offers right now.

• Read our full Kindle Colorsoft (2026) review

The best for writers

While the new Kindle Scribe is available and offers the option of writing on its e-reader display, the high price of the Scribe makes it hard to recommend. Because of that, I think the ReMarkable Paper Pro is a better choice for those who want an e-reader they can write on.

I say that because it's an e-reader designed for writers and note-takers. The ReMarkable Paper Pro is built for writing, to the extent that you can't buy one without a ReMarkable Marker or Marker Plus (which has an eraser tool on the back) stylus bundled in.

And while you can read your favorite ebooks just fine on this slate, you should only buy a ReMarkable tablet if you also want to write on it or jot down your own notes as you go. This tablet is designed to mimic the feeling of putting pen to paper, and I genuinely enjoy the feeling of jotting down notes or editing manuscripts on the 11.8-inch e-paper display in action.

This is the first ReMarkable tablet to support color, too, which is fun if not vital to the tablet's mission. It supports fewer than ten colors, but you can still get a pretty good range of colors popping up both in books and under your stylus as you play with the suite of art tools included.

But you should know that this tablet is as slow to update as any other e-reader on this list, due to its e-paper nature. In my testing, I found that I would often notice a delay between when I drew a line or flipped a page and when the action actually happened on-screen.

So while this is a unique device that offers standout value for writers who want a tablet that mimics the feel of a pen on paper while you're reading or marking up PDFs, everyone else should go with a more affordable, more durable Kindle for their e-reading habits.

If you'd prefer something smaller than a full-size slate, the ReMarkable Paper Pro Move is basically a smaller 7.3-inch version of the Paper Pro that's about the size of a big airport paperback.

• Read our full ReMarkable Paper Pro review

Also tested

We test and review lots of e-readers every year, and just because they don't all make this list doesn't mean they aren't good devices.

Below we've gathered all the e-readers we've tested that don't quite make this list, but are still good alternatives well worth considering if they meet your unique needs, or if you can't find your first choice on sale.

Battery life claims compared

E-readers are built to go weeks between charges, a clear advantage these pint-sized slates offer over bigger, brighter, more capable tablets like the best iPads. Sure, you can read ebooks on any tablet with the right apps, but an e-reader will last a week-long vacation in your bag without needing to be plugged in—can your iPad do that?

In fact, the lengthy battery life of these slates makes them challenging for us to test, because we have to use them for months at a time to see if the battery claims are accurate. We have done that on occasion, and we've found that in general manufacturer claims are pretty close to what we actually see in real-world use.

Since battery life is a key data point that can help some people choose between e-readers, we've compared the advertised battery life of all the tablets on this page below so you can quickly see which last the longest.

As you can see, the Kindle Paperwhite is the clear leader of the pack with an advertised battery life of up to ten weeks.

Note that Amazon typically couches these recommendations with the caveat that it's based on you using the tablet to read for about 30 minutes per day, with the brightness set a few pegs lower than max. If you tend to read more often, you'll likely need to charge more often too.

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How to choose the best e-reader for you

Let's start with your budget, as that's the easiest way to make this call. If you're running tight right now, the entry-level Kindle is a solid recommendation. Its lighting is good enough for a handful of situations and its battery life is nothing to sneeze at. Frankly, as long as you're careful about keeping it out of the water I think the basic Kindle is just as good an e-reader as anything on this list.

But hey, if money is no option then you should probably be choosing between the Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Scribe family, and this is sort of tough. If you prefer your devices to be built with a harder plastic, that still feels reliable, then I recommend the Paperwhite because it's more sturdy and also offers waterproofing.

But if you want to be able to jot notes on what you're reading you'll probably want to choose between the Kindle Scribe, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft or the ReMarkable Paper Pro.

The Kindle Scribe is the cheapest, but if you really love the look and feel of handwriting I recommend you at least try to check out ReMarkable's Paper Pro because, while it's more expensive, it also has a far more advanced stylus and screen that make it almost feel like you're writing on paper. It's a niche experience, but I've never felt anything like it on any other tablet. The Paper Pro can also display a limited color palette, while the Kindle Scribe cannot.

For that you need to pay for the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, which costs as much as the ReMarkable Paper Pro and lets you read and write in color. I personally prefer the experience of writing on ReMarkable's tablets more, but the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft does appear brighter and more colorful than the Paper Pro in person!

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Frequently Asked Questions

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How we tested the best e-readers

To start, we read a lot on these Kindles. We don't just do that to see how much battery life is drained in a set of time (and to then compare against the estimations these manufacturers provide), but to discover what we like and don't like about a given Kindle. We then keep reading. At home, on the bus, in the park and anywhere else where the lighting changes.

In addition to evaluating e-readers' size, weight, claimed battery life and design choices, we test their brightness using our light meter. The experience of reading on the device also plays a huge role in these reviews. For instance, we look at the intuitiveness of the interface, the size of the available library and how well the special features (such as web browsers or dictionaries) work.

We've also tried alternatives to the Kindle, such as the ReMarkable Paper Pro and Kobo Nia. And while Kobo's slates are not currently among our best picks, their interface is great for those who want to stay focused on books, and isn't as focused on supplementary content as Amazon's Kindles are.

We even drop water-proof Kindles into our makeshift dunk tank, and watch as they survive — the first time it was surprising, and now it's become something we expect. Lastly, we try and see if Amazon's changed anything about how Kindles work with public libraries. It's the one thing we prefer about competitors.

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If you were an avid reader of Kindle books on your Android device, you’re in for some bad news, as Amazon has removed the option to buy ebooks using the Android Kindle app.

Until very recently it was possible to buy Kindle books from within the Amazon app on Android. But as Ars Technica noted, that option has been removed by Amazon — now users are directed to a screen that explains the option to buy books in the app has been removed, in order “to remain in compliance with the Google Play Store policies.” 

The policy is one that came into action this April and requires companies with a turnover of over $1 million to pay a 30% commission on all in-app purchases on Android.

This could be bypassed by companies enabling in-app purchases to be done though their own payment service rather than Android’s Google Pay. But since March, Google has been preventing apps that don’t use its payment platform from being able to issue updates. And from June 1, any apps not using Google-approved payments will be removed from the Play Store. 

As such, it looks like Amazon is getting in early to remove non-Google Pay payments from the Kindle app. But rather than surrender 30% of the Kindle app purchases, Amazon now directs users to its website in order to buy books that can then be downloaded to the Kindle app. This is the same reason why Amazon recently removed the purchase of Audible audiobooks through its Android app. 

Such moves aren’t surprising as the same happened to the Kindle app on iOS, as  Apple had inflicted ‘tax’ on companies' digital goods purchased through apps on its App Store, which also saw Amazon remove the purchase of Kindle books via its on iOS app back in 2011.

This new move by Amazon doesn't mean the Kindle app on Android becomes useless, but it does make it trickier to make quick book purchases, say downloading an ebook before a flight or long commute. Effectively, the user experience for Kindle has got a little worse, meaning you may want to consider an alternative, so check out our rundown of the best ebook apps. 

The new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition sits between the $139 Kindle Paperwhite and the $249 Kindle Oasis. Not only is the $189 e-reader pricier than the Kindle Paperwhite (2021), our pick for the best Kindle, but it's got one feature that used to be only available in the Kindle Oasis. But should you really spend $189 on an e-reader that's incredibly similar to one that's $50 less?

That's the question we're here to figure out, because while I like one of the Signature Edition's signature features, I'm not sure everyone else will think it's worth spending extra to get. That said, this is still an excellent e-reader, especially for those who live the Amazon Prime lifestyle. The big benefits, wireless Qi-charging and automatically-adjusting light, are the kind of thing that benefit the folks trying to gain a more seamless, minimalistic experience. It's also got more storage and no ads. 

And for those who feel like the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite hasn't evolved fast enough over time — gaining small perks year after year — this model may be perfect. But that same crowd may not like how much more they have to spend.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Specs

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Price and configurations

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition starts at $189, $50 more than the $139 Kindle Paperwhite 2021.

While this is a new model, the higher price, when compared to the Paperwhite 2021 is, reflective of Amazon's gradual price increases over the last years. Both the 2018 and 2021 Kindle Paperwhites were $10 more than prior models.

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition shipped on October 27, 2021.

The default Paperwhite comes with 32GB of storage, four times as much as the Kindle Paperwhite 2021 (8GB). The Oasis starts at 8GB can be purchased with 32GB for an extra $30. The newly-announced Nook Glowlight 4 has 32GB standard and costs $149.

Unlike with the regular Paperwhite or Oasis, Amazon doesn't charge you $20 to remove the lock screen ads that may annoy you (they annoy me). This means your Kindle screen is free to show the cover of the book you're currently reading.

As you may have noticed, Amazon's added two features (32GB of RAM and no ads) that it would normally charge $50 for. Looking at the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition like this, the Qi-charging and automatically-adjusting lights are bonuses. 

Amazon no longer offers a cellular-capable Paperwhite, a feature exclusive to the $249 Kindle Oasis.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Design

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition looks just like the Kindle Paperwhite (2021), so much so that I kept getting them confused. Both feature a matte-black shell and 6.8-inch e-ink display, which is larger than the 6-inch screen in the previous Paperwhite. Barnes & Noble's new Nook Glowlight 4 has a 6-inch panel.

That larger screen comes at a slight price on size: the Paperwhite Signature Edition (just like the normal Paperwhite) measures 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches, making it slightly larger than the 6.6 x 4.6 x 0.3-inch 2018 Paperwhite. I didn't find this made it harder to hold, but the slightly thinner bezels made me have to hold it in different ways to avoid actuating the screen. If you want more space to grip, you may prefer the Amazon Kindle Oasis' design, which has an asymmetrical design, with page turning buttons. 

The Paperwhite Signature Edition weighs 7.3 ounces (a hair heavier than the 7.2-ounce Paperwhite 2021), a tad heavier than the 6.4-ounce Paperwhite 2018.

Looking across the lineup, the 6-inch entry-level Amazon Kindle (6.3 x 4.5 x 0.3 inches, 6.1 ounces) is smaller and lighter and the 7-inch aluminum Kindle Oasis (6.3 x 5.6 x 0.3 inches, 6.6 ounces) is shorter, wider and a little lighter.

And the Paperwhite Signature Edition also offers USB-C charging. This may be great for you — I'm trying to consolidate around this relatively new cable and remove the crummy non-reversible micro-USB port from my life — or it may be no big deal. One of my Kindle-loving relatives had no idea when I brought it up. No other Kindles offer USB-C, but the Nook Glowlight 4 does.

Amazon isn't offering any claims of faster charging for USB-C charging vs micro-USB.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Durability

Just like the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite, the Paperwhite Signature Edition has a waterproof resistance rating of IPX8. Even though previous waterproof Kindles did well on their water tests, I put this model through its paces again. I dropped the Paperwhite Signature Edition in about 5 inches of tap water in my NYC apartment sink and letting it sit for 20 minutes.

And when I took it out? The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition worked as if nothing had happened. 

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Display

The Paperwhite Signature Edition's 6.8-inch, 300 ppi display is nearly identical to that of the 2021 Paperwhite. It's got amazingly evenly-lit backlighting (17 LEDs vs 2018's five LEDs), plus a perfectly crisp 300ppi screen, so that text looks great at all sizes, which I noticed as I tried to start She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker Chan (which didn't click with me). The resolution is no upgrade, as Kindles dating back to 2015 have had this sharp screen quality.  The entry-level Amazon Kindle has a 167 ppi screen, and Kindle Oasis and B&N Nook Glowlight 4 are also at 300ppi.

The automatically-adjusting brightness, however, is an upgrade. As I brought the Paperwhite Signature Edition around my apartment, I saw its brightness jump from 5 to 16 points of brightness, depending on the ambient lighting. As someone who can get lazy enough to prefer his tech to take some of the work away? This is a nice touch. As I moved around on my sofa one night, I saw brightness shift a bit here and there to adjust. "It's always thinking," I told myself.

As I noticed while reading How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell late at night in my living room, I noticed that the Paperwhite Signature Edition's lighting is perfectly even. I tested this out at multiple settings, going as low as 5 points on the Brightness bar. Throughout, the lighting stayed even. 

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition also features a Display Warmth setting, so you can get a yellowy/amber hue. This isn't a blue light filter meant to help you fall asleep easier, but just an aesthetic change. I prefer the colder settings, as I'm trying to replicate paper.

You may (as I did while working on my Kindle Paperwhite 2021 review) notice that there's a small gap between the screen and the bezel. It's nothing huge, and I got used to it. But The reMarkable 2 has a much smaller gap.

When I brought the Paperwhite Signature Edition to my local park to read, I noted that the Paperwhite display stayed crisp and legible in direct sunlight (Again, I had more trouble getting into She Who Became The Sun than actually reading it).

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: User experience and bonus features

In 2021, Amazon made notable changes Kindle home screen and smaller tweaks to the rest of the interface, and they it feels like they're for the better. Now, your home screen is now split between "Home" and "Library" sections. The former shows you some of the books you have, along with suggestions for stuff you might like, as well as your reading lists. Just want to see the stuff you have? Tap the Library tab. 

Now, you have a much wider Search bar at the top of the home screen, and only there. The menu bar that used to show up when you tapped that area while reading now just shows you small buttons for font, bookmarks and search, and you tap a wide arrow at the top to open the menu for airplane mode, sync, Bluetooth, dark mode and display brightness and warmth settings.

Amazon's made it slightly easier to remove Goodreads (its social network for readers up front). Why would you? Well, I've never really found it to be a place where I've gotten much value, and it can take up parts of the menus and screen. I'm not alone in my disapproval of Goodreads.

I wish the Kindle OS made it easier to remove all the other sorta-neat (but not for everyone) interactive stuff in their reading experience. Tired of seeing popular highlights (this is my book, not the community's book)?  You need to do this for each book: open the book, open the top of screen menu and tap the Font button, tap More and turn off Popular Highlights (I also disable About This Book).

Amazon's also recently added Bluetooth listening for audio books. It works fine in my testing, but I'd never use a Kindle for Audible. I don't need an e-ink screen for an audiobook, and my phone is right there.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Battery Life

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition has lengthy battery life to spare. Amazon claims it should last up to 10 weeks, but that's based on 30 minutes of reading per day, with Wi-Fi off and brightness set to 13 out of 24. 

In one day of testing, I read for approximately two hours with varying levels of brightness and downloaded a few books over Wi-Fi and kept Bluetooth off, and that knocked out 4% of battery life. By the numbers, that would last me 25 days (and 1% per half-hour would be 70% in 10 weeks, so, their math seems right). 

That's still a lot of time to remember to either plug it into a USB-C cable or place it on a compatible wireless charger. Yes, unlike any other Kindle before it, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition charges over Qi-based chargers, and it refueled that 4% I'd lost in 24 minutes. 

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Content

In the way that Arby's has the meats, Amazon has the books. The mega-retailer doesn't publish numbers of how many books it sells, estimates suggest it stocks around 9 million titles.

Kobo boasts that it offers "6 million eBooks and audiobooks," while Barnes and Noble, on the other hand, claims it has "millions of eBooks." 

Amazon's also got other ways to give you books, such as the $9.99 Kindle Unlimited, a Netflix-for-books with "over 2 million titles and thousands of audiobooks." They even throw in three magazine subscriptions. 

In case you're not made of money, the Kindle Paperwhite still supports borrowing books from public libraries for free, using the Overdrive service.

Prime members can take advantage of First Reads (formerly Kindle First), which grants early access to editor's picks. Members also can access two free Kindle books per month, and get access to discounted print editions.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review: Verdict

I wish the Paperwhite Signature Edition was just the Paperwhite 2021. While USB-C and display warmth are nice updates, the rising price of the Paperwhite Kindle feels annoying. All of these features combined would make for a compelling reason to upgrade, but the $189 Paperwhite Signature Edition delivers sticker shock for anyone who remembers the $129 Paperwhite (2018). 

Yes, Amazon's adding a little here and there, and so the reason to upgrade to this model will vary greatly by use case. We recommend the $139 Kindle Paperwhite to most, and I hate ads, so I've accepted that $159 is the price I'll probably pay for a Kindle. Is an automatically-adjusting light (which means more to me than Qi-charging) and 4x as much storage worth another $30? For me, even though I like the lighting to be adjusted for me? I don't think the answer is yes.

So, I'll still send people to the regular Kindle Paperwhite, which has the right screen crispness and that waterproofing that you'll love at the beach. The Signature Edition exists because the $249 Kindle Oasis may be too rich for some folks' blood, but they still want a little more than the regular Paperwhite offers. 

When you add up the extra storage space, the lack of ads, Qi-charging and automatic brightness? The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is kind of a bargain bundle that mixes and matches features of its more affordable and more expensive siblings. The question is "is this bargain still too much?"

The Kindle Paperwhite 2021 looks a lot like the previous one, at least from a distance. Amazon isn't trying to re-invent the wheel here: it's already figured out how to make a Kindle that passes the Goldilocks challenge. And this model, despite being a little pricier, is still just right for most out there.

Amazon breathed new life into this Kindle Paperwhite ($139) by giving it a larger display, a screen feature previously exclusive to the high-end Kindle Oasis and a new charging port. 

This keeps in Amazon's patterns with Kindles. Most of its updates haven't been huge enough to push people to run out and buy one the second they're available, but the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite is just like its dad: sitting atop our best Kindle list.

Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Specs

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Price and configurations

While I'm not happy to see that the Paperwhite costs more than it used to, the Kindle Paperwhite 2021 starts at $139.

As happened with the 2018 Kindle Paperwhite, the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite is $10 more than it was before.

The Kindle Paperwhite shipped on October 27, 2021.

The default Paperwhite comes with 8GB of storage (same as the 2018 model), and  Amazon is still charging $20 to upgrade to an ad-free experience (which bumps you up to $159. Thankfully, Amazon is no longer calling these ads "special offers." I'd take this upgrade 10 times out of 10, but I just hate ads (I even pay for YouTube Premium).

What has changed, though, is that Amazon's no longer offering a model with a cellular modem, the other feature it once offered for an upgrade price. For an extra $50, you can upgrade to the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which bumps your storage to 32GB, adds automatically-adjusting backlighting and wireless charging. Check out our Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review for more details.

Really miss cellular connectivity? You can find it in the Kindle Oasis, which starts at $249.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Design

The Kindle Paperwhite 2021 looks just like most other Kindles, a matte-black shell encasing an e-ink display. But this year we've got some key differences. Its bezels are smaller, and its screen is larger, going from a 6-inch panel to a 6.8-inch panel. 

While the bezel-shrinking helps enable a larger screen, the Kindle Paperwhite 2021 (6.9 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches) is also slightly larger than the 6.6 x 4.6 x 0.3-inch 2018 Paperwhite. It's not much heavier, though, going from 6.4 ounces in the previous model to 7.2 ounces in the new edition.

The 6-inch entry-level Amazon Kindle (6.3 x 4.5 x 0.3 inches, 6.1 ounces) is smaller and lighter, and the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (6.9 x 4.9 x .3 inches, 7.3 ounces) is nearly identical. The 7-inch aluminum Kindle Oasis (6.3 x 5.6 x 0.3 inches, 6.6 ounces) is shorter and wider

Also, there's the matter of the USB-C port in the 2021 Paperwhite, a moment that could have you saying "finally!" (as I did) or "what?" (as one of my relatives did). The move to this reversible port is a bit of catch-up if you think about the Kindle in context of laptops and tablets (save the regular iPad), most of which have adopted this port. 

Its arrival is important for primarily one reason: reversible ports mean no fumbling to figure out the "right side up." Amazon isn't touting any fast-charging, with claims that it can gain a full charge in under 2.5 hours with a 9W USB power adapter (the Paperwhite 2018 was rated for a full charge in 3 hours with a 5W adapter). Oh, and if you want wireless charging? That's exclusive to the $189 Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition.

We want to compare Kindles to other e-readers, but the Nook lineup hasn't been refreshed since the GlowLight 3 in 2018. We will update this review if B&N or Rakuten (who makes the Kobo e-readers) field a comparable e-reader.

I almost wonder if the bezels on the Kindle Paperwhite 2021 are too small. When I used it, I found myself always having to hold it from the bottom. Gripping it from the now-slimmer side bezel, I found myself accidentally actuating the touch screen controls too often, and unintentionally highlighting text. That said, my mom (the biggest Kindle user I know) didn't find the change to be difficult to get around, as she keeps her Kindle Paperwhite in a case, which gives her more to hold onto.

This is why I prefer the asymmetrical Amazon Kindle Oasis' design, which has a spot to grip on the side, with page turning buttons. This is highly subjective and personal, though, so your mileage will likely vary. 

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Durability

Just like the 2018 Kindle Paperwhite the new Kindle Paperwhite (2021) has a waterproof resistance rating of IPX8. And while I could have assumed it will work (the 2018 model survived a bath in a bucket of water unscathed), I decided to put it to the test by dropping the Paperwhite in about 5 inches of tap water in my NYC apartment sink and letting it sit for 20 minutes.

And when I took it out? The Kindle Paperwhite 2021 worked as if nothing had happened. 

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Display

The Paperwhite's 6.8-inch, 300 ppi display isn't just larger than before, it's also more well-lit than its predecessor. The 2018 Paperwhite had a mere five LED backlights, while the 2021 model has 17. So, if you ever thought the Paperwhite wasn't evenly lit (the 2015 model had only four backlights), you should check out our photos of the Kindle Paperwhite 2021 in the dark. The entry-level Kindle only has four LEDs, the Oasis has 25 and the Paperwhite Signature Edition also has 17.

Text is, of course, still super-crisp, something the Paperwhite hasn't had an issue with for a very long time (the first 300ppi Paperwhite was the 2015 Kindle Paperwhite). The entry-level Amazon Kindle has a 167 ppi screen, and the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition and Kindle Oasis are also at 300ppi.

As you can see above, the lighting is pretty perfectly even. I tested this out at lower settings, at around 5 ticks on the Brightness meter, and saw that evenly-lit light continue. 

The Kindle Paperwhite 2021's biggest new screen feature (not counting the increased size) is for Display Warmth. Not to be confused with a blue light filter, this setting lets you change the color of the LED light to an amber hue. This feature (seen in the pricier Kindle Oasis), isn't meant to help you fall asleep faster or anything like that (though you can schedule when it turns on), but just as an aesthetic option. 

The one off thing that nit-pickers may notice is that there's a small gap between the screen and the bezel, showing that the display is inset. It's not a huge deal, though I'll note that the reMarkable 2 has a much smaller gap.

Reading a section of the emotionally taxing The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk while outside, I noticed that the Paperwhite's display is still suitable for reading in direct sunlight. 

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: User experience and bonus features

Amazon's made small changes to the Kindle OS interface, and they feel like they're for the better (some change-averse users will likely pop up to say otherwise). The home screen is now split between "Home" and "Library" sections, with the former showing a sample of the latter, along with your reading lists and content that Amazon's algorithms deem worthy of recommending to you. 

The Search bar now takes up much more of the top of the screen, but it's no longer in the menu that appears while reading a book. A new menu "drawer" here contains settings for Airplane mode, Sync, Bluetooth and Dark Mode (introduced in 2020).

One of our long-term issues with the Kindle has been how much it pushes its social extras on you. So, while setting up the Kindle Paperwhite 2021, I was happy to see that Amazon places an option to disable Goodreads (its social network for readers that isn't well-liked) up front. At this window, I just tapped "No Thanks" and got to experience the rest of the Kindle without using it. 

I don't think I'm alone in that I want my Kindle for reading and nothing else. There's also that page of "about this book" text that pops up and gets in the way. You can get rid of this by opening an ebook, tapping the Font option at the top of the screen, tapping More and turning off About This Book. I also disable Popular Highlights, because it feels weird to have a shared reading experience.

Amazon's still letting you listen to audio books via Bluetooth on your Kindle (though this seems more like a thing people would use their smart phones for), and it's also including its "experimental" web browser, which has never really worked right, and still does not.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Battery Life

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2021 has battery life to spare. Amazon claims it should last up to 10 weeks, but that's based on 30 minutes of reading per day, with Wi-Fi off and brightness set to 13 out of 24. 

Based on my testing, I think they're not far off. I knocked out about 1.5% of battery life per 30 minutes of testing, with Brightness set at multiple levels and Wi-Fi on. Doing the math, I'd probably hit empty a few days earlier than that 70-day estimate. But we don't all read in the same conditions, or for the same amounts of time, so this is a big case for the phrase "your mileage may vary."

Either way, even if it ran out of a charge in 9 weeks and not 10 weeks, the Kindle Paperwhite has impressive endurance.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Content

If you're looking for a book, the odds say that Amazon has it. And we're not surprised. Since it's one of the biggest online retailers, most would probably want the chance to be in front of that audience. 

And while Amazon doesn't publish numbers, estimates suggest it's at around 9 million titles.

Kobo boasts that it offers "6 million eBooks and audiobooks," while Barnes and Noble, on the other hand, claims it has "millions of eBooks." 

Amazon's also got Kindle Unlimited, a $9.99 Netflix-for-books with "over 2 million titles and thousands of audiobooks." They even throw in three magazine subscriptions. 

In case you're not made of money, the Kindle Paperwhite still supports borrowing books from public libraries for free, using the Overdrive service.

Prime members can take advantage of First Reads (formerly Kindle First), which grants early access to editor's picks. Members also can access two free Kindle books per month, and get access to discounted print editions.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review: Verdict

Small updates are interesting, especially when they come with a price bump. This Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review shows that this is such an update, with a slightly larger screen, USB-C charging and display warmth in a model that costs $10 more than its predecessor. The previous Kindle wasn't accused of being too small, having the wrong port or not having enough display options.

So, we're guessing that the Kindle Paperwhite 2021 may be more of a thing people buy to replace a Kindle that's hit the end of its life than one people rush out to buy now. Oddly, though, Amazon isn't offering it with cellular connectivity, something older models are losing. 

Don't want to spend so much money? The $89 Kindle is your best alternative, though you're trading away text crispness with its 167ppi display. And if you want a display that takes away the fiddling with brightness settings, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition packs that and wireless charging, but it costs an extra $50, at $189.

Lastly, if you're like me and think the slimmer bezels make for awkward handling, there's always the $249 Kindle Oasis. That extra $110 is a lot when most of its other once-exclusive features (such as auto-brightness and display warmth) are found in the 2021 Kindles.

This all adds up to the king keeping the throne: the Kindle Paperwhite (2021) is still the best Kindle for most people — just with a little more screen to love. 

Trying to figure out if your Kindle will lose internet access? We're guessing you heard about Amazon's upcoming changes that will stop some older Kindles from accessing the internet entirely, once the change happens in the U.S. this December.

Fortunately not all Kindles will be affected in the same way. It all depends on which model you have, as Amazon's move to walk away from older 2G and 3G networks (moving to 4G and 5G) is a bigger deal for Kindles that don't have Wi-Fi access. The slightly newer Kindles will still have Wi-Fi, but lose cellular connections That said, the convenience of downloading a book on the go via cellular is a huge thing to lose. And interestingly enough, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) doesn't even have a cellular option.

But in order to figure out which Kindle you have, it's time to dive in to your settings. Here, you'll find your serial number, which can be used to deduce the Kindle you have. You'll also (possibly) find the year of your Kindle, which can also be used for deducing if you'll be affected or not. All of our current picks for the best Kindles, you'll note, won't be losing connectivity.

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Your Kindle's name may help identify it

Personally, I was able to figure out which Kindle I have by turning it on and seeing the name "Henry's 2017 Kindle Oasis" at the top of the screen. Then, I would just scroll below to the lists of affected Kindles, to find that mine will not be affected. 

Unfortunately, not everyone's Kindle has such a convenient name. Yours may just be named "Brian's 1st Kindle," (which is probably eerie to read if your name is Brian, so hi to all the Brians out there). In that case, you need to do some more work. 

We also advise using the serial numbers to confirm the model you have. No other way is as fool-proof. This is because you may have purchased a model in the year after it was released, so take the below list as just help for figuring out what situation your Kindle is in. 

Identify your Kindle model and serial number online

There are two ways to figure out your Kindle's model and serial number, the first starts with going online.

1. Sign into Amazon.com and hover over Account & Lists.

2. Under Your Account, select Content & Devices.

3. Select Devices from the row of options.

4. Select Kindle.

5. Select your Kindle. You may see the name and year of your Kindle, or like us, you may just see a Kindle named "Your #th Kindle" using your name and which number Kindle purchase this was for you.

6. Here you'll find your serial number! The prefix of you serial number will be useful for finding your specific model. 

Identify your Kindle model and serial number on your Kindle

You can also find this info out on your Kindle!

1. Tap Settings. As you'll see above, my 2017 Kindle Oasis was easy to figure out based on how its name appeared at the top of the screen.

2. Tap All Settings.

3. Tap Device Options.

4. Tap Device Info.

5. Take note of your serial number!

The Kindles losing all internet connectivity

OK, now that you know your Kindle's serial number, we've got a list of all the Kindles along with the year they were released and their model name. You'll probably need your serial number, though, as the prefix is used to figure out which model is yours.

We've got the Kindle serial number prefixes for the four oldest Kindles listed below. If yours is not one of those, check out this guide to figure out which is yours.

• Kindle (first generation, 2007) [serial number prefix B001]
• Kindle (second generation, 2009) [serial number prefix B002 or B003]
• Kindle DX (2009) [serial number prefixes B004, B005]
• Kindle DX Graphite (aka Kindle DX second generation, 2010) [serial number prefix B009]

Kindles losing 2G/3G internet that still have Wi-Fi

• Amazon Kindle (third generation, aka Kindle Keyboard, 2010) 
• Amazon Kindle 4 (fourth generation, 2011)
• Amazon Kindle Touch (2011)
• Amazon Kindle (fifth generation, 2012)
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (first generation, 2012)
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 (second generation, 2013)
• Amazon Kindle 7 (seventh generation, 2014)
• Amazon Kindle Voyage (first generation, 2014)
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (third generation, 2015)
• Amazon Kindle Oasis (first generation, 2016)
• Amazon Kindle 8 (eighth generation, 2016)

Note that Amazon refers to the 2012 - 2015 Kindle Paperwhite, 2014 Kindle Voyage and 2016 Kindle Oasis using the "generation" numbers for its overall Kindle line. Knowing the year your Kindle came out will help a lot here. 

Kindles not losing any connectivity

• Amazon Kindle Oasis (2017) (second generation)
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) (fourth generation)
• Amazon Kindle (2019) (10th generation)
• Amazon Kindle Kids Edition (first generation, 2019)
• Amazon Kindle Oasis (2019) (third generation, aka Oasis 3)

Should you buy a new Kindle?

This is probably the right time for many to upgrade their Kindle, especially if they're looking for features such as Bluetooth connections for audio books (in all Kindles) or waterproofing (Kindle Paperwhite 2018) for when you're at the beach.

That said, if your Kindle isn't one of the models losing all internet access, we could understand holding onto it. You just need to make sure you load up on books before you go out, so you're not caught without cellular connectivity.

FYI: Amazon just made the Kindle app on Android worse — here’s how.

Figuring out how to update your Kindle, to get the latest version of the Kindle operating system, is supposed to be easy. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. We learned this with Amazon's latest update, version 5.13.7, which the company announced would be going out to the 8th Gen Kindle and above, 7th Gen Kindle Paperwhite and above and Kindle Oasis e-readers.

So no matter which of the best Kindles you've bought, you may run into the same problem we did: our Kindle Oasis just never got the update (it's running by default on the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2021 and the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition). We don't know why, and we found it odd. Days later, we found the way to manually update it, to get the new-look home screen, which primarily does two key things to your home screen. It adds a (much needed) Library button on the bottom of the screen, and makes the search field larger.

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How to update your Kindle the easy way

Your Kindle should just get the new update as long as it's connected to the internet. But if that doesn't work, there's an easy way to find the system update setting on your Kindle. 

1. Tap the Settings button in the top row.

2. Tap All Settings.

3. Tap Device Options.

4. Tap Advanced Options.

5. If you can, tap Update Your Kindle. As you can see here, it's grayed out, and we can't. Time to move to the hard way.

How to update your Kindle the manual way

This is how I updated my Kindle Oasis, as the normal update protocols did not work. So if you are waiting and waiting for the update to just happen, you can force it to happen with this process.

1. You need to identify your Kindle model (we explain more about this here).

2. Visit this page for the Kindle E-Reader Software Updates.

3. Find your model and click the "Download Software Update" link next to it to download the update.

4. Connect your Kindle to your computer via USB cable.

5. In your file manager, drag and drop the update to the Kindle's drive. Wait for the transfer to complete.

6. After the transfer has completed, eject the Kindle drive from your computer.

7. Disconnect your Kindle from your computer. Now, we're going to repeat some of the first steps to open the Advanced Settings menu.

8. Tap the Settings button in the top row.

9. Tap All Settings.

10. Tap Device Options.

11. Tap Advanced Options.

12. Tap Update Your Kindle. It should no longer be grayed out. 

13. Tap OK, and wait for your Kindle to restart and process the update. 

After a while, your Kindle should be updated! Congrats!

How to update your Kindle on version 5.13.7 or later

So, if your Kindle is on version 5.13.7, and you still want to update it (or see if an update is available), the steps have changed ever so slightly.

1. Tap the three dots button in the top-right corner.

2. Tap Settings.

3. Tap Device Options. This should look familiar, and I bet you can guess the next steps. 

4. Tap Advanced Options.

5. See if you can tap Update Your Kindle. Repeat the steps under "How to update your Kindle the manual way" if the option is grayed out, but you know an update is out there.

Now you know how to update your Kindle in two ways, and we hope you only need the easy one. That said, the manual method didn't take a whole lot of effort, we just needed to find a microUSB cable.

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The day before Amazon announced the new Kindle Paperwhite, I asked a colleague if the e-reader was "done." Not that e-readers are inherently bad, but I wondered if Amazon had already made the best affordable midrange e-reader that it could. 

And then Amazon one-upped itself by giving the Paperwhite ($129/£119) some of the best features from its high-end Kindle Oasis: waterproofing, more storage and a display that's flush to its bezels. While it may not make every Paperwhite user run out to upgrade today, this Kindle Paperwhite review will show why it sat atop our best Kindle page.

Editor's note: Amazon has a new version of this model, so check out our Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) review to learn more about it.

• How to check if your Kindle will lose internet access

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Price and configurations

While I'm not happy to see that the Paperwhite costs more than it used to — see below for more — right now Amazon's got a $30 off deal, so the Kindle Paperwhite is now just $99. Take advantage of this deal now, as it might not last long.

The one downside about this year's Paperwhite is that it costs $10 more than it used to, at $129/£119, although the waterproofing is well worth it. Everything else is business as usual, or improved.

The default Paperwhite comes with 8GB of storage: twice as much as the previous Paperwhite packed. Want four times that much, so you never ever have to think twice about downloading all the audiobooks and graphic novels you want? A 32 GB Paperwhite costs $30/£30 extra, at $159/£149. LTE connectivity with free cellular connections (for when you want a book, but you're away from Wi-Fi) costs an extra $70/£70, but that option is available for only the 32GB model, which makes for a $249/£219 Paperwhite.

Of all these upgrades, the only one I'd consider is spending $20/£10 to remove the Special Offers(aka ads) from Amazon for other books. Amazon doesn't take the user's reading habits into consideration, and just spams you with popular novels.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Design

The new Paperwhite is nearly identical to the previous model. Its soft-touch matte-black case looks and feels just like its predecessor's, though the Kindle logo is now a light gray that contrasts with the case instead of a matching black.

The new Paperwhite is 0.32 inches thick and weighs 6.4 ounces, making it a slimmer  version of the 2015 Paperwhite (0.36 inches, 7.2 ounces). Amazon's $79 Kindle is thicker and lighter, but it doesn't pack a backlight, which means it's a no-no for nighttime.

The new Paperwhite is closer in size to the graphite-aluminum Kindle Oasis (0.33 inches, 6.7 ounces), while the Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight 3 (0.35 inches, 7.0 ounces) is slightly thicker and heavier. The Nook, however,also offers buttons for turning the page, which the Paperwhite could stand to add. Rakuten, a Japanese electronics company that recently partnered with Walmart, just announced the Kobo Clara HD, a similarly priced e-reader that we're looking to test soon.

The Oasis's larger size (a 7-inch display vs. the Paperwhite's 6-inch screen) is still a point in its favor, but the Paperwhite has caught up in one key way. The Paperwhite's screen is finally flush with the bezel around it. This looks a lot nicer than the previous Paperwhites, which framed the screen with a chunky, shadow box-like bezel that stood out.

Handing the new Paperwhite to my mom, who doesn't spend more than a couple of hours away from her own Paperwhite, I got a surprising reaction. She said she likes the chunky bezel because it's a good place to rest her fingers,  but this new model's screen puts your fingers too close to the touch screen. Accidental page turns weren't an issue during my testing, though I do understand the reaction.

Then I remembered why I prefer the Oasis' design over the Paperwhite's. Unlike the Paperwhite, the Oasis is asymmetrical, with one thin bezel on one side, and clickable buttons and a wider bezel on the other side. This makes it easier to hold. The Paperwhite's slightly curved backside is also much simpler than the Oasis', which offers a bump meant to be cradled with your gripping fingers.

One positive design change is that there's no hump on the back where the power button and microUSB port rest. They're just a part of the bottom edge.

Both Kindles charge over microUSB, don't offer headphone jacks (Bluetooth is needed for audiobooks) and feature a small power button that you'll have to squint to notice. Annoyingly, Amazon doesn't include a USB power adapter. Sure, you've probably got one lying around, but for $129, Amazon should have included one.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Durability

The biggest new feature of the 2018 Kindle Paperwhite is its waterproof design, which earned an IPX8 rating. That's up to 60 minutes of submergence in 2 meters of water. You don't need to worry about it falling into your bath, the pool or even the ocean at a beach (though that's riskier, as saltwater is more corrosive).

Not only did I splash water on the Paperwhite during a photoshoot; I dropped the Paperwhite in a foot-tall bucket of tap water, then removed it after 20 minutes. The device continued to work and offer responsive page-turning, as if it had been dry the whole time.

Technically speaking, the IPX8 classification means we could have waited another 40 minutes, and dunked it even deeper.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Display

The Paperwhite's 6-inch, 300 ppi display is just as sharp and easy to read as its predecessor's: a true example of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The screen's anti-glare display is also still great for reading in a variety of lighting situations.

Our light gun rated the screen for a maximum of 78 nits, which is slightly lower than the 92-nit 2015 Paperwhite, and well below the 137-nit Oasis. This Kindle packs 5 LED backlights, one more than the 2015 Paperwhite (which packed 4), and seven fewer than the Oasis (which packed 12), as well as an adaptive sensor.

As I devoured a particularly tense section of Stephen King's The Outsider on the Paperwhite, I noticed a small gap between the screen and the bezel. This gap is also there on the Kindle Oasis, and it's the kind of thing that many smartphones used to have. It's a small thing, and not that important, but it's an area in which E-ink displays can still advance.

Reading Andrew Sean Greer's novel Less in Bryant Park one sunny morning, I noted the Paperwhite's super-legible display. Even in direct sunlight the page was easy to read.

The Paperwhite is even suitable for reading graphic novels, I found as I paged through Kieron Gillen's The Wicked and The Divine. The e-reader’s grayscale display is a bit unfriendly to color publications, though.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: User experience

Overall, the Paperwhite is still a joy to use. Pages refresh and searches load with a prompt speed that's limited only by the E-ink itself. Contrast that with the slow, sluggish performance of the Nook GlowLight 3, and you'll understand why the word "Nook" became an afterthought in the e-reader market.

As I turned the lights off in my bedroom, getting ready to read a chapter of Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach before I went to sleep, I noticed the Paperwhite's lack of automatically adjusting backlighting. It's not the biggest issue — it took two taps to get to the brightness menu, and some fiddling to get it right — but I missed the Oasis, which knew when I'd entered a dark room and compensated without prompting.

Per a question from Tom's Guide forum member derek87, I compared the 2018 Paperwhite's lighting in pitch-dark lighting to that of the 2015 Paperwhite. The newer model provided a more even, uniform lighting, even at the lower end of the brightness settings (set between 5 and 8). Also, the 2018 model was brighter at 1 notch of brightness than the 2015 model was at 5 notches. And don't worry, this 2015 Paperwhite wasn't burned out, it's a pretty recent purchase, acquired in July 2018.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Battery Life

Amazon rates the new Kindle Paperwhite as lasting up to six weeks on a charge. That's based on 30 minutes "of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 13." The über-retailer says your time may vary, due to use of wireless connectivity, Bluetooth and lighting.

Based on my experience, I believe that estimate. After three days of using the Paperwhite rigorously for a few hours every day, including multiple hours at full brightness, as well as using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and LTE, I knocked the on-screen battery life estimate down to 50 percent.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Content

Judging by raw numbers, you'd have a hard time going wrong with Amazon's library, which the company claims has "millions" of books (Tom's Guide editor Marshall Honorof pegs it at "about 4 million"), including "over 1 million Kindle exclusive titles." Barnes and Noble on the other hand, claims its library is around 4.5 million books.

Of course, though, we're all unique individuals, and we each have tastes that can find the holes in an online library. For example, neither the Kindle store nor the Nook store sells the hardcover book currently on my bedside table, I'm Sorry, I Love You, a recently released history of pro wrestling by Briton Jim Smallman.

Amazon's also got Kindle Unlimited, a $9.99 Netflix-for-books with "over 1 million titles and thousands of audiobooks." Authors whose work appears in Kindle Unlimited  include Michael Crichton, Neil Gaiman and George Orwell. Graphic novels, including Saga and Captain Marvel, also appear. For a limited time, a Paperwhite purchase includes a 6-month free trial.

In case you're not made of money, the Kindle Paperwhite still supports borrowing books from public libraries for free, using the Overdrive service.

Prime members can take advantage of First Reads (formerly Kindle First), which grants early access to editor's picks. Members can also get two Kindle books a month for $1.99 each, and get discounts on hardcover books, which knock pricing down to $9.99 or less.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Audiobooks

Amazon has also added audiobook support to the Paperwhite. This option comes via Bluetooth headphone support, and was once restricted to the other Kindles (both the cheaper $80 Kindle and the $250 Oasis), or customers willing to shell out $20 for Amazon's micro- USB-to-headphone-jack adapter.

As I listened to Emma Galvin read Edan Lepucki's post-global disaster-relationship novel California over my AirPods, I wandered around my living room with no loss in audio quality. Only when I reached the far end of my medium-size loft did the audio crackle with disruption.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) review: Verdict

This Kindle Paperwhite review tested the durability of Amazon's mid-range e-reader and showed why it's a winner.

With water-resistance and a flush-to-screen display, Amazon's taken the Paperwhite and made it even more compelling. The only downside is that it costs $10 more now.

The metallic Kindle Oasis offers physical buttons and automatically adjusts to your lighting conditions, but its $250 price  is mighty high. But we're betting that at $129, the new Kindle Paperwhite is the best e-reader for most readers. And as to whether or not existing Paperwhite owners need to upgrade, that depends on how much time you spend around water.

Credit: Tom's Guide

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Amazon Kindle e-readers are getting a long-awaited feature that will allow them to display a book's cover art on the device's lock screen.

The firmware update, which is rolling out right now, adds the option to set your Kindle’s lock screen as the cover of whatever book you’re reading. Previously, Kindle e-readers would cycle through a selection of preinstalled backgrounds when not in use.

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The Display Cover option isn't just limited to books, either: it will also support the covers of most magazines, comics, and Manga. 

Amazon claims the feature is "a great way to remind you to set aside more time to read" — and it'll certainly be welcomed by many Kindle owners. Users have been asking for it pretty much since the first Kindle launched, so we’re glad to see Amazon is finally implementing it, even if it has taken them nearly a decade and a half to do so. 

All three current Kindle models will receive this feature: the 5.13.5 firmware update is coming to selected versions of the Amazon Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite, and the Kindle Oasis, plus one version of the older Kindle Voyage. Here's the full list:

• Amazon Kindle (8th and 10th generation)
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (7th and 10th generation)
• Amazon Kindle Oasis (8th, 9th and 10th generation)
• Amazon Kindle Voyage (7th generation)

Enabling the feature on these devices is super simple: once your e-reader has been updated, a toggle option will appear in the system settings. And the ability to switch the feature on and off may come in handy, given that you might not want everyone around you knowing that you’re enjoying some trashy romantic fiction. 

What's more, Good Ereader has discovered that the feature is also compatible with ebooks that have been sideloaded, which means those that have been purchased somewhere other than the Kindle Store will also work. 

Disappointingly, the editions of Kindle marked as Special Offer models, which are significantly cheaper due to the inclusion of in-device advertisements, won’t be receiving this feature — though you can remove ads for a $20 fee. 

The firmware update is being rolled out globally right now, so it should arrive on your Kindle soon. 

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Meet the InkPad Color, the latest e-reader from Pocketbook that aims to take on the Amazon Kindle with a color-rich display. 

The successor to last year’s PocketBooker Color, the InkPad Color is a 7.8-inch e-reader that uses the latest version of the Kaleido tech seen in previous PocketBook devices, reported The Verge.  

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The Kaleido panel on the InkPad Color helps to enhance the onscreen contrast and saturation, as well as boosting the screen’s refresh rate for smoother page-turning. This promises to make the InkPad an excellent device for reading magazines, children’s books, and graphic novels, something that other e-readers don’t always excel at. 

The InkPad Color is far from the first color e-reader on the market, but its 7.8-inch screen is certainly a unique selling point. The display beats Amazon’s largest e-reader, the Kindle Oasis, by a reasonable margin in both size and contrast. 

Thanks to the upgraded Kaledio technology, the device is able to display around 4,100 colors, but it does have its drawbacks. The color output is limited to 100ppi, whereas its greyscale resolution is a significantly higher 300ppi. 

The rest of the specs make solid reading as well. The InkPad Color runs a custom version of Linux, is 8mm thick, and weighs 225g, making it slightly on the heavier side but overall still very portable. 

It offers 16GB of internal storage, which can be expanded thanks to an SD card slot, and a 2,900 mAh battery, plus it offers Bluetooth connectivity for pairing wireless headphones which allows you to listen to audiobooks. 

The InkPad Color is available to buy right now from Amazon and retails for $329 / £366.

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The 10th-generation Kindle Oasis ($249) faces stronger headwinds than ever before, only now they come from within Amazon. This luxury e-reader's waterproof durability is no longer an exclusive, as the Kindle Paperwhite ($129) now offers the exact same IPX8-level protection against liquid ingress. 

To keep the Oasis afloat, Amazon gave the metallic e-reader a new feature: display warmth, for changing the hue of your page. But should you spend almost twice as much as a Paperwhite costs when you could just as easily spend that money on more books? It all depends on how much you value the little things, like buttons and an extra inch of screen, aspects that this Kindle Oasis 2019 review will compare against its competitors. Most readers, though, will see the Oasis as a hard sell, even though it's a fantastic piece of hardware that earned its way to the ranks of our best Kindle list.

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Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Price and release date

The current Kindle Oasis came out on July 24, 2019 for $249. It's now often out of stock and hard to find, but when you do it can often be found at a discounted price of $199 or lower. 

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Design

The Kindle Oasis' aluminum back is the device's most elegant aspect. I tested a graphite-silver model, though I'm more intrigued by the champagne gold edition, which looks even more luxurious.

Unlike the Paperwhite, the Oasis has physical buttons for navigation and page-turning, as well as a tapered back. The buttons are a big plus for folks like myself. I've have never really loved interacting with e-reader touch screens, where there always seems to be a slight lag between tap and action.

At 6.6 ounces, the Oasis is a hair heavier than the 6.4-ounce Paperwhite, but you won't notice this 3% difference. The Oasis' tapered back is on the same side as the device's physical buttons and indicates which side of the slate you're supposed to hold.

I like the Oasis' design, but after asking around, I found that it's a bit divisive. Tom's Guide Editor Marshall Honorof disapproves of this slate's asymmetrical design, which is admittedly un-book-like. My mom also prefers the Paperwhite, as she doesn't see the need for physical buttons. In the end, though, I appreciate that Amazon uses its higher-end price point to test a unique design, while keeping its more-affordable options simple.

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Durability

The Kindle Oasis' water resistance is no longer a unique feature; the Paperwhite matched the Oasis' IPX8 waterproof rating in 2018. Nevertheless, we dunked the Oasis in a bath of tap water for 60 minutes and watched it survive (and thrive), just as the 2017 Kindle Oasis, and the Paperwhite, did before. The new Oasis' buttons (but not its screen) even stayed responsive while the e-reader was submerged.

Check out our video below, to see that dunk test for yourself. 

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Display

Amazon's best Kindle screen learned a new trick: warmth. Yes, the Oasis' 7-inch screen isn't just bigger than the Paperwhite's 6-inch panel; it also changes color.

A warmer display option made me think that Amazon's pushing a blue-light filter, a feature that's are often meant to help you fall asleep easier (there's some science behind that idea). As I tucked into Jenny Odell's anti-productivity book "How to Do Nothing" (Melville House, 2019) at bedtime, I upped the warmth to see if the change would affect how fast I fell asleep. 

The amber hue reminded me of the Night Shift mode from my iPhone, which is designed to reduce blue light, but I didn't find the Oasis' functionality as sleep-inducing as the iPhone's. Just like with Night Shift, you can schedule the display warmth to "gradually change with sunset and sunrise," as Amazon notes, or to match your own schedule.

MORE: The Kindle Oasis Adds Screen Warmth For Nighttime Reading

Amazon is positioning screen warmth as a customization option, so you can adjust the color of your virtual page. This way, the Oasis' screen can look more like an aging, yellowed page, if that's your preference.

The Oasis' 300-points-per-inch, 7-inch screen is still my favorite of the e-reader pack. This display's supercrisp resolution is just as sharp as the Paperwhite's; text looks like it's physically printed on the E Ink screen. But that extra inch of screen real estate is welcome for those who are reading anything other than a traditional book. 

For example, if you read PDFs on your Kindle — which I'm doing with the script for the horror film Hereditary — those documents cannot be resized or formatted, which means you'll want to view them on as large a screen as possible. The panel-by-panel view mode for graphic novels made it easier for me to read dialogue and see details from "Saga" on the Oasis, but full-page viewing is still better on this slightly larger screen.

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Reading Experience

No matter where I brought the Kindle Oasis, I always got a great reading experience. And that's how it should be. After all,you're using an E Ink tablet, as opposed to your phone, for reading because its screen is easier on your eyes.

This past weekend, I brought the Oasis with me to the park, where I continued to page through the Hereditary script. I could still read the hyper-creepy text, even with the superbright daylight (and an intense heat wave) hitting the screen. The Oasis' display can catch a glimmer of glare, but I saw that only when I was actively adjusting the device's angle.

The Oasis' automatically adjusting backlight is another standout feature, as it saved me time when I opened the e-reader in my bedroom for some pre-sleep reading. While adjusting backlighting takes only about four taps total, this way I jumped straight into Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation" (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2014), rather than futzing with the brightness meter.

That automatic brightness, though, tends to err on the side of over-illumination. As I read Don Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" (Basic Books, 2013) at a subway station, where I had plenty of light, I could tell that the device's automatic setting was brighter than it needed to be. This isn't a problem, per se, but I definitely think it led to the battery draining a little faster than it needed to. 

MORE: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2018) Review

The Oasis features a whopping 25 LED lights, more than twice what Amazon put on the 2017 Oasis (12 LEDs) and five times as many as you get in the latest Paperwhite (5 LEDs). The new Oasis maxes out at 167 nits of brightness, which handily outshines the 78-nit Paperwhite and narrowly edges out the 155-nit 2017 Oasis.

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Interface

The Kindle appeals to those looking to declutter stacks of books, but its interface is in dire need of some spring cleaning. I get why each of its special features exists (and that they can be disabled), but they're all turned on by default, and most readers won't spend the time to disable these settings.

Just look at what happens when you open a new book. Instead of jumping straight into the actual text, you get an About This Book pop-over, which gives you metadata about the book and cloyingly prods you to use Goodreads by noting (incorrectly) that "Reading is more fun with friends." Detritus also clouds the home screen, where the bottom third of the screen throws curated recommendations at you.

As I read Lux Alptraum's "Faking It" (Seal Press, 2018), and most other books, I saw underlined passages with notes about how many people highlighted that section. I don't mean to sound antisocial, but I don't care which sections of a novel other people found interesting. I just want to read a book, not participate in some grand social experiment that feels like a teacher is managing my assignments.

Since I might be an outlier in all of these complaints, I think Amazon should offer an option for a minimalist interface. Call it Kindle Lite. Just let us read books, and don't get in our way. These "features" all add up to create a burden in the Kindle experience. The whole reason I use the device is for its focused, distraction-free experience, which I can't find on my notification-filled phone.

But speaking of obstructions, let's talk about Amazon's Special Offers, the ads for other books that take over your Kindle's screen. You can pay $20 to get rid of them, but since the Oasis already costs $250, which is $100 more than the ad-free Kindle Paperwhite, I had hoped Amazon would just take away ads as a favor.

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Battery Life and Storage

The Kindle Oasis' battery life is good; you won't be charging it every day, maybe once a week — but that can vary. Amazon rates the Kindle Oasis for up to six weeks of battery life, but that's based on half an hour of reading per day, with wireless and Bluetooth off and lighting set to 13 out of 24.

Over the course of four days — when I read for about an hour per day and downloaded novels, graphic novels and audiobooks — I managed to drain its charge down to 66%, from 100%. That means I'm probably going to empty its charge in about 11 to 12 days.

The new Oasis frustrates me, just as the old one did, because it does not include a power adapter. Yes, most of us have a spare power brick or USB-A port to use with the included charging cable. But Amazon's asking $250 for this e-reader, and at that price, the company should throw everything in, even if it costs an executive somewhere an ivory back scratcher.

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Most of the novels I've downloaded onto the Oasis take up 1MB of space, which means you can store thousands of books on the entry-level, 8GB version of the e-reader. And don't worry — that includes larger, graphic-intensive titles, such as "Saga Book Three" (Image Comics, 2019), a collection of 18 comic books, which takes up 64 MB. Consider the 32GB model (which costs $30 more) only if you love audiobooks, as the Audible version of "How to Do Nothing," for example, is a hefty 114MB. Of course, you can archive any and all content to the cloud and redownload it later.

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Content and Audiobooks

Much like Amazon's Fire tablets and Echo speakers, the Kindle Oasis is a fantastic device for consuming content in Amazon's ecosystem. The Kindle store is filled with bestseller novels from top authors, as well as magazines, short-form fiction, comics from Comixology (an Amazon subsidiary) and Kindle-optimized versions of major newspapers (The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' own Washington Post).

The Oasis also includes the ability to listen to audiobooks from Audible (another Amazon-owned outlet). This device's lack of an internal speaker or headphone jack, however, means you can listen only over Bluetooth speakers or headphones. If you're asking, "Why wouldn't I just do that on my phone?" the answer is simple: The Oasis makes switching from text to audio simple. If you own both the Kindle and Audible versions of a book, you can easily switch between them by tapping the headphone or book icon in the lower right corner of the Kindle screen.

As I mentioned earlier, the Kindle isn't as great for dealing with PDFs. You can go forward and backward in a file, and that's it. No zooming, no tweaking, just reading — just page turning. (Ironically, the overall interface could learn a lesson from this minimalist situation.)

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You can also check out library books with a few simple taps, though we've observed that our local library system offers thousands more Barnes & Noble Nook-compatible epubs than it does Kindle-compatible mobis.

Kindle Oasis 2019 review: Bottom Line

With its sleek metallic design, clicky buttons and new customizable page hues, the Amazon Kindle Oasis offers more than your average e-reader. If only its price weren't nearly twice as much as the Paperwhite's.

While this Kindle Oasis 2019 review shows why it's my personal favorite Kindle, it's not the king of the e-book castle. The Kindle Paperwhite, with its midrange price and waterproof design, is still the model most readers should get.

This Amazon Kindle (2019) review will show how a simple device may go a bit too far from its utilitarian purpose. 

Reading a book is arguably the last refuge in our hyperconnected society. We can't eat meals without having to dress up the food for Instagram; we can't watch movies without signing up for a convoluted streaming service; we can't even play video games without downloading enormous patches first. But a book would never hurt you like that. You just open it up, and for the next 10 hours or so, you can escape to a world of imagination that's more vivid and lifelike than anything you can see on a screen.

In theory, e-readers like the Amazon Kindle re-create this experience as faithfully as possible, just replacing bulky physical books with more space-efficient digital alternatives. In practice, though, e-readers have become just as unfocused and distracting as smartphones, and the Amazon Kindle (2019) ($90) is a perfect example of this design trend.

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From a hardware perspective, Amazon's new budget-model Kindle is fine. It combines a clear screen, a robust front light and a long-lasting battery in a compact and comfortable package. The selection is also admirable, whether you want to buy books individually, leverage your Amazon Prime subscription or see what your local library has on offer. But everything else about the experience — the constant ads, the tedious Goodreads integration, the laborious menus — makes it feel like Amazon wants to sell you more stuff rather than just let you sit back and enjoy a book.

The Kindle can be a good product (it's good enough to be one of our picks for the best Kindle e-readers), if you're willing to tweak it. And it's affordable — at least on the surface. But you'll be amazed how much quieter and more serene the experience becomes once you turn the Wi-Fi off.

Amazon Kindle (2019) review: Design

The Kindle should look and feel familiar if you've used any of Amazon's flagship e-reading devices in the past five years or so (excepting, of course, the excellent Kindle Oasis, which sports a huge side bezel). The 6.3 x 4.5-inch, 6.1-ounce slate is comfortable to hold and easy to stash in anything from a backpack to a large pocket. Furthermore, the device measures an enviable 0.3 inches thick and comes in both black and white variations.

The Kindle is also pretty sparse in terms of physical inputs and ports. There's a power button and a charging port on the bottom, and that's about it. There are no physical buttons, which is a shame, particularly as the middle-of-the-road Kindle Paperwhite doesn't offer them, either. If you want to turn pages physically, you'll need to invest in the $250 Kindle Oasis, which seems like a lot of money for a feature that used to come standard with almost every e-reader.

Amazon Kindle (2019) review: Display

Night owls, rejoice! Amazon has finally added a front light to its cheapest e-reader. This means the device now costs $90 rather than $80 up front, but considering how useful a front light is, that's a fair trade-off.

In case you're coming from an older e-reader (or are simply moving on from your phone because don't want to read that 1,000-page epic on an LCD screen), know that a front light illuminates the Kindle's screen to suit all kinds of reading conditions. Unlike backlights, which can look harsh and drain a lot of power, front lights are gentle and go pretty easy on the battery. It's not an exaggeration to say that front lights were a game-changing innovation for e-readers, because they allow reading under any sort of lighting condition, from pitch blackness to direct sunlight. And it's high time that the budget Kindle got one of these lights.

The front light is also easy to use, although it requires a few more taps than I'd like. When you're reading a book, you have to tap the top of the screen. This will bring up an options menu, from which you tap a settings button. Then, finally, you can select one of 24 lighting levels, from a plain, unlit screen to something you could use as an impromptu flashlight. It's also easy to either max out or turn off the lighting by simply holding down a symbol on either side of the menu.

Most of me is glad that the front light is present, but a small part of me wishes this light were a little bit easier to manipulate. With 24 different options, it's very conceivable that you could adjust the lighting multiple times within the same reading session, and having that setting at the press of a button — or at least the tap of a finger — would be nice. Even the otherwise-underwhelming Nook GlowLight 3 offered this feature.

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Beyond that, the Kindle's screen is much as it's been for the past few years. The device uses an elegant gray-scale display with a resolution of 167 ppi. I'm of two minds about the resolution. On the one hand, while 167 ppi is no worse than what you found on the Kindle's predecessor, it also falls far short of the 300 ppi in more-expensive Kindle devices. On the other hand, it's not really an issue unless you like holding the device very close to your face — which, admittedly, you might do with larger fonts for nighttime reading.

Amazon Kindle (2019) review: Reading Experience

Let's talk about the very best part of the Kindle first: its reading experience. When you've got a book you want to read and a quiet spot to do so, reading on the Kindle is just as good as reading a physical book. In fact, it's even better, since you can keep a hand free, just in case you need to grasp a subway pole or dig into a stash of emergency M&M's.

As discussed above, it's easy to customize the lighting to suit your needs. But it's also worth discussing the font and formatting options, of which there are a great deal. You can choose from among 10 different built-in fonts or side-load your own. There are 14 different text sizes, ranging from the unreadably tiny to the almost comically large. You can set margins, spacing and page orientation and even save your favorite combinations as Themes.

I didn't get much use out of the Themes feature, but maybe you want bigger, more-spread-out content with sans-serif fonts for nonfiction and smaller, tighter layouts with artsier fonts for horror. It's up to you. You can also determine whether you'd like the Kindle to track a nebulous Location, give you a regular page number or even tell you how much time you have left in any given chapter. (It will learn your reading speed over time, which is great, if that kind of thing doesn't fill you with anxiety.)

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Provided all you want to do is sit back and read, the Kindle will serve your purposes very well. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be what the Kindle itself wants.

Amazon Kindle (2019) review: Interface

My biggest problem with the Kindle is that it tries to undercut its own purpose at every turn. The whole point of owning an e-reader is to distance yourself from the constant distractions of a smartphone or a tablet, especially since reading requires a lot more investment and focus than, say, watching a TV show. However, the Kindle is a noisy, busy device that seems to want to keep you from reading.

Every time you start reading a book, the Kindle will display a pop-up screen asking if you want to track your progress on Goodreads and compare your reading habits with those of your friends. As soon as you finish, it will suggest that you buy the next book in a series. Half of your home screen is dedicated to other books you might like — generated algorithmically, based on your preferences, and linked directly to the Kindle Store, naturally.

Not only does the Kindle recognize and link to other book titles in the volume that you're currently reading, but it even shows you passages that other readers are highlighting, like an overshared article on Medium. From the home screen to the very last page of a book, every part of the Kindle experience is chockablock with metrics, social media and, above all else, opportunities to buy more stuff from Amazon.

And, naturally, the standard $90 Kindle model comes with display advertisements rather than traditional screen savers. Getting rid of these nuisances costs an extra $20, and I can't help but feel that Amazon is holding a feature hostage rather than trying to make a reader's experience better.

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It's worth noting that every feature listed above is optional, but every one is also enabled by default and requires a somewhat deep dive into the menus to deactivate. This says something about how Amazon envisions its readers using the Kindle: less as an electronic book and more as a hyperfocused way to be plugged in to Amazon's services all the time.

Amazon Kindle (2019) review: Battery life and storage

One area where the Kindle really delivers is in its battery life. Amazon claims that the device can last up to a month on a single charge, even with the front light turned on. Naturally, battery life will depend on how fast you read, whether you keep the Wi-Fi on, how you use the front light and a thousand other small factors. And a full month is probably not reasonable for everyone. But while reading "Soon I Will Be Invincible" by Austin Grossman (Pantheon Books, 2007) with the front light at half-strength and the Wi-Fi on, I drained the battery by about 5 percent per day, so maybe the estimate is not that far off.

The device also comes with 4GB of internal storage. While you can't expand this with a microSD card, it should also store thousands of books, considering that most titles (even ones with pictures) don't exceed 5MB. Whatever can't fit on the Kindle can reside comfortably in the nearly limitless Amazon Cloud.

It's also worth noting that, unlike with some of the Kindle's more powerful cousins, you can't get LTE connections on this device. When you don't have access to Wi-Fi, you won't be able to download any books. This shouldn't pose a problem under most circumstances, but my recommendation would be to always have another downloaded book ready to read, especially on long trips.

Amazon Kindle (2019) review: Content

The Amazon Kindle store is one of the oldest and most comprehensive e-book providers. Whether you like reading New York Times best-sellers cult hits, magazines, graphic novels, foreign-language titles or just about anything else, you can probably get it on Kindle.

One relatively new feature for the Kindle family, however, is the integration of Audible books. As Amazon also owns audiobook giant Audible, you can download audiobooks onto your Kindle and play them through a Bluetooth device, such as headphones or a wireless speaker. I don't know how necessary this feature is — it's just as easy to use an Audible app on a smartphone — but it's nice to have the option.

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The Kindle can also pick up books from libraries, although the selection is surprisingly sparse. I borrowed a few books from both the New York City and Queens library systems in order to test the Kindle, and to the device's credit, the process is so, so much easier than getting a library book onto a Nook. You just pick the book you want, check it out and send it to download to your Kindle automatically. On the other hand, both library systems had thousands more Nook-compatible EPUBs than Kindle-compatible Mobis for perusal.

Finally, the Kindle is simply not that good at handling PDF documents. Unlike on more-advanced e-readers, you can't adjust PDF font size or zoom, meaning that the Kindle is not terribly useful for RPG rulebooks, work documents, small-press publications or anything else you might pick up in an Adobe format.

Amazon Kindle (2019) review: Verdict

Amazon calls the Kindle a "sanctuary experience," meaning that with the device, you can tune out all external distractions and focus on a book, just like the author intended. And if you're willing to get down and dirty in the Kindle's menus, you can do just that. However, as this Amazon Kindle (2019) review has shown, the Kindle's interface is noisy and busy, when reading for pleasure is supposed to be an exercise in cutting out external noise and busyness. 

From a hardware and utility perspective, the Kindle is hard to fault, with a gorgeous screen and plenty of fantastic books to read. From a price perspective, it's a fair value, although the extra $20 to remove ads still stings after all these years. Once I got the device set up just the way I liked it, I fully enjoyed sitting back and reading, in any kind of lighting.

My major concern with the Kindle isn't so much what it does but what it represents. Reading is the last bastion of the Luddite, the final, defiant gasp of, "No, I will not respond to your text message right now." Are we really supposed to enjoy a book more if we have instant and constant access to what every other reader in the world thinks of it?

If we are, then the Kindle is ahead of the curve. And if we aren't, then I can't help but wonder what the next big e-reader innovation will bring.

Credit: Tom's Guide

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