Features:

  • 6" High-Resolution Display (212 ppi)
  • Our best-selling Kindle
  • Unlike tablets, no screen glare in bright sunlight
  • Read with one hand - over 30% lighter than iPad mini
  • Battery lasts weeks, not hours
  • Built-in light-read without eyestrain
  • Holds thousands of books
  • Try Kindle Unlimited free for 30 days - choose from over 800,000 titles
Best E-Reader I've Owned

After my Kindle Fire died, I decided to replace it with a Paperwhite. I love this e-reader! It's very lightweight. The Fire's battery life was a liability; the Paperwhite seems to go forever on a charge. I had problems with the Fire jumping around in a book while I was reading; that hasn't happened with the Paperwhite. I use the experimental browser a bit - mostly to access the Lectionary to follow along with the scripture readings in church on Sunday - and it's an asset so long as you stick to web pages that mostly text. The fact that it's not backlit means I can read in bed without being exposed to blue light and without The Hubs being disturbed by the light. The illumination level is adjustable from near total darkness to bright, sunny day - the text is legible. It can take a bit of practice to get accustomed to the controls. Scrolling through an e-book will never be as easy as thumbing through a paper book, but it's worth the trade-off to be able to carry a lot of books with me in one lightweight package. Now that I've owned this for a few years, I wish I'd paid the extra few dollars to not get the advertisements. (Nothing like an advert for a bodice-ripper romance novel popping up on the screen while I'm sitting in a pew next to a friend's child to make me wish I'd spent the money!) I've dropped it a few times and still keeps on ticking. There's a scratch in the screen that renders as a bright blip when viewed at an angle, but there's no change in the surrounding text. It's starting to slow down a bit. At times the delay is so long that I'm not sure if my tap registered. Another annoyance, but not surprising given that it's a piece of electronics.

Excellent reader for everybody including those with disabilities or children

In the long, lost past even the classics cost almost as much as a newly published book. But, with Gutenberg and Amazon there is no excuse to be ignorant of the best books ever written. Free access to those treasures is enough to make me almost permanently attached to my Paperwhite. But there is so much more here. I can resize text to make it easier to read in low light or when I have pinkeye and my sight is blurry (I hope you don't have to experience this yourself. Just take my word for it. It is awesome to have something to take your mind off your itchy eyes). The included light can be set extremely low or bright eye-squint. There isn't another reader with more ability to adjust to your needs and not the other way around. There is also the reader feature that will read to you. Adults of any age can enjoy the bliss of the bedtime story and kids can be read to even when Mom's vocal chords are on vacation. One negative is the poor performance reading magazines or picture books. However the book illustration ability has been greatly improved recently. If you only read the magazines for the articles then the article reader is all you need and you have no worries. However, if you read photography magazines you are going to need to wait. The reliability is about average. This one is 3 years old and ran perfectly until yesterday. Not awful either especially since I use it six to eight hours every day. I also like the Paperwhite more than the fire because the pressure to buy is less. I can look at my monthly accounts and see the spending increased whenever I loaned my Paperwhite.

Even after several years, STILL the best e-reader option!

I absolutely love my Kindle Paperwhite. It's the perfect size and weight to bring with you practically anywhere, and the "e-ink" is excellent for reading in many conditions. When we go to the beach, I'm able to read in both sunny, cloudy and shady conditions (just like a real paperback book) which is something you definitely CANNOT do on a regular phone or tablet screen. When I read at night in bed, I can adjust the back light to reduce the strain for me, but also not bother my wife. My FAVORITE thing, however, is the seemingly never-ending battery life! Seriously - I read probably every other day if not EVERY day (even if only for 20-30 minutes at a time) and I think I maybe have to plug in once a month to recharge. This is such a convenient way to read and always have multiple books ready to go. I love that as a Prime member I get access to "Kindle First" books, can borrow from the Kindle Lending Library and have access to Prime Reading books. My local library also has access to "Overdrive" which let's me borrow ebooks for free and access on my Kindle! For any reader, casual or serious.... the Kindle Paperwhite is by far the best e-reader in terms of size, price, features and access to books. If you're considering an e-reader this should definitely be on your list, and I would recommend the backlit version over the one without. As for the "ads" version, I don't find them to be intrusive at all because I spent 99% of my time reading, not in the other screens of the system. The only thing I notice is you have to "unlock" from an ad screen when using a magnetic case vs opening directly into the book, but this is definitely minor. Important to note: even though this is several years old, it still receives Amazon updates for cool features such as integration with GoodReads, updates to the interface and everything else. I LOVE the product support Amazon provides!

Improved readability!

Disclosure: I love tech. I had no reason to buy a Paperwhite 2 as I love my 6-month old Paperwhite 1. But I did buy it, and I'm glad I did. I justified the purchase in terms of the ability to read footnotes, etc. What I've found is greatly increased readability overall. I've uploaded a photo of my Paperwhites side by side so you can see the difference in the screen. (Both open to "The Accidental Creative") The "cones" of light and dark at the bottom are greatly reduced. The overall color temperature is much warmer (more yellow), which is just less "jarring." The lighting is more even overall. There are bright "corners" (also present in my PW 1) so the screen is not perfect but it is very, very, very good, and, most importantly, a pleasure to read. The keyboard and all of the touch controls feel (in the subjective convention of tech reviews) "snappy." I read books on my MacBook (with a huge monitor) and my iPad (especially technical books and others with color illustrations) as well as on my iPhone, but when my focus is reading words--really reading, and being immersed in another world--nothing compares to my Kindle. And for reading outdoors, it's really the ideal tool. I have the Kindle 2 and I marvel at how much the reading experience has improved the last 4 or so years, as the price has dropped. I am greatful to have so many ways to read and to have so many books at my fingertips. If you're new to e-readers, get this one. If you have a PW 1, continue to enjoy it, but you won't be dissappointed if you upgrade.

Detailed review of the Kindle PaperWhite - best e-reader out there but not a huge upgrade over the last generation

I've used many Kindle's over the years, starting with the original one which I still have and still works to this day. The Kindle PaperWhite addressed many of the issues I had with previous Kindle models and generations and this new 2nd generation PaperWhite brings some small but noticeable improvements over the 1st generation. I'll go over some of the basics and elaborate on them as needed, starting with the screen: *** SCREEN *** The Kindle PaperWhite comes with a nice 212 ppi screen which is noticeably crisper and bolder than the standard, entry level Kindles, yet still slightly lower than the Kindle Voyage which boasts an impressive 300 ppi resolution. While it's nearly impossible for the human eye to see individual pixels at 300 ppi, 212 ppi isn't that far behind. UPDATE: The new screen boasts an impressive 25% increase in contrast (the manufacturer, E-Ink, claims it's actually a 50% increase) and a 22% better reflection prevention. This new display is called "E-Ink Carta" and replaces the 1st generation PaperWhite's "E-Ink Pearl" display. Faster page turns are also achieved by the new display due to the way the screen handles changing the "e-ink" between pages. Comparing my 1st gen and 2nd gen side-by-side, I didn't notice a huge improvement in contrast or "ink" saturation, however, when comparing my 1st gen to my brother's 2nd gen, the difference was very noticeable. So, either I got stuck with a dud, or I just need to tweak some settings on mine. The screen is a touchscreen and is very responsive and accurate; something that is sometimes a problem with touchscreen eReaders that are either unresponsive or inaccurate, forcing the user to press harder or very precisely touch areas of the screen to get a response. *** BACKLIGHT *** One of the biggest complaints of the 1st generation PaperWhite was the backlight, mainly due to the noticeable shadows seen at the bottom of the screen, especially when used in dark rooms or at night. Although I personally felt the shadows were not that big of a deal and most of time I never even noticed them, because so many people complained, Amazon went ahead and fixed it so this is probably the most noticeable upgrade from the previous generation. The backlight can be adjusted, as needed, which is nice as having it at a high-brightness level at night is actually hard on the eyes and for some people, makes it difficult to use for long periods of time. The opposite is true in bright light situations where the backlight being turned up higher actually helps make it easier to read. *** BATTERY LIFE *** Amazon claims the Kindle PaperWhite can go weeks (up to 8 weeks mentioned on some websites out there) but in real use case scenarios, the battery life is nowhere near that level. While the PaperWhite does have decent battery life, it is more likely to be in the one to two week range, not four weeks and certainly not eight weeks, especially if you're using WiFi at all to download new books, or to get your daily reads delivered such as newspapers and blogs. The PaperWhite charges very quickly so you shouldn't have any worries about topping off the battery as needed. The battery life is perfectly acceptable and adequate and you should have no problems even on week or two long vacation, for example, especially when compared to alternatives like a tablet, Chromebook, smartphone, etc. *** SIZE AND WEIGHT *** The new PaperWhite is the same size as the last generation which is nice because it allows you to reuse your current case. While I'm sure this has irritated the case manufacturers, it certainly is a nice thing for us! Even better, although the PaperWhite retains its size, it does take a slight trim in the weight, coming in at 7.3 ounces, compared to last generation's 7.8 ounces... again, not really noticeable, but a small improvement nonetheless. Regarding cases, I would strongly recommend getting one of the magnetic cases because they automatically turn the PaperWhite on and off simply by opening or closing the cover. It's a simple AutoWake feature but it does come in handy as you don't have to mess around trying to find the tiny on/off switch every time you put your PaperWhite away or take a break from reading. I'm not sure which case I have but I think it's the Amazon brand case and it works really well. I do know I bought them at the same time as they had a bundle sale at the local electronics store I purchased them from. *** PROCESSOR AND ON-BOARD STORAGE *** This new generation PaperWhite is noticeably peppier and much more responsive than the first generation, mainly due to the new "E-Ink Carta" screen which has replaced the older "E-Ink Pearl" display. While the first generation wasn't slow by any means, it is nicer to have the faster response time as it helps avoid tapping the screen twice to turn the page, only to find out you've skipped a page and have to go back! On board storage is 4GB (increased from 2GB just recently) which will handle a library of thousands of books, not to mention you have free, unlimited cloud-based storage for your content. If you got a PaperWhite with 2GB of onboard storage, it still is one of the new versions but it was manufactured before Amazon made the switch to 4GB of storage. Unless you have over 1,000 books, you won't even notice the difference as the 2GB is capable of holding about 1,100 books I believe. *** X-RAY FEATURE, HIGHLIGHTING, AND DICTIONARY *** Amazon has kept the X-Ray feature so those of you who have the previous generation and are considering upgrading, rest assured, the X-Ray feature is still here and has been upgraded to allow more functionality. More and more books are being preloaded with X-Ray data by Amazon and even it it's not there, you can always use the Wikipedia option to do a search. Those new to the X-Ray technology, it is a capability on the PaperWhite that allows you to click on a character name, for example, and find all references to the character in the book. This is very helpful for novels when a character name comes up that you've seen before but forgot the details about. It's also helpful for non-fiction books when you need to find all references to a particular item or topic. The "highlight" feature allows you to highlight (in black-and-white of course) a particular passage in a book and save it so you can go back to it at a later time. You also have the option of turning on an option that shows you other popular highlights from other readers of the book. This is a VERY useful feature, especially for non-fiction books as 99% of the time, the highlights other users have made, point out very important sentences and paragraphs in the book. Note that this feature does not show EVERY reader's highlights, it only shows the most popular ones and even tells you how many readers have highlighted a particular section. Again, this can be turned on or off if you find it distracting. The dictionary feature works by allowing you to click on a word you don't know or need clarification on which brings it up in the dictionary. *** OTHER MENTIONABLES AND REVIEW UPDATES *** Something to keep in mind is the PaperWhite does not come with audio output so unlike the Kindle Fire tablets, listening to audiobooks is not an option on the PaperWhite. If you need audio features, you may want to look at the Kindle Fire lineup as audio capabilities are not available on the PaperWhite, standard Kindle, or the Kindle Voyage. As has been the case for a while now, the Kindles come in either a "with special offers" or "without special offers" version. Personally, I always buy the "with special offers" version because the advertisements, mostly for books, do not bother me as they're really only seen on the screensaver and are not seen when reading the book. Sometimes they actually recommend books that may interest you, but more importantly, I really don't think it's worth spending the extra $20 just to get rid of them. If you think they'll bother you, get the "without special offers" version, or you can upgrade to that version at a later date after purchasing the PaperWhite. *** CONCLUSION *** This is still my favorite Kindle as it packs the most bang for the buck and is very affordable, especially when Amazon throws it on sale. While I don't think it's worth upgrading from the 1st generation, if you don't have a PaperWhite at all, I'd definitely recommend going with this version. Those with the first generation: I'd really recommend holding off for the moment until more substantial upgrades are made to the PaperWhite, but if you want to upgrade anyway, you certainly won't be disappointed. *** If this review was at all helpful to you, please take a second to let me know. You can also post a comment or ask questions in the comments section below. I always try my hardest to get you the most information possible to hopefully help you make a confident decision on whether or not to buy a product. Thank you for taking the time to read my review! ***

Best Investment!

My son's original Kindle stopped working after two years of use. He's a big reader! He used the Kindle not only or leisure reading, used for his reading assignments in English and Advanced Composition. He would use his Kindle on trips, school and reading at night. So, I had to replace it with a Kindle that offered more. I picked the Kindle Paperwhite because it has a lot of rich features. Below are some of the features my son likes. Pro's - No glare in bright light - Battery lasts a long time (Charged after 30 days) - Built in front light for night reading (My son does a lot of night reading) - Full dictionary and wikipedia access - Allows user to make a vocabulary list, which is perfect or students - You can borrow from public library (class reading assignments can be checked out) - Whispersync remembers where you left off from - Allows you to add margin notes Con's - Haven't found any The Kindle Paperwhite has more features than I listed which are perfect for kids in school. I recommended this device to a lot of PTSA parents that have children that are readers and children that don't like to read. The children that don't like to read realized that the Kindle Paperwhite is a good tool to have. I give the Kindle Paperwhite 5 stars for quality, size, and features.

Huge upgrade from the kindle keyboard

I had a kindle keyboard. I still have. I'm not sure I'm ready to part with it. I'm rather attached. The kindle is *the* e-reader. It's fantastic. I had my kindle keyboard for a couple years and I couldn't imagine reading on anything else. There were times I left my kindle at work and had to read on my ipad. I hated it. However I found the keyboard interface to be cumbersome and just "old". I wanted something new. So onto the paperwhite. Mine was a gift. I have the wifi only version. Why would you need the 3G? Just download several books at once and you are good to go. I will say that the paperwhite light is fantastic. Have you watched the videos on the paperwhite. It's not a "traditional" backlight. It does not shine the light towards your eyes, but rather down at the screen. GENIUS!!!! I sit at a computer all day. I do not want more light shining at my eyes. Which is why I loved my kindle keyboard for so long. I haven't had the paperwhite very long, but I keep it at about a medium brightness so far. I love that I can now read in bed with no other light. The paperwhite is light weight. It's rather small, but about the same width as the kindle keyboard. I put both kindles on the same page of a book and more lines were rendered on the paperwhite than the keyboard. But the font isn't smaller. Somehow more words are fit on the page. I like the touchscreen interface. I really found the keyboard keys to be tedious. I kind of sort of miss the page flip buttons though. I loved those. Since they were on both sides of the kindle, they were easily accessible no matter what I was doing at the time or how I was laying. IMO the jury is still out on whether or not I can live without those buttons. So far I'm doing ok, but I will confess to missing them greatly. I also preferred the sliding power button on the kindle keyboard rather than the push one on the paperwhite. But overall the paperwhite is fanastic. It's a huge upgrade and I'm thrilled with it!!! If you still have the kindle keyboard don't think twice about upgrading. You will love the paperwhite. *UPDATE I really really miss the page keys. I find myself turning pages that I don't mean to. And I'd *really* want to be able to turn the page with my left hand when necessary without reaching across the kindle to tap the right side of the screen. The battery doesn't last 8 week. What the heck? No way. I also confirmed that I really like the sliding power switch. I mentioned that in the initial review but after using it for a few weeks I realize how much I miss the sliding power switch. I could turn my old kindle off with one hand. I haven't quite mastered that with this kindle since I have to push the button. Maybe once the case (which was really backordered) arrives that will help, but I can't grip the kindle well enough with one hand to push the button as well with that same hand. I still love this kindle. Reading in poor lighting is so much better, but I wish some things had carried over.

Best e-ink e-reader available. Make sure an e-reader is what you want though.

Quick Review: Pros: • E-ink screen • Fantastic battery life • Lots of storage for books • Standard Micro USB charging • Large enough size to comfortable read on • VERY adjustable and great backlight Cons: • A bit too wide to use in only your left hand • Screen size may be too small for you if you’re used to a tablet (iPad,Android, whatever) • No Epub support • Feels somewhat brittle Bottom Line: Get this e-reader if you want to read text. Get this if you want the convenience of reading like a book, but being able to carry more books, read in the dark, and don’t mind a digital format, and dislike eyestrain. Get this over the normal Kindle for the backlight. Long Version: The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. Where do I begin? As you hopefully know, the Paperwhite is an e-reader. That’s what it is, that’s what it does and that’s what it was made for. This device is NOT a “tablet” in the way we usually mean. It doesn’t have a color screen, it won’t run angry birds(Everyone still plays that, right?), and it won’t play you videos. But that’s ok! Since a very young age, I’ve been an avid reader. Everything from the Hardy Boys to hundreds of Star Wars novels are in my library and I love reading them all. I am a 911 ambulance EMT in a busy city in the southwest. While the days are usually decently busy, sometimes they aren’t and usually during a regular day I might have an hour of downtime here and there and I would always have a book with me. Maybe a textbook for my classes, sometimes just a good ol’ spy novel, but always there. If you’ve been into a book you know the letdown feeling you get when you finish a good one; especially if you don’t have another one to read right afterwards. I can tell you that some days at work are really slow and I’ve been able to get through a book that I didn’t anticipate doing and I’m left with nothing to read. I would usually turn to my phone or something. Not the same. So I began experimenting with eBooks. First on my phone, then on my computer, then on an original Nook Color, then…I hated them. I hated staring at a screen, especially at night, I hated the battery drain it took to read for a couple hours, and I often found them cumbersome to use. Finally, this last month, I took the plunge and dove into the kindle world. Not the Fire HD word, but the world of e-ink. I have to say I’m thrilled. First off, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about still reading off a screen. I’m not a paper snob, but that’s all I’ve ever used besides an LCD. The reading experience on the Paperwhite is great. First, the screen doesn’t feel like an LCD screen. It isn’t the super smooth glass screen of a tablet. It has a rougher feel to it which, in my opinion, makes it feel more like a page. This has a drawback of being a little less responsive than most of us are used to on a phone or tablet. But think about it, all you are normally doing with it is touching to flip the page. When holding this one handed with my left hand, I DID find it difficult to turn the page without having to readjust my hand or use my right hand to touch the screen. I could very easily turn the page back though. This issue was solved by holding the Paperwhite in my right hand. From there, my thumb could easily tap the screen to go to the next page. If you hold the Paperwhite by the top, you have to make sure to tap the screen far enough down the sides to do the page turn. If you tap too high on the screen, it opens the settings which is annoying when you really want to turn the page when the climax is close. Holding it by the bottom, I have found, doesn't give you enough room to tap the sides and turn the page. The touchscreen is usually just used by taps, which you have to mean to hit. Light taps I have found to be unreliable, so you have to mean what you do. I’m not saying you have to pound on it, but you have to be a little forceful. This goes with everything from the on-screen keyboard to the page turns. The swipe to unlock can be a bit slow taking sometimes of upward to 1.0 seconds to register and open. The screen flashes and then resumes you wherever you were when it went to sleep. The backlight is great! Most screen lights shine the light into your face, but this one reflects it back onto the page and then back to you. Plus, you can get the backlight REALLY low. Almost non-existent. This is awesome for reading at night. It seems like the page is lit up without looking at garish. I can read on this for hours without eyestrain and I feel like reading on my Paperwhite is like reading a page in a book. Also true to their word, the Paperwhite performs just like a paper page in sunlight. I can safely use it in direct sunlight with no glare at all and the device doesn't heat up like a phone or tablet would in the sun. The screen changes are a bit slow and they change in a transition format. What I mean is that they don’t just pop in. Sometimes it reminds me of turning a page. I think this is a product of how the E-ink screen works. Either way, it doesn’t bother me. Technical stuff. Yes, this thing has an “experimental” browser, but it isn’t great. I mean, this screen isn’t an LCD and black and white. Again though, this ISN’T a normal tablet. I did not buy it with the expectation of doing web browsing or using apps. The Wi-Fi works great and connects right away. I use it to download books and then turn it off again to conserve battery. Speaking of battery, it’s great. I went about 3 weeks without charging it and experienced no drops at all. This was with the backlight on a low setting the entire time. I ended up charging it last night because I just wanted to see how fast it would charge. I charged it from about 70% up to 100% in about 30min. Lastly, the formats. This device supports PDF, MOBI, and a host of other formats that you can find in the description. But I do want to point out that it does NOT support EPUB format. This can be overcome through using Calibre to convert the book, but this gets a bit sticky if you have an eBook that is protected using DRM. If you don’t have the license on the kindle, you won’t be able to use it on there. So keep this in mind if you’re coming in with a library of eBooks already. Do some testing and see if you can convert them to a kindle usable format. When viewing a PDF, you will find that if it is a scanned image of a page, this images will be of poor quality on the kindle. A PDF that is using text will display just fine, but images will be hard to read in my experience. Lastly, one of the most annoying things on the kindle is the library display. It just gives you a list of all eBooks on your device. You can select viewing only the ones downloaded on your device, viewing the ones in your amazon library, or both. So, finding books on the device can be cumbersome. The best way around this that I have found is simply to search for the title of the book. This means that you have to know the title, which sometimes you don’t, especially if you put an entire series on the device at once. You can also access the kindle store and buy through your amazon account directly from there. I have found both purchases on the kindle and those on the site and sent to my kindle to be quick, speedy, and flawless. I have had zero problems downloading books to my Paperwhite. Over all, this is a great purchase for me and I love it. It can hold many, many books and provides a pleasant reading experience comparable to that of a book just without the torn pages and bigger space needed to carry more than one book. I can read in the dark without an extra light and I can do so without eyestrain or bothering my partner in the ambulance with a light turned on. It also doesn’t kill my night vision with a bright light shining in my face. Which, as you may imagine, can be really annoying in EMS at night when a sudden call interrupts my reading session. I enjoy this device far more than I did my nook color and far more than reading off of a LCD screen. It may be smaller than an iPad or tablet in terms of how much it can display, but with easy page turns it doesn't really matter.

Must have for avid readers.

A must have for avid readers. The various Kindle products are all for different types of consumers, and I find that this specific product is most suitable for the avid reader. I am a very heavy reader and have had a lot of eye issues due to straining from the light on my iPad when I attempt to read through that (also, I despise the Kindle "app" for third party devices), so the Paperwhite was a MUST HAVE for me. While, my mother is the occasional reader and is heavy on the social networking and apps (but has also had issues with the iPad straining her eyes, especially at night), the Kindle Fire is more for her. I absolutely love all of the functions of the Paperwhite, it does not hurt my eyes and the sleep mode photos are very charming. The battery life is fantastic and while I'm a little disappointed it does not come with a wall adapter at the price that it is at, the wall adapter is fairly inexpensive and I did not feel that I was going out of my way to purchase it separately. That being said, I don't think Amazon would be going out of their way to simply include it by default. Overall, I love this product and I believe that every avid reader should own a Kindle Paperwhite.

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