Features:

  • All-new design is thinner and lighter, and now available in your choice of black or white.
  • With Audible built in, access the world’s largest library of audiobooks. Easily switch between reading and listening on Bluetooth-enabled speakers or headphones.
  • Easy on your eyes—touchscreen display reads like real paper.
  • No screen glare, even in bright sunlight, unlike tablets.
  • Keep reading—a single charge lasts weeks, not hours.
  • Get lost in your story with no alerts or notifications.
  • Instant access to new releases and bestsellers, or from over a million titles at $2.99 or less. Prime members read free with unlimited access to over a thousand titles.
  • Looking for a light? Try Kindle Paperwhite.
I love this little e-reader

There are sadly a lot of negative reviews on here, so I though I would add my positive one. I had a second-generation Kindle many years ago, and it has since stopped working. I finally decided to buy a new one. I chose the basic Kindle because that's exactly what I wanted -- a bare-bones e-reader. I have no need for a tablet or anything of the sort. This Kindle delivers on that front in every way possible. At first, I thought I would miss the page turn buttons, and dislike the touch screen. However, I have been delightfully surprised. Tapping the edge of the screen to turn the page is incredibly easy and less intrusive than pushing a button, which was always a nice little jarring reminder that I wasn't, in fact, reading a paperback. The small, quick tap of my thumb on the edge of the screen has become almost like a reflex and I don't notice it anymore; it feels natural. I do slightly miss the metal backing of the older Kindles; it made them feel a bit sturdier, whereas this basic Kindle is just hard plastic. However, I suspect that using a metal casing would up the price considerably, and I feel that the cheaper price of this basic Kindle far outweighs that slight drawback. I bit the bullet and bought one without the special offers. I do not want ads intruding my Kindle experience, even if they only show as the screensaver or on a bar across the bottom of the Home screen. It is just distasteful to me, and the extra 30$ was worth it to me to avoid the ads. I do not need or want a case for my Kindle. I do not like to read with a case on, and it would be cumbersome to remove my Kindle from its case every time I want to read. That being said, this version of Kindle does seem quite fragile, as mentioned before, so when I carry it with me in my purse, I am covering it with a knit beanie hat for now. Eventually I will buy a small soft pouch to store it in; I have seen them for sale here on Amazon. Even though the Kindle seems fragile, the size and weight of the device is a definite advantage while reading. It is so comfortable to hold that it just disappears in your hand and you forget that you are reading from an electronic device. It really is a cool experience. As to the complaints of the screen being dim--it is no dimmer than previous generation Kindles. No, there is no back light. It looks just like a printed page, and can be read easily in all lighting conditions -- whether by lamp or by sunlight. If you find that you are straining your eyes, you can simply adjust the size, font, and spacing of the text to something that better fits your eyes. I personally do not read in bed with the lights off -- I fall asleep while reading like that. However if you are a frequent bed-time reader, you will want to get the Paperwhite, Voyager, or Oasis models. If you've never had a Kindle before, why should you get one? Simple...anyone who loves to read should get one. Now, which model is your personal choice; I have already explained why I love this one. Amazon has millions upon millions of books that are able to be purchased and downloaded to the device. A good fourth of those available are free, and another good chunk are $2 or less. So if the price of the device itself makes you hesitate, it can easily end up paying for itself if you read a lot of free or cheap titles. More and more titles become available for Kindle every day -- when I got my original 2nd Gen Kindle nine years ago, the Harry Potter series was unavailable to Kindle. Now with my new device, it is. The Half-Blood Prince is the first book I downloaded for my new Kindle, since that is where I am at in the series right now, and I could not be happier. They even preserved the chapter illustrations for the e-reader format. Kindle has the ability to store thousands of books, so you shouldn't have to worry about running out of storage. If you do, however, the overflow can be stored on Amazon's Cloud service, so you never have to worry about giving up any of your old favorites. Kindle also gives you the ability to highlight passages, make notes, and bookmark pages. Your Kindle will also always remember what page you left off at, in every book that you have stored on it. Kindle also has the ability to look up words in the dictionary or thesaurus. It really brings reading to a whole new level. Well, that about sums up my review of this model of Kindle, and Kindles in general. To put it simply, this Kindle does what it is advertised to do, and does it, in my opinion, flawlessly. If you want a tablet or a reader with a back light, stay away. If you are new to Kindle and/or want something basic, this is a great device to start with.

Easy on the eyes, literally.

I love my Kindle Fire HD 8, however it can be tiring on the eyes for reading any length of time. I decided to purchase this during the Black Friday sales and was not disappointed. The screen is sharp and looks just like paper, the more light hits the screen, the better it looks. This definitely makes me not regret all the book purchases I have made through Amazon now that I can read them on here. The size is perfect and can be held with one hand easily. Wish I would have purchased this sooner, however I am glad I waited for it to go on sale. If you enjoy reading, even in the slightest, don't hesitate to pick one of these up. You won't be disappointed.

1) Letters look crisper just like a real book 2) Device is slightly lighter which ...

PROS The three reasons I bought this instead of the Paperwhite is because: 1) Letters look crisper just like a real book 2) Device is slightly lighter which is important to me when binge reading for +14 hours (Wheel of Time anyone? lol) 3) No backlight in E-reader because: a) white light inhibits sleep, b) reading with a bright foreground and dark background is bad for your eyes because the constant release and contraction of the iris muscles causes unrecoverable wear and tear. CONS - My cat gnawed the case and now it has beauty marks... why didn't it come with those already? - Does not sync with my car to read e-book over the speakers

Audible and Bluetooth Capable; MUST ENSURE IT IS UPDATED

I got this because I wanted an E-Reader but also I wanted something I could listen to my audio-books through Audible using Bluetooth headphones. I was also not wanting to spend a fortune and I already have a tablet device so I was looking for something light, small, easy to read on, and listen to. During purchasing I was able to keep the immediate cost down through the payment plan option; that was really appealing at only $16/month. (If possible with other Amazon products, I might be able to afford one of the Alexas too!) At first when I got the Kindle, I was unable to use the Bluetooth nor could I find how to play my Audible and it was sorely disappointing because that's hows it was advertised in comparison to the other Kindle's. I read other reviews that seemed to be saying they had the same issue. I then saw that there was an update so I updated the device and sure enough, it worked! I never really review but I want others to know that it does work, if you update. Maybe one downside is that it is not back lit for night reading but I knew that going into it and I can always get a book light. The E-ink with no glare is worth the inconvenience.

Love it

Don't be alarmed by the overall somewhat low rating: people need to read the product description of what they're buying. No, this isn't backlit. No, this isn't 3G. This is the standard basic Kindle, it does what it's supposed to do and it's amazing at it. Super light and sleek, I got the white one and I'm in love with it. I do own an iPad so if I want to read in the dark I just use that or my cell phone (do use sepia mode and turn on night shift to spare your eyes a bit). I also know very well the differences between this one and the Paperwhite because my mother owns one, and even comparing both, I would still go with this one. Great device, great resolution and great price (if you want to get rid of the special offers later on, just contact customer service and pay the difference, but they're really no bother). I'm extremely happy with my purchase!

Perfect for academics!

I was so shocked! So, I was going through a book for my PhD dissertation, highlighting parts for further citations in my project. When I was done with it, I realised that instead of scrolling back all the pages of my e-book, looking for the highlights, I can just export them to my e-mail in PDF file. This is life changing for me! I have always preferred paper books to e-books, but this option is a miracle. It saved me hours of work! I am a very happy customer!

Perfect for Outdoor Reading

I have a big Kindle Fire HD 10 (actually everyone in the family has one) which I love, but as everyone knows, those are useless outdoors, espicially on the beach. I had a very old B&W Kindle Classic that finally bit the dust recently, so I felt this model would do just fine as a replacement. It's indeed abit small, but no more so than a thin paperback book, and for travel or camping, it's perfect. These things have insanely long lasting batteries, and are perfect for bright sunny days in a chair outside. It has no back-light, so if you plan on any night reading you'll either need a book-light, or you should spring for the back-lit version. My father has one of those and it's great. Be aware these these Kindles (the Paperwhite versions) are for READING, and that's it folks. Don't plan on email, video, web-browsing or anything else. But for what it's made for, Reading, it excels.

Truly pleased with this purchase!

I had to make a hard decision this week. My old second-generation Kindle stopped connecting to the Whispernet and, after some time on the phone with tech support (great people!), we determined it was indeed a hardware issue. I dearly loved my old Kindle and briefly thought about just getting it repaired, but finally, since Amazon gave me a discount on a new one (the old one was, of course, out of warranty after 8 years), I decided to bite the bullet and get this 8th generation Kindle. It just arrived this afternoon and I am so pleased with it! It's almost half the size of my old Kindle, but still has the nice light grey screen and easy-to-read text. It's much, much lighter in weight and I really like the spiffy black case color. I know I have a slight learning curve, since it has a touch screen and no buttons like the old one, but I don't expect any difficulties as I've already, in less than 5 minutes, gotten a lot of it figured out. And who knew I'd get so excited over a new tech gadget? I was also pleased to see that it was already listed in my devices on Amazon, and once I turned it on, it immediately populated with all my books. Folks who've more recently purchased Kindles may think this is no big deal, but keep in mind that my old one was a gift on Christmas 2009! Considering how much I loved my old Kindle, I am truly pleasantly surprised with this new one!

If you just want to replace your old broken kindle like I did, then you will like this kindle e-reader

I have one of the original kindles, and it finally starting to fall apart (dropped it one too many times). So I wanted to get another one just like it... I did not want the back-lighted versions of the kindle (i.e. kindle fire) as I've heard that they can be hard on your eyes. I was disappointed that I could not get the same style as my old kindle, but I purchased this one because it seemed to be the closest I could get to what I had and liked. To my surprise, I like it even better than my original! The screen is the same size, but since it is "touch" controlled rather than having a keyboard, the actual size is smaller and lighter weight than my old kindle. It is the perfect size to stash in a purse or backpack. If you liked your old kindle, and just want to replace it, you will be very happy with this model.

My Favorite Kindle

This is officially my favorite Kindle. I've owned the 2nd Generation (with keyboard), and the 6th Generation Paperwhite. I can't believe that after I spent so much money on my previous Kindle devices, I got this one for free (as part of an Audible yearly subscription offer) and it's officially my favorite Kindle e-reader device so far. 1. I love that this entry level Kindle version is NOT backlit, like the Paperwhite. Screens projecting blue rays are known to affect our circadian rhythm and being someone who struggles with disturbed sleep, this is a HUGE benefit for me. With the Paperwhite, even when you turn the backlight all the way down, it still emits a small amount of light from the screen. 2. I LOVE that this Kindle e-Reader with its Bluetooth connecticity, along with the latest firmware (5.9.5.1 -- I had to download and install it after receiving the new device in the mail), provides Immersion Reading, allowing you to read a Kindle book and listen to an Audible audiobook simultaenously with real-time word highlighting. Note that not all titles support this feature. Only those that say "Whispersync for Voice." This is a feature I've LOVED on my mobile device's Kindle app, and I'm so pleased it's avalable on an actual Kindle device! 3. I love the size and weight of this device. I'm also very pleased with the screen / print quality. *** Note: One issue I did notice which I believe is more a software bug than a hardware problem -- speaking from a software developer's point of view -- is that when you pop up the option to change the Font, as you make a selection, the book's page in the background detects the tap as a page turn. So when you close the pop up, you must turn the page back to where you were. I also noticed this issue occurring in my Paperback after the Firmware update. So I assume it's a new bug. I'll make sure to report it to Amazon. Hopefully they can address it with a Firmware update.

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