Kindle Paperwhite E-reader (Previous generation – 2015 release) - Black, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi, Ad-Supported

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• 

  Jesus Suave

  5 out of 5 stars

  Amazing

  Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2016

  Verified Purchase

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  I absolutely love this thing.

  When I was younger, I used to read all the time. You could hardly find me without a book in front of my face. As I grew older and had less time I found myself consequentially reading less and less. Eventually I practically stopped reading altogether save for a book here or there when I got the itch.

  Ever since I've had my Kindle I've been reading practically every day again. I read at the gym when I'm running or in-between sets. I read in the dark before bed with my girlfriend asleep beside me. I read during lunch. And of course this thing is always with me when I sit the porcelain throne (gross, I know).

  The great thing about this that has enabled me to completely dive back into my love of reading is the convenience. It's thinner than pretty much any book and is very easy to take along wherever I go -- I can fit it into my back pocket if I want to. While being so small, you can pack an enormous library onto this thing, probably more books than you'd ever actually be able to read.

  On top of all this, you no longer have to hold the book's pages open while you read -- something that always irritated me, particularly with paperbacks. It might sound insignificant but for me its HUGE. Probably my favorite 'feature'. I mean I could prop this thing up against a water bottle and read it while eating baby back ribs if I wanted to. I would only need to occasionally tap the screen to turn the page. Or in the case of reading between sets at the gym; I can easily set it down, hammer out a set and then pick up where I left off without ever touching a bookmark or worrying about laying it down the right way. Allows me to work on my pecs and my brain for maximum efficiency without annoyance, it's great.

  Then of course there's the light. No more do you need to worry about the lighting in your environment or an annoying booklight. The light for this thing is excellent and adjustable. You can set it at a nice level for easy reading or make it bathe your eyeballs in light. Choose your own adventure.

  And no it is NOTHING like reading from an iPad due to the e-ink. If I had to compare it to anything I'd say it's like a cross between an actual book page and a calculator screen. Except it's lit up and looks way better than a calculator screen.

  Can't say enough good things, just buy one. And the people complaining about the slight off-white of the screen are being ridiculous. It has never bothered me at all.

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• 

  Michael

  5 out of 5 stars

  Better than a 2010 Nook, fwiw

  Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2018

  Verified Purchase

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  When I found this Kindle on sale for Prime Day, I had already been considering getting a new eReader for a while. My old Nook from 2010 had a huge crack in the screen and was gradually getting slower and slower, and though I hadn't read anything in nearly two years due to work and personal commitments, I'm the kind of person that when I buy something, I make sure to use it. If I spend money on a new eReader, I'll make sure I didn't waste that money, which is exactly why I wanted to buy a new one - to get me back into reading.

  After comparing prices and specs on pretty much every eReader option available, I settled on either the Kindle Paperwhite or another Nook GlowLight. To me, having a backlight is essential since I often read at night before bed or in situations where there isn't much light, like a nighttime car ride, and even in situations where the area is dimly lit, like in my living room while my wife knits, it can be hard to see a screen with no backlight. So after narrowing it down to those two options, it became a matter of price, and since Prime Day was just around the corner, I decided to hold off until then to see if there was a sale.

  Boy, am I glad I did. The Kindle Paperwhite was $40 off, making it just around $80. And I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

  Since getting it, I've loaded most of my eBook library onto it using Calibre, and I've read six books so far. The Kindle is just as easy and intuitive as my old Nook was, and runs so much faster! The screen is much more crisp and clear, and my new favorite feature is its Goodreads integration so I can share my progress and discuss books with my friends directly from my Kindle. All my books were in ePub format, so I had to convert them before I could put them on my Kindle, but Calibre made that extremely fast and easy, and I highly recommend Calibre to anyone using an eReader since it's a very powerful eBook library program that's totally free. After converting my ePub books to AZW3, I was impressed that there were no formatting errors, something which has been a problem with other file formats in the past (especially PDF for some reason).

  The light on my Kindle is brighter than my Nook was, and I love the fact that it's always on. With the light off, there are many situations where the screen was readable but ugly and dim, but with my Kindle the light comes on automatically and makes the pages actually look paper-white (apt name, right?).

  The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that I can't set custom screensaver images. On my Nook, I had the sleep screen rotating through the covers of some of my favorite books, which was a fantastic little detail that made it feel classy, whereas the Kindle shows "special offers" on the sleep screen which are never things I'm actually interested in. There's a way to pay to remove the special offers, but even after you pay, it still will only show generic Amazon screensavers and won't let me import custom images. To me, this is a ridiculous oversight, since it would be incredibly easy to just have a folder where the images are pulled from and let me put my own images in that folder to replace the generic ones. But really, that's a small gripe, and I knew about it before I bought my Kindle, and I bought it anyway because it was so much cheaper than the Nook.

  Of course, my Nook vs. Kindle comparison should be taken with a grain of salt, since my Nook was so old and they've made newer models since then. But overall I'm liking my Kindle even better than my Nook, especially with the Goodreads integration. The Kindle's menu interface is very user-friendly as well.

  On a side note, Kindle Unlimited - I'm not sure if it's worth it. I got a promotional 3-month subscription for $0.99, and there are a few good books on there (notably, the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling), but the vast majority of Kindle Unlimited eligible books are self-published, and there are very few books by any authors whose names you'd recognize. When I first got Kindle Unlimited, I thought it was going to give me access to borrow ANY Kindle book, but it's really a small selection, and the names I searched for (Chuck Pahlaniuk, Stephen King, Ted Dekker, Isaac Asimov, etc) were nowhere to be found. So it's definitely worth the $0.99 for me to read the Harry Potter series and re-read the Lord of the Rings before I inevitably purchase the eBooks to own, I don't think I'll be renewing my subscription once the price goes back up.

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• 

  mno86

  5 out of 5 stars

  Outstanding E-Reader: Worthwhile Upgrade

  Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2016

  Verified Purchase

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  Recently retired my well-used Kindle Keyboard for the Paperwhite, as I was looking forward to getting one with a backlit screen. Overall, this is easily the best e-reader I've had the pleasure of using. It's just the right size (and feels less bulky than my Keyboard), the interface is faster, the text more vibrant, and the adjustable backlight is exceptionally convenient for all lighting conditions. Here are a few thoughts for those that prefer lists:

  LIGHTING:

  The Good: the adjustable backlight on the Paperwhite is great. Some reviewers have mentioned it being yellowish, but the unit purchased is a nice, blueish-white. While reading in bed, it can be dimmed enough to where it doesn't strain your eyes, though it does wash out the text slightly. I didn't think the backlight would be useful in the daytime, but it actually makes it much easier to read at max setting, which I was pleasantly surprised with.

  The Bad: There is a little bit of light bleeding from the bottom of my Kindle. It's not terribly noticeable, but if you look closely enough you can see a little blotchy unevenness near the bottom. Not nearly enough of an issue at this price point worth complaining about.

  THE UNIT:

  The Good: Love the design - more compact and sleek than the Kindle Keyboard it replaced. It fits easily in either hand without being too big or small. Perfect screen size.

  The Bad: I am mourning the loss of the page turning buttons from my Keyboard. Anyone who owns a newer Kindle would be lying if they said they've never accidentally turned the page by touching the screen. It can be a maddening experience. Plan on getting a case for your Kindle, as the plastic on the front and rubbery texture on the back are oil magnets and will suck any grease off the cleanest of hands, and it's obnoxiously hard to clean. I never had this issue with my Keyboard. Minor complaint about having the "Kindle" namesake on the front of the unit not embossed in white...looks a bit cheaper than the last gen in that regard. Power on/off button is obscenely tiny and very hard to activate - buy a cover that turns it on/off automatically.

  BATTERY/CHARGE:

  The battery doesn't last as long as my Keyboard's did, but it is still exceptionally strong even with heavy backlight usage. I have well over 3/4 of the battery reading for a few hours each day over the course of a week. It seems to charge for about the same duration as my Keyboard and I assume the backlighting eats up the battery a bit, but not enough to where it has been problematic yet. I find it frustrating that they only include a short USB charger. I don't appreciate upselling of charger plug ins.

  INTERFACE:

  The Good: Love the bookshelf view showing the covers (if you don't, you can put it back into List view like older models). Touch interface and changes from the Keyboard model took me a little white to get used to, but it is all fairly intuitive and much quicker than the model it is replacing. I absolutely refuse to tie my Twitter/Facebook account to my Kindle, but love the option of doing it for my Good Reads account - good call on that, Amazon. Newer features that let you learn more about people, places, and events in books has been great (I'm looking at you Game of Thrones). LOVE the feature that tells you how much additional time you have in a chapter...makes it easier to know if can squeeze one more in before bed. Same goes for Word Wise, which will put brief descriptions/similes of complex words above the word in question. You can set the threshold - awesome.

  The Bad: Collections show a generic book image, rather than a collage of the books within like I expected. Minor complaint. I bought a Kindle Touch for my mom awhile back and have had to work with her quite a bit, as its her first e-reader. She struggled with the interface and is still learning how to get the most out of it. I know it's a cost-saving measure, but I really resent a Kindle copy of the user guide instead of the traditional paper insert. Minimalism has its place, but not here. The filter 'buttons' on the screen are annoyingly hard to press (maybe I have fat fingers?), but feedback is exceptional everywhere else.

  AD VS NO AD:

  Ultimately, it's going to come down to your preference. Many people have found good discounts on things they'd buy on Amazon or other eBooks (it uses your recommendations). If they were only on the "off" screen when not in use, I wouldn't have ponied up the extra $20 to remove them because my cover hides it when not in use, but the ad banner at the bottom of the home screen put me over the edge. I want to point out - I've read Amazon doesn't allow you to use Gift Cards to pay for the ad removal (it requires '1-touch payment'), so if you don't think you want the ads and you have a gift card - buy the version without ads. I believe it applied $20 of a promotional credit I had on my account, however.

  PRIME HOUSEHOLD SHARING:

  The Good: If you're an Amazon Prime member and have added a second adult to your 'household', you can share select (or all) of your Kindle libraries with one another for free. I didn't see this advertised much, but it was an awesome way for my mom and I to share our books with each other.

  The Bad: It's horrific to set up. Once you've activated your Household, you need to go to Manage Your Content, flip "Books" to on (for both parties, and manually select which titles you want to share. Then you need to go to "Manage Your Device" and ensure the little box for "Share My Content" is selected. I believe both people need to do this, but once you do, you'll be able to access your family member's books in the Cloud after dropping down the filter to "Shared". It will take quite awhile for it to process if you have a large library, but once you get it set up, you can click and download any of your family member's books. I just wish it wasn't such a royal pain to set up.

  For most people, I'd suggest buying the one with no ads and saving $20 for books (or a library subscription...I borrow 90% of my books, it's awesome). If you hate the ads, pay to remove them - no sense in paying more if you can live with it in the first place.

  All in all, this is an exceptional machine for the price and any negatives I can find are easily forgivable given how many great things there are. Amazon Prime members can also download one book from a very large selection per month for free, with no return dates, as well as download one free new release with Amazon First - something I found out through a lot of digging on Amazon's website. These features should be a little clearer. My mom loves her Kindle Touch, but after buying myself the Paperwhite, I wish I'd coughed up a little extra and got her the Paperwhite. The backlit screen and increased clarity of the e-ink is exceptional for all reading conditions. Should you upgrade? If you own a Kindle without a backlight or a a Keyboard/older model - 110%. The interface is faster and the screen clarity significantly better. The biggest complaint I have is for Kindle Keyboard users who are used to the manual page turner buttons are out of luck (unless they opt for the Voyage, I believe) - I sincerely wish they'd bring that feature back.

  TL;DR? If you love reading, treat yourself or a loved one and buy a Kindle Paperwhite. It's worth every penny.

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  mno86

  5 out of 5 stars

  Outstanding E-Reader: Worthwhile Upgrade

  Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2016

  Verified Purchase

  Recently retired my well-used Kindle Keyboard for the Paperwhite, as I was looking forward to getting one with a backlit screen. Overall, this is easily the best e-reader I've had the pleasure of using. It's just the right size (and feels less bulky than my Keyboard), the interface is faster, the text more vibrant, and the adjustable backlight is exceptionally convenient for all lighting conditions. Here are a few thoughts for those that prefer lists:

  LIGHTING:

  The Good: the adjustable backlight on the Paperwhite is great. Some reviewers have mentioned it being yellowish, but the unit purchased is a nice, blueish-white. While reading in bed, it can be dimmed enough to where it doesn't strain your eyes, though it does wash out the text slightly. I didn't think the backlight would be useful in the daytime, but it actually makes it much easier to read at max setting, which I was pleasantly surprised with.

  The Bad: There is a little bit of light bleeding from the bottom of my Kindle. It's not terribly noticeable, but if you look closely enough you can see a little blotchy unevenness near the bottom. Not nearly enough of an issue at this price point worth complaining about.

  THE UNIT:

  The Good: Love the design - more compact and sleek than the Kindle Keyboard it replaced. It fits easily in either hand without being too big or small. Perfect screen size.

  The Bad: I am mourning the loss of the page turning buttons from my Keyboard. Anyone who owns a newer Kindle would be lying if they said they've never accidentally turned the page by touching the screen. It can be a maddening experience. Plan on getting a case for your Kindle, as the plastic on the front and rubbery texture on the back are oil magnets and will suck any grease off the cleanest of hands, and it's obnoxiously hard to clean. I never had this issue with my Keyboard. Minor complaint about having the "Kindle" namesake on the front of the unit not embossed in white...looks a bit cheaper than the last gen in that regard. Power on/off button is obscenely tiny and very hard to activate - buy a cover that turns it on/off automatically.

  BATTERY/CHARGE:

  The battery doesn't last as long as my Keyboard's did, but it is still exceptionally strong even with heavy backlight usage. I have well over 3/4 of the battery reading for a few hours each day over the course of a week. It seems to charge for about the same duration as my Keyboard and I assume the backlighting eats up the battery a bit, but not enough to where it has been problematic yet. I find it frustrating that they only include a short USB charger. I don't appreciate upselling of charger plug ins.

  INTERFACE:

  The Good: Love the bookshelf view showing the covers (if you don't, you can put it back into List view like older models). Touch interface and changes from the Keyboard model took me a little white to get used to, but it is all fairly intuitive and much quicker than the model it is replacing. I absolutely refuse to tie my Twitter/Facebook account to my Kindle, but love the option of doing it for my Good Reads account - good call on that, Amazon. Newer features that let you learn more about people, places, and events in books has been great (I'm looking at you Game of Thrones). LOVE the feature that tells you how much additional time you have in a chapter...makes it easier to know if can squeeze one more in before bed. Same goes for Word Wise, which will put brief descriptions/similes of complex words above the word in question. You can set the threshold - awesome.

  The Bad: Collections show a generic book image, rather than a collage of the books within like I expected. Minor complaint. I bought a Kindle Touch for my mom awhile back and have had to work with her quite a bit, as its her first e-reader. She struggled with the interface and is still learning how to get the most out of it. I know it's a cost-saving measure, but I really resent a Kindle copy of the user guide instead of the traditional paper insert. Minimalism has its place, but not here. The filter 'buttons' on the screen are annoyingly hard to press (maybe I have fat fingers?), but feedback is exceptional everywhere else.

  AD VS NO AD:

  Ultimately, it's going to come down to your preference. Many people have found good discounts on things they'd buy on Amazon or other eBooks (it uses your recommendations). If they were only on the "off" screen when not in use, I wouldn't have ponied up the extra $20 to remove them because my cover hides it when not in use, but the ad banner at the bottom of the home screen put me over the edge. I want to point out - I've read Amazon doesn't allow you to use Gift Cards to pay for the ad removal (it requires '1-touch payment'), so if you don't think you want the ads and you have a gift card - buy the version without ads. I believe it applied $20 of a promotional credit I had on my account, however.

  PRIME HOUSEHOLD SHARING:

  The Good: If you're an Amazon Prime member and have added a second adult to your 'household', you can share select (or all) of your Kindle libraries with one another for free. I didn't see this advertised much, but it was an awesome way for my mom and I to share our books with each other.

  The Bad: It's horrific to set up. Once you've activated your Household, you need to go to Manage Your Content, flip "Books" to on (for both parties, and manually select which titles you want to share. Then you need to go to "Manage Your Device" and ensure the little box for "Share My Content" is selected. I believe both people need to do this, but once you do, you'll be able to access your family member's books in the Cloud after dropping down the filter to "Shared". It will take quite awhile for it to process if you have a large library, but once you get it set up, you can click and download any of your family member's books. I just wish it wasn't such a royal pain to set up.

  For most people, I'd suggest buying the one with no ads and saving $20 for books (or a library subscription...I borrow 90% of my books, it's awesome). If you hate the ads, pay to remove them - no sense in paying more if you can live with it in the first place.

  All in all, this is an exceptional machine for the price and any negatives I can find are easily forgivable given how many great things there are. Amazon Prime members can also download one book from a very large selection per month for free, with no return dates, as well as download one free new release with Amazon First - something I found out through a lot of digging on Amazon's website. These features should be a little clearer. My mom loves her Kindle Touch, but after buying myself the Paperwhite, I wish I'd coughed up a little extra and got her the Paperwhite. The backlit screen and increased clarity of the e-ink is exceptional for all reading conditions. Should you upgrade? If you own a Kindle without a backlight or a a Keyboard/older model - 110%. The interface is faster and the screen clarity significantly better. The biggest complaint I have is for Kindle Keyboard users who are used to the manual page turner buttons are out of luck (unless they opt for the Voyage, I believe) - I sincerely wish they'd bring that feature back.

  TL;DR? If you love reading, treat yourself or a loved one and buy a Kindle Paperwhite. It's worth every penny.

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• 

  the grey cat

  4 out of 5 stars

  Perfect is so hard to find.

  Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2017

  Verified Purchase

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  It has been just over a year since I excitedly opened my Kindle Paperwhite, which was delivered on Easter Sunday. A nice little egg. My first Kindle had been a Touch, which was my favourite, but which met a sad fate stuffed into a small and tight jeans pocket: I bent comfortably; it didn't. I replaced it with a plain Kindle, because Bestbuy was just about giving them away a few days later. It was actually a much more pleasant device to use than I had expected, and served me faithfully for nearly two years. But I was about to move, and therefore ditching as much weight as possible, and I had heard a rumour that there would be a new Kindle with a new processor and more storage, so I sold my faithful little slab. But there was no greatly improved Kindle. I considered a Voyage when it came out, but it didn't seem worth the extra money. Now, a year later, I think it may be.But only maybe.

  First, let me put my two largest Kindle complaints on the table, which apply to all of them, except perhaps to the Oasis, and reviews suggest that the Oasis' solution isn't as seamless as one might wish. Amazon claims Kindles hold thousands of books. Maybe, if your books are short. One of the main attractions of reading on a Kindle rather than a tablet is that I just stick everything on in. No downloading if I want to look something up later. But I now have 763 items on my Paperwhite and it has only 1,659 MB free. (It is true, I think, that Amazon count all the issues of one journal as one item.) The other shortcoming is that the battery lasts for months if one does not read often. I use my Kindle a lot, several hours most days, and it has to be recharged about every two days. This issue seems to have been addressed at a cost of one or two hundreds of dollars with the Voyage's case. I have learned to carry a battery pack. These two issues are why I am giving the Paperwhite four rather than five stars.

  The Paperwhite is delightfully light to hold and easy to carry. I try to remember to stick it in my back pocket rather than a front pocket. It has shown no signs of wear or abuse, and I have never used a case with it. It is quick enough for what it is. I think there are a few european e-readers with more speed, but none of them have such easy access to the Amazon range of books, which still seems to be the largest and least expensive by far.

  The shortcoming that the Paperwhite shares with the basic Kindle, and which had made me consider a newer, more expensive model--I mean, have you held the Oasis?!--is that the touch screen is an old infra-red sensor rather than a real capacitive screen.Typing is often hit or miss, and highlighting is a pain. The Kindle app on a tablet is much more convenient. It's not such a big issue that I am too tempted to replace my Paperwhite with a Voyage or Oasis unless one of those models or a newer model came out with more storage. (In Japan there is a Kindle sold with twice the storage of the base models.)

  Interestingly enough, Amazon seem to have themselves made one of the most serious competitors to the Kindle: the Fire Tablet 7. It's a bit large and noticeably heavier, but because it makes no claims about months of battery use, it's easy to remember to charge it daily. The resolution is lower: 167 ppi v. 300 ppi, but the difference seems less noticeable than on Kindle screens, perhaps because of greater contrast. And even at $49. the basic Fire Tablet has 8G of memory and an SD slot.

  I have not mentioned one other 'feature' of my Paperwhite, something not available on the basic Fire: 3G connection. I chose the 3G model in a sort of desert island idealism, thinking that if I were on a desert island, my Kindle and a solar charger would let me read every book rather than choose one. I have not found myself on a desert island yet to test it, but I should warn you that it is pretty limited in what it allows: buying books and sharing comments to social media. In other words, buying from Amazon and advertising Amazon. (Not that it really claims to do anything else.)

  Bottom line stuff: If you don't take a lot of notes, and find reading on a e-ink screen more pleasant than on a back lighted one, the Paperwhite is a very good machine. If you enjoy taking a lot of notes, I would suggest the Voyage. (Both are on sale as I am typing this. Temptation, get thee behind me.) I find the difference in resolution of the Paperwhite and more expensive models well worth the extra expense over the basic model. Charts and diagrams and such are much more readable. But if you just read books with text--no math or manga--the basic Kindle might be the thing for you. It's even smaller and lighter, and with no lights, the battery probably lasts longer. But definitely consider the Fire Tablet. Magazines in glorious technicolor. And audio, which was one of the best things I miss from the old Kindle Touch.

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• 

  Mark S.

  5 out of 5 stars

  Best and Worst of Paperwhite Kindle

  Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2016

  Verified Purchase

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  I think this is my 7th kindle. I've given away 3 or 4, left two or three on aircraft, and keep my latest by my bed or in my gym bag. It is the $139 paperwhite, I feel the 300 dpi is the break-point in value for the kindles, I've not used the newest most expensive products Voyager and ?? but can't imagine what I need that I don't have in my paperwhite - which I can read for 12 hours straight, absent fridge and bathroom breaks.

  My kindle currently has about 250 books (it will take a few more years to reach 1000), and a number of pdf's that I forwarded to it for convenient reading. Some of you may have better things to do in bed, or while exercising at the gym, or sitting on a plane, but I rarely do. B^) It is wonderful for international travel - small, lightweight, very long battery life, YUGE capacity, readable anywhere, in any bedroom, aircraft, taxi, camping or safari lighting. I actually read while walking laps for cool-down, if the book is good.

  If needed, it can be charged with a world standard micro USB cable, from a laptop or dashboard or plane seatback, so there is no need for any cables you wouldn't otherwise already be bringing for your cell and/or computer. Fits comfortably in hip pocket of blue jeans with less bulge than my wallet... BUT yes you WILL sit on it if you do this - so far, I've not broken one, but I have some padding there, and I do this only by accident. I have broken an expensive cell phone doing this, so the kindles are reasonably rugged too (lived in Africa 15 years) and I've never used a case/cover for one. Seem to be reasonably splash proof as well, surviving rain, and spilled drinks; only moving part on mine is the off-on button on the bottom edge; only opening, the USB port next to it.

  Yes I DO have a hi-res smartphone with the Kindle app on it, and I sometimes use it in a pinch, but if a device is the right size for a phone, it is too small for serious readers..either the font will be too small, or the amount of text per screen too little, for reading as fast as I read... and too many page turns can be an issue. Correct for purpose video real estate matters. Books are about the right size for reading; the kindle is paperback book sized.

  I've always bought the version with (reasonably tasteful B/W) advertising on the cover to save the bucks, and for years I was happy with that choice , but a recent upgrade (early 2016? (NOT a new product) ) started pushing the advertising into the user part of the app (namely the bottom 1/8 or so of the page that lists your library when you are actively using the device), and this REALLY pissed me off...for me it was "bait and switch". I'm sure that at some point in my life I'd clicked on "I agree" in a EULA (end user license agreement) giving them the right to make such a change, but I also can make a strong case that such EULA's, while possibly legal, are clearly unethical, since sellers know they have made them too long and complicated for any reasonable person to read. As of 2000, I used to be the 1 person in 10,000 who'd read all my software licenses, as I was responsible for state information systems, but as a private individual, with now hundreds of applications, it is practically impossible, and it is known to be. (This is one of the reasons to avoid updates until you have no choice...and never agree to automatic updates... but even this 'right of refusal' is being undercut, since it is becoming impossible to refuse upgrades and keep the system one bought still working... yet another step in the evolution of "bait and switch". I don't care for being cog in someone else's machine; markets exist to serve people, people don't exist to serve markets.

  So, I called them on this fact. I clearly explained my years of use of the device without this intrusion, my agreement to allowing the ad on the cover when the kindle was not in use. I said my access to my 250 books was degraded subsequent to moving the ads to an additional locatin inside the app (since with the ad, my library view could show only 6 books / page, and without the ad it used to show 8 books / page. This matters a lot if you are looking for 1 book out of 250!)

  It is nice to be able to report that I spoke with at least 3 people on this point (while they were helpfully debugging a download bug on my android cell phone kindle app), and I think they all (as fellow people) agreed with my perspective - or perhaps, an enlightened bean counter at their company, with whom they may have shared my complaint, realized they were talking to someone who was worth more to them as a book-buying customer, than as an attention-slice for advertising exposure, but I prefer to think the former, and for now will give their organization credit for letting these lower level technical folk make this call. Once I was speaking to the right person (a sharp tech person, ESL but very good), it took him five seconds (in real-time) to remove the ads at the bottom of my library list page.

  I will be interested to see if they decide n the future to remove the ads at this location to restore the same user experience I now again enjoy, to other users. I will be interested to learn whether they also implement suggestions I made about improving the sort function for the listing of books for those of us with increasingly large libraries, and for deleting books we don't want directly from the app, instead of needing to go to our accounts online via a browser. Perhaps they can find a win-win by systematically removing the ads for people with over 25 or 50 books.

  Please indicate whether you find this review helpful, I suspect if it is 'liked' enough, it may help improve the product.

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• 

  Thomas

  5 out of 5 stars

  My first Kindle, a review for Paperwhite. (Edit: included paragraph for manga)

  Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2016

  Verified Purchase

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  This is my very first Kindle device, and after hearing how popular and well reviewed the Paperwhite version is, I decided I would take my chances on it. After having messed around with mine for a few weeks, I must say I'm very pleased with my purchase. It came to my door, already connected to my Amazon account, so I could start using it right out of the box. One of the first things I noticed when turning it on we're the ads. You can get it without special offers, but it costs more. Amazon said I could change to without offers after My purchase, so I decided to stick with offers to see if they are as unobtrusive as Amazon promises. I am glad to say, they are exactly as promised. Other than seeing one when you start/wake up your device, and at the bottom of the home screen, you won't see an ad anywhere else. I plan on keeping the special offers, but if you find even this annoying, you can pay more to turn them off.

  As for the battery life, it is also as Amazon says. All of my other devices need to be charged every 1-2 days with use, but, other than the initial charge when I got it, I haven't yet to charge it up in the weeks since I got it. I must admit, I haven't used it too much, but, I can imagine it would still last a week or more with heavy use. This brings me to another point...I recommend you get a case with your kindle. The Paperwhite has a little magnetic piece that easily keeps your case shut, and the kindle shuts on or off (sleep mode) as soon as you open or close the case, respectively. Unlike apples iPads, you don't need a specific Amazon brand case to use this. I just bought a $15 Finite case which works perfectly.

  As for the interface of the device, it is very simplistic and barebones, which for doing all the stuff most tablets do, (I already have an iPad I got as a gift for this) would be awful, but is all that is necessary for reading books. The simple monochrome look is also very easy on the eyes. What I really love about the device, which is something you can't possibly use with real books, is the customization options. You can do everything from change font, (of which Amazon has its own, bookerly, which they have made specifically for reading, and opendislexic, for those with dislexia) font size, orientation, spacing, and more. It also comes with the ability to look certain words or phrases up. Just hi-light what you want to look up, and will give you a definition, Wikipedia page, and translation for multiple languages, all of this while still inside the book.

  Along with goodreads, a place to find more books based on what you like, and a decent kindle store, which if you don't like using, you can use the Amazon website from any device, while logged in to your linked Amazon account, to buy the books, and they will be sent to your kindle and/or saved to your cloud library to be downloaded later. Just make sure you are buying the kindle version and not the actual book. Also the kindle books you buy can be read on Amazon website, letting you read them from places other then your kindle, which is neat. Anyways, in short, this is an excellent reading device. I recommend you put down your paper and ink book right now and order yourself a kindle. You just might never want to back to the old way of reading ever again!

  PS For those who like manga. I was not excepting to see manga in the kindle store, although, I was slightly expecting if there was, it would, 1 be very slim pickings or 2 not be worth having over the real thing. I was wrong on both accounts. The store is filled with plenty of manga, from old favorites to new releases. I'll let you be the judge of that, though. just look under the Kindle Store department right from Amazon.com, and see if they have kindle versions of your favorites. As for the quality, I did use a sample to test it out, but I felt I looked through enough pages to get a good understanding of the quality. Since most manga is in black and white, as I'm sure you all know, there is no issues on that front. The sample I tested out was the first few pages of Deadman Wonderland, and I felt with the latest Paperwhites 300ppi display, the art for each page was very crisp and clear on my Kindle. It looked very much like the real deal. I mainly bought my Kindle for novels, but it is nice to know I can add some manga to my library.

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• 

  FunnyMom11

  5 out of 5 stars

  eReading is Enjoyable, Again! Your Kindle Fire Tablets, etc. just don’t compare to THIS!

  Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2016

  Verified Purchase

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  Very Pleased! I had been debating this purchase for so long because my children gave me a Kindle Fire HD 7 for Christmas a couple years ago that works perfectly well. Unfortunately, it hurts my eyes to read on it for any length of time. I even purchased a few special apps for my Kindle Fire HD 7 that were supposed to “help” this problem by making the screen “easier” on the eyes to read. Plus, my Kindle Fire HD seemed to be one of the updated models because it already did come with the Test to Speech Feature that other Kindle Fire HD owners have said their models lacked. Anyway, my Fire Tablet seems to still be one of the most highly rated models on many of the review sites that I surfed when I was trying to decide if it was worth it for me to purchase a Kindle Paperwhite. I felt a little guilty about purchasing an extra tablet just for the purpose of eReading when my children had chosen the Kindle Fire for me so that it could meet all of my interests: the flexibility that a tablet offers as a mini-computer, a text message & e-mailer retriever, a game-player, and an eReader. (Just a note on Text to Speech: I find this feature to be rather robotic and not as preferable as purchasing the actual audio apps that you can purchase with an ebook - Amazon and other vendors obviously want you to purchase the audio versions of the books, anyway, if you are interested in having the books read aloud to you, and I agree that you will be much happier if you do that!) Anyway, after a lot of deliberation and researching, I decided to GO FOR IT and purchase this Paperwhite. YES, IT WAS WORTH IT! My friends who have older versions of the Paperwhite are very happy with theirs, and I was quite envious at how very lightweight their paperwhites were to hold and at how very much it emulated reading an actual book! I could have chosen to purchase an older version at a cheaper price, but one thing that this newer model offered was a screen light to allow me to read at night without having turn on a lamp! Also, even though my Kindle Fire HD did have the option to dim the screens backlight, it still was not as comfortable as the Paperwhite! Truly, no app purchased for my Kindle Fire HD really made it “convenient” for long-term reading like the Paperwhite. I was fortunate to be able to catch a deal on this by purchasing it during a Flash sale and using a gift card that my children provided me this year for the purpose of buying BOOKS for my Kindle Fire - LOL! They were fine with my decision to use it for the Paperwhite after they also heard from others that the Paperwhite was really the way to go for someone who wanted a tablet merely for reading purposes. I also purchased it via the Special Offers deal which meant that I would probably have to deal with ADS, but I must say that these are not an inconvenience at all. The ADS only appear when you turn your Paperwhite back on, and they disappear once you swipe the screen to return to whatever book you plan to continue reading. It is not like the ads that pop up during many of the apps (games) that you have to deal with when you download the “free” versions. Additionally, I chose to purchase one that only had wi-fi, not 3G. I can download books just about anywhere with wi-fi, and I didn’t feel that I needed the 3G feature. You don’t need either of those features in order to read on it, only to download material, so I’m sure that I can download enough ebooks before I go anywhere that wi-fi is not available (which is probably not many places). I also noticed through my research that many, many Kindle owners have SEVERAL tablets for various uses. So, I was not so “crazy” after all. It’s obviously a matter of preference, but the fact of the matter is that I was NOT using my Kindle Fire as an eReader (for novels) at all. I have read reviews from Paperwhite owners that they “wish it would be in color or that they wish it would also have capability to download game apps or check emails and such.” Well, I imagine it would then become not only more expensive, but it might be heavier and possible require more components on it that would make it be . . .well, a Kindle HD Fire or the like! If you just want to have a simple, lightweight reader (and I know that this newer version is supposed to have about 2 hours less battery power - 6 hours of reading instead of 8 - before you have to recharge, which isn’t’ a big deterrent to me since I have to recharge my iPhone and other items frequently), and you would also like to read without have pop ups to distract you - like text messages, emails, notification - then, I would recommend that you get a Paperwhite.

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• 

  Amazon Customer

  5 out of 5 stars

  It has great battery life

  Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2017

  Verified Purchase

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  Overview:

  The Kindle Paperwhite (2015) is the latest Paperwhite. It boasts a 300 PPI (Pixel Per Inch) display, a significant upgrade from the previous model’s 212 PPI. It has great battery life, a lot of features paper books don’t have, and a lot of storage (4GB, which is a lot for text files like books). It is a bit sluggish at times, but a simple restart helps. The Kindle Paperwhite is a great e-reader that I highly recommend

  The Kindle Paperwhite costs $119.99 on amazon.com. This is the model with what Amazon is calling “special offers,” which is their creative way of saying advertisements. The ad-free version is available for purchase for $20 more. A Kindle can be converted from an ad-version to an ad-free version on the Amazon website, or it can be bought separately. The special offers are visible on the lock screen, which is when the Kindle is shut down, but not powered off, and on the home page. It doesn’t affect any reading or shopping.

  Specs:

  Storage:

  4 GB, enough for thousands of books

  Resolution:

  300 PPI

  Dimensions:

  6.7" x 4.6" x 0.36"

  Bezel Width:

  .74” (Top), .51” (Left and Right), .94” (Bottom)

  Screen Size:

  6” diagonally

  Battery Life:

  6 weeks

  Weight:

  7.2 ounces

  Built-In Light:

  Yes, 4 LEDs in bottom of screen

  Screen:

  Touchscreen

  Buttons:

  1 (toggles power)

  Price:

  $119.99/$139.99

  Design:

  The Kindle only has one button --- the power button. Also, there’s only one port --- the micro-usb charging port. There’s also a charging indicator on the bottom, in-between the micro-usb charging port and the power button. The back has a rubbery feel which feels very easy to scratch. The bezel is made of a harder plastic, which is also easy to scratch. It’s best to avoid sliding it on a table; that scratches the surface. The screen is dipped below the bezel about 1 millimeter, which prevents it from getting scratched. However, some material often finds its way into the small gap between the screen and the bezel.

  Display:

  The display is one of the best features of the Kindle. It uses a 300 PPI black-and-white screen, the same as the Kindle Oasis, a higher end Kindle priced at $289.99. It is difficult to see individual pixels. The Kindle has a matte screen, resulting in little glare. It aso features four LEDs built into the bottom of the screen, which is an extremely useful tool. It prevents eye strain because it is not a backlight, it lights the screen from the bottom. The brightness setting ranges from 0 to 24, 0 being almost completely dark, 24 is unnecessarily bright. A comfortable setting for reading at night is usually 6 or 7.

  Instead of a traditional screen like a phone or computer, the Kindle uses a so-called “E-Ink” screen, which is the closest resemblance to a book available with current technology.

  Touchscreen:

  The touchscreen on the Kindle is required for use, from typing the optional password in, to turning the page. It works well enough to function, but the response time is below satisfactory. It is easy to type a four-character password in quickly, but the Kindle usually registers the first character as the second character is being typed. It took an average of .64 seconds to flip a page; five sets of twenty flips were timed, then the best and the worst times were discarded, then the remaining three were averaged. The result, 12.891, was divided by twenty to determine the result.

  Wi-Fi:

  The Wi-Fi in the Kindle is average. It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s certainly not bad. Short stories can be downloaded in 3-5 seconds, while big books take longer. A 6,000 word short story called The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, took around 4 seconds, but the 1,156 page doorstop titled It, by Stephen King, took about 15. As the book downloads, the Kindle shows a picture of the cover with a percent sign indicating how far along the download process is. After the book is downloaded, it changes to the word “queueing,” which means the Kindle is setting the book up so it can be searched. Once the book is queued, it can be searched for a certain word or phrase. Queueing uses a lot of battery life, so it’s best to not download books on low battery power.

  Battery Life:

  The Kindle may be best known for its superb battery life. Amazon says it lasts six weeks, and they are right. The one used for testing has only died once in the nine month period. One user reported using it for 1200 pages without recharging it once. Some things that reduce battery life include: leaving the Wi-Fi on, turning the light up, leaving the screen on, etc.

  Conclusion:

  The Kindle Paperwhite is one of the best e-readers on the market. It is a lot better than the normal Kindle, and the more expensive versions don’t hold much over them. It’s light, small, and pretty affordable. The battery life is amazing. The only problems are the slow response time, the easily-scratchable case and the ads. This is a great e-reader, especially useful for reading at night and for travel.

  Pros:

  Light

  Lots of features

  Great battery life

  Lots of storage

  Cons:

  A bit slow

  Special offers

  Scratches easily

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