Tablets Compared: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2015) review

The basics of the Kindle are the same across the entire lineup

Unless you are incredibly finicky about the technology of your e-reader, there’s just not much reason to spend the extra $ 80 to get the Voyage. The Voyage gives you improved contrast, quasi-button zones for turning pages, an adaptive backlight, and 12 percent less weight than other Kindles, but I do not really think Those things add up to being worth the extra cost. Plus, all three Kindles are functionally identical; the basics of the Kindle are the same across the entire lineup.

And the basics of the Kindle are really well established by now. Amazon has been steadily Increasing the feature set over the years without letting any of Those new bits get in the way of the Kindle’s “one job” of undistracted reading. The latest software update, Which will come to all three Kindles in the coming weeks, brings a new font and better text layout that’s more readable. You still can not left-justify the text, but the line spacing and hyphenation is much more sensible now. It’s a good update, though I do think That Amazon is being a little over-aggressive at trying to get you a sign up for Kindle Unlimited.

The screen on the new Paperwhite is simply lovely. It’s still a plastic, capacitive touch screen, but the sharper text is much easier on the eyes. If I’m being finicky I could point out That it has slightly less than the Voyage contrast and the backlight seems to have just a slightly bluer tint than the last Paperwhite. But even pointing out subtle differences These incredibly feels like I’m straining it offer Distinctions where no meaningful differences exist. If you already have a Kindle, you really do not need to upgrade to the Paperwhite.

This is the Amazon’s game is screw up, and it has not

And that’s the hardest part about reviewing the Kindle Paperwhite: it’s a single-use gadget That achieves its single-use quite well. This is Amazon’s game is screw up, and it has not. How do you even review a Kindle without getting into the weeds of typography or measuring screen brightness in terms of nits (quite literally nit picking)?

I could wade into the old Battle of paper Vs. dedicated e-readers Vs. tablets, but in an all know the story there. I’m on record as a person who thinks paper is a superior technology that ebooks for some uses: academics and long-term archiving, to name two. I sometimes wish the Paperwhite That was a little better for note-taking and could serve as a more general purpose device in the way the tablet can. I could even dig into the fact that I still feel like Amazon makes me feel like I’m renting access to the books I buy on the Kindle because everything is laden with DRM and lives inside Amazon’s slightly unkempt walled garden for books. I could go on an extended rant about how putting DRM on a book is probably the most pernicious thing we could do it future humans who will want to understand our culture.

I could do all of Those Things, shoe the Best Is That Kindles are nice and this Particular Kindle is the nicest one yet for the price. They’re good for reading books as long as you understand that you ‘re accepting Amazon’s rules for doing that. Once you get that, the Kindle is limited, you can accept or reject Those limitations as you will. We proclivities and preferences tell me to reject them, but I do not: I’m a heavy user Kindle, and I’m happy to have a device That makes reading easier for me. I have 244 books in my library now, and I’ve read nearly all of them.

So yes, this is a short review. It’s a Kindle. Kindle it does things. The Kindle Paperwhite is the best e-reader for most people by a wide margin.

Photography by Sean O’Kane.

All comparisons image set with the same font (Caecilia) since Bookerly is not yet available for the 2013 Kindle Paperwhite. The new Kindle Paperwhite will not ship with the software update to start, and Amazon says it will be coming to all three Kindle models in the coming weeks.

Left: 2013 Kindle Paperwhite. Right: Kindle Paperwhite 2015.