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Amazon has overhauled its best-selling Kindle lineup, introducing an entirely new model with its first colour e-ink screen. Elsewhere, page-turns are speedier, wireless charging is supported on some models, and screens are brighter — perfect for reading in direct sunlight.
Unfortunately, the reinvented lineup also carries with higher price tags.
Discussing the new lineup, Director of Kindle Europe, Emma Gilmartin said: "Our new lineup has something for everyone. The first-ever Kindle in colour will bring photos to life, a reimagined Kindle Scribe will transform writing in books and taking notes, you'll fly through books with the fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever, and you can fit our most compact device, the all-new Kindle, in your pocket."
The complete lineup is as follows:
Amazon also announced updated versions of the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, from £189.99, and Kindle Kids, from £114.99. Both of these devices are available to order now.
Refreshed with longer battery life, bigger screens, and colourful e-ink displays — there's a lot to like about these new Kindles. Amazon has overhauled every single model in the lineup, so no matter what price point you're looking at, you'll benefit from the upgrade. Prime subscribers will unlock next-day delivery nationwide on all models, and be able to read select books at no extra cost
With Christmas — not to mention, Black Friday — looming on the horizon, this is the perfect time to refresh the Kindle lineup. After weeks of whispers about new devices incoming, Amazon unveiled its largest-ever refresh of the Kindle lineup. It comes as Kindle sales reach their highest point in over a decade, with 60% of all purchases last year coming from first-time buyers.
For those who haven't read a digital book before, these devices offer a number of perks — like the ability to adjust the font size, typeface, line spacing, and brightness. You can also summon a dictionary definition by pressing on the word. Kindle devices also come preloaded with a font designed to make reading easier for those with dyslexia, which can be applied to any fiction or non-fiction book.
With the latest devices, Amazon aims to offer features to appeal to even more readers, including those who want to read comic books and other graphic novels in vibrant colour, and anyone who needs to make detailed notes in their books.
For the first time, Amazon has fitted one of its best-selling e-readers with a colourful e-ink touchscreen
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First up, the all-new Kindle Colorsoft marks Amazon's first foray into colour e-readers, featuring a 7-inch display that promises "rich, paper-like colour". It utilises an oxide backplane with custom waveforms for improved performance and contrast in both colour and black-and-white content. The device incorporates a new light guide with nitride LEDs, enhancing colour vibrancy without washing out details.
Amazon says you can zoom into images without pixelation, which will be handy for those who want to study maps in books, or individual panels in graphic novels. Kindle Colorsoft — yes, we're stuck with the US spelling here in Blighty — lets you choose between standard or vibrant styles on the e-ink screen. For the first time, you'll be able to make colour highlights to your digital books that can be easily search later.
Elsewhere, Kindle Colorsoft also boasts wireless charging, up to eight weeks of battery life, and a waterproof design — so it can survive a dip in the pool or bath. It starts from £269.99, making it one of the most expensive Kindle devices on offer, not to mention £70 pricier than competitor Kobo's colour e-reader currently sells for on Amazon.
Amazon is taking preorders for this all-new colour model now, with the first units set to ship on October 30, 2024.
Kindle Paperwhite — which has long been the best all-rounder of the lineup — has also been treated to an upgrade. Its 7-inch black-and-white e-ink screen is slightly larger than its predecessor's 6.8-inch screen. Paperwhite and Colorsoft both sport 7-inch screens, the biggest of any pocketable Kindles from Amazon.
Page turns on the new Paperwhite are 25% faster, so you'll spend less time watching the e-ink refresh. For the first time, Amazon is using an oxide thin-film transistor display, which it claims will offer the highest contrast ratio of any Kindle for sharper text and images.
Despite the thinner frame, Amazon claims that battery life has been extended to up to three months on a single charge. Sadly, there's no wireless charging on the Paperwhite, but it does recharge via USB-C, so you can use the same charging cable as the newest iPhone and Android phones, iPad, Nintendo Switch, and most modern laptops.
Amazon's new Paperwhite has 25% faster page-turns, 12-week battery life, and bright new case colours
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Kindle Paperwhite is now built from 29% recycled materials, with the internal structural frame made from a whopping 90% recycled magnesium. It starts from £159.99 and is available now in Raspberry, Jade, and Black colourways. The previous generation of Paperwhite started from £129.99 when it launches three years ago, so these new improvements come at a cost.
However, we'd expect to see that UK price tag drop in the next major Amazon sale. A Signature Edition with 32GB of built-in storage, wireless charging, auto-adjusting front light, and new Metallic Raspberry, Metallic Jade, and Metallic Black colourways, is also available for £189.99.
The entry-level Kindle, now in its 12th-generation, has the most compact design, with a pocketable 6-inch e-ink screen
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The most affordable Kindle has received a modest update. Amazon's 12th generation of this no-frills device sports a high-resolution 6-inch screen with improved contrast, faster page-turns, and a 25% brighter front light, which should help keep text visible in direct sunlight. This Kindle now ships in a colourful new Matcha case option, as well as the standard black.
Starting from £94.99, this model comes equipped with 16GB of built-in storage — enough for thousands of books, and six weeks of battery life on a single charge. It's available to order now, with Prime subscribers able to enjoy next-day delivery nationwide at no extra cost.
Amazon has also introduced a refreshed Kindle Kids model, priced at £114.99. This model includes a protective cover, a two-year worry-free guarantee, and a six-month subscription to Amazon Kids+, providing access to thousands of age-appropriate books and audiobooks.
And finally, Amazon unveiled the second-generation Kindle Scribe. This expansive model has a redesigned 10.2-inch display with white borders and a paper-like texture. As well as offering access to digital books, non-fiction textbooks, and comics, the Kindle Scribe doubles-up as a way to make handwritten notes that can be backed-up to the cloud and searched from any of your devices.
New functionality, dubbed Active Canvas, will dynamically move paragraphs of text to accommodate your handwritten notes as you write down thoughts, reminders, or doodles, in your favourite fiction or non-fiction books
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A new Active Canvas feature lets you to write directly within e-books, with the text dynamically shifting out of the way to make room for your annotations. The device also incorporates AI-powered features, including "Refined Writing" to improve legibility and "Summarization" to condense notes into bullet points. These AI capabilities utilise Amazon's Bedrock software tool, accessing large language models from various companies.
A revised iteration of the Kindle Scribe's Premium Pen now features a soft-tipped eraser for a more natural writing experience. Amazon has baked-in various note-taking templates, including meeting notes, to-do lists, and distraction-free journaling.
The Kindle Scribe is available for pre-order at £379.99 and will ship on 4 December.
Speaking about the new announcements, Eric Saarnio, Vice President of Amazon Devices International, said: "Customers love Kindle and are reading on their devices more than ever – global sales last year hit their highest in a decade with the majority of purchases by first-time Kindle owners. We are excited to bring our customers a completely new Kindle lineup; we obsessed over every detail to deliver the best possible experience for them."
