![Kindle Paperwhite, 6" High Resolution Display with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi [Previous Generation]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81fFQJNigJL.__AC_SY300_SX300_QL70_FMwebp_.jpg)
UPDATE: 14-Dec-2012...
1) While I still like list format, sideloading books now results in covers being displayed properly. Sorry about the late update, this feature's been fixed for around a month, now.
2) Battery life is still fantastic, although I think there may be a bug in the Kindle software - when it "auto-sleeps" from a case closing (using Amazon's branded in-house case), the light does not shut off until the normal power-save timer hits. So basically the unit is slept, but it has its light on. Really odd. I'm hoping there's a software fix out for this at some point, but even with this "flaw" I'm still getting loads of reading time per charge.
UPDATE: 05-Oct-2012... Just a few points of note:
1) Use list format - sideloading books usually results on no covers. Besides, List format lists more books per page, anyways.
2) The lack of a progress bar at the bottom is distracting, but the Time To Read is getting better and better at estimating my reading speed.
3) The screen definitely shows a slight band of waving darkness at the bottom. A lot of people have been complaining about it and sending theirs back, assuming this is a defect. The Kobo Glo has a similar "artifact" on the screen so I don't think this is really an easily fixable problem, and in reading, it's only distracting in dark rooms while reading at the bottom of a page.
4) Now that the Kobo Glo is out, users considering a first-time purchase may want to consider that unit, as well. Almost identical screen (don't know how they got around Amazon's patents), loads of font features, EPub (for those who frequent libraries), PDF panning, and, most importantly of all - a Micro SD slot, allowing expansion to 34GB total. Definitely worth a look for those that aren't tied into Amazon's ecosystem. That unit is now #2 in my scale of e-reader awesomeness, with the Nook GlowLight a distant third (and only being on the list because it remains the only model with page turn buttons).
5) Battery life is awesome, rarely have been below 50% and I've been doing a LOT of reading on this since I received it.
6) Wireless - on my Kindle Keyboard, I could not join a corporate wireless network (for techies, I'm referring to WPA/WPA2-Enterprise, as opposed to the commonly-used WPA/WPA2-Personal). The PaperWhite supports the corporate wireless network. Just a note for those who may read during lunch breaks at the office.
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I purchased this as soon as it became available online, during the press conference in early September, and just received it a little while ago. While it didn't have everything I wanted out of a Kindle ereader, there were so many positives that I could not resist buying one and insisted on overnight delivery. No other product in the Kindle lineup excited me as much as this one, though I did buy and overnight a Fire HD 7" as well and write a review on that, too... it's not that I did not get excited over that device, too (I did) - I just read at least an hour a day on my current Kindle Keyboard 3G and don't plan on reading on the Fire HD.
FYI - this is a long review, definitely not for the casual browser. Hopefully it helps to answer your questions on this product. And for background, I own two Kindle Keyboards (3G and Wifi), one Kindle 4 Non-Touch, and the Fire HD. I've had the Kindle Keyboard Wifi the longest, coming up on two years now (got it just after it came out in late 2010).
Look and Feel
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There is usually quite a lot of hype over dimensions on these e-readers, nitpicking about a few millimeters here or there, or an ounce or two heavier or lighter. Sufficed to say, virtually all 6" screened devices are roughly equal size to each other - around the weight of a paperback and very slim, while being a little longer/wider than a paperback. All of them will fit easily into a purse, backpack, briefcase, large coat pocket, or large cargo pant pocket.
The PaperWhite is no different. It retains a slim profile and I believe the black bezel helps to accentuate the clarity of the fonts, and the darkness of the text on the screen. The back has an excellent, grip-able texture that is a pleasure to hold, although I am installing this in an Amazon-branded case permanently. I like the simplistic look and minimalist design of the PaperWhite, as well. Such a straightforward design helps guide me towards reading instead of "futzing" with the device.
Screen - Clarity
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The screen on this unit has been hyped a lot in the press. 62% more pixels, supposedly. I, personally, had zero problem with the Kindle Keyboard's screen, which had a high contrast ratio and less blurry look than the Kindle Touch had/has, or the washed-out look of the Nook SimpleTouch, but this screen is definitely a thing of beauty. I would not use the higher pixel density for smaller fonts, but I enjoy how there are new font options because of their ability to render on a more dense screen, and how the pictures look crisper. It is far more difficult to see any pixellation on the edges of text, and again this helps me with my reading experience by minimizing distractions.
---Update on previous verbiage: The Paperwhite handles images much better than expected... the resolution, though larger (at 768x1024, versus most other e-readers' 600x800) does, in fact, paginate books properly, even with 600x800-sized images. So while you can put higher-resolution pictures in a document, it is not necessary, and the PaperWhite scales "older" images properly.
Screen - Light
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Wow. Okay, I know what many people will likely say, and it's true - the hallmark feature of all next-generation ereaders is a front-lit screen. However, the IMPLEMENTATION of that feature varies wildly per manufacturer. In Amazon's case, they bought a company around three years ago that specialized in this kind of technology, which spreads light on top of the screen, instead of trying to light it from behind like a tablet/iPad, which causes eyestrain (and which isn't possible with EInk-like displays, anyways). While I wonder why it took them so long to come out with this (and not put it on the Kindle Touch), I'm glad they waited to "get it right." This implementation of the light diffuser is the best yet, and truly stands apart from the Nook GlowLight. The light is very even across the entire display (instead of being brighter towards the LEDs) and has very little "haloing" - bright spots near the LEDs at the bottom... more like, subtle darker areas, actually.
One other possible "helper" to this design was that the LEDs are located at the bottom of the device, not the top. This is important because if the LEDs are at the top (as they are in the GlowLight), it is easier to see them - basically, when you hold a book or e-reader, most folks tend to angle the device slightly away from themselves for optimal viewing angle. At an obtuse angle away from the body, the LEDs at the top on the GlowLight will be easier to see because of the angle at which the viewer is observing the device. Whereas on the Kindle, not only is the LED implementation less prone to "haloing" to start, it's at the bottom, which will tend to show the LEDs less in that same position because the lower bezel helps hide them.
While the competitive landscape will likely follow the GlowLight and Kindle (the Kobo has a front-lit model coming out), I truly believe the Amazon implementation to be superior. They claim to have patented it, so there must be come distinction between their display and others. As always, however, if you are very sensitive to subtle nuances on features like this, I would recommend you try to see one in a store, first, and judge for yourself. For me, this is one light that will never be turned off and is a joy to use.
Screen - Input
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The touchscreen is excellent and responsive. Not much in the way of lag, and the screen refresh is snappy and quick. I personally prefer to have the screen "reverse" on every page... some people recoil in horror at that and prefer to leave the defaults of one reversal every few pages, but I like not having any ghosting, and I have no problem with a momentary screen refresh as I'm turning pages. The response time is much snappier on this device than my Kindle Keyboard, which tended to hesitate at times... though I chalk that up to older CPU and software, since the newer Kindle 4 NonTouch I bought is about as "snappy" as this PaperWhite.
I'm very glad that they went with a capacitance-based screen on this unit, instead of the infrared of the past (and present, for competitors). Not only does it seem a bit more responsive, it allows for lighter weight, smaller overall thickness, less of a raised bezel (less "shadow" on the screen), and a crisper font (see next paragraph). It also might allow for a screen protector, which previously was a "no no" in the infrared-based touchscreen world, since it interfered with the infrared beams on the surface of the screen... but I have not tested if a screen protector is feasible on this device because it will live its life in the protection of an Amazon case, so please don't do so based solely on my sketchy musings.
On a blog I frequent (and am not associated with in any way, other than I personally like visiting it), [...], there was a comment on the technical side as to why the fonts were not "washed out" like they were on the Touch, or on the Nook GlowLight. The answer was that, when adding an infrared layer, there is a tendency to have a boundary or gap between those layers, and for every layer added there is a loss of contrast. Since the PaperWhite has a more advanced light layer and capacitance touchscreen, the effects of extra layering are minimized and text is crisper to the eye.
Wireless
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I purchased the Wifi only version, which interoperates fine with my home wireless. To be honest, I rarely use the experimental browser or other online features like Facebook/Twitter integration, and when I purchase books I normally find the interface of a PC preferable to the Kindle. That being said, I have used the interface to purchase on Amazon in the past and found it true to its promises - "start reading this book in 60 seconds!" - the latest one was a book trilogy, which downloaded in under a minute and I was off to reading. Very handy for when you're at a party or other gathering and talking books. Though, if you find yourself at a restaurant, riding a train, or somewhere else more often than at home, you'd be better off with the 3G version, unless they happen to offer free WiFi.
Note that Amazon offers up to 5GB of free document storage online, so if you have a wireless connection, you can even "sideload" books from the Amazon Cloud as needed. This helps mitigate one of my "cons" in the section below about the 2GB limitation of the storage on the PaperWhite.
Note, also, that all Kindle devices offer free Wifi through AT&T hotspots, which are at most Hiltons and McDonalds, though there have been reports that the free Wifi is only applicable to Amazon-related tasks (i.e. open the experimental browser to go to Gmail and you'll be prompted to pay). I have not tested this functionality but it has been reported at numerous sites.
Battery
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Amazon's advertised capacity on this battery is 8 weeks. Note that this is 8 weeks, with the light on and wireless off, for 30 minutes of reading a day, approximately. Now, if you're like me, I rarely think it's worth the time if I only read for a 30 minute span - I'm much more used to 1-2 hours. So my battery will/is draining at a much faster rate. At 1 hour of reading a day (on average), this will run about a month, which is still phenomenal when you factor in that the light will be on, all the time.
My device came semi-charged, and charges relatively fast over a normal USB charger. Note that it does not come with a USB charger, just the cable that connects it to a charger, but honestly - how many USB chargers does an average person have? Why add another one, at the added cost?
Obviously, I just got the device and have only been using it for most of a single day, so I cannot give an accurate estimation of battery life... but I will likely update this review once I have more data. It just might take me a month to get there. :)
Interface
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Well, I REALLY miss page turn buttons. Some folks online hate them and say they cause accidental page turns, but I have the opposite experience - it's more likely for me to accidentally turn pages based on a touchscreen. It's just in how everyone holds their devices and the size of their hands, and quite honestly the case/sleeve it's held in matter a great deal on this front. To each their own. I would have much preferred a button option.
Be that as it may, the software interface is much improved over the Kindle Touch and Kindle Keyboard. I have, for the longest time, wanted to be able to browse my library by cover. I could never fathom why this was impossible on the earlier software, but now it's there and I LOVE IT. One thing to note, however... I sideload most of my library, and those covers do not show on the PaperWhite. Time will tell if this is a Calibre conversion issue or a PaperWhite "I'm not going to show you covers unless they're ones I get from Amazon!" - if it's the latter, then that's a really big letdown. The cover is there if I "dwell" on a book to put it in a Collection or delete it, so I'm not sure why they're not displaying.
I do not use Whispersync (Voice or Text) or XRay. I've seen them demo'd online and they look nice, but they're niche features, in my opinion. Amazon keeps improving them, so they must be popular with some folks. I typically only use one device at a time, though, so Whispersync is typically off for me, and XRay would be useful if I read books at a slower pace and needed cross-referencing, but I don't read slow... so basically, I'm not in a position to review those features.
In terms of new features, I was most intrigued by the "Time To Read" feature in the lower-left corner. I like the idea that the device can roughly estimate the time to finish a chapter, since my wife typically says I should be getting to sleep and I have to then estimate how much longer to a chapter break. This is a neat feature, but don't count on it too closely. It's a very rough estimate and can be wrong, especially if you "jump around" in a book a few times inside of a chapter.
One of the things I'd love to do (but can't as yet) is use Calibre to maintain my collections (it side-loaded my books that are non-Amazon easily enough). Specifically, I use Calibre to automatically generate collections on my older Kindles, based on how I've set up the books in my library's "metadata" in Calibre. I want this functionality in the PaperWhite as well, and while it is not working "Day One" as I'm typing this, I hope to see it in the future, as maintaining large collections is one of the biggest problems in Amazon's reading ecosystem. The Kindle Touch was extremely difficult (but not impossible) to manage collections on using Calibre and was one of the main reasons I never bought one.
Good thing is, it shows up as a drive letter on my PC (not as a MTP share), which is closer to the Kindle Keyboard than the Fire HD. Interestingly enough, books that are side-loaded appear to have folders created for them that hold the index files. I think it's the Kindle doing this because Calibre doesn't do this on any other Kindle I own. Interesting.
Durability
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When it debuted, the Nook GlowLight was something to behold and a thing of beauty (since the PaperWhite, however, it looks like a washed-out hunk of plastic with bright LED's at the top). I almost switched to B&N based on that (and the MicroSD slot) feature, alone. However, shortly after the unit came out, the famous "dropped keys test" was done, and hundreds of reports of GlowLights were reported with "white spots" where minimal taps on the screen allowed light to escape, thus ruining the reading experience when the light was on. This was/is, presumably, from the delicate nature of the screen, which is a plastic layer that is fragile due to its thinness. On the PaperWhite, supposedly those issues are not the case.
While I want to better understand the durability of this unit, I love it too much to start dropping keys all over it in an effort to find that out. I figure that other online reviewers with fatter pockets will do that for me/us. :) Sufficed to say, I do not agree with others that have commented on this online, saying "Umm, it's an electronic device. BE CAREFUL!" - because, even with a protective case and more protective owner, things happen. Overanxious dogs. Pestering cats. Obnoxious children. And I don't like the thought of a device I use very frequently being like a thin crystal glass I have to "baby."
In any event, according to the same blog I reference above, at the press conference for the new Kindle lineup, the afterhours staff that was answering questions said that the PaperWhite's screen is not subject to the same fragility. My hope is that they saw the negative press about the GlowLight and decided to do some in-house stress testing... which makes sense, because Amazon was "supposed to" (read:rumored) to release information on this Kindle lineup in July, so perhaps they used the extra two months to refine their design. But that's only conjecture.
The shell/frame, itself, feels solid and well-put-together, with little to no bend or flex and a good deal of rigidity for something so light. I think it seems very solidly built for a device costing a little over a hundred dollars. Since I plan on keeping this safely in an Amazon-branded case, I'm probably not the best reviewer to evaluate this device based on durability. If it develops bright spots or other physical deformities I will absolutely post them as updates to this review.
Format Support
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Supports all the major formats that I've seen, with the obvious exception of EPub. Don't know why this is a deal-breaker, for some, with Calibre out there. But it is possible that there is a segment of the publishing world that only publishes in EPub and uses DRM, so that conversion is not possible with Calibre (or somehow fails). This, along with page turn buttons and audio support, seem to be the "holy trinity" of features that a lot of people express frustration about, and want fixed/included in the Kindle.
If EPub is mandatory for you, well, then this is not the device to buy. While I have not had, in several years of owning various Kindles, any issues with a lack of ePub support, I'm not insensitive to other people perhaps having issues, and for them, I completely understand if you do not go with a Kindle. For this review, however, my own personal experience is that the Kindle will view anything I need it to, and if there's some format it cannot handle, I convert it with Calibre.
Negatives
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The downsides of this device are few and far between. The chief amongst them, for me, is the lack of page turn buttons. Leaving the buttons out was, most likely, a move to cut costs. While I cannot abide by folks who say "Just tap the screen and keep your hands clean," I find that this lack of buttons is far outweighed by the positives this device brings to the table.
The other negative, for me, is the storage space. 2GB is pathetic... especially when you consider that you cannot access all 2GB of it (some of it is the operating system, only roughly 1.2GB is usable). I understand that it is marketed as a thousand books, but that's not entirely accurate, based on how many embedded pictures and other content is inside the books. I also understand that, with the removal of the audio features (see below), the demand for space is not as high as before. And thirdly, I know that as the number of books on the device increases, so does the demand on its CPU to index and categorize things for easy searching, thus slowing the device down... my Kindle Keyboard is noticably slower with 100 books on it, versus a dozen. I guess I just have a personal issue with cutting that corner when the last two generations standardized on 4GB for everything other than the stripped-down base model, and with memory prices as dirt cheap as they are Amazon can't be saving much more than a few cents per unit.
While it is not, personally, a negative, this device does lack Text-To-Speech (TTS) and other sound support (i.e. no more "experimental" MP3 player). Some folks will be as upset about this not being in the device as I am upset about the lack of page turn buttons. To those folks, I would suggest getting a Kindle Keyboard, to which Amazon just showed a continuing commitment. Again, it's simply a personal preference issue, but I do not want my E-"reader" to become an E-"TTS" device. So I don't find the lack of TTS or other audio features to be a "true" negative... I have a Fire HD for TTS if I want it.
Overall
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Overall, I would say that this is the best E-Reader out there on the market today, though the MicroSD slot and root-ability on the Nook GlowLight make it a close second. The integrated light is the best implementation I have seen thus far, the build quality and usability features are outstanding, and the negatives I have seen are far outweighed by positives (and probably will be conducive to people focusing on reading, anyways). And to offer all these hardware upgrades while maintaining such an aggressive price point is phenomenal value.
With every e-reader on the market coming out with an integrated light of some kind, the focus should really be on three things:
1) How good is the light? In this regard, the PaperWhite excels, as the light is very diffuse, extremely even, and has no easily discernable "halo" effect from the light source LEDs.
2) How good is the interface? Amazon does very well here, with the new cover-selectable library and capacitive touchscreen, with clearer, darker, and sharper fonts.
3) How good is the ecosystem? Amazon wins, handily, here as well. Much larger than other competitors, has exclusive content, and generally the same price or cheaper for eBooks.
I would say that, based on the above criteria, the Kindle PaperWhite was definitely worth the wait, and likely the best overall ereader on the market. Amazon hit all the major points an ereader needs. In time, it would be nice if they came out with an idential unit with physical page turn buttons and a few other features people miss, but for now, I honestly cannot fathom why anyone would buy a different ereader, unless EPub support is mandatory for you or you've bought into another company's ecosystem (i.e. Apple/B&N)... in which case, I completely understand and agree that the PaperWhite is perhaps not your best choice.
But:
-If you're new to ereaders, I believe that this is the best one out there.
-If you've got a Kindle already, consider page turn buttons and TTS/Audio support - if these are non-negotiable features, stick with what you have. Otherwise, definitely look at this device as an upgrade. Note that, shortly after the release of the PaperWhite, there was a release of updated Kindle Keyboard software - the first in a loooooong time - which added extra font support, higher resolution font display, and KF8 support. This shows an ongoing commitment to the Keyboard on the part of Amazon, and if the PaperWhite is not for you, then the Kindle Keyboard should be on your consideration list as a second-best solution.
-If you own other reader(s), and are not tied too far into another ecosystem, I would suggest going to a local store to see one of these in person and compare. It may be worth your while.
All in all, very happy with my purchase, and this is well on its way to being the most-used device in my household.
Misnamed "Paperwhite", still far better than Kkb (K3) with light
OLD REVIEW: I just got my so-called "Paperwhite", and while I'm giving it 4 stars (EDIT: A replacement Kpw changed me to 5 stars) as an excellent e-reader, it is not well-named. First, without the light on it is no whiter than my old Kindle keyboard (Kkb or K3), so you have to use the light most everywhere as revealed in the Guide. Instructions say to use bright light in bright conditions, dim light in darker ones, but on my first Kpw, by the time the effect of the light was visible at all in *any* ambient conditions it was unevenly blotched with a large extra-bright spot on the screen, so it will take some getting used to if I don't ask for a replacement. The overbrightness appeared to result from the way the third light from the left looking down is installed, so a very uneven appearance is created whenever the lights are on, NOT AT ALL LIKE THE PICTURES FEATURED ON THE Kpw SALES PAGES, NOR IS IT WHITE LIKE PAPER, even though it is legible everywhere and actually pretty nice over 7/8ths of the screen. If you look at "all customer images", near the sales page top, the picture I uploaded is on page 4 of images & has a note titled "area of much-too-brightness" near the bottom right. EDIT: I returned the 1st Kpw due to the unevenly lit display, and the CS experience was flawless. The second one arrived in less than 48 hours(!) after my call and has a MUCH BETTER display, much more evenly lit, like the best "real" pics, and while I still feel it's misnamed, it is a far better experience than any other reader I've seen or owned. Thanks to Amazon for making this a great purchasing experience. If you don't like your paperwhite, I suggest you tell them it doesn't work right. My four lights are very evenly installed and apertured now, with only the slight and very even smudging at the bottom of the screen. All that said, the operating system is much faster than my K3, I like being able to enter "go to" locations more easily, and go to actual page numbers too. I also like the speed better, tho it still takes too long to flip thru pages like a real book. Using the integrated light should be not much worse than getting used to and managing other uneven-coverage booklights, even though it is quite disappointing, and NOT Paperwhite like in their pictures. The Kpw's small form is great in the hand and it seems very sturdy. I've been using the "sportscar-finish-like" Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Leather Cover for several hours now and I like it better and better all the time, so I'm changing my previous review on it to 5 stars, also. My hands are finding good one-hand-holding comfort now. Also, I stupidly took days to figure out it stands perfectly when flipped open if you switch to landscape mode, even on uneven surfaces, as long as it's not too smooth or it has something to back it up. The Kpw fits into it beautifully and is absolutely armored inside this cover, and it displays the Kpw so well. My last wish is that it weighed less. So let all that I wrote before be a lesson to me about how first impressions can evolve with experience. Also, back to the Kpw, I've read the owners manual, and I can't find what the official method is for moving thru the pages of books while you're on the home pages where the titles are listed when in list-view. Tapping the "page forward" area selects a title. Swiping works, but I'd prefer a button or a spot to tap. I don't know how it supposed to work. Owner's guide doesn't seem to differentiate between paging around in a book or in your pages listing your dozens of book titles. Also, sometimes when I mean to flip rapidly thru book pages, I accidentally jump back or forward a chapter, or find myself at the table of contents, and these movements aren't covered in the manual. With the K3, I could press the five-way to move thru the chapters, and I hear the Touch can be swiped up or down to jump chapters, but Kpw apparently doesn't do that. So anyone who knows how these tricks work feel free to comment....I keep having to use the back "button" when I accidentally go to the TOC, just to find my way back to where I was, which could be confusing and distressing for the less "tech savvy", but only takes a second to implement. Bottom line: If someone had shown me the first Kpw I had without telling me the name, and the screen were just a bit more evenly lit, I'd probably still have bought it to replace my K3, for convenience, speed, build quality. Now that it's been replaced, it's a 5 star pleasure to use. But in the interest of truth in advertising, Amazon should ditch the totally misleading "Paperwhite" name in favor of something like "Glow" or "Lumi" or something and replace the still VERY MISLEADING PICTURES with actual ones of real "Paperwhites". C'mon, Amazon, get real!
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