Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite is currently one of the best selling E-Readers in the market, due to its impressive high resolution screen and built-in lighting which has been expertly designed to be easy on the eyes.
Kindle Paperwhite Review
To get started with this Kindle Paperwhite Review, let us first take a look at Kindle Paperwhite Specs in a tabular format. Later on we can get into details of specs and features.
| Features | Kindle Paperwhite |
|---|---|
| Size | 6.7″ x 4.6″ |
| Thickness | 0.36″ |
| Weight | 205 ~ 217 Grams |
| Display | 6″, 300 ppi |
| Storage | 4 GB |
| Battery Life | 6 Weeks |
| Waterproof | No |
| Cloud Storage | Yes |
| Built-in Light | 4 LEDs |
| Network | WiFi+ Cellular |
| Price* | $119.99 |
*Price may vary due to sales/offers.
Form Factor & Design
- Size – 6.7″ x 4.6″ x 0.36 inches
- Weight: 205 ~ 217 grams
The front of Kindle Paperwhite is bare and minimalistic to the extreme, all that you can see in the front is the Paper-like white Kindle Paperwhite screen encased in black bezels with a pretty Kindle Logo displayed on the bottom Bezel.
The bottom Bezel is thicker than the top and the side bezels and it has nothing on it, except for the Kindle Logo. The increased thickness of the bottom Bezel makes it easy to hold Kindle Paperwhite in one hand while reading.
The hard plastic bezels and the back of the device are encased in a soft touch rubbery material with a grippy textured finish, this provides some protection against accidental slips.
Overall, Kindle Paperwhite is thin (9 mm), light weight (210 grams) and unlikely to tire your hands, even for the most voracious readers.
Kindle Paperwhite Display
- Screen size – 6 Inches
- Resolution – 300 ppi
Due to the nature of E-ink used in E-Readers, it was technically challenging to incorporate Touch Screen technology in E-Readers. Hence, the older models of Kindle made use of infra-red technology to provide a touch-screen like interface (Technically the old Kindle Touch was not a touch-screen device!)
However, Kindle Paperwhite features a real Touch screen display and packs more pixels (300 PPI) compared to most E-readers in the Market.
The screen of Kindle Paperwhite has the same anti-glare properties that people expect from a Kindle and it allows you to read in varying lighting conditions, including bright sunlight and also in the dark.
Built-in Lighting
Kindle Paperwhite features built-in lighting, which differentiates it from the base model of Kindle.
The built-in lighting is provided by 4 LED’s which are designed to guide light towards the surface of the display and not to shine light in your eyes, unlike backlit tablets.
The brightness of the screen can be adjusted and according to Amazon you should be able to read comfortably for extended periods of time without feeling any eyestrain.
It needs to be mentioned that the lighting in Kindle Paperwhite is not designed to be turned off. However, you can adjust the brightness to suit your taste and take it all the way down using the ‘virtual dimmer switch’ on the touch screen.
Storage
- Internal Memory – 4 GB
- Extended Storage – None
According to Amazon, the 4 GB storage capacity of Kindle Paperwhite is good enough to store thousands of books. In addition, Amazon provides Free Cloud Storage for anything that you purchase from Amazon.
Battery life
The Battery of Kindle Paperwhite is rated to last up to six weeks on a single charge. This figure is based on an average of 30 minutes of reading per day with the built-in lights turned on and WiFi turned-off.
The Battery takes about 4 hours to charge, when connected to a computer using its supplied USB cable.
WiFi Connectivity
The connectivity options include – WiFi, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with support for WEP, WPA, WPA2 security using password authentication or WPS WiFi protected setup.
Amazon’s Ecosystem
Amazon ecosystem offers you with access to millions of low prized books and millions of free books as available in public domain. Also, there over a million titles that are exclusive to Kindle and cannot be found anywhere else.
In general, most old, new and upcoming books are likely to be available in Kindle Format. Also, Amazon offers Kindle Unlimited, which allows you to access over 800,000 books on any device for $9.99/month.
Other Features
Kindle Paperwhite offers robust parental control features and it features a built-in dictionary that can be easily accessed by just tapping and holding on a word.
Smart Look Up provides easy access to Wikipedia and the X-Ray feature provides interesting information about characters, places and dates appearing in your reading.
Also, you can tap on a word or highlight a paragraph for translation into Spanish and multiple other languages.
Conclusion
While those looking for a budget E-reader can go for the base model of Kindle. We have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Kindle Paperwhite for those readers who are looking for a better quality E-Reader at a very reasonable price.
Here is a comparison of Kindle Paperwhite and the Base Model of Kindle that you can take a look at and arrive at your final buy decision.
| Features | Kindle | Paperwhite |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 6.3″ x 4.5″ | 6.7″ x 4.6″ |
| Thickness | 0.36″ | 0.36″ |
| Weight | 161 Grams | 205 ~ 217 Grams |
| Display | 6″, 167 ppi | 6″, 300 ppi |
| Storage | 4 GB | 4 GB |
| Battery Life | 4 Weeks | 6 Weeks |
| Waterproof | No | No |
| Cloud Storage | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in Light | No | 4 LEDs |
| Network | WiFi | WiFi+ Cellular |
| Price* | $79.99 | $119.99 |
*Price may vary due to sales/offers.