The new and lighter Amazon Kindle is a best-value buy

By: Nicolas V.

When Amazon introduced the Kindle more than a decade ago, it single-handedly created the mass market for e-readers — despite a slew of initially bulky, clunky devices that elicited complaints for cheap-looking, plastic cases and cramp-inducing keyboards.

Since then, the Kindle has come a long way. The new Paperwhite — which at $130 sits in the middle of a current assortment that’s priced between $80 and $300 — delivers the best value in digital reading that we’ve come across, including the $250 Kindle Oasis we reviewed last year.

This is the first update since 2015 for the Paperwhite, whose backlit screen for night reading helped it become the best-selling Kindle ever. The new version’s sleek, compact body doesn’t look much different.

Nevertheless, the 2018 Paperwhite boasts a slew of minor upgrades that make it worth a buy.

Holding it in your hand, it’s clear that Amazon worked hard to improve ergonomics. The body of the Paperwhite is slightly smaller now, and is a feather-light 6.4 ounces. Its predecessor weighed in at 7.2.

The weight difference seems marginal at first, but after hours, days and weeks of regular use, it’s hard to go back.

The 6-inch display is as sharp as ever, and is now flush with the body of the device. That’s an improvement from the recessed display of the previous model, which, in our bags, became a surprisingly effective magnet for everything from granola bar crumbs to beach sand.

Page turns are also marginally faster on the new Paperwhite — though only Kindle nerds are likely to notice. But with such a thick bezel, it’s a shame that Amazon declined to re-introduce physical page-turn buttons. Instead, we get an all-touch interface, which, in addition to lacking the reassuring tap of a haptic engine, is so good at collecting fingerprints that we had to wipe ours down on an hourly basis.

Amazon also has brought Bluetooth to the Paperwhite — an overdue addition for audiobook listeners. And its waterproofing enabled us to keep clicking through George R.R. Martin’s “A Storm of Swords” after we subjected it to our own ritual punishment: a half-minute bathtub dunk.