Review: Amazon’s 2024 Kindle Paperwhite makes the best e-reader a little better

I've never particularly loved Amazon, either as a retail behemoth or as a hardware and software company, but despite that I still probably get more excited about new Kindle releases than I do about most other gadgets at this point.

Some of that is because I rely on my Kindle for distraction-free reading and because I'm constantly highlighting things and taking notes, so even minor improvements have a major impact on my day-to-day experience. And some of it is because the Kindle's relatively limited tech has left it without a lot of headroom to shove additional ads or other paid add-ons; they include lockscreen ads and "special offers," but they can be permanently turned off with a nominal $20 fee, and even when you don't turn them off, they don't degrade the device's performance or intrude on the actual reading experience. This isn't to say that Kindles are perfect, just that it's rare that I am roughly the same amount of annoyed by a software platform's ads and tracking than I was a decade ago.

Enter the new 12th-generation $160 Kindle Paperwhite, which like most Paperwhites is the Kindle that most people should buy.

The 11th-gen Paperwhite update, released in late 2021 for $140, was a big quality-of-life upgrade, with a bigger 6.8-inch screen, adjustable color temperature, USB-C, more frontlight LEDs, and (in the more-expensive Signature Edition) an auto-brightness sensor and wireless charging.

The new one has all of that stuff, plus an even bigger 7-inch screen. But the killer feature might be that this is the first Kindle I've used that has ever felt genuinely zippy. Obviously you don't need to run out and buy a new Kindle just because it feels fast. But for owners of older Paperwhites—if you last upgraded, say, back in 2018 when the 10th-gen Paperwhite first went waterproof, or if you have an even older model—in a lot of ways this feels like a totally different e-reader.

A fast Kindle?

I don't want to oversell how fast the new Kindle is, because it's still not like an E-Ink screen can really compete with an LCD or OLED panel for smoothness of animations or UI responsiveness. But even compared to the 2021 Paperwhite, tapping buttons, opening menus, opening books, and turning pages feels considerably snappier—not quite instantaneous, but without the unexplained pauses and hesitation that longtime Kindle owners will be accustomed to. For those who type out notes in their books, even the onscreen keyboard feels fluid and responsive.

Compared to the 2018 Paperwhite (again, the first waterproofed model, and the last one with a 6-inch screen and micro USB port), the difference is night and day. While it still feels basically fine for reading books, I find that the older Kindle can sometimes pause for so long when opening menus or switching between things that I wonder if it's still working or whether it's totally locked up and frozen.

"Kindle benchmarks" aren't really a thing, but I attempted to quantify the performance improvements by running some old browser benchmarks using the Kindle's limited built-in web browser and Google's ancient Octane 2.0 test—the 2018, 2021, and 2024 Kindles are all running the same software update here (5.17.0), so this should be a reasonably good apples-to-apples comparison of single-core processor speed.

The 2021 Kindle was roughly 30 percent faster than the 2018 Kindle. The new Paperwhite is nearly twice as fast as the 2021 Paperwhite, and well over twice as fast as the 2018 Paperwhite. That alone is enough to explain the tangible difference in responsiveness between the devices.

Turning to the new Paperwhite's other improvements: compared side by side, the new screen is appreciably bigger, more noticeably so than the 0.2-inch size difference might suggest. And it doesn't make the Paperwhite much larger, though it is a tiny bit taller in a way that will wreck compatibility with existing cases. But you only really appreciate the upgrade if you're coming from one of the older 6-inch Kindles.

Amazon's product pages and press releases brag of improved contrast, and the new Paperwhite does produce slightly deeper, less-washed-out shades of black than the 2021 model. Most of the time, you'll only really notice this if you're using the two devices side by side. But if you use Dark Mode frequently, the upgrade is more noticeable, since the background can get quite a bit darker while keeping the text brighter and easier to read.

To my eyes, the screen brightness and the warm light in the new Kindle look identical to the one from 2021—and after years of using a Kindle with a warm light regularly, I would hate to have to go back to a model without one. The bluish default color temperature makes it look less like paper, and it's a bit harder on the eyes in dim lighting.

The new Paperwhite still has a USB-C port, like the 2021 Paperwhite, and still has a soft-touch texture on the back that's pleasant to hold for long reading sessions.

The upgraders’ Kindle

If you're using pretty much any Kindle other than the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite, this new version is going to feel like a huge improvement over whatever you're currently using (unless you're a physical button holdout, but for better or worse that decision has clearly been made). The 7-inch screen is a lot bigger than whatever you're using, the warm light is easier on the eyes, the optional auto-brightness sensor and wireless charging capability are nice-to-haves if you want to pay more for the Signature Edition. And all of that frustrating Kindle slowdown is just gone, thanks to a considerably faster processor.

If you're using the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite, on the other hand, you probably don't need to consider an upgrade. There are things I really like about the new Paperwhite, but it's really just building on the foundation laid by the 2021 model. In fact, the availability of a newer model might make a used or refurbished 2021 Paperwhite the best entry-level Kindle you can buy—not the marginally improved but still much less capable $110 baseline Kindle that Amazon just introduced.

In any case, the new Paperwhite is still the best combination of features and price that Amazon offers in its e-reader lineup, despite the small price increase. The cheaper Kindle is smaller, not waterproof, and has no warm light; we're reserving judgment on the Kindle Colorsoft until we can try it for ourselves, but early user reviews complain about the crispness of black-and-white text and other things that may or may not be software bugs. If you just want to read a book, the Paperwhite is still the best way to do it.

The good

• A great reading experience backed up by Kindle's strong library and app ecosystem.
• Larger screen.
• Ads are relatively easy to ignore and inexpensive to permanently dismiss.
• Improved display contrast isn't super noticeable most of the time, but it does make a difference in dark mode.

The bad

• No interesting screen tech upgrades like color or pen support—this one's just for reading.
• Breaks compatibility with older Kindle accessories.

The ugly

• The price keeps creeping upward with every refresh.