If a book supports it, you can also flip back and forth between the textbook and the audiobook, keeping them synced, even if you were listening to the audiobook on another device. The new Paperwhite will play Audible audiobooks through Bluetooth headphones (I tried two sets and had no issues). Amazon's audiobook experience is, thus, much better than Kobo's. Now it's American thoroughbred Amazon and the Canadian stallion, Kobo.Īmazon owns Audible, the big audiobook company, and Goodreads. The two horses used to be Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but the Nook line took a dive on the track. In the US, e-readers are pretty much a two-horse race. Most notably, you can save packages of settings (font, size, spacing) and immediately jump to saved settings using a pop-down menu that can help in families where different people with different font preferences are using the same Kindle. The user interface is the same as on every Kindle-a mix of your books and Amazon's store interface. Turn it off entirely, and it can be weeks before you have to recharge. Pull it down to half, and there's no problem with 500 to 600 pages. Pump it up to max, and you'll get 250 pages or so out of it. (If you want physical page turn buttons, upgrade to the $249 Kindle Oasis.) The power button and micro USB port are on the bottom, like always.īattery life is the same as before, and highly dependent on backlight usage.

It has a matte black back and a flat front with no visible buttons it's entirely operated by touch. There's a range of cases Amazon plans to sell, starting with a $29 water-resistant fabric cover in black, blue, or yellow, and going up to $39 and $59 leather covers. It's noticeably lighter than the previous Paperwhite (6.7 by 4.6 by 0.4 inches, 7.2 ounces), and it's just a little bit smaller all around, so it doesn't fit into previous-generation cases. The reader measures 6.6 by 4.6 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.4 ounces. (The other two models use 2.4GHz Wi-Fi to download books.) The Paperwhite comes in three models: the default 8GB unit for $129.99 a $159.99 32GB version for people with a lot of audiobooks and a $249.99 cellular-enabled unit for people who just can't wait to download their next read.

Kindle paperwhite 2018