The New Kindle Paperwhite Is Still the Best for Just Reading

Sony could have been the primary large firm to get e book readers with digital ink screens into the fingers of customers, Amazon’s Kindle has since change into the de facto e-reader of alternative for many patrons. The latest Kindle Paperwhite, the fifth technology of Amazon’s flagship e-reader, stays the very best E Ink gadget you should purchase if all you care about is studying.

The Kindle Paperwhite 5 and the Kindle Paperwhite 5 Signature Edition I examined aren’t an entire overhaul of the favored ereader, however they do incorporate some helpful options borrowed from the pricier Kindle Oasis, in addition to different gadgets that e-readers now compete with (together with smartphones). The most notable change, nevertheless, is that Amazon will now not offer a mobile mannequin of the Paperwhite 5, which was one of many greatest promoting factors of the Kindles for years. Wireless entry to the Amazon e-book retailer is now wifi solely, and whereas that does restrict the place customers can purchase content material (consider a far-off trip vacation spot) it’s actually not laborious to seek out wifi entry today, so it is sensible for Amazon to lastly transition away from built-in mobile entry. It’s uncertain most customers will even miss it.

A Small Screen Upgrade That Feels Much Larger

The most evident improve on the Kindle Paperwhite 5 SE is its bigger E Ink Carta HD touchscreen that will get a bump in measurement from 6 to six.8 inches, however maintains the identical 300 ppi pixel density that makes all of it however unimaginable to see particular person pixels with the bare eye.

That won’t look like an enormous improve, nevertheless it makes the Paperwhite 5 SE’s bezels a lot smaller and customarily makes the e-reader look significantly extra trendy in comparison with the Paperwhite 4.

The Paperwhite 5 SE’s display screen nonetheless sits utterly flush with its bezels, which isn’t solely vital for utterly waterproofing the e-reader—you’ll be able to nonetheless learn within the bathtub with it, or throughout a hurricane, with out worrying about it getting moist or dunked—nevertheless it additionally makes performing numerous navigation gestures that require swipes from the sting of the display screen a lot simpler to carry out.

A Warm, Cozy Glow

The new Paperwhite 5 fashions bump the 5 LEDs used to light up the Paperwhite 4’s display screen up to 17 in whole now: a mixture of white and amber LEDs. It makes the display screen illumination look completely even (regardless of coming from the sting), and when you go for the Signature Edition you’ll by no means need to waste valuable seconds manually adjusting the brightness slider as a result of it does that for you robotically utilizing an added sensor. (I nonetheless choose to make these changes manually, and have been holding this turned off.)

Amazon has lastly introduced the power to alter the display screen lighting’s shade temperature to the Paperwhite line (it was beforehand obtainable on the pricier Kindle Oasis), and you’ve got the power to manually modify the heat or coolness to go all white or all amber, the latter of which is so intensely orange that it’s like staring right into a sundown. But whereas the display screen lighting on older Kindles had typically made them seem too blue, with the amber LEDs turned off, the display screen on the Paperwhite 5 SE seems very impartial and white.

The shade temperature changes are designed to accommodate the time of day you’re utilizing the Kindle—attributable to that complete factor about how screens with blue-ish lighting would possibly mess with circadian rhythms and make it tougher so that you can go to sleep—however as a substitute of utilizing a sensor for computerized changes you’ll be able to both manually set the heat by adjusting a slider, arrange a schedule for when the amber LEDs will activate and off at a selected depth, or go for an computerized mode which makes use of your location (primarily based in your wifi connection and IP deal with) to progressively heat and funky the display screen all through the day.

Better Charging Options

There’s virtually actually a warehouse someplace nonetheless stuffed with 15 trillion microUSB ports, and it is going to be a long time earlier than each gadget maker on earth stops together with the menace. But thankfully, the Kindle has lastly joined the USB-C camp with the Paperwhite 5, with a charging and sync port on the underside that doesn’t care which method you attempt to insert a cable.

If you splurge on the Kindle Paperwhite 5 SE, you’ll truly be given one other solution to energy up the e-reader: wi-fi charging. It’s been a welcome characteristic on gadgets like smartphones and even wi-fi earbuds, however right here it’s a characteristic that most likely sounded higher on paper (the actual stuff, not the E Ink stuff). Kindle wi-fi charging works, however given the gadget’s measurement, inserting the e-reader completely onto a charging pad or puck for the facility to movement will be difficult. Thankfully, I’ve truly discovered that Apple’s MagSafe charger does follow the again of the Kindle Paperwhite 5 SE when it’s correctly aligned with the e-reader’s receiving coil (Amazon makes no declare of the Kindle being MagSafe suitable) however in any other case it may be hit and miss a number of occasions earlier than you see the gadget begin charging.

Is it Worth the Upgrade?

If you’re a faithful Kindle person firmly entrenched within the Amazon camp with numerous bought books already in your library, then the brand new Kindle Paperwhite 5 is a no brainer. The bigger display screen not solely shrinks the bezel so the e-reader seems higher, it additionally provides you extra display screen actual property to fill with textual content—or boosting font sizes if, like me, your eyes are beginning to really feel their age. The jury should be out on the advantages of utilizing a display screen with a hotter shade temperature at night time to make falling asleep simpler, however the hotter hues undoubtedly really feel simpler on the eyes within the wee hours of the morning.

But pretty much as good because the Kindle Paperwhite 5 Signature Edition is, you’re most likely higher off going with the bottom Paperwhite mannequin, which is $50 cheaper, except you wrestle to suit your e book library of hundreds of titles into simply 8MB of storage. (Which is very unlikely.) Wireless charging isn’t an enormous comfort right here, and making brightness changes manually isn’t terribly tough if it saves you half a Benjamin.

If you’re legitimately trying to splurge on an E Ink gadget, the Kindle is definitely one of many extra fundamental e-readers you should purchase right this moment. Not solely are e-readers from the competitors including options like note-taking and stylus help, making them extra succesful, gadgets just like the Onyx Boox Nova Air run Android, which implies you don’t truly need to say goodbye to your assortment of Amazon ebooks and even the Kindle interface when switching e-readers. You can simply set up the Kindle app and really feel proper at dwelling. The $350 Onyx Boox Nova Air is an costly improve, little doubt, however Kobo has simply launched its stylus-compatible Sage, which is simply $260, or about $70 extra than the Paperwhite 5 SE.

But if all you wish to do is learn, you gained’t discover a extra streamlined expertise than what the brand new Kindle Paperwhites are providing.