Amazon introduces waterproof Kindle Paperwhite with better display, audiobook support
One of Amazon's dedicated e-readers, the Kindle Paperwhite, received a major upgrade on Tuesday, gaining features like waterproofing, an enhanced display, and audiobook support.
The new e-paper display is still black-and-white, but sharper at 300 pixels per inch, with a flush design. As usual the signature feature of the Paperwhite is its built-in lighting, which makes it easier to read indoors or at night than basic Kindle models. That feature has been tweaked to be 10 percent brighter at its highest setting.
Customers of Amazon's Audible can finally listen to synced audiobooks, as long as they have Bluetooth headphones or speakers. One perk is that progress will sync with the Kindle edition of a book, so people can switch back and forth between text and audio.
Accordingly the Paperwhite now comes in 8- and 32-gigabyte versions. Amazon is simultaneously updating its OS with additions like up to five profiles, each of which can have their own font and orientation settings. While these can be used for separate people, they're mainly intended for different scenarios, for example making text easier to read when using gym equipment.
Preorders for the 2018 Paperwhite are underway, with an expected Nov. 7 ship date. Prices can vary considerably -- the base model costs $129.99, but is limited to Wi-Fi and 8 gigabytes of storage, and comes with lockscreen ads. Removing ads costs an extra $20.
A top-end $249.99 model is not only ad-free with 32 gigabytes of storage, but includes free LTE cellular for remote sync.
The new e-paper display is still black-and-white, but sharper at 300 pixels per inch, with a flush design. As usual the signature feature of the Paperwhite is its built-in lighting, which makes it easier to read indoors or at night than basic Kindle models. That feature has been tweaked to be 10 percent brighter at its highest setting.
Customers of Amazon's Audible can finally listen to synced audiobooks, as long as they have Bluetooth headphones or speakers. One perk is that progress will sync with the Kindle edition of a book, so people can switch back and forth between text and audio.
Accordingly the Paperwhite now comes in 8- and 32-gigabyte versions. Amazon is simultaneously updating its OS with additions like up to five profiles, each of which can have their own font and orientation settings. While these can be used for separate people, they're mainly intended for different scenarios, for example making text easier to read when using gym equipment.
Preorders for the 2018 Paperwhite are underway, with an expected Nov. 7 ship date. Prices can vary considerably -- the base model costs $129.99, but is limited to Wi-Fi and 8 gigabytes of storage, and comes with lockscreen ads. Removing ads costs an extra $20.
A top-end $249.99 model is not only ad-free with 32 gigabytes of storage, but includes free LTE cellular for remote sync.
Comments
The Kindle Touch (launched in late 2011) was the last Kindle with internal speakers. As far as I am aware, the Kindle Keyboard was the last one with a headphone jack. There is an "Audio Adapter" for the Paperwhite 3, Oasis, and later models which plugs into the USB port and activates the device's text-to-speech interface. It can't be used for audiobooks. The Kindle 8, Oasis 2, and Paperwhite 4 have Bluetooth both for text-to-speech and for audiobook playback.
Does this new Paperwhite have any speakers? How dumb can Amazon be. “Keep your story going when your cooking”. People love on-device speakers and despite them typically not being surperb, having them there for when you need them is completely necessary. Also, they want extra money for a power plug? €20. That’s Apple-level cheeky.
Thats some product they are shipping: plastic construction, no power plug, no headphone jack, no speaker and ads on the home screen. Garbage.
Pay to get rid of ads and add a power plug and this little plastic book reader costs €181, and it has no speaker? What a shitty deal. That explains why Bazos is the richest man in the world, I guess.
I wouldn’t mind, but Amazon don’t have the first clue how to do good software and their hardware is only passable. Looks like I’ll keep going with my Kindle keyboard. It has a handy speaker and it will cost me €0 to do so.
Boy I wish the next iPads have an e-reader mode.