Amazon kindle paperwhite 4 2023 review
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The best Kindles are more than just digital replacements for your book collection – these days, they can also be audio players, notepads and much more. Show
Choosing the best Kindle for your needs is therefore slightly more complicated than just picking the most expensive one you can afford. That's because the Kindle range has expanded in recent years to include the pen-toting Scribe, the wireless-charging Paperwhite Signature Edition and a couple of dedicated Kids models. Note, though, that we don't include the Kids models in our list, as these are essentially the same as the standard models but with a child-friendly interface. All five of the models in our list offer something slightly different, so you'll want to decide which features are most important to you and how big a screen you desire, as well as what your budget is. Although on that last point, bear in mind that Black Friday Kindle deals are on the way, and these almost always see Amazon slash prices to record lows. We test each Kindle thoroughly in a variety of settings, so you can be sure that our recommendations below can be trusted. So read on for our selection of the best Kindles and find out which one might be right for you. The quick listWant to cut to the chase and find out which Kindles are the absolute best? Below, you’ll find a roundup of our choices. You can also jump to a more detailed review of each Kindle further down the page, and our price comparison tool will help you find the best deals. 1. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021) Best overall The Paperwhite hits the sweet spot between price and performance: cheaper than the Oasis, but with a better screen than the basic Kindle. Battery life is excellent, and it now has USB-C charging, too. Best budget Can't stretch to the Paperwhite? Then the base Kindle is your only option. You'll have to put up with a smaller screen and lack of waterproofing, but the low price makes that a fair compromise. Best for a big screen Amazon markets the Scribe as the Kindle you can write on, but its real standout feature is that vast 10.2-inch display that makes it the best big-screen Kindle by a distance. 4. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition Best for audiobooks The Signature Edition offers a few upgrades over the standard Paperwhite, including wireless charging and an auto-adjusting light. It also offers 32GB of storage, making it ideal for storing audiobooks. Best premium Kindle The 2019 Oasis is a little old now, but it remains the most premium Kindle, Scribe-aside. A metal shell, excellent ergonomics, auto-adjusting lighting and physical buttons make it the ultimate Kindle for readers. The best Kindle 2023Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test. Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best Kindles in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted. The best Kindle overall(Image credit: TechRadar) The best Kindle for most people SpecificationsScreen size: 6.8-inch Screen type: E ink Carta 1200 Storage: 8GB/16GB Resolution: 300ppi Weight: 205g Backlight: yes Touchscreen: yes Wi-Fi: yes 3G: yes Battery life: up to ten weeks Reasons to buy+ Water resistant + Great reading experience Reasons to avoid- Lacks wireless charging - A bit pricey The Amazon Paperwhite is the ideal electronic book reader, and you can take it just about anywhere you might take a regular old book. You can read in the bathtub, or by the pool, with less worry than you'd have holding a paperback, because the Paperwhite can get wet, no problem. You can read in bed and the Paperwhite will adjust to a warm backlight to make your eyes more comfortable. Reading on a Kindle's ultra-sharp display is already more comfy than reading on your phone or iPad, and the Paperwhite has plenty of backlight for reading any time, day or night. You can also read while you travel, because the Kindle Paperwhite comes with 16GB of storage. That's enough to pack a full library, but if you also enjoy listening to audiobooks from Audible, you'll have space for a bunch of titles to go alongside your texts. Read the full Amazon Kindle Paperwhite review The best budget Kindle(Image credit: TechRadar) The best Kindle for those on a budget SpecificationsScreen size: 6-inch Screen type: E Ink Storage: 16GB Resolution: 300ppi Weight: 158g Illuminated display: yes Touchscreen: yes Wi-Fi: yes 3G: no Battery life: up to six weeks Reasons to buy+ Cheapest Kindle + Improved design with back-light Reasons to avoid- Screen could be better - Not waterproof The base model Kindle is no slouch, and recent upgrades have made it maybe the best bargain-priced Kindle ever. Keep an eye on that price, too, because Amazon loves to put this ereader on sale whenever it throws a Prime Day party. The screen on the Kindle is now just as sharp as every other Kindle display, a full 300 pixels per inch (to compare, the mighty iPad Pro is only 265 ppi). That's the best upgrade you can give a reading device, and the only feature the Kindle is lacking compared to the more expensive Kindle Paperwhite is water resistance. Don't get this Kindle wet. Otherwise, you still get 16GB of storage, which is plenty of space for a ton of books, magazines, and even audiobooks. The battery also lasts and lasts on Kindle devices, so you can count on a month of daily reading with this Kindle. If you want something brighter that you can also take to the beach, go for the Paperwhite. The Kindle is still great for reading during the day on dry land. Read the full Amazon Kindle (2022) review The best Kindle for a big screen(Image credit: Future / Philip Berne) The best Kindle for a big screen SpecificationsScreen size: 10.2-inch Screen type: E Ink Carta 1200 Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB Resolution : 300ppi Weight: 433g Backlight: yes Touchscreen : yes Wi-Fi: yes 4G: no Battery life: up to 12 weeks Reasons to buy+ Good price for a stylus-toting E Ink tablet + Finally, a large Kindle screen for reading Reasons to avoid- Few writing features for journaling and doodles - You can’t write in the margins of books The Kindle Scribe is an amazing device when you realize all it can do. It's a full-fledged Kindle with the biggest reading screen, but it doesn't sacrifice that great Kindle sharpness, so text still looks super crisp. If you like reading on a screen the size of an iPad but want Kindle comfort, the Kindle Scribe is your best bet. You can also write on the Kindle Scribe, and Amazon has been steadily improving the writing and doodling features, adding more pen styles since launch. There's also a special section of the Kindle book store with books you can write on if you own a Kindle Scribe. The selection is mostly crossword puzzles and semi-blank daily journals, but it's growing and shows a lot of potential. The Scribe may seem pricey for a Kindle, but it's a great deal for a writing tablet this size, and Amazon does love to put Kindle devices on sale. If you want to take notes, especially if your textbooks are available for Kindle, this is the only Kindle to buy. Read the full Amazon Kindle Scribe review The best Kindle for audiobooks(Image credit: Future) The best Kindle for audiobook fans SpecificationsScreen size: 6.8-inch Screen type: E Ink Carta 1200 Storage: 32GB Resolution : 300ppi Weight: 208g Backlight: yes Touchscreen : yes Wi-Fi: yes 4G: no Battery life: up to 10 weeks Reasons to buy+ Large screen area + Long battery life Reasons to avoid- Expensive - Slow page turn speed If you love audiobooks along with your reading and you can splurge a bit, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition is worth considering. For a bit more (still less than the fancy Kindle Oasis), you get twice the storage space. This Kindle Paperwhite can also charge wirelessly, if you have a bedside charger that you like, though the battery should also last weeks, just like every other Kindle. That extra storage space comes in handy if you like audiobooks. A long, unabridged book is usually between 100-200MB of storage space, so having tons of long books or podcast episodes can add up quickly. The Kindle Paperwhite is a great vacation and travel device, and having the extra space means you definitely won't run out, no matter how long you're away. Otherwise, this is the exact same Kindle Paperwhite, with the same water resistance and the same sharp display. It's not quite as bright and premium as the Kindle Oasis, but it's much brighter than the base model Kindle. Read the full Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review The best premium Kindle(Image credit: Future) The best Kindle that feels premium SpecificationsScreen size: 7-inch Screen type: E Ink Carta Storage: 8GB/32GB Resolution: 300ppi Weight: 188g Backlight: Yes Touchscreen: Yes Wi-Fi: Yes 4G: Yes Battery life: up to six weeks Reasons to buy+ Premium reading experience + Useful screen features Reasons to avoid- A very expensive model - Thicker side doesn't improve handhold This is the luxury Kindle, the fancy model, and it isn't hard to see why Amazon needs the Kindle Oasis in the family. The other Kindle devices – aside from the even pricier Kindle Scribe – feel cheap in comparison. They are all plastic, while the Oasis has a premium metal shell that feels great to hold. The Kindle Oasis used to be the only water resistant model, but now the Paperwhite is also safe in the bath or by the beach. Unless it's a very fancy beach, in which case you'll want to show off with the Oasis. It has a larger, brighter display than the other Kindle ereaders other than the Scribe, so it will stand out. It also has page turn buttons, which is a nice feature if your hands are wet. The design is different from other Kindle devices, with a pronounced grip on the back that makes it easier to hold. Overall, it's a premium device, and you can't get more on a Kindle unless you go for the much larger Kindle Scribe. Read the full Amazon Kindle Oasis review How to choose the best Kindle for youHow to choose the best Kindle for youThe basic Amazon Kindle 2022 is a fine ereader, and will likely be enough for most people. It has the same number of pixels per inch as the best Kindle ereader you can find, so every Kindle excels at reading text and print . If you like to read in the bath, or if you take your Kindle to the beach and get close to the waves, you'll want a Kindle Paperwhite. That device can get wet, even with salt water. So can the Kindle Oasis, but that's a much more expensive, premium device than most folks will need, with a nicer build and a larger, brighter screen. The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition meanwhile is what you should go for if you want the maximum possible storage in a conventional Kindle. The Scribe has even more, but offers more of a big-screen tablet experience, backed up by its stylus. All Kindle ereaders can hold thousands of books, but if you plan on using your Kindle for audiobooks, you should upgrade to a model with 16GB or more storage. How we test the best KindlesWe read. We read a lot, and we read every day. We use our Kindle devices to read books from Amazon, and we also use accounts from our local libraries to load free ebooks onto our Kindle. We also have a selection of documents and files that we use to test the clarity of the Kindle display, and the ease of transferring our own files. We are also avid audiobook fans, and keep a subscription to Audible that feeds us new books monthly. We use our Kindle for listening to books, and occasionally for reading and listening at the same time, depending on content. We read at all times of day, on the train, by the bed, in the bath, and wherever we find the time. We love to read, and we test our Kindle devices doing what we love.
Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team. Phil Berne is a preeminent voice in consumer electronics reviews, having reviewed his first device (the Sony D-EJ01 Discman) more than 20 years ago for eTown.com. He has been writing about phones and mobile technology, since before the iPhone, for a variety of sites including PCMag, infoSync, PhoneScoop, and Slashgear. He holds an M.A. in Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon University. Phil was the internal reviewer for Samsung Mobile, writing opinions and review predictions about top secret new devices months before launch. He left in 2017. He worked at an Apple Store near Boston, MA, at the height of iPod popularity. He has been a High School English teacher at Title I schools, and is a certified Lifeguard. His passion is smartphones and wearables, and he is sure that the next big thing will be phones we wear on our faces. What edition is the Kindle Paperwhite 2023?User rating, 4.9 out of 5 stars with 115 reviews. What is the difference between Paperwhite 4 and 5?Pros for PW5: Warm light, more LEDS, Bigger screen, more text on each page. Newer, so longer support period. Cons: Also bigger screen. PW4 was a great size to fit in a pocket. How old is a Kindle Paperwhite 4?For example, the Paperwhite 4 that was released in 2018 was initially called the Paperwhite 4th generation as it was the 4th iteration of the Paperwhite model, but Amazon subsequently called this the Paperwhite (10th Generation) because it was part of the 10th generation family of Kindles that were released in 2018- ... Which generation of Kindle Paperwhite is the best?The Best Kindles to Take Your Library Anywhere. Best for Most. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021, 11th Generation) ... . The Smallest and Least Expensive. Amazon Kindle (2022, 11th Generation) ... . Frivolously Awesome. Amazon Kindle Oasis (2019, 10th Generation) ... . Best for Kids. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition (2021, 11th Generation). |
