Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Customers like the brightness, size and visibility of the Kindle Paperwhite. They mention that the well-lit reading surface makes it easy to read in the dark. The size is perfect for what they use the e-reader for most, and it fits perfectly in their hands. They appreciate the clarity and crispness of the text, which makes it easier to read without strain. Customers are also satisfied with the quality, ease of use, and weight. However, some customers differ on screen and battery life.
Customers like the brightness of the product. They appreciate the well-lit reading surface in conditions of dim ambient. The adjustable brightness lets them read comfortably in total darkness, and eliminates the need of a lamp when reading at night.
"...No, not even a bit. The lighting in Kindle is much better than all the other E-Inks available in the market (Nook and Kobo) and is better than all..." Read more
"...Changing the brightness is easy and effortless! The light is always on, even at the lowest setting, which I don't have a problem with because it does..." Read more
"...As a side note about the brightness, the screen light can be brightened and dimmed but not turned off as long as the Kindle Paperwhite is awake...." Read more
"...Kindle is quick.The lighted display is very good and not just for reading in bed...." Read more
7,446 customers mention6,470 positive976 negative
Customers like the quality of the Kindle Paperwhite. They say it's a very satisfactory Kindle, and provides a sensible and intuitive interface for operating and interacting. Some mention that the Paperwhite is a well designed, functional, and quality product that will protect your Kindle.
"...It is so good and comfortable that I see myself reading more and more with it. Thank you Amazon" Read more
"...love about an e-reader - I love the fact that I can have hundreds of books at my disposal, I love being able to change fonts and font sizes at will,..." Read more
"...It's great for reading in the car also; the light doesn't distract my husband's driving (while I'm reading, not him! He doesn't read and drive!)..." Read more
"...The reading time feature is great to see if I can squeeze in another chapter or if I should wait until the next day to start that chapter...." Read more
5,807 customers mention5,376 positive431 negative
Customers like the visibility of the Kindle Paperwhite. For example, they mention it's much better for reading text, easier to read, and has a lighted touchscreen. Customers also appreciate the crisp text and the ability to read at night. They say the screen is bright and comfortable to read.
"...with its light at the lowest level looks so good, very sharp and texts are crispy, thanks the to the screen resolution...." Read more
"...of those problems - I can read outside during the day, I can read comfortably at night in a dark bedroom, and without the bulky size of the iPad or..." Read more
"...Kindle PW with the Amazon cover since day one and it is light enough to read one handed without fatigue...." Read more
"...white background without being overly bright providing a very enjoyable reading experience...." Read more
Customers find the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8" to be easy to use. They appreciate the intuitive menus and navigation, as well as the simple, intuitive user interface. The touch interface response is accurate enough, and the text-reflow modes are convenient and beautiful. The interactive tutorial is very good, and it will guide you through a very simple set-up to establish the preferred settings. Customers also appreciate the ease of advancing without accidentally changing pages.
"...The store is very user friendly and easy to navigate.6-Special Offers: I have ordered the one with special offers...." Read more
"...being able to change fonts and font sizes at will, I love the ease of purchasing in the Amazon ecosystem, and even the ease of adding non-Amazon..." Read more
"...I have found it to be reasonably accurate too.Battery life has been great...." Read more
"...advanced features in this self-contained gadget make it perfect for readers that move about...." Read more
3,536 customers mention3,285 positive251 negative
Customers like the weight of the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. They say it's easy to carry around, and is easy to read. Customers are impressed with the weight, saying it' s portable.
"...Looks very sleek in black and very light weight. It is so comfortable to hold it for reading than all my other gadgets...." Read more
"...I love the weight - it's so much lighter and less bulky than the Kindle Fire, even in my preferred M-Edge Executive Jacket case, which adds quite a..." Read more
"...It is also fairly light. I have used the Kindle PW with the Amazon cover since day one and it is light enough to read one handed without fatigue...." Read more
"...It's far more portable than a PC, and it's not a tablet, so it will not interrupt your reading with E-Mail or social network notifications or..." Read more
3,070 customers mention2,605 positive465 negative
Customers like the size of the Kindle Paperwhite. They say it is perfect for what they use the e-reader for most, and it fits perfectly in their hands. The form factor is an amazing improvement, and the screen size is six inches. The font sizing works well, and menus pop up where they're supposed to. The device retains a slim profile, and its page turn area is also bigger. Storage capacity is not a concern for any of these readers as long as your material is text-based.
"...4-Storage: Kindle comes with 2 Gb storage and I find this to be more than enough. It is just a matter of how you organize your e-books...." Read more
"...With this model, the size is perfect for what you use the Kindle for most--reading! It is also fairly light...." Read more
"...Ebooks dont take up space on the boat, dont mildew and are more pleasant to read than a cheap paperback where the paper quality impacts the..." Read more
"...The higher resolution screen, carefree battery life, near-perfect device dimensions, and pleasantly illuminated screen make reading on it truly a..." Read more
2,690 customers mention1,795 positive895 negative
Customers have mixed opinions about the battery life of the amazon e-ink display. Some mention it has a long battery life, while others say that it's not as great as it used to be and causes a strain on the battery. Some customers also mention that the battery drains much faster than expected and really needs to be charged at least twice a day.
"...Just a little geekery that would please me.Better battery life - after several days of reading 4 to 6 hours a day, the battery showed..." Read more
"...No complaints on battery life here.Like all Kindles, the ebook selection on Amazon is unmatched...." Read more
"...That makes it harder to conserve battery life because of the added work so I'll probably sync less often. One other lost feature: text-to-speech...." Read more
"...The battery life is so long on the kindle that there are not that many connections needed for charging but the USB connection does put cycles on..." Read more
2,008 customers mention1,315 positive693 negative
Customers are mixed about the screen of the Amazon Kindle. Some mention that the touch screen is a lot easier to use for everything else like highlighting, while others say that it was a complete turn off for them. The touch function should be user selectable, and the optical touch mechanism was glitchy.
"...I love the screen, I love the light, and I love the touch features!..." Read more
"...The touch screen is far superior in navigating the Kindle than the 5 way button...." Read more
"...Touchscreen: with the prior Kindle Touch model, the touch screen was a complete turn off for me...." Read more
"...located on the bottom, and all the other controls are accessible on the capacitive touchscreen...." Read more
First and before starting my review let me tell you that I'm a gadget person. I love to get, try different kind of gadgets if I feel I will be using them for something or another. I have iPad2, iPad3, Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy S3. I love reading a lot, but I never got any E-Ink reader. I've always been reading on my PC, iPad or kindle. The main reason for not getting one is because I love reading during bed time and that was not possible with the lack of light. And here where the Kindle Paperwhite gained me as a customer. It is my first E-Ink reader.1-Physical form: The kindle comes with a rubbery feel from the back side and feels really comfortable to handle. You can hold it with one hand and easily use it. Looks very sleek in black and very light weight. It is so comfortable to hold it for reading than all my other gadgets. Now when I hold the iPad I feel the big difference.2-Setup: Once you press the power button which is the only physical button the setup starts. It is very easy to get it ready. After that you will go through a tutorial which I found to be very beneficial.3-Screen: Amazon has used a matte screen which is really good to avoid any glare in different lighting conditions. It serves the product very well. The kindle paperwhite with its light at the lowest level looks so good, very sharp and texts are crispy, thanks the to the screen resolution. Once you increase the light to its highest level you know why Amazon has chosen the name paperwhite. Yes the screen lights up so beautifully without hurting my eyes. It is perfect. I read people's reviews here giving the product one star because of the shadowing and this is really ridiculous. DON'T listen to them. They are using the light the wrong way that's why they see these shadows. I will not deny they can be seen if you concentrate on them but they are not that noticeable. The same thing goes to the screen coloring that some have seen. Actually the lighting option clearly suggests you to use a setting from level 20-24 in a brightly lit room and from 1-5 in dark rooms. Follow this and you will have no problem with coloring or shadows. I cannot see anything like that. Actually I was worried before ordering the kindle how I will adopt to it after using tablets with retina display and high resolution but now after I have this Kindle, do I miss my iPad and other tabs for reading? No, not even a bit. The lighting in Kindle is much better than all the other E-Inks available in the market (Nook and Kobo) and is better than all the other tablets as it is very comfortable to the eyes.4-Storage: Kindle comes with 2 Gb storage and I find this to be more than enough. It is just a matter of how you organize your e-books. I personally load it with my own personal documents and download the rest from Amazon's cloud. Since you have cloud available you do not need to download everything at once.5-Features: like X- Ray, editing fonts and margins are so good. You can customize your kindle the way you want. You also have the option to create a collection, change the view type between thumbnails and list. The store is very user friendly and easy to navigate.6-Special Offers: I have ordered the one with special offers. And actually I find the ads to be interesting more than bothersome. These ads look even nicer on the lock screen, but that is just me.Some people also complained about the lack of speakers so you do not have text to speech. I'm using that sometimes in my other gadgets but frankly Amazon got rid of this for the right reason and that is to reduce the weight of the device and I totally support them in this.I have to say that I was disappointed with the wait for Kindle Paperwhite until it got shipped to me but was happy for Amazon as this indicated a huge demand for them. Amazon got a big big winner with the Paperwhite. I don't understand how can some people dislike it and give it a one star rating. Criticism should be reasonable and without any exaggeration. In my opinion the best rating the paperwhite can get is 5 stars and the worst it should get not less than 4 stars. This is a great product and I would advise you NOT to be influenced by those negative reviews and look at the positive ones. I know how you might feel because I felt the same way and was about to cancel my order but then I backed off. You will not be sorry for it and you will thank me too. ORDER IT NOW!I would like to thank Amazon for this wonderful device and I really cannot wait to see how the next generation of Kindles will get even better.As my title says it :) I got married to my kindle Paperwhite and I think we are going to have a very long honeymoon.UPDATE: I have uploaded three pictures showing the Paperwhite with different settings in differently lit rooms. It wins in all conditions.UPDATE: 23 June 2013: just thought to update and say this product is as perfect as I got it first time. It is so good and comfortable that I see myself reading more and more with it. Thank you Amazon
First and before starting my review let me tell you that I'm a gadget person. I love to get, try different kind of gadgets if I feel I will be using them for something or another. I have iPad2, iPad3, Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy S3. I love reading a lot, but I never got any E-Ink reader. I've always been reading on my PC, iPad or kindle. The main reason for not getting one is because I love reading during bed time and that was not possible with the lack of light. And here where the Kindle Paperwhite gained me as a customer. It is my first E-Ink reader.
1-Physical form: The kindle comes with a rubbery feel from the back side and feels really comfortable to handle. You can hold it with one hand and easily use it. Looks very sleek in black and very light weight. It is so comfortable to hold it for reading than all my other gadgets. Now when I hold the iPad I feel the big difference.
2-Setup: Once you press the power button which is the only physical button the setup starts. It is very easy to get it ready. After that you will go through a tutorial which I found to be very beneficial.
3-Screen: Amazon has used a matte screen which is really good to avoid any glare in different lighting conditions. It serves the product very well. The kindle paperwhite with its light at the lowest level looks so good, very sharp and texts are crispy, thanks the to the screen resolution. Once you increase the light to its highest level you know why Amazon has chosen the name paperwhite. Yes the screen lights up so beautifully without hurting my eyes. It is perfect. I read people's reviews here giving the product one star because of the shadowing and this is really ridiculous. DON'T listen to them. They are using the light the wrong way that's why they see these shadows. I will not deny they can be seen if you concentrate on them but they are not that noticeable. The same thing goes to the screen coloring that some have seen. Actually the lighting option clearly suggests you to use a setting from level 20-24 in a brightly lit room and from 1-5 in dark rooms. Follow this and you will have no problem with coloring or shadows. I cannot see anything like that. Actually I was worried before ordering the kindle how I will adopt to it after using tablets with retina display and high resolution but now after I have this Kindle, do I miss my iPad and other tabs for reading? No, not even a bit. The lighting in Kindle is much better than all the other E-Inks available in the market (Nook and Kobo) and is better than all the other tablets as it is very comfortable to the eyes.
4-Storage: Kindle comes with 2 Gb storage and I find this to be more than enough. It is just a matter of how you organize your e-books. I personally load it with my own personal documents and download the rest from Amazon's cloud. Since you have cloud available you do not need to download everything at once.
5-Features: like X- Ray, editing fonts and margins are so good. You can customize your kindle the way you want. You also have the option to create a collection, change the view type between thumbnails and list. The store is very user friendly and easy to navigate.
6-Special Offers: I have ordered the one with special offers. And actually I find the ads to be interesting more than bothersome. These ads look even nicer on the lock screen, but that is just me.
Some people also complained about the lack of speakers so you do not have text to speech. I'm using that sometimes in my other gadgets but frankly Amazon got rid of this for the right reason and that is to reduce the weight of the device and I totally support them in this.
I have to say that I was disappointed with the wait for Kindle Paperwhite until it got shipped to me but was happy for Amazon as this indicated a huge demand for them. Amazon got a big big winner with the Paperwhite. I don't understand how can some people dislike it and give it a one star rating. Criticism should be reasonable and without any exaggeration. In my opinion the best rating the paperwhite can get is 5 stars and the worst it should get not less than 4 stars. This is a great product and I would advise you NOT to be influenced by those negative reviews and look at the positive ones. I know how you might feel because I felt the same way and was about to cancel my order but then I backed off. You will not be sorry for it and you will thank me too. ORDER IT NOW! I would like to thank Amazon for this wonderful device and I really cannot wait to see how the next generation of Kindles will get even better.
As my title says it :) I got married to my kindle Paperwhite and I think we are going to have a very long honeymoon.
UPDATE: I have uploaded three pictures showing the Paperwhite with different settings in differently lit rooms. It wins in all conditions.
UPDATE: 23 June 2013: just thought to update and say this product is as perfect as I got it first time. It is so good and comfortable that I see myself reading more and more with it. Thank you Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
I got married.... to my Kindle Paperwhite!!
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2012
First and before starting my review let me tell you that I'm a gadget person. I love to get, try different kind of gadgets if I feel I will be using them for something or another. I have iPad2, iPad3, Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy S3. I love reading a lot, but I never got any E-Ink reader. I've always been reading on my PC, iPad or kindle. The main reason for not getting one is because I love reading during bed time and that was not possible with the lack of light. And here where the Kindle Paperwhite gained me as a customer. It is my first E-Ink reader.
1-Physical form: The kindle comes with a rubbery feel from the back side and feels really comfortable to handle. You can hold it with one hand and easily use it. Looks very sleek in black and very light weight. It is so comfortable to hold it for reading than all my other gadgets. Now when I hold the iPad I feel the big difference.
2-Setup: Once you press the power button which is the only physical button the setup starts. It is very easy to get it ready. After that you will go through a tutorial which I found to be very beneficial.
3-Screen: Amazon has used a matte screen which is really good to avoid any glare in different lighting conditions. It serves the product very well. The kindle paperwhite with its light at the lowest level looks so good, very sharp and texts are crispy, thanks the to the screen resolution. Once you increase the light to its highest level you know why Amazon has chosen the name paperwhite. Yes the screen lights up so beautifully without hurting my eyes. It is perfect. I read people's reviews here giving the product one star because of the shadowing and this is really ridiculous. DON'T listen to them. They are using the light the wrong way that's why they see these shadows. I will not deny they can be seen if you concentrate on them but they are not that noticeable. The same thing goes to the screen coloring that some have seen. Actually the lighting option clearly suggests you to use a setting from level 20-24 in a brightly lit room and from 1-5 in dark rooms. Follow this and you will have no problem with coloring or shadows. I cannot see anything like that. Actually I was worried before ordering the kindle how I will adopt to it after using tablets with retina display and high resolution but now after I have this Kindle, do I miss my iPad and other tabs for reading? No, not even a bit. The lighting in Kindle is much better than all the other E-Inks available in the market (Nook and Kobo) and is better than all the other tablets as it is very comfortable to the eyes.
4-Storage: Kindle comes with 2 Gb storage and I find this to be more than enough. It is just a matter of how you organize your e-books. I personally load it with my own personal documents and download the rest from Amazon's cloud. Since you have cloud available you do not need to download everything at once.
5-Features: like X- Ray, editing fonts and margins are so good. You can customize your kindle the way you want. You also have the option to create a collection, change the view type between thumbnails and list. The store is very user friendly and easy to navigate.
6-Special Offers: I have ordered the one with special offers. And actually I find the ads to be interesting more than bothersome. These ads look even nicer on the lock screen, but that is just me.
Some people also complained about the lack of speakers so you do not have text to speech. I'm using that sometimes in my other gadgets but frankly Amazon got rid of this for the right reason and that is to reduce the weight of the device and I totally support them in this.
I have to say that I was disappointed with the wait for Kindle Paperwhite until it got shipped to me but was happy for Amazon as this indicated a huge demand for them. Amazon got a big big winner with the Paperwhite. I don't understand how can some people dislike it and give it a one star rating. Criticism should be reasonable and without any exaggeration. In my opinion the best rating the paperwhite can get is 5 stars and the worst it should get not less than 4 stars. This is a great product and I would advise you NOT to be influenced by those negative reviews and look at the positive ones. I know how you might feel because I felt the same way and was about to cancel my order but then I backed off. You will not be sorry for it and you will thank me too. ORDER IT NOW! I would like to thank Amazon for this wonderful device and I really cannot wait to see how the next generation of Kindles will get even better.
As my title says it :) I got married to my kindle Paperwhite and I think we are going to have a very long honeymoon.
UPDATE: I have uploaded three pictures showing the Paperwhite with different settings in differently lit rooms. It wins in all conditions.
UPDATE: 23 June 2013: just thought to update and say this product is as perfect as I got it first time. It is so good and comfortable that I see myself reading more and more with it. Thank you Amazon
I have owned all generations of the Kindle so I feel qualified to say that the Kindle Paperwhite is the best model to date! I love it!
Obviously, I don't need to talk about the points that make an e-reader so great. I will talk about what sets the Kindle Paperwhite apart from past models.
Touchscreen: with the prior Kindle Touch model, the touch screen was a complete turn off for me. I actually returned that model a couple weeks after purchase because of how annoying it was. Not true with the Kindle PW. First, accidentally touching the screen with something like a bed sheet does not change the page. Closing the cover without turning it off, does not change the page. (In fact, with the Amazon cover it immediately goes to sleep. Also a five star product!) When you want to turn the page, you simply touch the screen with your finger and the page turns, simple as that. I was worried the fingerprints on the screen would drive me nuts, but the glass is such that it's resistent to smudges and that makes it work! I love this touch screen model! The sections of the screen for accessing the menu and turning back a page are just the right size that you're not accidentally touching those sections when attempting to page forward. The screen also makes searching for content in the Kindle store (or taking notes, which I don't do much of) very easy because it is so responsive. I love using the on screen keyboard a lot better then the keyboard on the Kindle Keyboard.
The size: it's smaller than the Kindle Keyboard because it doesn't require the extra space for the keyboard. This is the best feature! I always thought the keyboard space was wasted because that is the part of the Kindle I used the LEAST. With this model, the size is perfect for what you use the Kindle for most--reading! It is also fairly light. I have used the Kindle PW with the Amazon cover since day one and it is light enough to read one handed without fatigue. (That's funny, fatigue from reading! You know what I mean.)
The light: totally and superbly awesome! Yes, there is the shadowing along the bottom of the screen that I noticed for about a day. Now I don't even notice it. All I know is, I don't have to pull out and awkward arm from the cover and deal with uneven shadowing from and overhead lamp (I used the Amazon lighted cover for my Kindle Keyboard). I can read with my Kindle from daytime to nighttime with ease. It's great for reading in the car also; the light doesn't distract my husband's driving (while I'm reading, not him! He doesn't read and drive!) I find the best settings of the light for me are 3 in darkness, 10 in regular light, and 15+ in super bright lighting or sunshine. Changing the brightness is easy and effortless! The light is always on, even at the lowest setting, which I don't have a problem with because it doesn't seem to effect the battery, which brings me to my next point:
Battery: I know some people have had concerns about the battery usage with the light being on all the time, even at the lowest setting. While I do notice the battery on this Kindle does not last as long as on the Kindle Keyboard, I am certainly not having to charge the Kindle very often. I keep the wireless on at all times, I've had the Kindle since Oct. 2nd, and I've had to charge it a few times. I am a voracious reader, but I don't find the shorter battery life to be much of an issue.
No text to speech: I do miss this feature a little bit, but the other features of the Kindle PW outweigh the loss of it.
Interface: I like the interface on the Kindle PW better than the Kindle Keyboard (or prior models). Being able to switch from Device to Cloud is so much better than accessing Archived Items. I will admit that I do not like the addition of the New & Noteworthy section taking up half my screen on the cover view. For this reason I only use the list view. I am hoping a future OS update will remove that section because I know it doesn't seem to be a popular feature amongst users. I also love that I can access the Kindle Store with one touch from the home screen. Superb!
Ads & Sponsored Screensavers: I vote no on this. I actually ordered my Kindle with ads to begin with to save a few bucks. When you use the Amazon cover on a Kindle PW with ads, the wake feature of the cover is negated because you have to swipe the screen to get past the ad. I removed the ads and now opening the cover takes me right back to the book I was reading, or whatever screen I was last accessing. This is so much better than having to dismiss an ad first. It was worth the $20 price difference to get rid of ads.
To sum it up, I love this Kindle! I have loved all the models (except the Kindle Touch) and this one does not disappoint. I'm so glad I made the purchase! If you're on the fence about buying it, wait no more and take the plunge NOW!