Amazon unveils its most expansive, advanced, and priciest Kindle lineup yet
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Inaugurated nearly 17 years ago now and considered by many a dying remnant of a different era for the ever-evolving tech industry, Amazon's Kindle e-reader family seems to be actually doing better than ever, welcoming a slew of new members and vastly upgraded models yesterday.
While some of these are already shipping across the nation, other all-new products can only be pre-ordered at the time of this writing ahead of commercial releases set for later in October or even December. And the most exciting device of them all is without a doubt...
The first-ever color Kindle
If you thought your e-book reader absolutely needed a black-and-white display to deliver battery life figures fancy tablets can never come close to, the pioneering Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition is here to shake your beliefs to their core.
This bad boy promises to "open up a world of color" and somehow keep the lights on for up to 8 weeks (!!!) between charges, which is simply incredible. Of course, the 7-inch "Colorsoft" display is still designed "specifically for reading" rather than movies or games, so don't even think of replacing your "conventional" Android tablet or iPad with this entirely new type of e-reader.
Comic books, graphic novels, and book covers in general will obviously look way better on the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition than other Kindles, and if you want, you can even color pages or highlight quotes yourself in yellow, orange, blue, and pink.
With 32GB storage, wireless charging support, auto-adjusting front light functionality, and a single Metallic Black paint job (which is kind of ironic), the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition costs $279.99 on pre-order today, with a proper release set for October 30.
The second-ever Kindle Scribe is also pretty great
At a retail price of $399.99, the "new" Kindle Scribe clearly has to be pretty great to rival the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE, Google Pixel Tablet, or Apple iPad mini 6. Once again, you don't get full tablet-like functionality, but the 12-week battery life, massive 10.2-inch glare-free display, and especially the built-in Premium Pen of this powerhouse of an e-reader make the value proposition feel quite robust.
Compared to its predecessor, the 2024 Kindle Scribe edition is undeniably prettier thanks to its new white borders and Metallic Jade colorway, although at their core, the two devices are almost identical. The overall product dimensions, 300 ppi screen resolution, and adjustable warm light are all unchanged, which explains why the original Kindle Scribe is sticking around at a $339.99 list price with a "Basic" rather than a "Premium" pen included in the box.
The Kindle Scribe (2024) does bring an "all new, built-in AI-powered" notebook experience to the table, but unfortunately, its release is only scheduled for December 4, so we'll have to wait and see how much of a difference that makes in real-life use.
And how about those upgraded entry-level Kindles?
If you don't have any plans to spend north of 250 bucks for a new e-book reader this holiday season (let alone four Benjamins), you'll likely be delighted to know that Amazon is also selling an upgraded base Kindle for $109.99 and up and a 12th Generation Kindle Paperwhite starting at $159.99.
Both of these devices can be had right now, with the Paperwhite obviously being the more sophisticated product thanks to the same 12-week battery life promise as the Kindle Scribe, as well as a generous 7-inch glare-free display, adjustable warm light technology, an elegant flush-front design, and IPX8 water resistance.
The low-cost new Kindle doesn't have... any of that going for it, but its 6 weeks of battery endurance, 6-inch glare-free display with 300 ppi resolution, 16GB storage, and 158-gram weight should be enough to justify a price point... that's likely to go down even further on Black Friday and Cyber Monday next month.
The 2024 Kindle and 2024 Kindle Paperwhite also claim to offer significantly faster page turns than their already decently zippy forerunners, so whatever your budget and size preferences, it looks like you have plenty of reasons to upgrade your existing e-reader in time for Christmas.
The same even goes for the youngest readers out there, who are guaranteed to love the new $129.99 Kindle Kids in your choice of Ocean Explorer, Space Whale, or Unicorn Valley designs and the $179.99 Kindle Paperwhite Kids (2024) in Starfish and Cyber City flavors. Last but surely not least, the new kid-friendly Paperwhite can also be had at $189.99 with, get this, a Diary of a Wimpy Kid cover pre-installed. Guess I now know what my 8 year-old will get for Christmas this year.
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