The Kindle Paperwhite is Amazon’s number one bestseller and is by far the most popular e-reader in the world. The previous generation model had close to 60,000 reviews on the US version of the website. Will the 12th generation prove to be equally as popular? Last week, the company announced a new Kindle Paperwhite 12th generation and the Signature Edition. Good e-Reader has these models in our studio today and wants to provide you with a first look.
The Kindle Paperwhite 12th generation features a 7-inch E INK Carta 1300 e-paper display with a resolution of 1264×1680 with 300 PPI. The new e-paper display uses an oxide thin-film transistor that gives it the highest contrast ratio of any Kindle, so text and images pop on the screen. The device is 25% faster when scrolling through a library or zooming through pages. If you like to read at night, the front-light system has undergone a revision and now has 10 White LEDs and 9 Amber LEDs. If you buy the Signature Edition of this model, it comes with an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust the brightness of the lights based on your environment. This is similar to the iPhone with its auto brightness.
The Kindle Paperwhite runs a Mediatek dual-core processor, but how fast it is hasn’t been disclosed. Peter and I noticed that this is the fastest Kindle that Amazon has ever made. It has 512MB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The Signature Edition has 32GB of storage. For those who like to read in the bathtub, it is rated IPX 8, so it can be submerged in freshwater for up to 60 minutes. It has Bluetooth for listening to Audible audiobooks via wireless headphones or earbuds. USB-C will assist in transferring ebooks right to the device or for charging; it is powered by a 1,900 mAh battery, suitable for up to 12 weeks of usage.
On a software level, Amazon is intuitive and reigns supreme. If you have the previous generation Kindle Paperwhites, nothing has changed from the past 4-5 years. You get the same fluid experience, shopping for ebooks, viewing the library, system-wide dark mode, Goodread, firmware updates and things like X-Ray, which helps you view the people, places and things in a book while reading. This is useful for a long series of books, and many characters and cities can get complicated over time; think of Wizards First Rule or Terry Brooks Shannara series. Amazon has the widest selection of books anywhere.
Kindle Paerpwhite 12th Generation comes in some new colours; Raspberry, Jade, and Black. Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, comes in Metallic Raspberry, Metallic Jade, and Metallic Black.