Preview: Amazon Unveils Some New Kindles

If you enjoy Kindles and have been thinking about buying a new one, then today is a good day, as Amazon announced four new models, as part of their new 2024 line-up. They are all pretty good; but they all are taking good features for one product, and splitting them up into multiple — which I’ll get to at the end.Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition. Courtesy of KindleThe first, and most notable, is the Colorsoft Signature Edition, Amazon’s first color Kindle, and it’s a premium package. It looks to have a full range of colors, perfect for book covers, comics, or highlighting, and can be set in either “standard and vibrant color styles.” However, this will still do a full-page refresh flash when you turn a page or change a detail. Along with this signature feature, it’s generally a well-rounded, feature-rich product, with water resistance, wireless charging, up to eight weeks of battery, an upgraded backlight, and generally faster operation speed. It’s priced at $280, ships on October 30, and would be my pick in the line-up — just because a color interface makes it so much easier to find the book you’re looking for in your collection.Kindle Scribe. Courtesy of KindleThe Kindle Scribe is the next product in the line-up and is built around note-taking, with a 300ppi screen with white edges, and generally has a paper-like feel when using Amazon’s Premium Pencil. You can take notes on the books you’re reading, writing original notes, and use their built-in artificial intelligence to summarize pages, should you like. All of these hand-written notes can then be converted into selectable text, and exported, should you like. This is a hike up, at $400, shipping on December 4.2024 Kindle Paperwhite. Courtesy of KindleThe third is the Kindle Paperwhite, and will apparently be the “fastest kindle ever.” This is a replacement to the best-selling model, and comes with a larger screen, which is now aligned with the bezels; a thinner body; more battery life — apparently running up to three months on a charge — and has water resistance. The standard version of this is $160, with 16 GB of storage, and is available to order now; but I would stay away from this and spend the extra $40 for the “Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition.” Over-the-top name aside, this comes with twice the storage, wireless charging, and an auto-adjusting front light.2024 Base Kindle, in “Matcha.” Courtesy of KindleFinally, the base Kindle, comes in a lovely “Matcha” green, has a brighter backlight, and turns faster — but still far beneath the speed of the Paperwhite. This is available to order today, from $110.All of these are great, and relatively inexpensive for what they are; but you use an e-book a lot and really enjoy doing so, I would suggest that there is no Kindle product for you, because the product you’re looking for should have the color screen of the Colorsoft, the handwriting prowess of the Scribe, and do so with a brighter, more adjustable backlight, a better look, and without flashing the entire screen when you refresh. Sadly for Amazon, that product already exists, in the Remarkable Paper Pro; and though it’s more expensive, starting at $579, I have no question that it’s the better product than any of these. For those interested in that product, please read my upcoming review of the Paper Pro, out in these pages this weekend.

Preview: Amazon Unveils Some New Kindles

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