I spent the weekend reading on Amazon's newest Kindle – and it's more capable than it looks

Kindles aren’t like other tablets or smart devices; their sole purpose is to be as close to analog as possible for a tablet — delivering distraction-free reading with a battery life that lasts weeks and a screen that’s easy to view no matter the environment.

That means Kindle customers and devotees aren’t expecting cutting-edge technology in a new release. They just want a great device with important but minimal finishing touches that improve upon the previous generation. 

Also: The best Kindles you can buy

This is especially true for the base model Kindle, the most affordable and least feature-rich model in the new Kindle lineup that includes an updated Paperwhite, Scribe, and a brand-new entrant, the Colorsoft (Kindle’s first-ever full-color model). The base model doesn’t have an adjustable warm light like the Paperwhite, drawing capabilities like the Scribe, nor vivid color like the Colorsoft. What the 2024 Kindle does have, however, is beautiful and effective simplicity. 

I spent some time reading and playing around with the new base model Kindle, and I highly recommend it if you’re in the market for your first e-reader or if you’re upgrading from a Kindle you purchased more than two years ago.

Amazon released the previous base model Kindle in 2022. The 2024 version keeps most of the specs of the base model, with a few exceptions. These include different exterior colors (Matcha and Black), a brighter front light, a higher contrast ratio, and a faster page-turn rate.

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The Matcha colorway is lovely and fun, and is much more vibrant than the Navy or Black options from the 2022 lineup. One of my favorite parts about the base model is its pocketability and portability, thanks to its compact size.

The size of the display is the same six inches — an amenable display size for on-the-go reading. The 1072 x 1448 screen resolution, the 5.56 oz. weight, and the six-week battery life haven’t changed either.

I spent the weekend absorbed in some e-books (most notably, the newest Emily Henry novel) that I rented from my library. On one busy Saturday, I stashed the Kindle in my dress pocket to read on the subway in between errands. My friend and I had been walking around the city that day, and I had kept the e-reader in my pocket, where I barely noticed it throughout our journey.

On a lazy Sunday morning, I lounged in bed, lying on my side, reading the Kindle with one hand, something I can never do with a physical novel because of how uncomfortable it is to hold ambidextrously. 

While I was reading, I noticed that the page-turning and book-loading speeds were significantly quicker than on my Kindle Oasis or Kindle Paperwhite from 2022. I tested my old Paperwhite and my new Kindle and found that the new Kindle turned pages a smidgen quicker than the Paperwhite. 

As far as battery life is concerned, I can’t confirm that this e-reader lasts the advertised six weeks because I’ve only tested the Kindle for a week. Still, six weeks is a long time between charges, and I haven’t had any dramatic dips in battery life so far.

Also: Amazon just launched four new Kindles, including a full-color model

As somebody who enjoys growing her physical book collection but also enjoys sampling various novels and nonfiction books from the library, a Kindle is a great device for reading and renting books you may never pick up and buy but are still interested in. I can fit this portable device into my pocket or work bag and read on the bus, before or after work, or while waiting at doctor appointments.

Because reading is its only functionality, the Kindle offers a truly distraction-free interface that makes knocking out reading assignments for high school or college students less intrusive than a laptop or a tablet. 

I’m not using a Kindle to replace physical books. Instead, I use a Kindle to expand the types and genres of books I’d never plan on owning in the first place. An e-reader (with the help of a library card) allows you to widen the scope of literature that you read and sample different authors and stories that you’d never fit within your bookbag, suitcase, or bookcase.

ZDNET’s buying advice

If you haven’t purchased an e-reader before or are contemplating buying one for a loved one over the holidays, I’d without a doubt recommend this Kindle. It has all the features you’d need in a respectable e-reader, like a vivid display, reactive and quick speeds, great battery life, and a lovely color, all for a good price.

Because a lot of the specs are unchanged, upgrading from the 2022 base model to the 2024 base modelisn’t the most reasonable thing to do, unless you aren’t pleased with your 2022 Kindle’s color, page-turn rate, or display brightness, and are willing to spend $110 to change that.  

If you want one more inch of display, different e-reader colors, an adjustable warm light for reading in different environments, and double the battery life, you may want to upgrade to the Paperwhite, which is $50 more, but I can read just fine with the base model, I love the pastel-y mint of the Matcha colorway and the compact display, and I can certainly charge my Kindle once every six weeks, so spending $50 more seems silly. 

This article was originally published on October 29, 2024, and was updated on November 14, 2024.