Updated Oct. 18 with more details that have emerged about the new range of Kindles and specific details about the Kindle Oasis.
Amazon has just announced four new Kindles in an unprecedented shake-up of its ebook readers and in the 24 hours that have followed, new details have emerged. The updated range includes new versions of the entry-level model (in a punchy new color), the fastest Kindle ever in the new Paperwhite, a stylishly redesigned Scribe and the first-ever Kindle with a color screen. Here’s what, when and how much. First, though, there’s also been confirmation that a popular Kindle is being retired.
That’s the Kindle Oasis, which for years has been the most desirable, most premium and most expensive Kindle in the range. For some time, it has been the only Kindle with physical page turn buttons, something many readers prefer to the touchscreen-only control of the other models. Amazon confirmed to The Verge that it’s on its way out.
That doesn’t mean you can’t buy one, but stocks are dwindling and once that stock is gone, so is the Oasis. I asked Amazon’s Kevin Keith, Vice President of Devices and Services, Kindle, if the thinking behind this was that the new Colorsoft, detailed below, would replace the Oasis.
“I see the Oasis as a premium tier and a lot of the things we did with Oasis we were able to move into Paperwhite,” he told me. “The waterproofing and the flush front display were first on the Oasis. The speed of the page turns and the chips that were in the Oasis all kind of moved down to the Paperwhite and it just kept getting better and better. The other thing is we’ve always wanted to bring colour to the Kindle. But the technology had to be ready. And so the oxide back plane and the new light guide meant we were able to bring colour to Kindle for the first time.”
That’s all true, and it’s also the case that the writing has been on the wall for the Oasis for a while. It has 8GB of memory, less than the storage on other Kindles, even though it was the most expensive.
Its retirement means one other Oasis specialty is also gone: free cellular connectivity. This has been a Kindle feature in some models since the first version. You paid an extra premium on the purchase price but you could connect to the cellular network to download books, for instance, without having to be in a wi-fi area. This was particularly useful when you finished book two in a trilogy, for instance, while lolling on a seaside sunbed and didn’t want to wait until you got home or back to the hotel to snag the next volume. That excellent capability will also go when the Oasis has gone. If that’s what you want, don’t dawdle.
Other details have come to light since the unveiling, including some nuggets about the design. For instance, as Lance Ulanoff points out on Tech Radar, the power button on the new Colorsoft and Paperwhite remains on the underside of the readers, which can makes it easy to accidentally turn off the reader.
At least Ulanoff has unearthed the reason for the placement. Ulanoff talked to Amazon’s VP for Kindle hardware, Kevin Keith, who told him that in the redesign of the very popular Paperwhite, “the thing you don’t want to mess with, with a Paperwhite, is how it feels in your hand for long reading sessions of one-handed reading, and so that’s why when we increase the screen viewing size we always have to shrink the bezels. And the [fact that the] button has to be near the light guide is essentially what is driving this.”
There have also been questions about the speed of the Kindle Colorsoft, with people asking if the page turns are as quick as on the new Paperwhite. I’ve been told that it’s not quite as quick, not least because rendering color content takes time, but it’s very close.
And there’s a new way to turn pages on the Paperwhite. Press and hold on the display and the pages will turn over and over and at high speed. I’m told this is almost like the way you can riffle through the pages of a real book at speed to find your place.
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft
This is the first colour-screen Kindle. There are other ebook readers with color screens, but this is Amazon’s first attempt. It is similar in size to the new Paperwhite, of which more below, but can display color images, ideal for graphic novels, cookery books and travel guides.
Ebook readers with color often look washed-out and so pale you can barely see there’s any color at all, but here the colors are more impactful, though not the saturated hues you’d see on an iPad, for instance. The Kindle has always been easier on the eye than a tablet, of course. The subtle colors are attractive and add an eye-catching feel to text you’ve highlighted, for instance.
The Colorsoft is easily the most striking of the new Kindles, adding the power of color with an authority and simplicity that other color ebook readers haven’t matched.
It is available for pre-orders now and will ship on Oct. 30, priced $279.99, £269.99 in the U.K.
Amazon Kindle
The entry-level Kindle is available now with a redesign that sees a matcha colorway for the first time that looks cool. There’s still a black version for, (what shall we say?), the more color-conservative. It has a 6-inch display and, like all the new models, 300 pixels per inch resolution. It’s also brighter than before. The new colorway seems designed to appeal to Gen Z buyers, which Amazon says is a fast-growing group of buyers. $109.99, £94.99 in the U.K.
Amazon Kindle Scribe
The biggest Kindle with its 10.2-inch display is designed as much as a digital notebook as a reader. It has a classy new look and a new Premium Pen stylus that feels and sounds like you’re writing on paper.
It introduces new features such as Active Canvas which lets you just pick up the stylus and scribble on the page of a book. The printed text reflows around it. You can also write in the margins, you know, like people still do in real books, and your notes can be stored there, too. These new features will come to the first-generation Scribe through a software update, too. It will work with most books.
And for both the new and first-gen Scribe, generative AI features will allow users to summarize their notebooks, for instance.
The new Kindle Scribe arrives on Dec.4 and will cost $399.99, £379.99 in the U.K.
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
The Goldilocks Kindle, I call it, because it’s the ideal balance of price and features, has been restyled in a thinner version with a slightly increased display size—it’s now 7 inches instead of 6.8 inches. But it’s still light and easy to hold in one hand for extended immersive reading sessions. That absorption in the text is made more seamless by the fastest-ever page turns on a Kindle, 25% faster than the last Paperwhite. If that sounds minor, it’s not: as a reader you don’t want anything to come between you and the words.
Kindle Paperwhite has 16GB storage and comes in black, jade and raspberry colors. It costs $159.99 (£159.99 in the U.K.) and is available now. A Signature Edition is also available for $189.99 (£189.99 in the U.K.) with extra storage and a metallic finish with flecks of aluminum giving the luster and it is wireless-chargeable.
