I’ve actually been buying Kindles for a long time. It all started with the Keyboard 3G, which I got as much for the free international data as anything else.
That one fell into the sea in a harbor in Turkey (don’t ask), and the battery on the replacement died a few years later. By then, I’d switched to a Paperwhite, which traveled around the world with me for the better part of a decade until I left it in an airport in Vietnam earlier this year.
Knowing that an updated model was due, and that Black Friday sales would follow shortly after, I waited to pull the trigger on a new one. Having now used it every day since it arrived, I’m happy to say it was worth the wait.
Since prices were pretty similar during the sales, I ended up getting the Signature Edition over the standard version. Differences include extra storage, wireless charging, and a light sensor that adjusts brightness automatically.
In general, however, they’re the same device. Except for the section toward the end where I talk specifically about the Signature’s features, my comments apply to both versions.
Why a Paperwhite?
As has so often been the case in the past, the price of the basic Kindle was appealing, and at least made it worth considering. Just like last time I had to make that decision, though, I ended up going with the Paperwhite instead.
Here’s why:
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The Paperwhite is waterproof (IPX8); the base Kindle isn’t. That alone makes it worth the extra money for me. I use my Kindle more at the beach and around water than anywhere else—and then there’s the whole “falling overboard” thing.
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12 weeks of battery life on the Paperwhite, compared to half that on the base version.
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Higher contrast ratio on the Paperwhite, making it easier to read in direct sunlight.
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7″ screen on the Paperwhite versus 6″ on the Kindle. An inch doesn’t seem like much, but it makes a big difference in how often you need to turn the page.
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The Paperwhite is 25% faster. Caring about speed might sound odd with an e-reader, but slow page turns in particular annoy the hell out of me.
There are other differences too, but those are the ones I cared about most. For years I’ve recommended the Paperwhite as the best option for travelers—and most other people—and that hasn’t changed with this latest version.
Why an e-Reader?
Same book, very different reading experience.
Before deciding which version to buy and whether to wait for an updated one, though, the real question I had to ask myself was whether I should bother replacing my Kindle at all.
I’m too invested in the Kindle ecosystem to seriously consider other e-reader brands, although there’s an argument that some are technically better. It was really about whether I needed an e-reader, period.
Since I don’t travel full-time, it doesn’t get as much use as it once did. I prefer physical books, and it’s a lot easier to fit them in a bookcase at home than in my backpack. My old Kindle often sat unused in a drawer for weeks or months at a time.
When I do travel, though (which is still around 3–4 months a year), having a library of books to choose from without needing to carry them all is still extremely useful to me—just as being able to buy a new title with a few taps is.
After losing my last Paperwhite, I thought I could get by using the Kindle app on my phone for the rest of the trip. Instead, I hated it.
The screen was too bright at night and too small all the time, the phone was uncomfortable to hold for long periods, and the battery drained much faster with the screen constantly lit. There was no way I was going to read on it for over half an hour—never mind an entire trip.
With more camping trips on the horizon this summer, and a multi-week hike lined up for next year, having a lightweight, dedicated reading device with zero distractions and months-long battery life appealed just as much as it always has.
And so, here I am.
The Basics
That’s it for useful stuff in the box.
My Paperwhite arrived at my door in a simple cardboard carton, with no unnecessary packaging. It’s great to see companies finally, slowly getting the message here.
Inside sat the Paperwhite itself, a short USB-A to USB-C charging cable, and a basic instruction booklet. That’s really about it—there’s not much else to say.
I hadn’t chosen to have the device pre-configured when I bought it, but setup was still very simple. I just followed the on-screen instructions to tell the Kindle app on my phone to detect the new Paperwhite and transfer my account info, which it did without issue.
That included the Wi-Fi network, so within half a minute of starting up, it had downloaded my library, synced my progress, and I was ready to start reading.
What’s It Like to Use?
Paperwhite Gen 6 on the left, Gen 12 on the right.
Like I said, it had been many years since I’d bought my last Paperwhite, so I was expecting some noticeable changes. I wasn’t disappointed. While at its core it does the same thing as every other Kindle I’ve had, the way it does it is very different.
It feels more premium in my hand, with a softer back and rounded edges. The larger, brighter screen is much easier to read, and it’s light enough to hold comfortably in one hand for long periods without feeling flimsy or cheap.
The image above shows the contrast between my partner’s decade-old Paperwhite and this one. They’re both set to maximum brightness, with warmth set to the lowest value on the new version. As you can see, the color temperature is quite different: I prefer the newer one, as it causes less eye strain in darker rooms.
This is also the first Kindle I’ve used that feels genuinely snappy. I mean, snappy by e-ink standards: the nature of the technology means it’ll never be as smooth as a good phone or tablet, but it’s a hell of a lot closer than before.
Page turns are the most noticeable—they’re near-instant, as is loading footnotes or jumping through the table of contents. Another area I really notice the difference is scrolling through the Kindle store and buying a new title.
This process was painfully slow on my old Paperwhite, and it’s dramatically better now. Menus and settings screens don’t feel quite as fast, but they’re still much quicker than on my previous version.
There’s a small but vocal group of Kindle users who still complain bitterly about Amazon removing physical page-turn buttons over the years, replacing them with taps and swipes on the touchscreen instead. I’m not one of them.
Maybe I just spend too much time on my phone or something, but I find tapping to get to the next page more convenient than pressing a button. My thumb sits just above the screen when I’m holding the Kindle anyway, and not needing to precisely hit a button speeds up the process a bit.
The small power button remains on the base of the Kindle, next to the USB-C charging port. It doesn’t power off the device, per se, but locks the screen. Since e-ink displays only use power when the content changes, battery drain is minimal.
Standard vs. Signature Edition
Paperwhite Signature Edition charging wirelessly.
For the last few years, Amazon has offered both a standard Paperwhite and a Signature Edition with extra features at a higher price. Since it was only slightly more expensive during the Black Friday sales, I went for the latter.
Should you do the same?
The main selling point, at least for most people, is wireless charging. Amazon has a charging dock that lets you stand the Kindle up next to your bed (or wherever) and keep it charged, but in theory, any old Qi wireless charger should work.
I had a random puck-style charger lying around that I wasn’t using for anything else, so this felt like a good excuse to dust it off. Sure enough, it worked as expected, and I liked knowing that my device would be fully charged whenever I picked it up.
I also tried a few other wireless chargers of different shapes and sizes: if you’re not planning to get the dock, you’ll be better off with a pad or puck-style charger than a MagSafe-style stand.
The magnetic connection between the Kindle and charger is pretty weak, so it didn’t stick securely to either of the charging stands I tried.
Because the wireless coils are in the middle, it’s also practically impossible to prop the device up in a way that aligns it correctly for charging. I’m not saying you can’t get it to charge—just that… well, the picture below tells the story.
Don’t try this at home.
The charging speed doesn’t really matter on a Kindle like it does on a phone or laptop, but for what it’s worth, that 10W charging puck took it from 50% to full in just over 90 minutes.
The Signature Edition also has double the storage, going from 16GB to 32GB. Unless your Kindle library contains hundreds of thousands of books or you store a lot of comics or audiobooks, you’ll never notice the difference.
If you don’t love the standard black color on the back, the Signature Edition also comes in a jade green version. Since my Kindles live in a case when I travel, I rarely see the back and don’t really care, but you might feel differently.
The other physical difference is an ambient light sensor. This automatically adjusts screen brightness when you move between environments—like going from inside to outside, or reading while the sun sets.
This works reasonably well: sitting indoors, the brightness set itself to 12 out of 24. When I went outside into the sunlight, it changed to 0/24 automatically. Back inside 30 minutes later, it returned to 11/24.
It also adjusted a bit when I dimmed the lights one evening and again when I moved to a more well-lit area.
It’s not like it’s hard to change the brightness manually, but if you do it frequently and find it annoying, you’ll appreciate the automatic approach. If you hate it, on the other hand, you can disable it in the settings.
With previous models, people have complained that the light sensor is glitchy, adjusting brightness when it doesn’t need to. I haven’t noticed that happening yet, but I suppose it’s still early days.
Better Than an Ad
The last thing worth mentioning is that the Signature Edition is ad-free out of the box, while you need to pay $20 to remove them from the standard version. I never found the ads intrusive on the last one since they only show on the lock screen, but I do prefer to see the cover of the book I’m reading there instead.
So, would I recommend the Signature Edition? At standard pricing, no—not really. While the wireless charging, extra storage, and auto-brightness are all nice to have, most people won’t find any of them essential.
If you do, though, or the ads on the lock screen really bother you and you’d pay the twenty bucks to remove them anyway, then sure—spring for the Signature Edition.
Otherwise, maybe get it when Kindles are on sale and the price difference between the two is minimal, but otherwise don’t bother.
Even as I went to hit the buy button last week, I still wasn’t completely convinced I needed another Kindle. Having used it constantly over the last few days, though, I’m sure I made the right choice.
It’s such an upgrade from my old Paperwhite—both in how much better the screen looks and how much faster it is to do everything from turning pages to finding new books. It’s lightweight, feels great in the hand, and lasts practically forever on a single charge.
If you’ve been on the fence about getting a Kindle of any kind, dither no longer: the 2024 Paperwhite is absolutely the one to get. That’s especially true if you travel regularly—and even more so if you hike, camp, or otherwise spend a lot of time off-grid.
Whether you get the Signature model or not depends on how much you care about things like wireless charging and ads on the lock screen. It’s not a must-have by any stretch, but if there’s less than $25 difference between the two, I’d at least consider it.
If you’ve already got one of the last few versions of the Paperwhite, there’s no real need to upgrade—the relatively small improvements over those versions aren’t enough to justify the cost.
If you’re coming from an earlier model like I was, though, or you’ve only got the basic Kindle and want a significantly better reading experience, then it’s a different story. Using the 2024 Paperwhite is like night and day compared to either of them.
I’m flying home for Christmas in three weeks, and there’s already no doubt about it: my new Paperwhite will be making the trip with me.