Review: The All-New Kindle (and why I bought one)

The back story

It has been nearly a year since my Kindle saga started. Around this time last year, I started toying with the idea of replacing my beloved 3rd generation Kindle Keyboard, which is often mistaken for the first-ever Kindle. It wasn’t the first (or even the second) Kindle but it was a huge success. For the last 8 years, it has served me well. It has been thrown around, visited multiple countries, sandy beaches, and stayed solid through my reading journey. Until recently.

When my reading pace increased significantly last year (as a result of starting my blog), it was initially the lack of a backlight I found frustrating. And then, more recently, the battery started failing and it often crashed. Combined with a lack of space for physical books, I decided to do some research. After a quick glance on Amazon, I noticed that they were releasing a new Kindle, and now here I am.

But let’s get on with the review!

Please accept my apologies for the dark photos, it turned out to be a gloomy day.

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About the Kindle

Just to be absolutely clear, this is not a Kindle Paperwhite. This is the All-new Kindle, or the Kindle 9, which are both nice ways of saying it is the basic model.

So what makes it a ‘basic’ model? Well, the screen ppi (Pixels Per Inch) is 167 rather than 300 ppi on the Paperwhite and Oasis models. It has fewer LEDs to light up the screen, no 3G option, and less memory. However, none of these things stop this device from being a really strong contender for the more expensive options.

I purchased my Kindle ‘with special offers’ which means I get adverts on the lock screen. You can pay extra not to have adverts, but I don’t mind them.

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What I love about it

The colour

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Someone in her infinite wisdom (that’ll be me) decided to go for the white model with a white cover (featured below). As much as it shows up every speck of dust and fluff, I still love it and I feel that it interferes less with my reading than the black models.

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The screen resolution

Despite being only 167 ppi, it does a wonderful job of this detailed cover of Barbara Henderson‘s Fir for Luck (one of my first new downloads).

I don’t think this photo does it justice but the text is crisp and clear with no ghosting. The backlight is very powerful and I can’t foresee a scenario where I’d need it any brighter than the maximum (not shown).

The feel and features

It is also very compact without being too small and light but sturdy. Although it is not a new function, I’m enjoying having the ‘Time left in chapter/book’ options as well as the percentage, which the Kindle Keyboard does not have (only the percentage). I am a ‘chapter reader’ which means that I absolutely have to finish a chapter before I put the book down.

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What I don’t love about it

The screen

The screen, in all honesty, is not entirely free of glare. At home, I read with my back to a window, and on a particularly sunny day I found myself having to adjust my position to stop the light bouncing off the screen. It wasn’t bad enough to make me not recommend it, but I can’t deny it is there.

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The pass code function

I decided to enable the pass code function for extra security, partly to deter nosy people (it’s rude to look through people’s Kindle libraries you know!) and partly just in case I lost it and someone decided it would be fun to download lots of books. The deviants.

The pass code function is slow. Or at least it seems slow. I’m so used to chucking my thumb on my phone and it responding in less than a second, the fact that it takes me 8-10 seconds to open my Kindle seems like an eternity. But this is very much a first world problem.

The lack of page turn buttons

I did not see this coming, but I really miss the physical page turn buttons. I initially found it a bit distracting that I had to keep moving my thumb to go to the next page, when my old Kindle had page turn buttons on both sides so I didn’t have to adjust my grip.

Having said that, the only Kindle currently available with page turn buttons is the Oasis, and there’s not enough novel functionality on that model to warrant me paying the considerably higher price.

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In conclusion…

I love my new Kindle. I sometimes just pick it up and look at it and feel it just because I can. I honestly think my reading speed has increased as I’m able to tailor the font, font size, spacing and margins to my own preferences.

This model meets all my needs. I have seen the better models and I honestly can’t tell the difference in the screen resolution, and as I mentioned previously, I’m not about to fork out for the Oasis model for the sake of a couple of buttons.

If you’re considering buying your first Kindle or upgrading to a newer model, definitely consider the All-New Kindle.

I purchased this Kindle myself. I was not asked to review it. The use of Barbara Henderson’s Fir for Luck is for illustrative purposes based on the cover. This is not a promotional article for either the book or Kindle.

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