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You might think that everyone who was going to buy a Kindle has bought one already. And yet Amazon has been plugging away, building slightly tweaked e-readers year after year. This time, though, the new £70 2019 Kindle adds a frisson of excitement to proceedings, pinching the Paperwhite’s main selling point with a feature that’s actually on wish lists: a built-in, adjustable front light.
From the look of the specs, the Kindle’s front light will be similar (if not identical) to the Paperwhite’s as it is made up of four LEDs. The Kindle Paperwhite uses five LEDs whereas the luxury Kindle Oasis has 12 LEDs with an adaptive light sensor. The spec sheet notes that the budget Kindle doesn’t have a colour adjustable night reading mode.
Otherwise, the six-inch e-reader looks to have a slightly more premium-looking, ergonomic design, with curvier edges than last year’s blockier, budget Kindle, a device which did feel quite cheap in the hand next to more expensive models.
Back to the new Kindle, the screen is glare-free with a 167ppi resolution, as per last year’s. Amazon says that upgraded e ink tech and a capacitive touchscreen should provide better contrast (17:1 with the frontlight off, 14:1 with it on) and smoother page flicking.
It’s slightly heavier than the 2018 Kindle, weighing 174g versus 161g, though that’s no bad thing and it’s a touch slimmer too at 8.7mm thick to last year’s 9.1mm. Elsewhere, it’s business as usual with a 1,500mAh battery for up to six weeks of battery life, black and white models available, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to connect to headphones or speakers for Audible audiobooks.
In fact, the only missing spec is that there’s no waterproofing, counting out decadent bathtime reads. For those you’ll still have to pay extra for the £120 Kindle Paperwhite or the £230 Kindle Oasis, both of which also offer higher-res 7-inch, 300ppi screens. To be honest, Amazon had to save something for next year’s basic Kindle.
Amazon's only real rival at this stage is Kobo, which has a decent range of e-readers that you should consider if you're interested in larger screens and better colour temperature controls.
The new Kindle is up for pre-order for £69.99 from today on Amazon, Argos, John Lewis and others with covers available to buy for £24.99. It will ship from April 10. To drum up interest, Amazon is also offering a three month free trial on Kindle Unlimited (usually £7.99 a month) for all Amazon customers, starting the same day.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
