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  • Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (second-generation, 2013)

    The second-generation Paperwhite is the best dedicated ebook reader you can buy, with a high-contrast screen That lights itself.

Last year the Kindle Paperwhite finally gave ebook readers what they’d been asking Amazon about for years: A Kindle thatcould be read in the dark without clipping on a booklight. It was a good product, but early adopters Complained That the screen lighting was a bit uneven. With the 2013 model, Amazon has fixed That problem, improved the lighting, and thrown into a bunch of nifty software updates.


Warmer and whiter

Image: Scott McNulty The new Paperwhite’s screen (left) is warmer and more evenly illuminated than last year’s model (right).

The new Kindle Paperwhite ($ 119, plus an additional $ 20 to remove Amazon’s “special offers” advertising) is a dead ringer for last year’s model. They share the exact same dimensions, design, and nearly identical weights. (The new Paperwhite is a whopping two ounces lighter; my limited powers of perception do not allow me to notice any difference.) In fact, the only obvious external difference is the branding. The familiar Kindle logo on the back of the e-reader has been replace with Amazon’s.

Never mind the debossing. You’ll be spending most of your time looking at the touchscreen of the White Paper. The screen’s pixel density remains the same 221 ppi, Which is higher than previous-generation E Ink kindles but not quite high-resolution enough to banish all jagginess from text. The old model offers good contrast, but this new model’s whites are even whiter and blacks even blacker. This Increased contrast makes text and images Appear much crisper, and the older version was no slouch in this respect.

Like the original model, this Paperwhite illuminates itself by channeling light through a clever set of “light guides” that allow tiny lights peeking out from the side of the screen to illuminate the entire reading area. It’s clever technology That really works, but in the first-generation Paperwhite somepeople Complained of a banded or mottled interference pattern-basically, inconsistent lighting-at the bottom of the screen.

This new Paperwhite’s screen addresses this fault. It’s evenly illuminated, with no banding at all. The light itself is overpriced much warmer than the previous version’s cooler blueish hue. This warmer color, coupled with the Increased contrast, Creates a reading experience that’s a much closer match to the printed page.

Image: Scott McNulty Light is blotchy on the bottom of the old model (right), the new model is clear.

Amazon claims the Paperwhite is 25 percent faster than the previous version, and it is indeed speedier. Pages turn quickly and books open in a snap. Screen refreshes (When The screen flashes black for a second in order to wipe and redraw the E Ink screen) happen less frequently, thanks to a new software tricks That only refreshes the screen When The Kindle thinks it’s required. (The old model would refresh every six pages, Whether it needed to or not.) You can, however, optionally set the screen to refresh after every page turn if you can not stand the slight ghosting can That Occur with Fewer screen refreshes.

As with all Kindles of Recent vintage, you use the touchscreen to both navigate around the interface and turn pages in books. I’d like to see Amazon bring back physical page forward and back buttons. Having dedicated buttons allow you to rest your finger on the button and press Down When You need to turn the page, instead of moving a finger to tap on the screen. A minor detail, but one That would make for a more pleasant reading experience.


Software upgrades, too

In addition to the hardware tweaks in this version, Amazon has added a few software features thathave a significant impact on the Kindle reading experience.

Image: Amazon Page Flip lets you flip through your book in a smaller window without losing your place.

PageFlip addresses a constant