amazon tells me this is my 6th Kindle, although I can't remember having that many. I had two kindle keyboards with the physical keypad and page turn buttons, and latterly a 2012 Kindle Paperwhite which seemed to go on for ever. Eventually the battery was starting to have some charging glitches and discharging incosistently, so I knew it was time to make a change.
In looking for a replacement, I decided that:
1) While waterproofing would be nice, I had managed without it so far (none of my Kindles have had this feature, and I haven't lost one to water damage yet.
2) I liked the small form factor of my 6" kindle screen, rather than a bigger unit.
Therefore I decided the Kindle basic would suit me best rather than the newest 6.8" paperwhite. With an amazon deal and trade in on my two old Kindles I got it for a very reasonable price.
I was impressed with the build quality of this device. It does not have a soft back but I almost always use a case to protect the body and screen, so this doesn't really matter to me. The body feels sturdy and does not bend or flex.
The immediate thing to note is that my last kindle had 212dpi, and this has 300dpi. I can actually see quite a lot of difference in the screen rendering, which surprised me. The backlight is also very even, and can go from off to very bright, so good for any conditions. While the Paperwhite has more flexibility for night time light adjustment, I find the kindle basic 'dark mode' works well enough for me.
I also like that the kindle basic is actually slightly smaller and lighter than my old kindle, and a much smaller form factor than the paperwhite. I like to be able to put it in a bag or pocket, so this small size really works much better for me.
The kindle basic has good hardware. The page turning is rapid and responsive. I wish you could adjust the sensitivity however, as it's easy to accidentally turn the page, but this is similar on all the kindles I've tried. Zooming and rendering of pictures is definately faster than my old paperwhite.
I have not as yet tried any of the bluetooth or audiobook features supported by the kindle. I may update this review when I try it. If I do, I will be very glad of the massive 16GB of memory, which is a massive amount of storage for ebooks.
Perhaps the best feature though is the USB-C port. This allows for very fast charging (my old kindle took hours to charge). I believe the battery in the basic is only 1040mAh compared with the 1700mAh on the newest paperwhite, and the basic battery is rated to last 6 weeks rather than the paperwhite's 10 weeks, but I'm impressed with battery life so far.
Overall I'm really happy with my kindle purchase. It's worth noting as well that they can be ordered set to your account and are ready to go with minimal fuss. Kindles often go on sale with Amazon for Black Friday or just at random throughout the year, so if you see them reduced they really are a great buy and a lovely way to read, and this kindle, despite the basic moniker, is actually brilliantly specced and executed, and is a great option to consider.
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Reducing CO2 The Reducing CO2 label applies to products certified by the Carbon Trust, that are lowering their carbon emissions year after year for the full life cycle of the product. The Carbon Trust was formed in 2001 and introduced the world’s first carbon label in 2007. It produces its certifications to global leading and independently verified standards. The Carbon Trust has a mission to accelerate the move to a sustainable, low carbon economy.
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Reviews with images
Upgraded from 2012 Paperwhite - Its a good update, minus the bad software!
Just a quick impression from someone who is updated their kindle for the first time in 11 years! My old kindle is a First Gen Paperwhite from 2012 and I moved to a 2023 Basic.Body:The new one is about 10% small, maybe 25% lighter and a little thinner - its hard plastic instead of soft touch rubber, so its a lot less grippy, but the old rubber had started to feel like it was degrading; so the smooth finish is a nice change - that said, I have already dropped the new one due to the lack of grip. The new one has more rounded edges, overall its much more comfortable to hold - although the old one feels sturdier.Screen:The screen is exactly the same size, however it renders things a little differently. The new one is noticeably crisper making the old one look blurry in comparison. The frontlight is the biggest change! The new one is so much whiter, it makes the old light look like a greenish-grey in comparison. In daylight the new screen is much nicer, but when reading in the dark I find the old one with its flawed greenish tinge a bit easer on the eyes; however the new dark mode can make up for this. The contrast is identical, though the new one has less ghost text. The new screen feels smoother and a little more fragile.Usage:The new one seems about twice as fast at doing most things; like waking up and turning pages. The new operating system is not good however; it has so much wasted space, while simultaneously feeling messier. The search is unnecessarily large while other icons are smaller and harder to see; I much prefer the design of the old one. I would like the option to disable the book covers in the library returned, and I don't need my filters listed so prominently after Iv set them. Audible audiobooks showing in my library is unexpected and a mostly unwanted; plus the seperation of downloaded and cloud books is less clear. They also replaced the universal home button with a confusing maze of back arrows and X's - additionally I don't find the new swipe menus pleasant, due to the slow screen. Overall it feels like they tried to make it more like an iPad, and it doesn't work. That said, I don't think there's anything that would break the reading experience itself and the extra fonts and text options are good!Conclusion!If like me, you want a small personal reader that you can pop in a coat pocket; then the upgrade is worth it - the smaller size, lighter weight, better screen and faster page turning are all nice quality of life improvements. I paid about 60 pounds for the new one after all trade-in discounts; as a once in a decade upgrade thats totally worth it, despite the worse software. However if you are happy with your old one, the improvements are nice but not life changing and you might be happy to keep what you have!
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