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Amazon Kindle Voyage review: Amazon's second best e-reader

Although it's pricey, the Kindle Voyage's slim design, sharper display and even better lighting make it an attractive high-end e-book reader.

• Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer

In recent years, Amazon's mantra for its tablets and e-readers has been to build "premium products at nonpremium prices." So it surprised some people when the company went ahead and built a premium e-reader, the Kindle Voyage, for a pretty premium price. It starts at $199 in the US and £169 in the UK for the Wi-Fi version.

Amazon Kindle Voyage

The bottom line.

A step-up version with "free" 3G is also available for $269 or £229. In the US, both models require an additional $20 charge to remove the embedded ads on the home screen and lock screen (in the UK, there is no cheaper ad-supported version). The Voyage is available for preorder now, and ships the week of November 23 in the US and November 4 in the UK.

In Australia, the Voyage has just gone on sale as of May 1, 2015. Only the Wi-Fi version is available and it's going to cost you a rather large AU$299. Amazon has no current plans to bring the 3G Voyage into Australia.

The Voyage isn't a huge upgrade over the existing Kindle Paperwhite ($119, £109 and AU$179 for the Wi-Fi version), which remains on sale with a bump from 2GB to 4GB of memory. But it's a little slimmer, measuring 7.6mm thick and weighing less than 181 grams (the Paperwhite weighs 206 grams). It also has an improved lighting system, and its higher-resolution screen is a little sharper, with better contrast.

Kindle Voyage product photos

Simply put, the Voyage is the best Kindle I've used to date. But is it worth the $80 or £60 premium over the Paperwhite?

If you're already a satisfied Paperwhite owner -- or if you only use an e-reader sparingly -- the answer is probably no. But if you're an avid everyday reader, check the yes box -- and know that you're getting the latest and greatest e-reader, bar none.

Design changes

The Voyage is the first Kindle e-ink reader to feature a flush glass front and magnesium back. It uses a new 6-inch Carta E Ink HD touchscreen display, with pixel density of 300 pixels per inch (ppi). Like the Paperwhite, the Voyage uses capacitive touch technology, not the older infrared-based touch technology of the entry-level Kindle 2014 .

Its display stack uses "chemically strengthened glass" too, which Amazon says is designed to resist scratches. On top of that, Amazon says the cover glass is micro-etched to diffuse light and reduce glare, which sounds pretty high-tech. From my time using the Voyage both indoors and in direct sunlight, the micro-etching does seem to help, but that doesn't mean you won't encounter some glare.

In some ways the Voyage resembles the Kobo Aura , which weighs 174 grams and has a flush glass front and similar specs (1GHz processor, 4GB of memory, built-in light). There's also the new $180/£140 Kobo Aura H2O -- a 6.8-inch waterproof e-reader that sports a Carta E Ink HD touchscreen similar to the Voyage's (in this case with 1,430x1,080-pixel resolution, at 265 ppi) and has expandable storage, too. But the Voyage is sleeker. And, of course, it has access to Amazon's extensive e-book ecosystem, while the Kobo can use "open" epub files.

The Kindle Voyage features Amazon's sharpest screen in an e-ink e-reader, with a flush glass panel.

Thanks to the flush-glass design, the Voyage's touchscreen is allegedly a tad more responsive than the Paperwhite's, but I didn't notice a significant difference. When you compare the screens side by side, however, you can see that the Voyage's screen is a little sharper -- it's easy to spot in book covers but is also noticeable in text, particularly small text -- and the contrast is a little better, with blacks appearing more black than dark gray.

The light at its highest setting is clearly brighter -- Amazon says 39 percent brighter -- and the screen appears whiter. Look closely and you'll also see that the light splays across the screen more uniformly, though it's still not absolutely perfect, leaving room for some small improvements in the next model.

What's also new is that the light can be set to adjust automatically based on the light in your environment. You can, as always, opt to adjust the lighting manually, but I suspect most people will just go with the automatic setting and not think about it too much. Additionally, you can enable the "Nightlight" feature, which Amazon says "gradually reduces the screen brightness over time as your eyes adjust to the darkness."

Another new addition is a set of pressure-sensitive page-turn buttons on either side of the bezel. You keep your thumb resting on the button and then press lightly to make the page turn forward or back, depending on whether you touch the top or bottom button. You also get a some haptic feedback -- a slight buzz on your finger -- with each page turn. Amazon calls the new feature PagePress and it works well.

That said, I personally prefer to simply touch the sides of the screen to turn pages -- yes, you can still do that -- but an apparently vocal subset of the e-reading population likes to press physical buttons, so we now have PagePress.

The Kindle Paperwhite (left) next to the Kindle Voyage (right).

All the new e-ink Kindles are powered by a 1GHz processor and 4GB of built-in storage with no expansion (although that 4GB allows you to store thousands of e-books and other documents). The Voyage has 1GB of RAM compared with the 500MB of the step-down models, which makes this device a tad zippier. However, since e-ink is inherently sluggish, the device just isn't anywhere as speedy or responsive as the latest iPads or Android tablets.

It's worth mentioning that no AC adapter is included with the e-reader -- just a USB cable -- but most people have a USB charger already for their phone or tablet. No case is included either and it's probably a good idea to get one, particularly since this model costs so much. Amazon makes a really well-designed Origami Case -- I recommend it -- but it is rather pricey, starting at $45 or £40 (the leather model costs $60 or £55). Other more affordable case options will be available eventually.

The back of the device, with the power button on the left side near the top.

Battery life is rated at six weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off. That's less than the Paperwhite's eight weeks (it appears that more power is required to drive the higher-resolution display or Amazon shaved the battery down to get the weight of the device down -- or a combination of the two). But at this point, with battery life measured in weeks rather than hours, that reduced battery rating shouldn't be a serious issue.

Some competitors, including Kobo, have made efforts to reduce the amount of flashing the screen does to clear e-ink's slight ghosting effect as you turn pages. With the Voyage I ended up turning around 14 pages before the screen would refresh (that number was pretty consistent). Most people don't mind too much when the screen blinks, but it does bother some readers.

The device charges via Micro-USB. A USB cable is included but no AC adapter.

I'm not going to dig too deep into the Voyage's Kindle features and interface, but the platform continues to mature and add new features. The kid-friendly Kindle FreeTime and Vocabulary Builder (words you look up are automatically added) are now on all of Amazon's e-ink Kindles, and Amazon has enhanced its X-Ray ("bones of the book") feature too. Goodreads, the social reading and reviews site that Amazon bought last year , has been integrated.

As with other e-readers, you can also borrow e-books from your local library. And Amazon's daily, weekly and monthly deals ensure that there is always a huge number of e-books available for as little as $2 or 99p -- just don't expect them to necessarily be from mainstream authors that you've heard of.

To cut a long story short, the Amazon ecosystem remains far superior to alternatives from Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo.

You may balk at the price of the Voyager, especially with Amazon selling the Fire HD 6 tablet for half the price. But there's been a movement lately by companies such as Kobo toward creating higher-end e-readers with higher-resolution displays that sell for more. They're targeted at heavy readers who want the best dedicated e-reader available. And that's exactly what the Kindle Voyage is: a great e-reader that just isn't cheap.

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The Kindle Voyage is Still the Best 6-inch Kindle

September 19, 2020 by Nathan 38 Comments

Amazon released the Kindle Voyage back in November 2014, and to this day it’s still the best 6-inch ebook reader that Amazon has released. It has the best screen and the nicest design. Some even consider it the best Kindle ever because they don’t like the asymmetrical design of the Kindle Oasis.

How often does a company release a product that was better 6 years ago than what they offer today? It’s pretty strange when you think about it.

I’ll admit, I didn’t love the Kindle Voyage when it first came out. The first one I got had a really blotchy frontlight with a distracting gradient. But some years back I picked up a used Kindle Voyage on eBay that was in like new condition and it has a much better frontlight than the first one I had.

Of all the ebook readers that have been released since 2014, I still choose to use the Kindle Voyage when I’m away from the house because the streamlined design fits in a pocket easier than the Kindle Oasis, and the reason I like the Kindle Voyage better than other 6-inch ereaders is the fact that the screen is super crisp and clear—something that hasn’t been replicated since frontlight and capacitive touchscreen layers started degrading the clarity of E Ink screens.

Back before frontlights and capacitive touchscreens were a common feature on ebook readers, E Ink screens had an exceptionally clear quality to them, where the text almost appeared to float above the background, even on lower resolution screens. Unfortunately those days are long gone now that everything has touchscreens and frontlights, but something about the Kindle Voyage’s screen made it appear clearer than others, despite having a glass layer over the screen.

Another thing I like about the Kindle Voyage is the page sensor buttons along each side of the screen. I don’t like having to readjust my thumb with every page turn so having a button to press down on is essential for me.

The only thing I don’t like about the Voyage is the bezels are so narrow it’s impossible for my thumb not to inadvertently interact with the touchscreen. Luckily when using a cover it adds just enough thickness to the side so I can use the buttons without activating the touchscreen (it would be nice if the Voyage had the ability to disable the touchscreen like newer models).

I find it odd that I’d still rather use a Kindle Voyage that’s six years old over any of the newer 6-inch Kindles and other 6-inch models. I do like the physical page buttons on the Kindle Oasis better, and I do find it a bit more comfortable to hold with the asymmetrical design, but the portability factor takes a hit because it’s too wide to comfortably fit in a pocket, and the Voyage still has slightly better contrast and better battery life.

Who else still prefers using a Kindle Voyage after all these years? It’s a shame Amazon never released a newer version, and it’s been so long since the Voyage was produced they can only be found used these days. Even all the refurbished stock has dried up.

Reader Interactions

September 19, 2020 at 9:27 am

My Voyage’s battery is getting weaker after almost 6 years. Nothing bad, it will last for another 4-5 years with a bit of luck. That butterfly cover, as you said, add just enough on the sides. And it’s the best thing to have to put your Kindle on the table on an airplane. I actually don’t appreciate the buttons on the sides. I still automatically touch the screen to turn a page. Overall I totally agree with you and I even wrote to Amazon: it is the best Kindle of all!

September 20, 2020 at 6:04 pm

There is a YouTube video on replacing the battery on the Kindle Voyage. https://youtu.be/zFqBrIE4mT0

September 20, 2020 at 6:05 pm

I still have the Voyage and is still great.

September 19, 2020 at 11:13 am

I think it’s the best 6 inch Kindle when the light is turned off. Deep pitch black inky fonts, slim sexy design with nice curves. Light in the handle yet with a premium feel. However, the lack of uniformity with the lighting was what destroyed it’s potential. Throughout the years I’ve had 13 voyages, and they all had terrible lighting.

September 19, 2020 at 10:18 pm

Interesting. I have only had one Kindle Voyage. The lighting and screen were perfect from the start and it’s still great six years later. I have had no problems at all with it.

September 21, 2020 at 2:55 am

“Throughout the years I’ve had 13 voyages, and they all had terrible lighting.”

That’s persistence.

September 19, 2020 at 12:33 pm

I agree with everything you said. Unfortunately I managed to break my glass, so it’s basically a beautiful brick now. I would likely have replaced it with another Voyage if I could have, using the $5+20% trade-in. But since the Voyage was no longer available, I moved to a Kobo Libra specifically because of what you said about the narrow bezel and I did also want the orange light.

September 19, 2020 at 5:55 pm

I have three of them in various parts of my house and vastly prefer the Voyage over the Oasis.

September 19, 2020 at 2:24 pm

This is why I’ve not replaced my voyage. Some of the features on newer kindles are tempting (especially the waterproofing), bit they just don’t have the same form factor and functionality of the voyage with its ‘buttons’ and slim size.

September 19, 2020 at 2:36 pm

It really was nice. That said, it’s also the only kindle I’ve owned that ever randomly died (annoyingly out of warranty). Along with the risky light situation, it seems like the design had its issues.

September 19, 2020 at 5:52 pm

love my voyage. bought it used from amazon for about $60 when i lost my kobo clara. wish they’d do a re-release

September 21, 2020 at 1:14 am

In 2014 I bought my son a lightly used 7th generation Kindle. For his 11th birthday this summer I upgraded him to the current 2018 Paperwhite since he wore out the old one. He loves the upgrade. I expected to envy him that shiny new device since my beloved Voyage is indeed 5 years old. However, I find I just don’t and much prefer my “dinosaur” with its beautifully clear text and page turn buttons. I hope it lasts many more years!

I do suggest to anyone who has loves their Voyage and has considered getting a new case that they do so sooner than later. My choices were surprisingly slim compared to when I last looked.

September 19, 2020 at 5:59 pm

I loved my kindle voyage.. I used it constantly – – I read 10 hours a night at least. However, just a couple of months ago I could no longer charge it. The charger wouldn’t make a connection to charge it up. So I’m now back to my original paperwhite, which I’ve not used since I bought my Voyage – – when it first came out. (I do keep all devices charged up whether being used or not).

September 20, 2020 at 2:31 am

10 hours a night? Do you have a job? 😂

September 20, 2020 at 12:53 pm

I am retired! I climb into bed at 10 and usually read til at least 6. But I read some during the day. Sleep in the morning. Retirement, quarantine, and living alone mean my own schedule!

November 17, 2020 at 10:22 pm

Sign me up! This is the life I want :).

April 28, 2021 at 2:38 pm

I love my Voyage. I’ve had it since 2014…. I do not want physical buttons, that’s one of the things I love about it. Also the Oasis being asymmetrical drives me crazy to look at. Not sure if it would be super distracting to me…..

September 19, 2020 at 9:20 pm

Best ebook reader made for sure. Great size. Great battery. Love the haptic feedback on page turn. Love the forward and back buttons on both sides of bezel. Just an outstanding design.

Love mine. Use it everyday. Considered getting a larger screen but the clarity of text is impossible to beat on the voyager.

September 19, 2020 at 10:13 pm

I still prefer the Kindle Voyage as well.

September 19, 2020 at 11:57 pm

I wonder why Amazon cannot consider producing an 8 or 10 inch voyage kindle with buttons on. That would be my dream cone true….

September 19, 2020 at 11:58 pm

a typo – come not cone.

September 20, 2020 at 2:11 am

I loved my Voyage too but I lent it to my sister so my nephew could use it and they still have it. I was trying the new basic Kindle at the time and didn’t go back. I would love if Amazon brought it back out I much prefer either the page turn sensors or the buttons. The Oasis is a bit pricey for me to upgrade just to have the buttons but I would consider it on the cheaper Kindles.

September 20, 2020 at 4:29 am

Own two Kindle Voyage, and still use them, swapping with a Tolino Epos (V1). Would like to see both an updated Voyage and an updated Voyage with a bigger screen.

The newer, higher end Tolinos epos 2 and vision 5 are also both asymmetric, which I hate. And the epos 2 is way to expensive. They are Kobos with a different firmware. It is ok, with some nice touches, but for normal reading there is not much difference. The bigger screen is ok for PDF, but I would prefer the Sony PRS-T1 for PDF (better software). This is also true for the Kindle Voyage.

September 20, 2020 at 5:25 am

I will leave my Voyage to the Science Museum. It is a national treasure.

Best screen of any ereader by far.

It was my first Kindle with nearly perfect lighting. There was a single bright spot. The replacement from Amazon is perfect. I just wish it was a bit warmer now that I have an Oasis to play with.

September 20, 2020 at 8:10 am

There’s a hack to turn off the touchscreen, if that’s your thing.

September 20, 2020 at 9:12 am

Agree with most here that the Kindle Voyage is the best ereader Amazon has made to-date. including the Oasis. Strongly prefer it over all the others, even newer models, and await a worthy successor. Amazon folks, I hope you’re tuned in.

September 20, 2020 at 11:01 am

I bought a Voyage for myself when I decided to make the plunge into the Kindle world. I’d gotten my wife a Paperwhite a year or two earlier and she’d loved it, but I wanted the better specs (especially lighting and screen res) of the Voyage. Loved my new reader!!! When the Oasis came out, my wife was wanting a new Kindle – and was envious of my lighting and screen res – so I got her an Oasis. I found I was envious of the larger screen … and interestingly, she didn’t like the larger screen … so we traded. We both love our respective devices. I think anyone who complains about either (other than pricing) must’ve gotten a bad unit!!!

September 20, 2020 at 12:07 pm

The voyage had light uniformity problems. I believe Nathan has also mentioned it throughout the years and on YouTube videos. Very sleek device and aesthetically pleasing. They should do a re-release in an 8 inch form factor. Hopefully they could get the lighting right this time.

September 20, 2020 at 3:17 pm

Kindle Voyage that I have is my “go to” e reader. Love the portability.

September 20, 2020 at 8:30 pm

I’m hanging on to my Voyage as long as possible. It is my favorite also.

September 21, 2020 at 2:47 am

Nice to get your points of view.

September 22, 2020 at 9:38 pm

I love my Kindle Voyage!

September 23, 2020 at 10:33 am

I have and still use Kindle Voyage. I would really like a larger screen and no glass screen for an updated model. Or perhaps a new e-reader with a larger screen and symmetrical buttons. I doubt Amazon will do this, though.

November 5, 2020 at 7:27 am

I still use a Voyage everyday. Battery life is still much better than my Oasis, and as others mentioned the portability makes it my travelling reader. But most of all, the Voyage does really have the best screen; ?I bought one in 2016, 2 years after its release and I think all the kinks in its initial production runs were smoothed over to provide a flawless screen and excellent lighting.

I still like the amber glow of the Oasis for nighttime reading and keep it handy near my bed, and as both devices synch flawlessly, I really enjoy reading from both.

January 14, 2021 at 1:56 pm

Yep, I prefer Kindle Voyage. Just bought a used one in very good condition when mine died. Text is sharper on this screen than on the Oasis.

January 8, 2022 at 9:02 am

If my Voyage ever dies I’ll strongly consider an Oasis but when my 2014 one died suddenly in 2017 I tried a Kindle non voyage again and within weeks was looking for another Voyage . I found a “used like new ” one and have been averaging about 2 hours a week since then. I only get about 2 weeks of battery life before I need to charge it but for being getting on 5 years old AND was used prior I’m ecstatic . The leather vertical flip cover (igadgitz brand ) is well worn but still does the trick with its hand hold on the back . With the new paperwhite and paperwhite signature being released with just about all the bells and whistles hopefully the next paperwhite will have side buttons like my Voyage , the biggest reason I prefer it over all others .

May 13, 2023 at 11:33 pm

In 2023, the Kindle Voyage still has the sharpest, best screen of all e-book readers manufactured since 2014. Especially reading at night, Kindle Voyage is simply the clearest screen. All the others, even 5 times more expensive, are fuzzy compared to Voyage. I can live without buttons or other bells, but when you mess up the screen sharpness to acomodate the useless yellow light technology… that is a dealbreaker for me.

May 26, 2023 at 7:40 pm

What a cool little support forum for the Voyage! Maybe if someone could tell Amazon to check out this thread, we’d have a new Voyage soon! Anyway, ditto everyone- I love my Voyage (although I might try to install a new battery- fingers crossed). I’ve never had issues with the light, I love the side buttons, and my little leather cover makes it the perfect portable hand-hold! Seriously- if Amazon saw this and used our feedback, they’d have a brand new 6″ winner to sell.

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Kindle Voyage Review

Kindle voyage.

The e-reader that shines the brightest

• Outstanding screen
• Reliable backlight
• Intuitive controls

Key Specifications

• Review Price: £169.00
• 6-inch high-resolution display
• Built-in light with adaptive lighting system
• Pressure-sensitive bezels
• 1GHz processor
• 4GB of onboard storage
• Six-week battery life

What is the Amazon Kindle Voyage?

The Kindle Voyage is Amazon’s top-of-the-range e-reader. Like the excellent Kindle Paperwhite , the Voyage has a 6-inch backlit touchscreen, but its screen is sharper and clearer. The Kindle Voyage is also slightly thinner and lighter, supports a clever new origami case and adds new ‘haptic’ controls for turning pages. At £169, it’s also £60 dearer than the Paperwhite. Is that too much?

For existing Paperwhite owners, yes: the Paperwhite’s still a fine e-reader, after all. But if you have an older Kindle then the Voyage is an outstanding upgrade. Is it expensive? Certainly, but it’s also the very best there is and will stand the test of time.

Amazon Kindle Voyage video review

Amazon kindle voyage – screen.

In isolation, it’s easy to wonder why you would spend this much on a Kindle when a tablet like the Tesco Hudl 2 is available for less and ‘does more’. It’s a perfectly reasonable argument to make and, if your requirements lean towards a tablet, you shouldn’t give the Kindle Voyage a second thought – you may want to consider the Kindle Fire HD 6 or any of our best cheap tablets . But if you’re mainly interested in reading then the Voyage’s outstanding screen is worth the entrance fee alone.

Like the Paperwhite, the Kindle Voyage has a 6-inch backlit display, but it improves on it in a couple of important ways. One, it has more pixels, which makes it sharper; two, the backlight automatically adjusts to select the right level for the ambient light. These two qualities and the anti-glare nature of an e-ink screen make reading on the Kindle Voyage a pleasure that no tablet can match.

How much sharper is the Kindle Voyage? At 300ppi (pixels per inch), it’s about as sharp as most ‘retina’ phones or tablets and around 35 per cent sharper than the Kindle Paperwhite. The difference is noticeable, particularly as it means you can read smaller text with greater comfort. More so than ever, reading on the Kindle Voyage feels just like a book or newspaper. If you’ve previously resisted e-readers on account of fuzziness, the Voyage may well convert you.

The adaptive brightness, meanwhile, is a subtle but brilliant addition. The main benefit is that it selects the right brightness for the conditions. You could do this manually, but the automatic system works very well and it’s one less distraction from remaining absorbed in your book. It also smartly changes the brightness very gradually, so you don’t get distracting jumps. This is equally true when switching from bright light to complete darkness, as the Night Light setting gradually reduces the brightness as your eyes become accustomed to darkness.

The Kindle Voyage really comes into its own when reading in the dark. You notice the sharper text all the more and you suffer none of the eye-strain that tablet a generates even at its lowest brightness setting. And, of course, when outdoors the Kindle is in a completely different league – nothing new there.

Amazon Kindle Voyage – Design

The Kindle Voyage looks and feels great, though the differences between it and the Paperwhite are subtle. It’s marginally slimmer and lighter, but marginally is the word, while the rear adopts the same two-tone gloss and soft-touch finish as the Kindle Fire tablet range. It’s fine, but nothing to get excited about.

More interesting are the new PagePress controls, which mimic the physical controls of older Kindles but using pressure-sensitive ‘haptics’ instead. This means you never have to move your hand, as you simply squeeze the edge where your hand already rests to turn the page.

Opinions vary on how useful the PagePress buttons are, but we really like them. They’re more convenient than tapping the screen each time, but they don’t disrupt the smooth lines of the Kindle’s frame. The only tricky problem is that they’re slightly hard to locate in the dark, but their location soon becomes second nature and you can still resort to tapping the screen.

The touchscreen itself is pleasantly responsive, though the e-ink screen still isn’t slick enough to emulate the speed and responsiveness of a tablet. We much prefer the smooth finish of the Kindle Voyage’s display, though. The Paperwhite’s slightly recessed screen has an unpleasant coarse texture, but the Kindle Voyage’s is smooth. It’s a small detail, but it’s another that makes the Kindle Voyage nicer to use.

Other things to consider

Battery life is an historical strength of Kindles, albeit one reduced by the introduction of backlights. Amazon claims up to six weeks when used 30 minutes per day with wireless turned off and the backlight set to 10. We found four weeks is a more realistic figure for a regular reader.

As with most recent Kindles, the Voyage doesn’t have a headphone jack, so it doesn’t support audio books. We don’t feel this is a huge problem, though, as a phone or MP3 player are a more convenient means of listening to them.

Format is another thorny issue for some, as the Kindle Voyage doesn’t support ePub books from other stores. Existing Kindle owners will have made their peace with this long ago, but if you’d rather not be locked into Amazon’s ecosystem – excellent though it is – then nothing has changed here.

Finally, Amazon has introduced new cases for the Voyage, priced from £35 up to £55 for the leather version. The main feature is the folding ‘origami’ stand, which is perfect for propping on tray tables. It’s also magnetic – it clips on magnetically and the front cover automatically wakes and sleeps the Kindle when opened.

Should I buy the Amazon Kindle Voyage?

We’d prefer it if the Amazon Kindle Voyage were £20 cheaper – it feels expensive. But it’s also an outstanding product and the very best e-reader on the market. The screen is great, the PagePress system is a small but useful improvement, and the Amazon Kindle ecosystem remains incredibly strong.

This is also the first e-reader that really looks as crisp and readable as a real book. Add in the benefits for night-time reading and the convenience that the Kindle Voyage affords, and it’s a great choice for anyone for whom reading is their favourite pastime.

The ultimate e-reader for the serious bookworm, though some will be put off by the price.

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Amazon Kindle Voyage Review

Laptop mag verdict.

Featuring a brighter and sharper backlit E-Ink display and new touch controls, the Amazon Kindle Voyage is the sleekest e-reader yet.

Premium materials and construction

Smart and even front light

Helpful parental controls

Physical page turn buttons

Shorter battery life than the competition

Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

While all its other e-readers cost less than $150, Amazon is going upscale with the Kindle Voyage. This $200 device has a sleek new design, a brighter, crisper e-Ink display, and a fancy new page-turning method. Plus, it's got access to Amazon's huge library of inexpensive content. But, at $80 more than other e-readers, such as the Amazon Paperwhite, is the Voyage worth the trip?

Click to Enlarge The Amazon Kindle Voyage looks downright sexy; it's sleek, thin and lightweight. While it's a basic black rectangle with rounded corners--the same shape as the Paperwhite--a reinforced glass screen covers the front of the device, with a black bezel surrounding the E Ink screen.

Along the right and left bezels is a dot with a line beneath. These ingeniously serve as Amazon's new "physical" buttons, called PagePress, which are pressure-sensitive and also provide haptic feedback. Pressing the line will flip a book to the next page, and pressing the dot will take you back.

The rear of the Voyage is made of a single piece of magnesium for a durable and classy look. Each edge is angled up and out, reminiscent of the Amazon Fire tablet's design. The only actual button you'll see is the power button on the top right.

MORE: Amazon Kindle App: Full Review

The Voyage weighs just 6.3 ounces (Wi-Fi only), and measures 6.4 x 4.5 x 0.3 inches. The $119 Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (6.7 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches; 7.3 ounces) and the Nook GlowLight (6.5 x 5 x 0.42 inches; 6.2 ounces) are both bigger and heavier.

Click to Enlarge  Side by side, text was crisp and clear on the Voyage, and easier on the eyes than the Paperwhite or GlowLight.

But Amazon's enhancements don't stop there. The flush front glass that covers the Voyage's front is micro-etched to reduce glare and feel more like a printed page. In bright light we didn't notice many reflections.

Like the Paperwhite, the Voyage also uses Amazon's front-light technology, which lets you read in the dark. Using our lightmeter, the Voyage measured a bright 496 lux, nearly identical to the GlowLight's 490 lux, and far brighter than the Paperwhite's 333 lux. Not only was it the brightest, but of the three, the Voyage also offered the most even lighting.

The light on the Voyage isn't just bright, it's smart. In the light's controls you can set the light to auto adjust based on the ambient light around you. In my well-lit living room, it auto adjusted to 9, but when I stepped outside on a bright day, the display auto-adjusted to 16. Plus, when it's time to read in bed, the light will gradually dim itself over an hour or so, as your eyes adjust to the light and you prepare to sleep.

User Interface

Click to Enlarge The Kindle's interface is as easy to navigate as always. The home screen lists recently viewed or downloaded titles as thumbnail images of the book covers. The top bar houses a series of icons for home, back, light, shopping, search, Goodreads and settings. This navigation bar can follow you into the content as you read it, but only as a drop-down menu when you tap the top of the page.

Just below the menu bar on the home page, you can toggle between your Amazon library of content in the cloud or what's on the device. Content can be sorted by type, title, author and most recently received. The second row of thumbnail images shows book recommendations. You can swipe across either row to advance the lists of books and magazines.

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The menu button reveals options to shop, view ads, change to List View, create a content collection, check for new items, tweak the settings and open the browser. Interestingly, you can also set to read in landscape mode, instead of portrait.

Within a book, the menu options include displaying book or author descriptions. You can sync to the furthest page read, bookmark and open notes. Within a periodical, this bar allows you to "Clip This Article" for reading later.

The menu button also houses a couple new additions. FreeTime is Amazon's parental controls, extended even to e-readers. You can create profiles for up to four children in your family, which allows you to block access to the Kindle store, Web browser, Wikipedia and social sharing.

Reading Experience

Click to Enlarge When viewing Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, the Voyage offered sharper text and crisper images than either the Paperwhite or the GlowLight. Page turns were instantaneous and pretty much identical to the Kindle Paperwhite.

Although I've always preferred buttons to tapping or swiping, I found PagePress easy to use. In the settings, you can manually adjust both the amount of pressure required to turn a page and the amount of haptic feedback you get from pressing. You can also turn the page by tapping or swiping on the display. It also made the e-reader comfortable to hold with one hand. Simply holding my finger over the button didn't advance the pages on accident.

Amazon also adds some unique features to enhance the reading experience on all its e-readers.

As you're reading, if you press and hold on a word, a pop-up window will appear with options for the Dictionary, X-Ray and Wikipedia. Amazon's Vocabulary Builder will remember what words you pressed, and at any point, you can look up the words and test yourself (or your child) with flashcards.

X-Ray offers a CliffsNotes-like experience of a book, letting you know at a glance how often and where in a book a specific character or term appears. For example, using X-Ray when reading  The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, I could easily see that Bilbo Baggins Esquire dominates the book, but Gollum only appears in two sections.

Upcoming Features

Amazon plans to roll out an update this fall that will add more features to this already impressive e-reader. Word Wise, designed for those who are learning to read, automatically displays very short and simple definitions above difficult words. You can adjust how the device determines the difficulty level of the words by moving a slider.

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Family Library solves one of my biggest gripes since the beginning of e-readers: the inability to easily share content across a family. Coming soon, you'll be able to link two adults' accounts. That means you'll have access to your e-books as well as your partner's.

Click to Enlarge The Voyage's on-screen keyboard features small square keys. Tapping one causes it to blink black for a moment, which is a bit distracting. The predictive typing feature helped compensate for errors, but I wish the keys offered haptic feedback. The lag in keeping up with my typing is noticeable, so don't expect to compose long messages or notes.

Kindle Content

Click to Enlarge Amazon's e-book library is best-in-class. The e-tailer offers millions of books, newspapers and magazines, as well as a huge library of exclusive titles (600,000). It also offers the best prices around. Among the most recent top 10 e-book fiction bestsellers, as listed by The New York Times, Amazon charged an average of $10, compared with $10.47 for Barnes & Noble and $12.19 for Kobo e-books.

Amazon also boasts more than 1 million titles for $4.99 or less and millions of out-of-copyright books for free. Anyone can download and read the first chapters of a book for free via Amazon's Sample feature. But if you subscribe to the Amazon Prime membership service (a one-month free trial followed by $99 per year), you can borrow from among hundreds of thousands of e-books. You get access to only one book at a time, but there are no due dates.

As an avid reader, I love the Kindle Matchbook feature. Through Matchbook you can purchase Kindle editions of Amazon print books you purchased as far back as 2007, for $2.99 or less. Also, Amazon now offers a Kindle First program where you can access one e-book a month ahead of its official release date. For Prime members this is free, otherwise it costs $1.99 per month.

Like Barnes & Noble and Kobo, Amazon lets users lend some Kindle books to other Kindle or Kindle app users. Eligible books -- those marked as Lending Enabled -- can be lent for up to 14 days. Recipients have seven days to accept, or the book is returned to your archives.

Non-Kindle Content

Outside the Amazon world, the Kindle supports TXT, PDF, DOC, DOCX, MOBI, PRC and HTML formats. That means you can download millions of free, out-of-copyright books from such sources as archive.org. The Kindle can also read JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP image files.

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Public libraries are also accessible from the new Kindle. E-books from more than 10,000 local institutions retain Kindle features such as notes and highlights. And when your e-book checkout expires, you can check it out again or buy it from the Kindle store.

Click to Enlarge Amazon's experimental browser on its e-readers is still as bare-bones as ever. From the home page Menu button, you're presented with a page of bookmarks that includes Amazon, Google.com, Yahoo and NYTimes.com. It look 11 seconds to load Laptopmag.com over a Wi-Fi connection, 14 seconds to load NYTimes.com and 12 seconds to load ESPN.com. We wouldn't recommend using this browser for Web searches, as it was buggy and there were a lot of flashes on the screen.

Battery Life

The Voyage should last up to six weeks, according to Amazon. That claim is based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at a low 10. That's two weeks less than what is promised by the Amazon Paperwhite and the Nook GlowLight.

Configurations

Click to Enlarge Our review unit of the Kindle Voyage, which came with 3G built in and without ads on the lock screen, costs $269. If you can do without the ads and are happy with Wi-Fi only, you'll pay $199. That's still a pretty far cry from the Kindle Paperwhite, which costs just $119 and has many of the same features.

Bottom Line

Real bookworms know E Ink is the way to go when it comes to e-readers. And in the world of e-readers, the $199 Kindle Voyage is the best device yet. I love the glare-free, glass display, smart lighting and the PagePress page-turning buttons. For $80 less, you can pick up the Kindle Paperwhite, offers the same parental control features, and a front light for nighttime reading. But if you demand the very best reading experience and are willing to pay for it, the Voyage is simply fantastic.

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Kindle Voyage Review: The Best E-Reader Lots of Money Can Buy

For the last week, I've been reading off of a Kindle e-reader that somehow costs twice as much as a brand new Kindle Fire HD tablet. What a world! And while I still don't know if the Kindle Voyage is worth $200 (or $290 for the 3G model) I do know that it's the best e-reader ever built.

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What is it.

Amazon's attempt to create an ultra-lux e-reader: an edge-to-edge glass-screened marvel that can hold more books within its borders than you could ever hope to read. While it starts at $200 (Wi-Fi only, with special offers peppering your screensaver) you can kit it up to $290 if you'd like to add 3G and prefer your display ad-free and have strong opinions about where to summer on the Cape.

Why Does It Matter?

You can only buy so many bocce ball courts before you start itching for other ways to spend. Also! The Kindle Paperwhite , while a terrifically handy e-reader, has just about maxed out its potential, to the point that it didn't even get an update this year. Stagnation is boring. The Kindle Voyage is not.

While the Voyage is clearly identifiable as a genus of the Kindle e-reader family, you're unlikely to mistake it for a Paperwhite or, heaven forbid, Amazon's $80 entry-level bruiser.

We'll get the tale of the tape out of the way first; the Voyage is 7.6mm thick to the Paperwhite's 9.1mm. It weighs an ounce less. And it shaves a little off the height and the width, but not enough that you'll likely notice. Those specs are booooring, though, compared to what Amazon's actually done here.

The Paperwhite, and most e-readers of the last few years, have looked basically the same; rounded corners on a flat, roughly hand-sized frame with about a pencil's thickness. The Voyage forsakes the bland—but, it should be noted, more book-like—posteriors of its cheaper E-Ink brethren for the gently sloping angles of the Kindle Fire HDX tablet. It's a subtle difference in grip-ability, but also a noticeable improvement. You can comfortably hold a Voyage in one hand for longer than you can a Paperwhite—although you're not looking at much hardship either way given how light and well-balanced they both are.

Kindle Voyage vs. Kindle Paperwhite vs. $80 Kindle

The now-circular power button has also moved to the rear, just north of where your index finger naturally lies. Previous Kindles have placed the power button at the bottom of the device, which sounds like a small difference, but not having to contort your thumb to turn your e-reader on and off has turned out to be one of my favorite improvements. I never realized I hated the other version so much until I was given this alternative.

In fact, just about the only carryover from the Kindle Paperwhite is the size of the six-inch display. Everything else has changed for the better.

Where the Paperwhite and other Kindles feature an inset plastic display, the Voyage is smooth edge-to-edge glass. There's no hard plastic bezel here. And while there are no physical page turn buttons, you can advance or retreat in a book just by gently squeezing the device's edges. Each side has two indicators for what Amazon is calling PagePress; squeeze the long one to turn the page forward, the short one to go back. And you can still tap on the display itself to navigate through the book or the Voyage's various menus.

The display's most notable feature, though, is that it packs in 300 dots per inch, a number that's totally meaningless until you learn that the Paperwhite has a mere 212 dpi, which is still mostly without meaning until you look at the difference in practice, which you can see right here:

From reading distance, the difference isn't nearly as perceptible, although you appreciate it more as you get down to the smallest font settings. But while you could convince yourself that the Paperwhite could pass for a book if you were feeling charitable and had a few drinks, the Kindle Voyage manages to look more like ink printed on a book than some books that I own.

You can also fork over an extra $45 (or $60, if you're into leather) for what Amazon calls an origami cover. Which, obviously, gets its name from the ability to fold into itself to become a stand for your Kindle, a job it performs admirably. Bonus points, too, for having a front that looks a bit like a smushed-down Predator face. Mine came in an electric yellowish color that I wouldn't recommend unless you wanted to warn nearby hunters of your presence.

The Voyage snucks in nicely to the origami cover, thanks to a cozy magnetic grip, but you do end up with added weight. And while it's great when you're propping your device up for hands-free reading, it's significantly less comfortable to hold than a naked Voyage. I ultimately would have preferred to go without a cover at all, but then I remembered that the Voyage wasn't actually mine, and that replacing a cracked screen would cost more than two dozen minor league baseball game tickets.

I'm outside, in my backyard, on a bright early fall day. I prop my Kindle Voyage up on the arm of an Adirondack chair and try to make headway on The Luminaries (it's so good but so long!). I forget that I'm supposed to be checking for glare from the sun, because there is no glare to check, because the Kindle Voyage has micro-etched glass that won't allow it.

I'm in bed, not quite ready for another night of oppressive work dreams. I dig into a Kindle Single about the early days of Late Night with David Letterman that I checked out of the Kindle Owners Lending Library. I forget that I'm supposed to be critiquing how well the frontlighting is distributed over the display—I love my Paperwhite dearly, but sometimes in the dark it looks like a poorly uplit high school production of Vanya —because there's nothing to critique. The light is perfectly distributed across every square centimeter.

I'm in my living room, downloading Simon Rich's new collection over 3G. I want to note how long it takes, but it's up on my screen so quickly that there's really no point unless I wanted to measure it in blinks. As I read, I finally notice some very subtle ghosting, memories of pages past haunting the Voyage in a barely perceptible way. I head to the options menu and select Refresh Every Page, ready to accept the trade-off of slower page turns in exchange for a crisper read. Various laws of physics say they must have been slower... but not in a way I could notice.

To sum up: if the point of a Kindle is to take away all other distractions so that you can just read, the Voyage is the pinnacle of that process to date.

And when you do want to do non-reading things, or more probably supplementary things like taking notes or highlighting, you'll be able to get them done faster thanks to the Voyage's responsiveness. The keyboard, crucially, has so much less lag than the Paperwhite that switching back to the older device feels a little torturous.

That's not to say that the Voyage is perfect. It is not! PagePress is a neat idea, but the feedback it gives every time you squeeze feels like a ligament twinge. It makes me uncomfortable. The Voyage is the first Kindle with an adaptive front light that adjusts based on the brightness of the room, but it never quite adjusted to where I wanted it. Similarly, the new Nightlight feature—which gradually lowers the brightness so that your eyes can adjust to the dark—works as promised, but I didn't find it particularly useful. I also think it's time to put the experimental web browser out of its misery, not that you'll be tempted to use it in the first place.

I'm also a little concerned about the battery life. After a week of consistent but not intensive reading, mostly with Wi-Fi on, I'm down to about 50 percent. That's certainly not bad, but it's not weeks and weeks. I wouldn't want to pack the Voyage for a vacation without remembering a charger, which is one more thing to worry about, which is antithetical to the point of a Kindle—or a vacation, for that matter—in the first place.

It's the best display I've ever seen on an e-reader, and maybe more importantly the best-frontlit display. Pages turn about as quickly as it takes to snap your fingers, which incidentally feels like a delightful magic trick. Search, highlighting, and annotation also have less lag than ever, thanks to a keyboard that actually registers your input in something close to real-time.

The Voyage is also more comfortable to hold than any other e-reader I've used, as long as you're willing to keep it out of a case.

There aren't a ton of new software tricks here, but it's worth mentioning that Amazon helps you find things to read, and navigate through what you're already reading, better than anyone else.

Don't Like

I'm a little worried about the battery life. The haptic feedback on PagePress makes something deep down inside me cringe a little. For this much money, I wish it was either waterproof or came with a nice steak dinner.

Should I Buy It?

It's tricky to say whether something like the Voyage is worth it ; so much depends on your personal ratio of "financial means" to "love of reading books on E-Ink displays with roof-shattering DPI."

If you have enough money that you simply want the best and don't care what it costs, get the Voyage. If you don't mind the occasional splurge, or want to get a gift that says I sprung for the nice one , get the Voyage . It is the best, full stop. Just keep in mind that best doesn't perfect; in the next few years we'll almost certainly see a Voyage that's much cheaper, or waterproof, or both. PagePress could use some refinement, as could the light sensor. Someday we might have Mirasol displays , or something like them, offering the option of full color . But that's then! This is now. I'd just recommend going with the Wi-Fi only version to save yourself some cash.

I suspect, though, that for many people the $100 Paperwhite is more than good enough, in the same way that for many people—myself included—a $12 bottle of wine is just as satisfying as $100 bottle. Even if you can tell the difference, it's usually not enough to justify the expense. And in this case, the $100 you save on your Kindle can go towards the most important part of any e-reader: the books you fill it with.

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Amazon Kindle Voyage review

Sharper, brighter and quicker, amazon's kindle voyage is its finest ereader yet.

“This is, without question, the best Kindle ebook reader yet. Between the improved specs and Amazon’s reading ecosystem, it’s the best E Ink reader you can buy.”

• Great Screen
• Slim Profile
• Excellent overall reading ecosystem
• No expandable storage
• More locked down ecosystem than competing readers

This time last year, Amazon seemed content to rest on its ebook reader laurels. That’s no knock against the last Kindle Paperwhite. It was a fine device, but at its heart, the reader was little more than a slight upgrade, a mostly modest refining of its predecessor’s shortcomings aimed at offering some reassurance that the company hadn’t completely abandoned the space for $200 tablets. At the time, we called it a “holding pattern.”

If nothing else, the Kindle Voyage is a sign that the ebook ship  hasn’t sailed. Amazon still has some R&D money to spend on the space, and it’s willing to gamble that big-time readers are still willing to shell out a bit of their own hard-earned money on just such a device. Lots of it, in fact. This time out, Amazon eschewed its longstanding view of the Kindle as a content delivery device, instead delivering a reader with premium specs that’s as focused on cutting-edge hardware as it is the books it’s delivering.

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The Kindle Voyage is a sign that the ebook ship  hasn’t sailed.

The new Kindle also comes with a starting price of $200 — that’s a number that includes the company’s “Special Offers” (built-in advertising). Dumping that adds $20 to the price, and 3G will set you back another $70. All told, it’s a pretty sizable premium over the base Kindle’s $70 starting price. That translates to a lot of books.

A svelter Kindle

With this generation, the Kindle finally sheds its plastic bezel, following the lead of Kobo’s high-end Aura devices. The display and bezel are now one contiguous piece, which serves to not only make the reader more aesthetically pleasing, but also shaves a few precious fractions of an inch from its footprint.

The reader is noticeably smaller in each dimension, down to 6.4 x 4.5 x 0.30 inches from 6.7 x 4.6 x 0.36 inches. It was possible to slip the Paperwhite in the front pocket of a pair of jeans, but this time you can manage it with minimal maneuvering, making the reader portable. At 6.3 ounces for the Wi-Fi version and 6.6 ounces for 3G, Amazon’s also managed to shed a full ounce, just in time for fall coat season.

Even more interesting than the flush bezel is Amazon’s return to page-turn buttons. Unlike the Nook Simple Touch, the Kindle shed all of its buttons, save for power when it made the move to touchscreen. This was long a pet peeve of of mine, as a frequent one-handed subway reader (gotta be mindful of those sudden stops). Now, the company has maneuvered its way back into my good graces with the inclusion of not two, but four buttons devoted to the cause.

The touch spots are designation by dots and lines. You can either tap sides with a thumb or give them a good, hearty squeeze, the latter of which will respond with a friendly haptic buzz. Strangely, holding down on the button won’t make the pages to flip continuous, but rapidly pressing down will cause things to turn pretty fast.

The display and bezel are now one contiguous piece.

The power button has been moved to the back as well, thanks to the slimmer profile. It’s actually an ideal position for turning the device on and off while holding it in the reading position.

The back is also emblazoned with a huge Amazon logo smack dab in the middle. All-in-all, there’s a lot going on back there, and, from an aesthetic standpoint, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t partial to the simplicity of older Kindles. But let’s be honest: If you’re shelling out $200 plus a reader, you’re going to want a case for the thing, which means you likely won’t be spending a lot of time staring at the back anyway.

And really, that’s an extremely minor quibble. At its heart, the hardware is the product of a company with years of experience in a space pulling out all the stops, and it’s a lovely thing to behold.

Under the hood

Amazon never did come around on expandable storage. But while we’d certainly never turn down the option, its relative merits have become less pronounced over the years, between all of Amazon’s cloud-based storage, cross-platform syncing, and internal storage increases. A couple of months back, the company quietly doubled the Paperwhite’s storage from 2GB to 4GB and the company carried that number over to the Voyage.

That translates to 3GB of space for books. Amazon’s apparently given up on keeping track of the number of books you can store on the thing, just listing “thousands” as the number in the product’s specs. If that’s not enough, the company still has a list of every book you’ve purchased along with where you left off easily accessible in the Cloud tab on the device’s main menu.

Per usual, Amazon’s mum on processor specifics, stating that chip is “20 percent faster” this go-round. That’s compared to a 1GHz model on the second-gen Paperwhite. You’re unlikely to notice that difference while reading. Placed side by side against the last generation, there’s no discernible difference in page-turn speed. The Voyage is, on the other hand, noticeably zippier when performing bigger tasks, such as opening a book.

At this point, what you’re looking at is pretty comparable to the printed page.

Speaking of wireless, the options are the same as always: Wi-Fi and 3G. Given the $70 price difference, the base model will be plenty connected enough for most users. Frequent traveling voracious readers who really hate waiting on the other hand, might want to cough up the difference — which, it’s worth pointing out, is nearly the same price as the base Kindle model.

It’s really bright

Kobo experiments aside, the industry has settled pretty comfortably into the six-inch display. And it’s hard to argue that it’s not the ideal size for most readers. Five inches just doesn’t afford enough real estate and seven starts getting unwieldy.

But while the size has remained largely the same, the screens have continued to get better with nearly every generation. At 300ppi (pixels per inch), the Voyage feels like it’s skipped a generation. That’s light years beyond the base Kindle’s 167 and the latest Paperwhite’s 212. It’s even well above the Kobo Aura HD’s 265, which played a major role securing that device’s position as the Cadillac of ebook readers when it was released nine months ago.

What that means for most users is incredibly sharp text. If you’re prone to reading newspapers or magazines on the device, you’ll be getting higher-res grayscale images, but for the rest of us, it means the text really pops. At this point, what you’re looking at is pretty comparable to the printed page. Keep in mind, the screen on last year’s Paperwhite is perfectly fine, but placed next to the Voyage, the text looks downright soft.

The contrast is even more pronounced when the front lighting is turned on. Once again, you accomplish that in the touchscreen settings. Amazon never did go in for the devoted light button, which has always come down to a matter of personal preference. The point is made even more moot with the introduction of the adaptive light.

If you hold the reader at the right angle, you’ll see a small circle next to the top-right corner of the display which looks a bit like an opaque front-facing camera. That’s actually a light sensor. Tick the box next to the light meter in settings and the screen will automatically adjust based on the light level of the room you’re in — a great addition to save both your battery and eyes.

The waterproof Kindle can’t be that far off, right?

The Voyage gets bright: really, really bright. Helped along, perhaps, by the lack of display gap, the new Kindle may, in fact, hurt your eyes at full brightness in a dark room. The flush screen has also helped to alleviate light bleed from the sides, since there isn’t as much direct front lighting exposed off the screen. And while the display still isn’t a perfectly white color, the added brightness has taken the reader yet another step in that direction. The first-generation front-light readers look downright murky by comparison.

E Ink continues to be the best option for devoted electronic reading. It’s easier on the eyes, readable in direct sunlight, and can milk a heck of a lot of time out of a battery. It also keeps getting better year after year.

Reading experience

Not much has changed on the reading front, and that’s not a bad thing. Amazon’s had several years to get this right and has happily recognized that, on a whole, simpler is better. If you wanted distraction, you’d buy a Kindle Fire or any of the other innumerable tablets out there. As such, the layout is nearly identical to older Kindles. You still get the same eight text sizes and six font styles, with all the same margin and spacing options.

The touchscreen is extremely responsive and pages turn quickly. Amazon has never eliminated those full-screen refreshes, but it has greatly reduced them over past years. The frequency of flickers you get while turning the pages differs based on the number of non-textual elements in a book. I noticed a full-page refresh once every 14 pages, or some on purely text title — that’s down from every six a couple of generations ago. The display recognizes some dual-touch gestures, as well, so you can, say, pinch to adjust the font sizes.

Now on its seventh generation, Amazon has built up an extremely robust ecosystem of extras, piece by piece. X-Ray brings plenty of contextual and supplemental information to the reading experience via Wikipedia, The Oxford English and publisher-provided information, while Goodreads brings a social element to the reading experience. The company still has a ways to go to fully integrate the social network’s recommendations into device, but it’s a tricky thing to do so without making it overly distracting.

There aren’t a whole lot of brand-new features on the software side, this time out. As with the first-generation Paperwhite, a few features are still listed as “coming soon,” destined to roll out with a future software update. Among them is Word Wise, which brings automatic definitions to denser titles with more difficult words.

There’s also an improved search that combines results from the library, store, and friends on Goodreads. Coming Soon is also neat. It offers up contextual information about a book as you start to read. Again, it’s not a lot of new stuff, but seven generations is a lot of time to get the relatively simple reading experience just right, and no one does it better than Amazon.

In spite of Barnes & Noble’s absence and Sony’s relative silence, the devoted ebook reader arms race hasn’t ended. Kobo is pushing the space’s limitations and Amazon is following suit, incorporating new technologies into its mainstream products. The Aura HD showed us there is room for a high-end reader and the Voyage does a great job turning those features into a flagship reader.

At $200 and up, this is a pricey book reader for Amazon. Most of you will be plenty content buying a cheaper Kindle. The Paperwhite, for example, is still a fine reader made even better with that quiet storage doubling, all with a $120 starting price. The new Kobo Aura H20, meanwhile, will set you back $180, with the added bonus of being able to read the thing in the tub.

If you’re an everyday reader and can’t really remember the last time you left the house without a book — electronic or otherwise — in tow, the overall improved reading experience may be well worth the price of admission. This is, without question, the best Kindle ebook reader yet. Heck, between the improved specs and Amazon’s industry-best reading ecosystem, it’s the best devoted e-reader you can buy.

Casual readers, on the other hand, are better off waiting for the inevitable price drops, first when sales slow a bit and then when the company gets ready for a follow up. The waterproof Kindle can’t be that far off, right?

Available at Amazon

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Just over a week ago, Amazon added four new members to its Fire family of budget tablets. And today, during its Devices and Services event, Amazon announced it is bringing some of the tablet fun to its Kindle e-reader portfolio. And by tablet fun, we mean the ability to draw gibberish on the screen with a stylus.

If you've ever looked longingly at the reMArkable 2 paper tablet and wished that the stylus input somehow made it to a Kindle, your prayers have been answered. Say hello to the Kindle Scribe, Amazon's next-gen e-book reader that will let you scribble with a stylus.

Books are wonderful things, and if you have a mini library at home, we're willing to bet you wouldn't trade all of them for an e-book reader loaded down with your favorites. But while they may lack the tactile nature of a book, an e-book reader is still something every keen reader should consider. Many of the models available come with backlights so you can read in lower light, can make the font bigger to suit your needs, and are small enough to slip into a pocket — and e-book readers are always going to beat physical books when it comes to going on holiday, especially if you're a fast reader.

But which e-book reader should you buy? There's no shortage of great readers out there, and while Amazon's Kindle Oasis may be the biggest name that nearly everyone knows, there are other options available if you're looking to get an e-reader that's not tied to the world's largest shopping site. Here are the best e-book readers for 2022.

Amazon's Kindle is getting even better this week with a new model that introduces a new display, a more compact design, and support for USB-C. It's nothing that'll replace your Kindle Oasis, but if you want a Kindle while spending as little as possible, there's a lot to like with the new baseline option.

This 2022 Kindle release will see the baseline Kindle pick up a high-resolution display that's capable of dark mode, support for USB-C, 16GB of storage, and extended battery life with up to six weeks on a single charge. The Kids edition of the tablet will, like other Kids edition tablets, comes with a kid-friendly cover and a free subscription to Amazon's Kids+ service.

Amazon Kindle Voyage review

The best e-reader gets better — for a price.

By Chris Ziegler

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The humble e-reader is the evolutionary equivalent of a duck-billed platypus: at some point, it fell off the family tree. It’s been plotting its own course ever since, totally comfortable in its weirdness, utterly oblivious to the changes happening everywhere around it. That weirdness — the e-reader’s singular, purpose-suited design — has enabled it to survive the coming of the smartphone. It survived the tablet. If I had to guess, it’ll survive whatever comes next.

So, how do you build a better duck-billed platypus?

That’s the question that Amazon has to answer with the Kindle Voyage, the new flagship of the retail giant’s range of E Ink devices. The challenge is as unique as the product itself. Generally speaking, it’s pretty obvious how to make a phone or a tablet better — you always want it faster, thinner, prettier, and longer-lasting. But the Kindle Paperwhite , the new midrange (and outgoing king) of Amazon’s e-reader line, already lasts a month on a charge and is a mere fraction of the thickness of a single book that it replaces. The frontlit display is extraordinarily easy on the eyes for extended periods of time; apart from the display, an e-reader doesn’t really need to look good, it just needs to get out of the way. (Odds are you’ve got it in a case, anyway.)

At a glance, the Paperwhite seems like it’s at an evolutionary end. But life, as they say, finds a way.

The e-reader survived the smartphone, it survived the tablet, it'll survive whatever comes next

I won’t dwell on software, because the Voyage’s is essentially unchanged — it’s a simple touch-centric UI that gets the job done. Amazon is adding a couple cool new features that are coming to all recent Kindle models: Word Wise, which automatically shows brief definitions of difficult words between the lines of text, and a more flexible search function that will search across your library, Goodreads, and the Kindle Store.

What you’re really paying for with the Voyage, which starts at $199, is the hardware. The color of the Kindle Voyage’s chassis, like all Kindles in recent memory, is somewhere between dark gray and black. The 6-inch screen is the same size as the Paperwhite and the entry-level $79 Kindle. In other words, from a distance, it’s virtually anonymous. That’s fine — unlike a phone that’s constantly being pulled from your pocket, Kindles aren’t about hardware sizzle. The only thing you’re staring at is the screen.

If you look closer, though, the subtle differences start to emerge. The Voyage is the thinnest Kindle in Amazon’s lineup at 7.6mm (compare that to 9.1mm for the Paperwhite). It’s also marginally the lightest, but I wouldn’t say that any of this matters — recent Kindles certainly aren’t hard to hold for long stretches. The most noticeable change, really, is that the Voyage is the first Amazon e-reader with a completely flush display. That’s actually a big deal — older Kindles have a deep recess, maybe a millimeter or so, from the bezel down to the screen. It’s been ages since recessed displays were acceptable in any other category of touch-enabled device, and it has always lent touch Kindles (up to and including the Paperwhite) a vaguely cheap, disposable flavor. The flush mounting also makes the simple action of moving your thumb an inch or two to change pages a more seamless, effortless motion, because you’re not navigating a change in terrain along the way. That sounds like an insanely minor improvement, but if you’re a heavy reader flipping through hundreds or perhaps thousands of pages per week — as many Kindle owners likely are — it becomes a big deal.

Actually, with the Voyage, you may never move your thumb at all. A pair of gray lines and dots on either side of the front bezel can be touched lightly to advance the page or go back — "PagePress," in Amazon parlance. Haptic feedback gives your hand a little buzz as affirmation that the command has registered. I absolutely hated it at first; it felt like more effort, a return to the old-school buttons that touch Kindles were designed explicitly to escape. But after having spent a week with it, it’s wonderful. Once you find a comfortable way of holding the Voyage, you literally never need to move your hand — just apply a little pressure with your thumb (left or right will do, the device is ambidextrous) and the page changes. Both the level of pressure required to register a page change and the intensity of the haptic feedback can be tweaked in the device’s settings. And if you absolutely hate it, you can disable it entirely and just stick with the old Paperwhite method, touching the left and right sides of the actual screen to change pages.

Speaking of the screen, Amazon is touting that the Voyage’s 300dpi display is the best ever on an E Ink Kindle. They’re not lying: this is simply the best E Ink display I’ve ever seen. It’s certainly better than the gray-brown pages of the secondhand paperback you’re reading, and unless you’re really into $75 high-gloss coffee table books, it’s probably better looking than just about everything in your bookshelf. The Paperwhite was already fantastic both in terms of contrast and resolution, but if I looked closely enough, I could see ragged little edges on characters. On the Voyage, I can’t. It’s just smooth. Amazon has also improved the grayscaling to the point where graphics aren’t visibly dithered; clearly, as always, this device is primarily intended for text, but images (in the Kindle Store, for instance) won’t trigger your gag reflex.

A ghost-free, instantaneous-refresh E Ink display is the dream, but it just doesn’t exist yet

Alas, this screen isn’t perfect. I was hoping that it wouldn’t "ghost" — the uniquely E Ink phenomenon that leaves subtle remnants of old pages on the display — but it still does from time to time. And it doesn’t feel any faster on page turns than the Paperwhite; you’ll wait about a half second every time. A ghost-free, instantaneous-refresh E Ink display (with full color, while we’re at it) is the dream, but it just doesn’t exist yet.

Amazon also touts the anti-reflective etching on the glass that covers the Voyage’s screen, which has apparently been designed to feel like paper. I honestly can’t see or feel any improvement here — Kindles have always been fantastic at mimicking the readability of an actual book, and this one is no different. It’s fine, but if the feel of a physical page is what’s stopping you from going digital, you shouldn’t expect the Voyage to convince you.

The frontlighting is still a game changer in this product category

The frontlighting on the Voyage’s screen isn’t appreciably different or better than the Paperwhite’s; it might be just a touch more even, but not to the point of making a difference. It’s still a game changer in this product category — it’s the feature that really catapults e-readers beyond books, simply by making them readable in any light. The Voyage does get the added benefit of an ambient light sensor — a first for Kindle — and it’s super useful: as a Paperwhite user, I’m constantly tapping to open the menu at the top of the screen and playing with frontlight intensity depending on the room I’m in or the time of day. Finally, it’s managed automatically, and it works well; there’s even an optional "Nightlight" mode that gradually changes the brightness so it’s not a distraction. As usual, Amazon measures this Kindle’s battery life in weeks, not hours or days; in my week with it the battery seems to have drained around 25 percent with moderate use. Basically, unless you’re lost in the woods for months on end, the battery isn’t going to be a concern.

While testing the Voyage, I also had the $79 Kindle , which replaces the old $69 non-touch model. It’s a great entry-level option and a good device for children, but it feels cheap, particularly next to the top-of-the-line Voyage. I didn’t mind the $79 model’s thicker shell or cheaper plastic, but the screen is in an entirely different category. The contrast is not good at all, and perhaps worse, it doesn’t have the lauded frontlighting system that makes the Paperwhite and Voyage usable in any environment. For E Ink skeptics, it’s a far less convincing product.

The back of the device harkens back to the bizarre first-generation Kindle just a little bit with its harsh lines and angles (don’t worry, it’s tasteful). The power button has been moved back here from the bottom edge, which is a little odd, but you’ll probably never touch it if you’re using a case — a magnetic latch automatically powers the Voyage on when opened and sleeps it when closed.

Unfortunately, the official Amazon case for the Voyage is not good. It attaches to the device magnetically, which is cool, but it inexplicably flips over the top, not from right to left — you know, like a book does . It’s also an origami case, meaning it can be folded up to prop the Voyage upright on a surface. Origami cases make sense for tablets, but for the life of me I don’t know why you’d want one for a Kindle; you’re not going to be watching a movie on it. All it does is make the case’s cover needlessly floppy and annoying to open and close.

On the whole, Amazon accomplished its goal: it built a better platypus. This is the best E Ink e-reader I’ve used, and it’s unquestionably the best that Amazon has ever made. The thing is, it’s only marginally better than the fantastic Paperwhite in several ways, and significantly better in none. Amazon is also asking a lot of money for the Voyage — it starts at $199, while a 3G model without special offers runs $289. Not since the final days of the doomed Kindle DX has an Amazon e-reader brushed up against the $300 mark.

The Voyage is an easy recommendation — but if you’re on a budget, the $119 Paperwhite (which is staying in the lineup) is still the way to go. The Voyage is a joy to use and a wonderful way to read; only voracious readers with laser-sharp eyes, though, will find it $80 better.

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Amazon Kindle Voyage review: The best e-reader is also the priciest

When Amazon introduced an updated version of its flagship Kindle Paperwhite last year, it took the easy way out -- after all, tweaked internals, improved software and slightly better lighting do not a thrilling e-reader make. The 2013 Paperwhite wasn't bad by any stretch, just a bit boring. Now, a year later, Amazon has put together a reader that's anything but. Say hello to the Kindle Voyage . On paper, the new Voyage sounds like a home run. Smaller footprint? High-resolution screen? Something akin to physical page-turn buttons? Sign me up! It's Amazon's first truly premium Kindle, unless you count the dodo that was the DX , and this time around the company's catering to die-hard readers. But here's the real question: Does anyone really need a $199 e-reader (with ads, no less)? In a word, yes.

The last time Amazon's higher-end Kindles got a redesign was two years ago, so it's no surprise that the Voyage represents the most dramatic overhaul since that time Amazon gave up on physical keyboards. Gone is the Kindle's longstanding curvy aesthetic: The Voyage borrows considerably from the Kindle Fire's design language , with a more angular back fashioned out of magnesium and capped with glossy black plastic. The magnesium, as it turns out, was a really good call. After a week of tossing the Voyage in and out of my bag (which is sort of a gadget minefield, to say the least) there weren't any scuffs or smudges that a few seconds of frenzied rubbing couldn't take care of. Alas, the Voyage's matte rear (which is where the power button now lives) is a magnet for your greasy fingerprints, so reading and eating chips is inadvisable if you're stickler for appearances.

That magnesium chassis makes the Voyage a little lighter, too, which some of you will notice more than others. If (like me!) you're the sort of person who grips an e-reader in one hand, with a pinky helping to stabilize things, that weight reduction makes a surprisingly significant difference. Oh, you're a two-hander? You probably won't be able to tell.

More importantly, the 6-inch E Ink display is finally flush with the rest of the Voyage's body. This might not sound like the biggest improvement -- it's not like the Paperwhite's recessed screen and raised bezels were particularly bothersome -- but it helps the Voyage feel less like a bunch of components cobbled together and more like a single, cohesive piece of kit. Honestly, though, between the lack of raised bezels and that angled back, the whole thing bears more than a passing resemblance to last year's Kobo Aura (I can just imagine Kobo's Japanese overlords chortling with glee). I'll be honest: I still yearn for the days when the deep, satisfying click of a physical button punctuated the turn of a page, but those days are clearly over and Amazon's PagePress is about as worthy a replacement as we could get. (Don't worry, you can still tap on the screen to change pages.) The whole thing is simple enough: Press the long vertical line on either side of the screen to turn the page, and the dot sitting above it to flip back one. By default, both vibration and sensitivity are set to medium (which is plenty responsive), but you better believe I cranked both options to high in search of a more button-like experience. The end result? It's still not as tactile as a physical button, but it's awfully close.

Display and performance

There's no two ways about it: The Voyage's screen is downright phenomenal (I fear my pictures don't do it justice). The 6-inch display manages to squeeze in a full 300 pixels per inch, bringing it closer to actual ink on paper than any other E Ink screen I've seen (Kobo's Aura HD has a bigger screen, so the pixel density there doesn't quite match the Voyage). I seriously spent the better part of an afternoon just sort of marveling at it, firing up different books, fiddling with typefaces/font sizes/margins and generally trying to find some arcane combination that made the onscreen text look suboptimal. No dice: This thing is a champ, especially when you consider how awful my eyes are. Traditional e-readers have never been ideal for images, but the Voyage (generally) handles them with gusto. Consider the humble graphic novel: Thumbing through Bryan Lee O'Malley's Seconds wasn't bad at all on the Paperwhite, with lovingly crafted images and text boxes coming through clearly. It wasn't until I put it next to the Voyage that I realized what I was missing -- details that were glossed over on the Paperwhite were easy to spot on the Voyage's high-res display. A menu that appeared smudgy and indistinct on the Paperwhite came through with surprising clarity on the Voyage; I could tell Katie's restaurant was serving "smoked cornish hen, buttermilk mashed tubers & whipped pork fat and pickled asparagus," and that was before I zoomed in. Naturally, digital comic die-hards should invest in a good tablet, but the Voyage is no slouch. Some would argue that trying to cram more pixels into an E Ink screen is overkill. Amazon clearly doesn't buy that argument, and for that I'm very grateful.

Surprisingly, the screen feels a little different too, since Amazon chemically etched the surface to reduce glare. That enhanced glass diffuses light well, but the effect isn't as pronounced as I'd hoped -- the Voyage dispenses with glare only slightly more effectively than the Paperwhite does. Doesn't sound great, I know, but I've never had an issue when too much sunlight threw a wrench into my afternoon reading plans. Speaking of lighting, the Voyage has a new trick up its sleeve: It now has an ambient light sensor so it can adjust backlighting level automatically. It works, albeit a little sluggishly, taking a few seconds to adjust to your surroundings. You might think all these lighting tweaks would have some sort of impact on battery life, but the Voyage seems about as efficient as the rest of its kin. Amazon says you'll be able to squeeze about six weeks out of a single charge... assuming you're only reading a half hour a day. My week of testing and reading has been way more rigorous than that, though, and the Voyage is still hanging in there with about 30 percent left.

Since an e-reader's display is so intrinsically tied to how well it performs overall, let's dig a little deeper into how the Voyage runs here. Amazon isn't keen on talking about what kind of processor hums away inside that shell, but overall it's plenty snappy... especially compared to the older Paperwhite I had on hand. Turning pages, popping back to the home screen and poring through the Kindle Store on the Voyager were generally way faster than on my 2012 Paperwhite, though the occasional full-screen refresh evened the race sometimes. Interestingly enough, some things -- like turning the screen on and off -- took nearly the same amount of time.

If you've never used a touchscreen e-reader, you should know E Ink's natural slowness means you'll need to rethink how you interact with devices like the Voyage. You'll have to resist the temptation to type as fast as you do on a smartphone, for one. It's a tough habit to shake, but you don't have a choice. Let's say you're trying to peck out " Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World." The touchscreen is sensitive enough to register all those taps (you can see the keyboard lighting up as proof), but move too quickly and you'll wind up with gibberish in your search box. And as much as I enjoy those PagePress controls, the rest of the Voyage lets those little guys down a bit; if you're in a rush flipping through pages, you'll notice that not every press/vibration corresponds to a page turn. PagePress aside, these are issues that plague just about all touch-friendly e-readers. We're still a long way off from the e-reading holy grail -- a digital reading experience that's as immediate as thumbing through a real book -- but all things considered, the Voyage is a step in the right direction.

Amazon went a little nuts with the Voyage's design, but didn't tweak the software nearly as much. All of the old goodies are present and accounted for. There's X-Ray to help you keep tabs on characters and track recurring terms that you press and hold on, not to mention Goodreads integration for you book club types. Vocabulary Builder, meanwhile, compiles all the words you look up in the included dictionary. If you've used a Kindle over the past two years, you'll know exactly what you're getting with the Voyage.

The only really notable new feature is what Amazon calls Page Flow: If you swipe from the bottom of the screen while you're in the middle of a book, you'll be able to jump from one chapter to the next or quickly skim through the rest of the text. It sounds like a minor addition, but it's actually pretty great considering the old way involved either popping into the table of contents or randomly punching in a location number and hoping you spot the passage you're looking for. For better or worse, some of the biggest stuff is still in the works. Features like Word Wise (which displays tiny definitions right above tricky words), the ability to skim through a book's images and Kindle library sharing will hit the Voyage, Paperwhite and the new touchscreen basic Kindle later this year.

The competition

There aren't a ton of players in the high-end e-reader realm, but the Voyage still has a halfway-formidable foe in Kobo's Aura HD . It has a bigger 6.8-inch screen that's only slightly less crisp than the Voyage's (265 ppi vs. 300) and the same 4GB of internal storage. Plus, at $170, it's cheaper, to boot. We were pretty big fans of the HD when it first came out over a year ago, but honestly, the thing hasn't aged well. Everything sounds good on paper, but it's downright chunky compared to the Voyage's light, sleek body. On the bright side, there's at least a microSD slot onboard so you can store every book you'll ever need for the rest of your life. For a great deal of you, though, the Voyage's biggest competitor is its little brother, the Kindle Paperwhite . As modest as its improvements were, last year's tweaked Paperwhite is still one of the best e-readers money can buy, and if you're fine with some mildly obnoxious offers, you can grab one for as low as $119. That's not an insignificant price gulf, and most people who just want to occasionally curl up with some Nabokov won't lose out by hanging onto their cash.

After living with the Kindle Voyage for a full week, two undeniable truths become apparent. First, it's the best e-reader you can buy right now. Second, it's also the most expensive, and therein lies the rub. Who exactly does Amazon expect will pay $199 for one of these things? As far as I can tell, the folks in Seattle are gunning for people like me: persnickety purists who want as little compromise as possible. We love books (sometimes to a fault), and we'll stop at nothing until the line between the screens we carry and the tomes we adore is indistinguishable. Here's what it boils down to: If you're an e-reader buff (we exist!) or a bibliophile who yearns for paper in a world that's rapidly leaving it behind, buy the Kindle Voyage. It doesn't take much to appreciate what the Voyage brings to the table, but it does take a certain kind of nerd to look at one and decide it's worth the same amount of money as a perfectly good Paperwhite for yourself and a basic Kindle for mom.

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Ebook Readers

Amazon kindle voyage review, the amazon kindle voyage is one of the nicest best ebook readers available, though most people will still be served just fine by the kindle paperwhite..

Bottom Line

• Incredibly sharp display.
• Adaptive front light.
• Thin design.
• Excellent ebook store.
• No memory card slot or ePub support.

Amazon's various Kindles have long been the most popular ebook readers on the market, but that doesn't mean they have always been the best from a technology perspective. Barnes & Noble beat Amazon to the punch with a front light, and Kobo eclipsed the company in screen resolution. The Kindle Voyage changes that. It has a lovely, thin design, with an incredibly sharp display and a useful adaptive front light, not to mention Amazon's excellent ebook store. That said, I'm still not sure this is enough to warrant the $199.99 price tag when you can pick up our Editors' Choice, the Kindle Paperwhite , for nearly half that amount.

Design and Display

At a glance, the Voyage ($85.22 at Amazon) doesn't look all that different from the Paperwhite or the standard-issue Kindle , in the sense that all three share the same general size and form factor. Look closer, though, and lots of important changes emerge. The Voyage measures 6.4 by 4.5 by 0.30 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.3 ounces (or 6.6 ounces for the 3G model), making it thinner and lighter than the Paperwhite (6.7 by 4.6 by 0.4 inches and 7.2 ounces for the 3G model). There's less bezel all around, and the screen has been changed from plastic to glass, making the front of the reader completely flush, rather than slightly dipped like on the other models.

The display uses scratch-resistant glass, and has been micro-etched to diffuse light, so you can read outside without any glare. The etching pattern supposedly makes the glass feel more like paper, but I think you get a better sense of this using the Kindle Paperwhite or base Kindle.

The Voyage's display has 300 pixels per inch, which looks absolutely fantastic. Text is incredibly sharp, no matter the font size, and images look great, so comics really pop (though keep in mind you're still working with a black-and-white E Ink screen). The Paperwhite matches the Voyage in resolution, but lacks an adaptive backlight (which I'll get to in a moment). The Kindle Oasis , meanwhile, gets even brighter and has the best screen overall, but also costs $100 more than the Voyage.

The Voyage's front light is adaptive, so if you select the Auto Brightness setting, it will automatically adjust based on the light around you. I love this feature. I've been using the first-generation Paperwhite since it came out, and I mostly tend to read on the subway and in coffee shops, which have vastly different lighting scenarios. I rarely adjust the lighting on my Paperwhite to compensate for this, and I didn't realize what a difference it makes until I started using the Voyage. No matter where you use it, the lighting is pretty much perfect.

Another cool feature is that Amazon claims the brightness is tuned to match the way the eye responds to darkness. So if you're reading in the dark, you'll need a brighter light at first than you will after reading for 30 minutes, so the light will slowly turn down over time. I'm slightly concerned that constantly using a light sensor will impact battery life, but then again, you might ultimately wind up using less lighting.

Aside from the glass front panel, the Voyage is made of solid magnesium, with a soft-touch finish reminiscent of the Paperwhite, which gives it a premium, classy feel (though it isn't waterproof like the Kobo Aura H2O). The power port is still on the bottom, but I'm not too fond of the decision to move the Power button to the back of the reader. It's hard to find, and it likely renders any existing case you were hoping to reuse incompatible.

If you're a real Kindle diehard, and haven't upgraded to a touch-screen model for lack of physical Page buttons, rejoice. The Voyage features PagePress, which is basically Amazon's fancy name for Page buttons on either side of the display. I'll focus on this feature more in the Reading section.

The Voyage comes with a black USB cable, but no AC adapter. Amazon claims up to six weeks of battery life based on half an hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light set to 10. That's two weeks more than the Kindle and two weeks less than the Paperwhite, all of which have plenty of time for the average reader.

The Voyage hooks into 802.11b/g/n networks, and a 3G cellular option is still available for an additional $70 extra. It comes with 4GB of storage—the same as the other two Kindles now—which should be good for over 2,000 books. Amazon also stores your purchases in the cloud, so you can retrieve content whenever you'd like, and view it on other devices. Unfortunately, even on the Voyage there's no memory card slot, so there's no way to expand storage. It also makes it a bit more challenging to sideload additional files.

For file support, the Voyage can handle Amazon's own Kindle format (AZW and AZW3), along with DOC, DOCX, HTML, MOBI, PDF, and TXT files. There's still no support for ePub files, which could make it difficult to borrow books from public libraries (though Prime users can borrow certain books for free from Amazon).

Interface and Reading

If you already own a Paperwhite or have used another Kindle, you'll be familiar with the interface on the Voyage. It's touch-based, with a row of icons at the top of the screen for Back, Cart, Home, Goodreads, Menu, and Search. The interface displays the covers of six books per page, and you can choose to view all of your books in the cloud or just the ones on your device.

If you tap anywhere near the top inch of the screen, you'll bring up the Menu bar, which has the same controls as you'll find on the home screen, along with options to adjust the font, go to a specific page, bring up X-Ray for more information on a topic, share to Facebook or Twitter, or bookmark pages. The bottom of the page shows you how much reading you have left in the book by percentage, as well as your reading progress in the form of your location or page in the book, or your time left in a chapter or the rest of the book.

You simply tap on a book to start reading. This is where things get slightly different from the other two Kindles. To turn a page, you can tap on the left or right hand side of the display to flip backwards or forwards. But you can also use one of the new PagePress buttons on either side of the display. Actually, button isn't really the right word. Essentially, PagePress is a pressure-sensitive sensor that sits directly underneath the bezel. Page forward sensors are marked by a 1.2-inch vertical gray strip, roughly at the spot your thumb sits when holding a book. Page back sensors are small gray dots located about an inch above.

All you have to do is rest your finger on the sensor and press it lightly, and you'll be able to flip to the next page or turn back. Amazon claims you can do this without lifting a finger, but that's assuming your finger lies on the sensor the entire time you're reading. The not-quite buttons deliver a satisfying response thanks to some very subtle, quiet haptic feedback. I was afraid to trigger one accidentally, but I didn't manage to do so after a few days of reading. I did, however, find PagePress to be slightly less reliable than tapping on the screen. Thinking about where I needed to tap took me out of the book, and sometimes pages wouldn't turn if I didn't apply enough pressure. I'm still pretty sure that button lovers will be pleased, but I'll stick to tapping.

As far as speed goes, I found page turns to be slightly slower than the Paperwhite when tapping the screen, but slightly faster using PagePress. Neither difference is notable, though. Overall, reading on the Voyage is hard to beat.

Kindle Store and Conclusions

Amazon's Kindle Store is better than ever. It's filled with lists and recommendations, and generally seems to have the best pricing when compared with competitors like Barnes & Noble and Kobo (over a million titles are $4.99 or less). It's easy to subscribe to magazines and newspapers, and Amazon Prime users can borrow books for free from an extensive list of titles. Amazon's Kindle Unlimited , meanwhile, is sort of like Netflix for ebooks. It gives you unlimited access to over a million titles per month for $9.99. Amazon apps for Android and iOS devices, as well as Macs and PCs, sync your book collection, so you can put down one device and pick up on the same page on another one.

Clearly, the Kindle Voyage is a fantastic ebook reader. So why doesn't it earn our Editors' Choice? It comes down to one simple factor: price. The Voyage costs $199.99 for the version with Special Offers (which are basically ads that appear on your home screen whenever the Kindle is locked, and at the bottom your home screen while in use). I happen to find the Special Offers useful for discovering new books, but if you're not a fan, you can either pay $20 to remove them, or you can buy a version without the ads up front. But that brings the already pricey Voyage well past the $200 mark. For that amount, you can pick up a nice color table.

If you were already considering a high-end reader like the Kobo Aura One , I prefer the Voyage for Amazon's content ecosystem. But while the Kindle Voyage is indeed one of the best ebook readers out there, I think most people will be perfectly happy picking up the $119.99 Paperwhite and having the extra $80 to spend on new books. Don't get me wrong: I'd be perfectly happy to use a Kindle Voyage or an even more expensive Kindle Oasis. I just probably wouldn't buy one for myself.

Best Ebook Reader Picks

• The Best eReaders for 2020
• How to Put Free Ebooks on Your Amazon Kindle
• More Ebook Reader Reviews
• More from Amazon

Further Reading

• How to Get Free (or Cheap) New Ebooks
• Report: PocketBook Is Launching a Color E-Reader This Year
• New Amazon Kindle, Paperwhite Back at Lowest Prices Ever
• Amazon Wants to Give You an Extra $5 to Spend on Ebooks

More Inside PCMag.com

• Kobo Libra H2O Review
• Kobo Clara HD Review
• Barnes & Noble Nook GlowLight 3 Review
• Sony Digital Paper DPT-RP1 Review

About Alex Colon

I’m PCMag’s executive editor of reviews, steering our coverage to make sure we're testing the products you're interested in buying and telling you whether they're worth it. I've been here for more than 10 years. I previously managed the consumer electronics reviews team, and before that I covered mobile, smart home, and wearable technology for PCMag and Gigaom.

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Kindle Voyage E-Reader – 2022 Review

Last Updated February 14, 2022

The Kindle Voyage is Amazon’s top-of-the-range e-reader and like the excellent Kindle Paperwhite, the Voyage has a 6-inch backlit touchscreen, but its screen is sharper and clearer than the Paperwhite. The Kindle Voyage E-Reader is now slightly thinner and lighter and supports a clever new origami case and also adds new ‘haptic’ controls for turning pages.

For existing Paperwhite owners, the Paperwhite’s still a fine e-reader but if you have an older Kindle then the Voyage is an outstanding upgrade. Is it expensive? Certainly, but it is also the very best out there on the market and will stand the test of time.

Table of Contents

Specifications:-

• Wifi + Cellular
• Kindle Support
• 16-level grey scale
• Without Ads option not available

It is easy to wonder why one would spend this much on the Voyage when other e-readers are available for less and ‘do more.  If your requirements lean towards a tablet, you shouldn’t give the Kindle Voyage a second thought – you may want to consider the Kindle Fire HD but if you are mainly interested in reading then the Voyage’s outstanding screen is worth it.

Like the Paperwhite, the Kindle Voyage has a similar 6-inch backlit display but improves on it in some important ways like the latter one has more pixels, which makes it sharper, the backlight automatically adjusts to the right level of brightness depending on the surrounding light and the anti-glare nature of an e-ink screen make reading on the Kindle Voyage a pleasure that no tablet can match.

At 330 PPI ( pixels per inch ), it’s about as sharp as most ‘retina’ phones or tablets and around 35 percent sharper than the Kindle Paperwhite, which makes the difference noticeable which means you can read smaller text with greater comfort. More so than ever, reading on the Kindle Voyage feels just like reading a book or a newspaper and if you have previously resisted e-readers, the Voyage may well convert you.

The adaptive brightness is a subtle yet brilliant solution and the main benefit is that it selects the right brightness based on the lighting conditions. This could be done manually too but the automatic system works very well and it smartly changes the brightness very gradually so you don’t get distracting jumps. This is equally true when switching from bright light to complete darkness, as the Night Light setting gradually reduces the brightness as your eyes become accustomed to the darkness.

The Kindle Voyage really comes into its own when reading in the dark and you will notice the sharper text all the more and suffer none of the eye strain that a tablet generates even at its lowest brightness setting.

The Kindle Voyage looks and feels great but the differences between it and the Paperwhite are very subtle which means it is marginally slimmer and lighter, while the rear adopts the same two-tone gloss and soft-touch finish as the Kindle Fire tablet range.

The new PagePress controls are very interesting, which is the same as physical controls of the older Kindles but using pressure-sensitive ‘haptics’ instead which means you never have to move your hand as you simply squeeze the edge where your hand already rests to turn the page.

The PagePress is either a love it or hates it feature for people, but I really liked them. They are more convenient than tapping the screen and they don’t disrupt the smooth lines of the Kindle’s frame. The only problem I felt is that they are slightly hard to locate in the dark, but their location soon became second nature and I could still resort to tapping the screen.

The touchscreen is very responsive, though the e-ink screen still isn’t slick enough to emulate the speed and responsiveness of a tablet, I prefer the smooth finish of the Kindle Voyage’s display, though. The Paperwhite’s slightly recessed screen has an unpleasant rough texture, but the Kindle Voyage’s is smooth.

Battery life

The Kindle Voyage is rated with a battery life of six weeks of 30 minutes reading a day with a medium backlight, which works at about 21 hours, and in my testing, it lasted for about 19 hours with the 3G turned on and backlight varying with ambient light.

With the backlight turned to the lowest setting and connectivity turned off it will surely last longer and also the charging took approximately three hours via the USB cable.

Reading experience

The Kindle Voyage offers one of the best reading experiences, with useful features such as X-Ray , which allows readers to track character appearances through a novel with explanations of who they are, which are pulled in from Shelfari (a community-powered books encyclopedia) and Wikipedia.

The Voyage is by far the fastest Kindle I have used to date. The page turns in an instant, the buttons and the keyboard react more like a touchscreen tablet, and scrolling between books only exhibits small amounts of lag which makes the experience of using an e-book reader much more like the snappy smartphones and tablets that people are used to.

The sides of the Voyage have four buttons that are hidden in the frame, two on each side of the screen for left or right-handed use and these buttons are squeezable, requiring a user-adjustable amount of pressure to turn the page.

The squeeze buttons are satisfying to use, they gently vibrate when pushed, make flipping backward and forwards between pages very easy, and are much harder to activate accidentally than physical buttons. Pages can still be turned by swipes or touches on the screen, but the buttons can be activated when wearing gloves.

The Kindle Voyage is the best e-reader available on the market. The screen is very sharp, best evenly lit, and very easy to read. It is light and easy to hold with one hand and the squeezable buttons are excellent.

The only issue with the Voyage is that it costs more than a decent Android tablet with much more functionality. It’s a single-use device that means it is made for only one work and is considered the Rolls-Royce of e-readers, its cheaper competitors including the Kindle Paperwhite offer almost as good an experience for considerably less.

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The best Kindle 2024: which Amazon ereader should you buy?

The best Kindle to buy for reading and even writing

Best overall

Best budget

Best for a big screen

Best for audiobooks

• Best premium
• How to choose
• How we test

The list in brief 1. Best overall 2. Best budget 3. Best for a big screen 4. Best for audiobooks 6. Best premium 7. How to choose 8. How we test

Amazon Kindle tablets are electronic books, plain and simple, and that's what makes them great. For reading made simple, you can't beat the sharp e ink display of the best Kindle ereader. Amazon has let the Kindle family sit mostly idle for quite some time, years in some cases, but that doesn't mean these aren't still the best electronic reading tablets you'll find, especially if you buy books from Amazon's Kindle book store. 

Every Kindle has a sharp display and extra long battery life, as in weeks of reading, not just hours or days. The basic Kindle is probably good enough for most people, and if you're only reading books, not listening to audiobooks or reading details graphic novels, you can opt for the least storage and have plenty of room for a large library. 

The best of the bunch is the Kindle Paperwhite, because it's simple, affordable, yet durable enough that you can take it anywhere, even to the pool or into the bathtub. Yes, you can relax with your electronic books in the bath, because the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Oasis are water resistant.

If you want a lot more power, the Kindle Scribe is in a class by itself. It is more than just a gigantic Kindle ebook reader, it can also let you take notes and write journal entries with an included stylus. Amazon even has a section of the Kindle book store just for books you can write upon. 

What about the Kindle Kids? Is it worth buying?

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

We're not including the Kindle Kids options on this list because the Kindle itself isn't different if you buy the Kids version. If you get the Kindle Paperwhite Kids, you get the exact same Kindle Paperwhite, and you also get a little bit more. 

The Kindle Kids bundle comes with a colorful cover, though you can find cheaper (and more colorful) covers from third-party sellers on Amazon and Etsy. It also comes with a subscription to Amazon's Kindle Kids Unlimited service. This is a library of Kindle content aimed at children. It isn't the most extensive library, but if you are starting from scratch, it will give your kids something to read. 

Is Kindle Kids worth it? Not if you already have a library of books for your kids, or if you have specific books in mind you want them to read. It isn't worth the premium just for the colorful cover, so make sure you'll put the Kindle Kids Unlimited library to good use, or else it's worth buying the non-Kids version. 

The quick list

Want to cut to the chase and find out which Kindles are the absolute best? Below, you’ll find a roundup of our choices. You can also jump to a more detailed review of each Kindle further down the page, and our price comparison tool will help you find the best deals.

The Kindle Paperwhite hits the sweet spot between price and performance: it's water resistant like the expensive Oasis, but with a better screen than the basic Kindle. Battery life is excellent, and it now has USB-C charging, too. The Kindle Paperwhite has been on the market since 2021, so hopefully Amazon will give us a newer model soon. Look for great sales on this Kindle. 

Read more below

The basic Kindle is just fine for most people, as long as you won't get it wet. Amazon upgraded the backlighting so it's almost as bright as the Kindle Paperwhite, and the screen is just as sharp.  It also comes with 16GB of storage, which is plenty of space for books and audio. This Kindle has been around since late 2022, so hopefully Amazon will give us a refresh and a nice price cut soon. Look for great sales on this one. 

Whether you want to read on the biggest screen, or you want the writing, doodling, and journaling features, the Kindle Scribe is a truly powerful Kindle for all of your book and writing needs. It isn't water resistant, so take care, but its features put this Kindle in a whole different class, not to mention its huge display. Amazon keeps improving the Kindle Scribe with newer features and now a section of the Kindle book store with Scribe books that you can write in, including puzzle books and journals. The Kindle Scribe is the newest Kindle of the bunch. 

The Signature Edition offers a few upgrades over the standard Paperwhite, including wireless charging and an auto-adjusting light. It also offers 32GB of storage, making it ideal for storing audiobooks. If you live that all-wireless lifestyle, the Signature Edition is worth the splurge, especially if you find it on a great sale. The Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition has been on the market since 2021, so hopefully we'll get an updated version soon. 

Best premium Kindle

The 2019 Oasis is getting quite old in the tooth, which is why it's the last Kindle on our list, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth considering. You can find this Kindle, which hit shelves in 2019, on sale for great low prices if you keep a watchful eye on Amazon. The Kindle Oasis gives you premium materials and actual buttons to press for page turning, which is helpful when you're in the bathtub with prune hands. 

The best Kindle 2024

Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best Kindles in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.

The best Kindle overall

1. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Our expert review:

Specifications

Reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

The Amazon Paperwhite is the ideal electronic book reader, and you can take it just about anywhere you might take a regular old book. You can read in the bathtub, or by the pool, with less worry than you'd have holding a paperback, because the Paperwhite can get wet, no problem. 

You can read in bed and the Paperwhite will adjust to a warm backlight to make your eyes more comfortable. Reading on a Kindle's ultra-sharp display is already more comfy than reading on your phone or iPad, and the Paperwhite has plenty of backlight for reading any time, day or night. 

You can also read while you travel, because the Kindle Paperwhite comes with 16GB of storage. That's enough to pack a full library, but if you also enjoy listening to audiobooks from Audible, you'll have space for a bunch of titles to go alongside your texts. 

Read the full Amazon Kindle Paperwhite review

• ^ Back to the top

The best budget Kindle

2. Amazon Kindle (2022)

The base model Kindle is no slouch, and recent upgrades have made it maybe the best bargain-priced Kindle ever. Keep an eye on that price, too, because Amazon loves to put this ereader on sale whenever it throws a Prime Day party. 

The screen on the Kindle is now just as sharp as every other Kindle display, a full 300 pixels per inch (to compare, the mighty iPad Pro is only 265 ppi). That's the best upgrade you can give a reading device, and the only feature the Kindle is lacking compared to the more expensive Kindle Paperwhite is water resistance. Don't get this Kindle wet. 

Otherwise, you still get 16GB of storage, which is plenty of space for a ton of books, magazines, and even audiobooks. The battery also lasts and lasts on Kindle devices, so you can count on a month of daily reading with this Kindle. If you want something brighter that you can also take to the beach, go for the Paperwhite. The Kindle is still great for reading during the day on dry land. 

Read the full Amazon Kindle (2022) review

The best Kindle for a big screen

3. Amazon Kindle Scribe

The Kindle Scribe is an amazing device when you realize all it can do. It's a full-fledged Kindle with the biggest reading screen, but it doesn't sacrifice that great Kindle sharpness, so text still looks super crisp. If you like reading on a screen the size of an iPad but want Kindle comfort, the Kindle Scribe is your best bet. 

You can also write on the Kindle Scribe, and Amazon has been steadily improving the writing and doodling features, adding more pen styles since launch. There's also a special section of the Kindle book store with books you can write on if you own a Kindle Scribe. The selection is mostly crossword puzzles and semi-blank daily journals, but it's growing and shows a lot of potential. 

The Scribe may seem pricey for a Kindle, but it's a great deal for a writing tablet this size, and Amazon does love to put Kindle devices on sale. If you want to take notes, especially if your textbooks are available for Kindle, this is the only Kindle to buy. 

Read the full Amazon Kindle Scribe review

The best Kindle for audiobooks

4. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition

If you love audiobooks along with your reading and you can splurge a bit, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition is worth considering. For a bit more (still less than the fancy Kindle Oasis), you get twice the storage space. This Kindle Paperwhite can also charge wirelessly, if you have a bedside charger that you like, though the battery should also last weeks, just like every other Kindle. 

That extra storage space comes in handy if you like audiobooks. A long, unabridged book is usually between 100-200MB of storage space, so having tons of long books or podcast episodes can add up quickly. The Kindle Paperwhite is a great vacation and travel device, and having the extra space means you definitely won't run out, no matter how long you're away. 

Otherwise, this is the exact same Kindle Paperwhite, with the same water resistance and the same sharp display. It's not quite as bright and premium as the Kindle Oasis, but it's much brighter than the base model Kindle. 

Read the full Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition review

The best premium Kindle

5. Amazon Kindle Oasis

This is the luxury Kindle, the fancy model, and it isn't hard to see why Amazon needs the Kindle Oasis in the family. The other Kindle devices – aside from the even pricier Kindle Scribe – feel cheap in comparison. They are all plastic, while the Oasis has a premium metal shell that feels great to hold. 

The Kindle Oasis used to be the only water resistant model, but now the Paperwhite is also safe in the bath or by the beach. Unless it's a very fancy beach, in which case you'll want to show off with the Oasis. It has a larger, brighter display than the other Kindle ereaders other than the Scribe, so it will stand out.

It also has page turn buttons, which is a nice feature if your hands are wet. The design is different from other Kindle devices, with a pronounced grip on the back that makes it easier to hold. Overall, it's a premium device, and you can't get more on a Kindle unless you go for the much larger Kindle Scribe. 

Read the full Amazon Kindle Oasis review  

How to choose the best Kindle for you

The basic Amazon Kindle 2022 is a fine ereader, and will likely be enough for most people. It has the same number of pixels per inch as the best Kindle ereader you can find, so every Kindle excels at reading text and print .

If you like to read in the bath, or if you take your Kindle to the beach and get close to the waves, you'll want a Kindle Paperwhite. That device can get wet, even with salt water. So can the Kindle Oasis, but that's a much more expensive, premium device than most folks will need, with a nicer build and a larger, brighter screen.

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition meanwhile is what you should go for if you want the maximum possible storage in a conventional Kindle. The Scribe has even more, but offers more of a big-screen tablet experience, backed up by its stylus.

All Kindle ereaders can hold thousands of books, but if you plan on using your Kindle for audiobooks, you should upgrade to a model with 16GB or more storage.

How we test the best Kindles

We read. We read a lot, and we read every day. We use our Kindle devices to read books from Amazon, and we also use accounts from our local libraries to load free ebooks onto our Kindle. We also have a selection of documents and files that we use to test the clarity of the Kindle display, and the ease of transferring our own files. 

We are also avid audiobook fans, and keep a subscription to Audible that feeds us new books monthly. We use our Kindle for listening to books, and occasionally for reading and listening at the same time, depending on content. 

We read at all times of day, on the train, by the bed, in the bath, and wherever we find the time. We love to read, and we test our Kindle devices doing what we love. 

• If you're a fan of Amazon but want a bit more color, check out our list of the best Amazon Fire tablets

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Phil Berne is a preeminent voice in consumer electronics reviews, having reviewed his first device (the Sony D-EJ01 Discman) more than 20 years ago for eTown.com. He has been writing about phones and mobile technology, since before the iPhone, for a variety of sites including PCMag, infoSync, PhoneScoop, and Slashgear. He holds an M.A. in Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon University. 

Phil was the internal reviewer for Samsung Mobile, writing opinions and review predictions about top secret new devices months before launch. He left in 2017. He worked at an Apple Store near Boston, MA, at the height of iPod popularity. He has been a High School English teacher at Title I schools, and is a certified Lifeguard. His passion is smartphones and wearables, and he is sure that the next big thing will be phones we wear on our faces.

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Kindle Voyage E-reader, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Adaptive Built-in Light, PagePress Sensors, Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi + Free Cellular Connectivity

• Passionately crafted for readers
• High-resolution 300 ppi display--reads even more like the printed page
• PagePress enables you to turn the page without lifting a finger
• Adaptive front light--provides ideal brightness, day or night
• Battery lasts weeks, not hours
• Prime members read free with unlimited access to over a thousand titles
• Try Kindle Unlimited free for 30 days--choose from over 1 million titles
• Your device

Highest resolution e-reader display

Kindle Voyage features a high-resolution 300 ppi display for crisp, laser quality text. The micro-etched glass screen is crafted to eliminate glare and feel like paper to the touch.

Light that adjusts with you

Kindle Voyage can be read in bright sunlight or total darkness—and it's smart enough to know the difference. With an adaptive front light, Kindle Voyage senses the light in your environment, and changes the setting to the ideal brightness.

Effortless page turns

PagePress allows you to turn the page without lifting a finger. Simply apply pressure on the bezel to turn the page, and PagePress will provide a silent haptic response for consistent and immediate feedback.

Remarkably thin design

At just 7.6mm thin, you can comfortably hold Kindle Voyage in one hand for long reading sessions.

PagePress sensors with haptics

PagePress is a custom-designed force sensor made of carbon and silver, which reacts to a subtle increase of pressure, triggers a page-turn, and provides a haptic response only your thumb can perceive. Because PagePress has no moving parts, the haptics provide you with the most minimal indication that you have pressed the button, to reduce distraction from reading.

Sleek yet durable designs

Kindle Voyage was designed to come one step closer to a sheet of paper, with a flush-front bezel for a clean, streamlined design. With a magnesium back and a specially-reinforced glass front, Kindle Voyage is both durable and sleek.

High quality 300 ppi display

Kindle Voyage features a bright, high resolution and high contrast display. The micro-etched glass display diffuses light to eliminate glare and matches the feel of paper.

Adaptive front light

In order to more closely resemble reading on real paper, we researched and hand-tuned the optimal brightness setting for every lighting condition. The adaptive front light automatically adjusts the brightness of the display based on your environment, and can even be fine-tuned further to your personal preferences. When reading in the dark, the adaptive front light slowly lowers the display's brightness over time to match the way the eye responds to darkness.

Technical Details

Videos for this product.

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Introducing Kindle Voyage

• Amazon Devices

Amazon Kindle Voyage Review

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Customer reviews.

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers like the readability, weight, lighting, size and appearance of the book reader. For example, they mention it's very easy to read on, has a seamless reading experience, and is portable. Some appreciate the premium look and design.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book reader very easy to read on, with a seamless reading experience. They also say the operating system is user friendly, convenient, and light enough to read for hours at a time without arm cramps. Customers also appreciate the excellent displays that are easy on the eyes and mimic paper better. They mention that it's easy to turn the page with just the normal touchscreen.

"...felt the additional expense was worth it, just because it relieved my eye strain ...." Read more

"... WiFi setup was easy , Web surfing speed with the wireless is about the same as with other versions of the e-Ink Kindles: slow as Christmas!..." Read more

"...It makes it a lot easier to read in bed , since I do not have to bring in that cold outside air every time I finish a page...." Read more

"... Instant gratification : whether you're purchasing from Amazon or borrowing from your local library..." Read more

Customers find the weight of the book reader to be light. They say it has a high-resolution display, is portable, and intuitive. Customers also mention that the device balance is perfect.

"...But all the kindles, not just this one, are so light - you don't have to change your style of reading...." Read more

"...are reading in a dark room; I imagine this will also be very convenient on a plane ride at night as you are able to see the full page of the text..." Read more

"...Pressure based page turns to read without moving your hand. 2. Less mass . 3...." Read more

"...text is crystal clear and darker/bolder and the Voyage is a tad bit lighter weight wise ...." Read more

Customers like the lighting of the book reader. They say the backlight is handy, the illumination works well, and makes reading in bed far more comfortable. Some appreciate the auto dimming, more lights around the screen, and adaptive light. They also like the glow light and vibrating turn bars.

"...It's screen is better lit than the Paperwhite - not a discernible difference for some or maybe even most, but it makes a world of difference to me...." Read more

"...Kindle they'd made at that point, because it was compact, and had a built in light . It was awesome...." Read more

"...The self-lit screen is wonderful in the evening, when I'd otherwise have to deal with turning on a lamp for reading...." Read more

"...I get so wrapped up in reading!.....I believe that the extremely crisp, dark ,bold text and better looking screen has a lot to do with it and it..." Read more

Customers like the size of the book reader. They say it's not too small and not too large. They also say it fits nicely between the iPad and is very easy to adjust.

"...it was the best Kindle they'd made at that point, because it was compact , and had a built in light. It was awesome...." Read more

"...Size matters and, in this case, the Voyage is not too small and not too large and is actually a little smaller than a Paperwhite...." Read more

"...It really is perfectly executed.I love how small and thin it is...." Read more

"...: it is 'micro-etched' glass and non-reflective, and the fit is flush with the bezel of the Kindle...." Read more

Customers are satisfied with the appearance of the book reader. They mention that it has a gorgeous display, great build quality, and a premium look. They also appreciate the excellent displays that are easy on the eyes and mimic paper. The text on the Voyage looks sharper and the image on the device is just stunning. The contrast is better and the whites are whiter. Overall, customers are happy with the product's appearance.

"...are working the way they are designed to do, I prefer the smooth, sleek face of my Voyage...." Read more

"...Overall, the screen looks awesome , no matter how bright or low light my reading is. For me, it is truly the best e-reader out there...." Read more

"...a lot sharper on the Voyage as compared to the Paperwhite with a better contrast : the whites are whiter and the blacks are blacker...." Read more

"...For what it is and what it does, it's absolutely phenomenal , and I finally get to say, Well Done, Amazon, even if this was released in 2014." Read more

Customers are satisfied with the image quality of the Kindle Voyage. They mention that the display is crisper, clearer, and has an outstanding picture quality. The text on the screen is sharper and the improved pixel density improves the look of the characters.

"...The text on the screen is a lot sharper on the Voyage as compared to the Paperwhite with a better contrast: the whites are whiter and the blacks are..." Read more

"...on a tablet, the reflective screen on an e-reader is significantly easier to look at and read off of...." Read more

"...With the clearer text and glass screen it has made my reading experience so much better and more enjoyable!..." Read more

"...Except for the worthless lighting issues above, the screen sharpness and clarity is excellent ...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the performance of the book reader. Some mention that it works well, the browser is much more functional than they had anticipated, and the core features work very well. However, others say that the features are not particularly impressive, completely non-functional, and have weak processing.

"...The origami cover even works great for me when I'm reading in bed, since in the upright mode, the stand nestles in the covers and helps hold the..." Read more

"...The answer is: the experimental browser. It's stupid . Also, docking a review a star for that would be idiotic...." Read more

"...and it's perfect . It might as well be a printed book...." Read more

"...The PagePress buttons: Worthless . I thought the PagePress buttons on the bezel would be a nice addition but they really do not add value...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the battery life of the book reader. Some mention that they are amazed with the battery, saying it lasts literally months. However, others say that the battery sucks and needs charging more frequently.

"...This is a great advantage for me, though, and ekes out additional time for me to indulge in my reading habit...." Read more

"...Since I read so much I find the battery life is the pits , even with WI-FI turned off and turning the off the light if I am outdoors or in a well..." Read more

"...Second, the battery lasts weeks even with frequent use, which may not sound like much, but it does help the device feel nicer and more book like,..." Read more

"...It is possible that my battery is defective and that I should return this Voyage to Amazon and have it replaced - more about this shortly...." Read more

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Medea Giordano

The Best Kindles to Take Your Library Anywhere

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more . Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Best for Most Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2021, 11th Generation) Read more

The Smallest and Least Expensive Amazon Kindle (2022, 11th Generation) Read more

Frivolously Awesome Amazon Kindle Oasis (2019, 10th Generation) Read more

Best for Kids Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition (2021, 11th Generation) Read more

We love Kindles here at WIRED. They're simple, reliable, and perfect at what they do—in one palm-sized device, you can bring thousands of books with you to the park or mountain, and they typically get a month of battery life per charge. You can subscribe to get unlimited books from Amazon or get free books from your local library (more on those below). But what's the best Kindle? Our guide will help you decode the differences.

Be sure to check our many other buying guides , including the Best E-Readers , Best Fire Tablets , and Best Alexa Speakers .

Updated October 2023: We've added Strapsicle Kindle holders and a sleeve from the Quirky Cup Collective. We've also updated prices and links throughout.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off) . This includes unlimited access to WIRED. com and our print magazine (if you'd like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

Best for Most

We think most people will like the Paperwhites the best. The step-up, waterproof e-reader went from one to three models, and they rival the more expensive Oasis. We tried the Signature Edition ( 8/10, WIRED Recommends ), but all three have bigger, 6.8-inch screens with smaller bezels. The screens are brighter overall at their max and have adjustable warm lighting, but only the Signature can auto-adjust that brightness to your surroundings—we think that should be standard across all models. Its faster page-turn rate means there's no delay while you read.

The Signature has 32 gigabytes of storage and the Standard has 8 gigs. That's a big difference, but you can still read and store a lot of books with 8 gigabytes (around 5,000). If you mostly listen to audiobooks, you may want to go for the Signature, since those tend to take up more room. Still, if you want to save some cash, just clean out your backlog; you can remove a book from your device without deleting it entirely from your Amazon account. The 2021 Paperwhites all have USB-C charging, but the Signature supports wireless charging.

The Smallest and Least Expensive

The difference between Kindle models is not as stark anymore, so you'll probably be happy with whatever price point you prefer. This base Kindle was finally updated in 2022 and is the cheapest one at $100. It's the smallest of the lot at 6.2 inches tall and 4.3 inches wide, with a 6-inch screen (the same screen size as the new Kindle Kids). If you find tablets too cumbersome to hold with one hand, consider this one.

The price increased by $10 from the last version, but it doubled the storage from 8 gigabytes to 16, and the screen is a 300-pixel-per-inch (PPI) resolution versus the old one's 197 PPI. It gets the same USB-C port for charging as the Paperwhite models, and it charges quickly. However, it's not waterproof, and it doesn't get warm lighting or auto-adjusting light.

Frivolously Awesome

There's no practical reason to buy a $270 ebook reader, but the Oasis has a sleek aluminum design with a ridge on one edge and physical buttons to turn the pages. These make it ideal for one-handed reading. The light-up display also looks a little more natural and automatically adjusts the brightness.

Many of the Oasis' features now show up in the Paperwhites, like adjustable warm lighting, water resistance, and a faster processor. At 7 inches, the touchscreen is only slightly bigger too. After years of use, reviews editor Adrienne So has noticed that the battery on her Oasis now only lasts several days. It's also been unavailable on and off. We think it's due for an update.

Best for Kids

The 2021 Paperwhites include a Kids Edition, which brings a bigger and sleeker screen, more lighting options, and IPX8 water resistance for the first time over the original Kindle Kids Edition. The rest of the features are pretty much the same as the new Kindle Paperwhite, except you'll get a year's subscription to Amazon Kids+ , a kid-friendly content library with parental controls. (You can access the same platform across other Amazon devices, like Fire Tablets or Echo speakers .) It also comes with a case and a two-year no-questions-asked replacement guarantee. If your kid smashes it just once, you get your money back. If you're going to get your kid an entertainment device, an ebook reader that doesn't have access to social media is a safer choice. There is a web browser, but it's restricted by default (you can completely disable it too). There are 8- and 16-gigabyte storage options

★ A cheaper alternative with more storage: The newest base Kindle Kids ($120) is cheaper than the 8-gig Paperwhite Kids, but for 16 gigabytes (that's also double what the original Kids Edition was). But this one isn't waterproof if you think that will be a problem with your kiddos, and there's no adjustable warm lighting.

Nena Farrell

Brenda Stolyar

For Note-Taking

Thanks to the included pen, you can now write on your Kindle ( 8/10, WIRED Recommends )! There's no lag, and the outcome looks very similar to your handwriting. It's already pricey at $340, but you can spend an additional $30 for the premium pen that includes an eraser on the opposite end. You can't write directly on most books, which is frustrating—you have to instead use sticky notes. There are now some options available with that functionality, but it's mostly crosswords and guided journals.

The enormous 10.2-inch screen is ideal for taking notes, marking up PDFs, or doodling, and there are numerous paper formats you can choose, like college-ruled or dotted. The screen size does make reading easy too, especially if you need to increase the font size, but it takes away some of its portability if you prefer to keep an e-reader in your pocket or small purse. There are 16-, 32-, and 64-gigabyte options. Since it was released, Amazon has updated it with additional brush types, a convert-to-text in export tool, and better page navigation and subfolders. Weirdly, it's not waterproof like the other pricier Kindles. We've tried other E Ink tablets for writing , but this is probably the best (and cheapest) option.

For Easy Holding

When I'm a couple of hours into a reading session and my hands start to cramp, I fantasize about setting up one of those hands-free tablet holders so I can lie in bed with it directly in front of my face. I'm not quite there yet, but I do love these silicone Strapsicles. Attach one or both to the back of your Kindle—one is angled for your right hand and the other for your left—and slide your hand in. Your hands won't cramp, you won't accidentally hit the screen and flip pages, and the reader won't slip out of your hands. People also use Popsockets for this reason, if you prefer that. I love my phone Popsocket, but after a particularly long scrolling session, my fingers start to ache. These straps eliminate that altogether.

There are three sizes meant to hold different types of e-readers. You should see exactly which models they work with on the Amazon pages, as well as on this page on the Strapsicle website . If you use a case, these might not work, but the brand sells its own thin clear option for $13.

Do You Need a Cover?

Kindles are, thankfully, not as fragile as our pricey smartphones, but you may still want to add a cover to protect the screen if you're frequently toting it around in a bag. These are meant mostly to protect the screen and add some protection from minor bumps, but they're not padded for serious drops. If you get a Kids Edition, those come with a case already.

The fabric covers for the Base Kindle ($30) , Paperwhite ($35) , and Oasis ($40) open like a book and come in some variation of black, blue, pink, or green. All but the Oasis one is made from post-consumer recycled fabric.

If you've upgraded to the Scribe ($60) , that case flips up and over like a notepad, and you can position it into a stand too. There's also a slot for the pen if you don't want it to be attached magnetically all the time. This one is also made with recycled materials.

Or Get This Pretty Sleeve

When this mystical Kindle sleeve graced my TikTok For You Page—it was the Sun and Moon version —I knew I needed it. It's beautiful and will protect your device when you aren't using it, so you can throw it in your bag without worry. The outside is velvet and the inside satin, with some padding in between and a zip closure. On the back is a small zip pocket. There are several pretty designs, including a luna moth and an hourglass.

On each page, you'll see which devices fit. This size is good for the Kindle Paperwhites and Oasis, plus a bunch of Kobos and the iPad Mini. But if you use a bulky case, consult the measurements. There are also separate, and larger, book and iPad sleeves .

The Quirky Cup Collective is a small business out of Australia, and there's an informational page on tracking times and pricing. It may default to AUD, but the company will charge you accurately for the country you're in (I haven't seen it as anything but US dollars).

Do You Have an Older Kindle Model?

Have an old Kindle lying around—or are looking at a used one for sale—and aren’t sure which one it is? This Amazon page includes photos, specs, and release years for the entire lineup. Once you know which one you have, you may be able to trade it in for credit toward a newer model.

Most old models probably still work, just with fewer bells and whistles. We think it's best to avoid Kindles with keyboards or any other physical buttons—page-turn buttons on the latest Oasis are OK.

Some older Kindles lost the ability to browse, purchase, or borrow new books directly from the device. However, you'll still be able to do so on Amazon.com on your computer or phone and have it sent to your Kindle, which is a better experience anyway. According to the company, the models affected are the Kindle 2nd Generation (International), Kindle DX International, Kindle DX Graphite, Kindle Keyboard, Kindle 4th Generation, and Kindle 5th Generation.

Start Reading

If you buy every single book you want to read at Kindle, it can add up! But there are ways to save some money while reading as much as your heart desires.

You may want to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited for $12 a month . You can only choose from the Unlimited catalog, but there are millions of titles there, including audiobooks and magazines. Start out with the 30-day free trial. Since I got into romance thanks to #BookTok, this has been incredibly rewarding and I typically hate paying a membership for anything.

If you already pay for a Prime account, you're eligible for some free books through Prime Reading . There are not as many options as with Kindle Unlimited, and in a lot of cases you'll see both Unlimited and Prime options lumped together, so you'll have to look closely to find the free ones. But it's still something, and there are even some magazines included.

But if you don't want another monthly subscription and don't want to continue giving your money to Amazon, take advantage of ebooks available with your library card . Browsing a digital catalog is not as magical as spending an afternoon looking over every shelf in a library, but such is the ebook life (no one says you can't read both!). We have a detailed how-to on this that you should check out, but here are some of the takeaways:

• Get a library card for your local branch
• Check your branch's website for its ebook offerings. Many use the website OverDrive .
• Download directly to your Kindle library. They'll automatically be removed when they're due back.

If you know someone else with a Kindle, you can lend books between your libraries, just as you would with a physical copy. Follow these instructions from Amazon to do so, and keep in mind not all books can be loaned.

What Else Can a Kindle Do?

Kindles have helpful features that you may want to take advantage of it. Long-press a word or phrase to see its definition , highlight it, or take notes . You can also search the entire book for that particular word or phrase or translate it to or from other languages.

Word Wise shows short definitions in small text within the lines. Unfortunately, it's not available for all books, but when it is, you can turn it on or off and choose more and fewer hints. Clicking the short definition opens a longer one from Word Wise and the New Oxford American Dictionary or Oxford Dictionary of English (you can switch between the two), plus translations, and a Wikipedia page, if applicable.

While reading, tap the top of the screen and click “Aa” to change font size or type —there's even a font called OpenDyslexic that helps make reading easier for people with dyslexia. You can control margin sizes and line spacing from that menu too.

When a Kindle is connected to a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, VoiceView Screen Reader (accessed through Settings > Accessibility ) allows you to use gestures to navigate your device and reads aloud what you've pressed. It will also read a book aloud, though it doesn't sound nearly as nice as an audiobook does.

Amazon owns Goodreads , so it syncs seamlessly to Kindles (press the three-dot menu > Goodreads ). If you have a Goodreads account, you can review the Kindle books you've read or browse your bookshelf and recommendations. Long-pressing a word or phrase, in addition to what is mentioned above, opens up an option to share quotes directly to Goodreads.

There's a web browser too if you're connected to the internet ( three-dot menu > Web Browser ). It's not the best, so I'd reserve it for emergency searches.

Eric Ravenscraft

Scott Gilbertson

Matt Jancer

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Good e-Reader

Should Amazon release the Kindle Voyage 2?

24 August 2022 By Michael Kozlowski 22 Comments

The Kindle Voyage came out in 2014 and it features a six-inch e-ink Carta display with a resolution of 1430 x 1080. It was the first e-reader that had a 300 PPI display, which made font razer sharp. It was the first Kindle to have a flush screen and bezel design, protected by a layer of glass and also was the first e-reader to have an ambient light sensor that would automatically adjust the brightness of the screen, based on your environment. One of the major selling points was the inclusion of Page Press technology, which had capacitive buttons on the side that provided haptic feedback when pressed down to turn a page. The Voyage was one of the most popular e-readers ever, why did Amazon elect not make a second generation?

Amazon was working on a Kindle Voyage 2 sometime from 2017 to 2020. The Voyage 2 had been in development at the secretive RND facility LAB126. This is where the Kindle was originally made, in addition to other products such as the Fire Phone, Fire Tablets, Fire TV and the birthplace of Alexa. The Voyage 2 went through various prototyping phases, but never got completed. The trouble Amazon engineers faced, was how to make the Voyage 2 distinctive enough, compared to the Oasis 3 and the Paperwhite 11th generation.

The latest generation Paperwhite is a key indicator of Amazons future direction. This includes larger screen Kindles, with the latest E INK Carta 1200 e-paper technology and modern specs. This includes Bluetooth to listen to Audible audiobooks, more storage to handle these files, fast-charging, USB-C and even an ambient light sensor. You can read at night with white and amber LED lights, and Amazon packed the most lights in any Kindle to date on the 11th Gen. The Paperwhite also did not have an cellular capabilities and I got the feeling when talking with Amazon, they don’t intend on including 4G/LTE on future models.

Users liked the Voyage, it was a premium six-inch display that had so many innovations for its time, that they now become standard on pretty well every single modern ebook reader. Will Amazon make a Voyage 2? It looks doubtful, it should have come out years ago, but the development of the Oasis got in the way and Amazon has made three different generations of that model. The Voyage is not a household name, it is similar to other one and done products such as the Kindle DX, a grand experiment but ultimately is there enough room in Amazons portfolio for more devices?

Amazon currently has an entry level e-reader, the Kindle. The Paperwhite/Signature Edition is their midrange and the Oasis is their flagship. Their lineup is simple and elegant, what Kindle you choose to buy is dependent on your use case. Having another new product, might complicate things, but Amazon IS developing something new, it just depends on when it comes out.

The company recently conducted a survey with a number of hardcore Kindle users and Amazon provided two names to a future device, they were Kindle Passage and Kindle Scribe . These two names leads many to believe that Amazon is working on an e-note. Whether this will be an e-paper screen or a multipurpose tablet that has note taking functionality. It would likely be part e-reader and part e-note, similar to what Kobo is doing with the Elipsa and Sage, maybe they would even use the fabled E INK Carta 1250 screen, which only the Fujitsu Quaderno uses right now. Amazon would likely make a boatload of money selling premium templates for drawing, accessories such as a premium stylus and replacement nibs, sleep cover cases.

Suffice to say, although everyone wants a new premium six inch to come out, the Voyage 2, the brand is dead and will never comeback.

Michael Kozlowski

Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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The Best Kindle Cases to Protect Your eReader No Matter Where You Go

Bumps, drops, scratches, and spills are no match for these sleek cases.

In This Article

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• Our top picks
• Tips for Buying
• Why Trust T+L

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

Travel + Leisure / Marcus Millan

It might be tough to make the transition from physical books to eBooks, but it's a worthwhile endeavor. Not only does this save space and weight in your suitcase, having access to full libraries when you're on the go is a pretty solid perk, too. However, as with all electronic devices, your Amazon Kindle is best protected with a case, especially when you’re traveling.

While we do have a pick for the best overall Kindle case, ultimately the best case is the one that not only works with your specific model, but also is most useful to your needs. Some cases, for instance, are waterproof for those who like to read by the pool or the beach. Others have a stylus holder for anyone using a Kindle Scribe. And then there's also the matter of aesthetic and textural preferences, too. That's why we've come up with our list of the 12 best Kindle cases for all types of users — so read on to find out which is best for you.

Best Overall

Amazon kindle fabric cover.

It's made by Amazon, so it fits the Kindle like a glove.

It does not fit Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Oasis devices.

Sometimes simplicity is best and, with this pick, that is the case. There aren't any flashy bells and whistles, but this fabric cover both wakes up your Kindle and puts it to sleep as it’s opened and closed. It also folds perfectly around the back of the device to make both one- or two-handed reading comfortable — hardcover books could never.

The Amazon-designed cover perfectly fits 11th-generation Kindle devices and fastens via a magnet, avoiding clumsy clips or attachments. It's also thin enough to be lightweight yet protective. If there's any downside to this pick, it's that it only comes in four colors. If you own a Kindle Paperwhite, there is a version of this case for that model, too (and it's water-resistant!).

The Details : Kindle | Fabric

Best Sleeve

Walnew 6-inch sleeve for kindle.

It's compatible with most Kindle devices.

You can't charge your Kindle while it's in the sleeve.

If you don't like using a Kindle case while you're reading, but you'd still like some protection when you toss it in your bag, opt for a sleeve instead. Sleeves like this model with a magnetic flap also have the advantage of fitting a variety of different devices. The suede exterior isn't necessarily strong enough to protect your device from falls, but the soft interior does help keep it scratch-free, which is usually the bigger worry when you're just storing your device. One disadvantage with most sleeves, including this model, is that you can't charge your Kindle while it's inside the case.

The Details : Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage, Kindle Touch | Suede

Best Waterproof

Walnew universal waterproof protective case.

 A triple lock ensures no leakage.

Touchscreens get a little finicky beneath waterproof cases.

There are water-safe or water-resistant cases and then there are waterproof cases — and they are definitely not made equal. The former simply protects against splashes, while the latter allows your Kindle to be fully submerged. With the Walnew universal waterproof case, three zip lock strips ensure that your Kindle will remain dry in any conditions and the clear plastic covering allows you to still use your device while it's inside. That said, we find that plastic waterproof cases aren't always as friendly to touchscreens as advertised, but it's a fair trade for that extra protection. Plus, since this case is not fitted to specific devices, it can also accommodate a range of models.

The Details : Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Oasis | Plastic

Best Back Cover

Moko case fit.

It's adept at absorbing drops and keeping your Kindle crack- and scratch-free.

The case dirties easily with fingerprints and smudges.

A back cover case, as you might've guessed, only protects the back of your Kindle while leaving the front open, though this Moko model also has cushioned corners that absorb impact. This adds a slight bit of heft to your device's overall size while protecting it from drops and damage (which, to be fair, is true of all cases). It comes in two different colors, but many owners of this case use the plastic back cover as a blank canvas for decorating their Kindle with stickers or collages. This allows for a level of customization of your Kindle that you rarely see with other models.

The Details : Kindle Paperwhite | Plastic

Best Book-style

Klevercase book style universal cover.

Themed covers are great for certain fandoms.

The velcro attachment is more cumbersome than traditional cover designs.

Miss the old-school look of leather-bound books, but don't want to lug them around every time you read? The KleverCase Book Style Cover has you…covered. This case comes in eight design schemes that will remind you of fun old tomes — some even nod to certain fandoms, including Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter . Even the inside is designed to look like a book. The case itself is hard and durable to keep your modern technology safe, and the Kindle is attached to the cover via a piece of velcro. While we feel this feature is a tad inelegant, it does usually keep devices in place. 

Best Leather

Amazon kindle paperwhite leather cover.

A durable, hard leather case that's specifically designed for Kindle Paperwhites.

It has a harder, grained leather finish rather than a soft one.

Unsurprisingly, Amazon's own covers perfectly fit the company's Kindle devices, and this leather case for the Paperwhite is no exception. It's thin yet protective, can stay on while your Kindle Paperwhite is charging, and remains shut through a magnetic closing mechanism. Although the cover is made of natural leather, it's hard, not soft, which makes it feel a bit plasticky. That's a big change from former models, so if you've purchased Amazon's leather cases in the past, don't expect this one to feel quite the same. Still, it's a solid case that has an elegant design and offers sturdy protection — and there are five colors from which to choose.

The Details : Kindle Paperwhite | Leather

Best Fabric

Ayotu fabric case.

Twenty-five color options and an inexpensive price make this fabric case a serious rival to the Amazon brand version.

The magnetic strips meant to hold the flap back when the case is open don’t work very well.

Although Amazon's own fabric model took the prize for best overall Kindle case, we love that this Ayotu version comes in 25 different colors for plenty of variety. It has all the crucial features, like a soft interior lining that keeps your device scratch-free and magnetic closures that wake up and put a Kindle to sleep, but it comes in shades from mint green to red wine, too. 

Best with Stand

Moko case with stand.

Not only does it have a stand — there's also a hand strap and a slot for cards and cash.

The hand strap only works with your left hand.

For hands-free reading, this MoKo case comes with a stand that allows your Kindle to remain upright at an angle on a table or desk. It also includes a slot for storing credit cards, cash, ID, or anything else that's relatively flat. There's also a hand strap on the back that allows you to hold the Kindle without your thumb — though it's only designed for left hands. A plastic-leather hybrid shell makes this case both durable and splash-resistant, and it comes in 16 patterns and colors for a range of customization. Though the case is a little bulky, we do appreciate these bonus features, as well as standard features like an automatic wake/sleep function.

The Details : Kindle | Synthetic leather

Best Patterns

Fintie slimshell case.

It supports wireless charging.

It's not as protective as some other cases.

If looks are more important to you than heavy-duty protection, this Fintie case is for you. It's more of a cover, as it doesn't have much shock absorption or other protective features, but it does come in 10 solid colors and 19 patterns and graphics — and we're particularly drawn to the Composition Book design for the nostalgia factor. Though this case might not be as durable as others, it does have a water-resistant, synthetic leather shell that is, best of all, compatible with wireless charging. The cover also has an automatic wake/sleep function for your device.

The Details : Kindle Paperwhite | Synthetic leather

Best for Kindle Scribe

Fintie slimshell for kindle scribe.

It’s equipped with two pen holders.

Despite being slim, it's still heavy.

Because the Kindle Scribe has a vastly different size and function than other Kindle models, it definitely requires a specially designed case — and Fintie has you covered. This thin cover has not one, but two pen holders. The first is an elastic loop that's rather secure, while the second is a magnetic holder that's designed for easy access. Not only is the case a pen holder, but its hard plastic/leather exterior protects your Kindle Scribe at the same time. Despite a slim-shell design, this case does add a significant amount of weight to the device, which makes it better for use on a flat surface. However, we do appreciate the multiple solid colors and patterns to choose.

The Details : Kindle Scribe | Plastic/synthetic leather

Best for Kindle Oasis

Amazon kindle oasis premium leather cover.

It's made from soft, luxurious-feeling leather — not hard leather.

It's expensive.

While Amazon's newer leather Kindle cases tend to be hard to the touch, the Kindle Oasis Premium Leather cover has more of the plush, soft feel of a worn leather-bound book — the classic feel that long-time Kindle users know. (This makes it perhaps less splash-resistant but more luxurious and pleasant to hold.) As with most cases, this one uses magnetic closures to automatically wake up and put to sleep your device, and its flap folds all the way back for one-handed reading. But the case does only come in one color — brown — and it's one of the most expensive Kindle cases on the market if that shade doesn't appeal.

The Details : Kindle Oasis | Leather

Best With Hand Strap

Tfy security hand strap holder.

It can be paired with a case or used on a "naked" Kindle.

It lacks the protection of a traditional case. 

A hand strap on a Kindle case can definitely be a useful feature — it reduces stress on your thumb and gives you a more secure hold. And while most cases with straps position the straps to one side, this one by TFY smartly puts it in the middle of the case's back so that it can be used by either hand. It might be a bit unsightly but hand straps are practical features, not aesthetic ones. This one can be used across multiple devices, and it also can be used with or without a case. (This is particularly helpful since the strap offers your Kindle no protection!)

The Details : Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage, Kindle Oasis | Plastic

Tips for Buying a Kindle Case

Make sure the case fits your kindle model.

Not only are there a variety of Kindle eReaders , but there are also numerous generations of each model so it behooves you to search for your specific model and generation when shopping. This can make buying a compatible case a little tricky, as you'll need to read the fine print to ensure that a specific case works with your specific device. In addition, some cases provide special features designed for one Kindle model, such as a pen strap for the Kindle Scribe. 

Decide what style and features suit your needs

Consider how exactly you currently use or plan to use your Kindle before buying a case, as different styles and features are best suited to particular uses. If you often read at a table or desk, you might want to consider a case with a built-in stand. If you're sensitive to textures, consider the materials used in the cover itself. And, if you bring your Kindle to the beach or pool, look into water-resistant or even waterproof cases.

To determine the size of your Kindle, measure diagonally across the lit area of the screen, just as you would a TV screen. You should also read the fine print of the case to ensure it will fit your specific model — most cases list compatible models in their descriptions.

Hard cases tend to be the best as they are the most protective against bumps, but if you're just looking for something to protect your device from scratches, a soft material is perfectly fine.

It depends on the material, so you should read your manufacturer's instructions. But, generally speaking, washing or spot cleaning the case with a damp cloth and a small amount of soap should do the trick.

Why Trust Travel + Leisure

Stefanie Waldek is a freelance travel writer with a decade of experience. She's carried a Kindle with her on the road for the entirety of her career — and, in fact, even before then. For this article, she evaluated Kindle cases based on their features and appearance, and she read dozens of customer reviews.

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