Verdict: The Kindle is a very amazing device with tons of features and is worth buying. I would recommend you to go for the Kindle Paperwhite. It is one of the best E-readers available in 2023.
- Kindle Paperwhite – Now with a 6.8” display and thinner borders, adjustable warm light, up to 10 weeks of battery life, and 20% faster page turns.
- Purpose-built for reading – With a flush-front design and 300 ppi glare-free display that reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight.
- More books in more places – Store thousands of titles, then take them all with you. A single charge via USB-C last weeks, not hours.
The first Amazon Kindle was an instant hit back when Amazon launched it back in 2007. It was something new and unique. It had everyone’s interest piqued. This is why the Kindle was sold out in less than six hours from its launch. This was just a glimpse of things to come. Fast forward 13 years to 2023 and now many companies are manufacturing their version of the E-Reader. E-Readers have also gotten way better. They resemble real paper even more now. They have better batteries and can last for weeks on a single charge. Not to forget the capability of storing thousands of books in them. However, one thing hasn’t changed and that is the fact that Amazon is still the King of the E-Reader Market.
Even though Kindle is leading the E-Readers’ battle, the question still arises whether the Kindle is worth buying? How much close can it get to the experience of reading a physical book? Sure, you won’t be getting the crispness of the pages and the sound of turning them or the “second to none” smell of a new book. But Kindle has a few tricks up its sleeves.
So to answer the question, Yes, the Kindle is Worth buying. Going forward in this article we will see the reasons why the Kindle is worth buying.
Is a Kindle Worth it?
1. Easy to Use
Even after being able to do what it can do, the Kindle is still very easy to use. It has a very intuitive user interface. There is no learning curve involved. One doesn’t have to be tech-savvy in order to be able to use the Kindle to read the book. Even a child and an old person can use it. You wanna read any book from your library? Just scroll to the book you want to read and click on it. That’s all. Now you are reading that book. You want to buy new books. Just go to the store and buy the book you want by either searching for it or choosing from any of the lists and genres. There is no hassle in this process and you can easily read a book or add a new one using the Kindle.
2. Easy Bookmarking and Highlighting
With the Kindle, highlighting the contents of a book or a bookmarking a particular page or chapter becomes very easy. See, to highlight something in a physical book, you need to use markers. Whatever you highlighted is permanent. You cannot erase it later unless you use a pencil. But that doesn’t look very good and is inconvenient. The kindle on the other hand also lets you highlight contents and add a note to it. But here it is removable and you can delete it if you need to. You won’t be ruining the page in that process.
I’ll admit that adding or attaching bookmarks in physical books is very convenient. But that’s up to some extent only. Once you keep adding bookmarks and the total bookmarks become a little too much, then maintaining these bookmarks becomes a hassle. There’s also the risk of losing them if they fall somewhere which is possible and has happened to me. But with the kindle you can add as many bookmarks as you want without the bookmarks becoming a hassle. Also there’s no risk of losing them as there’s no falling down involved with these. So with the kindle you won’t accidentally lose your spot or progress in the book ever again.
3. Useful Reading Insights
The kindle being an E-reader brings a lot of useful features that you expect from a digital device. You get useful insights regarding a book. Like a normal book you can see the number of pages you have read and the number of pages left in the book. In addition to this you can also see other things like the total number of minutes you have read the book for and how many more minutes it will require for you to complete the book at your current reading speed. You also get the same details about the current chapter. The Kindle also shows you the percentage of the book have you completed.
4. Dimmable Screen
In order to read a regular book in the dark, you need to turn on the light. So you would often disturb others around you while doing so. However, Kindle devices have small LED lights that are located beneath the screen. The amount of brightness is adjustable and you can dim it according to the surrounding light. So you get just enough light to be able to read in the dark while also ensuring that you don’t cause sleep disruptions. Backlights from most electronic devices are known to disrupt your sleep. The Kindle devices with their natural and soft white light let you adjust the amount of illumination you need. So you can read at night without disturbing people around or without disrupting your sleep.
5. Environment Friendly
The Kindle is an electronic device. It runs on electricity. So it is considered to be an eco-friendly gadget. But that is not all. With the Kindle you get to read a lot of books. This also means that you won’t need to have a physical copy of that book. So that’s one less book required. An ebook doesn’t require killing a tree. So with every book you read, you are saving a small portion of a tree. This might seem a bit insignificant now. But over a certain period you will be able to save a lot of trees by using the Kindle instead of going for a hard paper or a normal physical copy. So just like me, if you are an environmentalist and you love the environment, then this is another reason to go for the Kindle.
6. Safe Book Collection that doesn’t take Space
If you are a book enthusiast and love to collect books, then you would know how difficult it can get. Not only does it take up a lot of space but you also need to invest a lot of time and money in order to maintain them. Even then, there’s always a chance of there being an accident and damaging all your precious books. They may get wet due to water or might even burn in case of a fire. There’s no telling when that might happen. The books also start getting a bit damaged by the wear and tear on regular usage. A kindle solves all this problem. Not only can you store thousands of books but you can all backup all these books to the cloud as well. So in case of an unfortunate incident, you don’t lose your books.
7. Good Read Integration
The Good Read Integration of the Kindle is one of my favorite features. Goodreads is kind of the IMDB equivalent for books. Like IMDB, where users can give their ratings and see how others have rated. But instead of movies, you rate books in Goodreads. By linking your Amazon account to Goodreads you can automatically track what you are reading on your Kindle. You can track your reading stats from anywhere and it is automatically updated. Other than this, there are tons of things you can do with Goodreads.
To begin with, you can organize your books and add them to different shelves on the basis of their reading statuses. So you can add them to shelves depending on whether you are currently reading the book, or you want to read a book or you have finished reading the book. Goodreads also allows you to add additional shelves for more convenience. You can also share your notes and highlights for a particular book with others. You can discover new books by connecting with friends with similar reading interests. You can see what your friends are reading, comments, and ratings. Goodreads also allows you to recommend a book to a friend and get recommendations from your friends as well. You can save these recommendations so you don’t run out of books to read.
The other great thing about Goodreads is the customized recommendation feature. Goodreads will show you book recommendations based on the books you’ve previously purchased and read or the ones you have rated. Not only that, but you can also customize your genre recommendations, so that you get recommendations according to your interests. Thus by including the Good Read Integration the Kindle takes your reading experience to the next level.
8. Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading subscriptions
With the Kindle you never run out of books to read. But in addition to that, this experience is a lot cheaper thanks to Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading subscriptions. Both these subscriptions allow you to read a lot of titles for free.
Prime Reading is part of your Amazon Prime subscription and you don’t have to pay anything for that. With the Prime Reading you get access to a little over 1,000 titles to read for free. These titles keep changing or rotating periodically. The Kindle Unlimited costs you $9.99 per month. But you get access to a very massive library of over 1,000,000 titles. Thus you will never run out of books to read and it’s a lot cheaper this way.
Which Kindle Should you Buy?
Now that you know the reasons why a Kindle is worth buying, you might be wondering which Kindle should you buy. Let us make this easy for you too.
Amazon has three Kindle devices you can choose from. The basic Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and the premium Kindle Oasis. ANd here’s what I think. Unless you have a tight budget, in which case you should go for the Kindle basic, or you want a premium experience for which you can opt for the Kindle Oasis, I would recommend you to go for the Kindle Paperwhite. It is one of the best E-readers available. Let’s see what it has to offer.
Kindle Paperwhite
While the Basic Kindle model is an entry-level device, that just about meets the bare minimum, the Paperwhite has way better specs that enhance the reading experience. Paperwhite is very lightweight and is also the thinnest among all of the kindle E-readers. Here are a few of its highlights.
1. Higher Pixel Per Inch (PPI)
Kindle Paperwhite comes with a 300 PPI display. This is almost twice as much as the Kindle basic, which had a 167 PPI screen. What this means is that the screen on the paperwhite will be much more crispy and sharper than the screen on Kindle basic. It will also result in a much cleaner look. The text is also finer in the Paperwhite. This difference in the resolution will result in way better reading experience than before.
2. Waterproof
Just like its premium e-reader, the Kindle Oasis, Kindle Paperwhite also has an IPX8 waterproof rating. This means that the device will be fine even after being submerged underwater for an hour. The depth threshold for this is 8 meters, so anything deeper than that, and the Paperwhite might not be able to sustain it. This however is more than enough for an average user.
Now while some might argue that being waterproof isn’t that big of a deal, it is. It might never face such a scenario, but knowing that your device is safe if something like that ever happens is such a relief.
3. Extra LED lights
Gone are the days when we couldn’t read in the dark without turning on the lights and disturbing the others around us. Most E-Readers come with built-in LED lights. While the earlier version of the Kindle basics didn’t include any LED lights, the newer ones have four built-in LEDs. Paperwhite on the other hand has 5 LEDs for an even better reading experience.
The Paperwhite has a glare-free screen which means you will be easily able to read in strong lighting conditions or even outside in the sun, plus five built-in LEDs. The Kindle Basic has four.
The key difference between an E-Reader and a regular Smartphone is that these builts in lights shine evenly throughout the screen. So the light doesn’t strain our eyes and hence enable us to read for a long period of time. The paperwhite has 24 different brightness levels. SO you can adjust the brightness to read in any lighting condition you want without straining your eyes. This means, even in a dark lightning condition, you can comfortably read without hurting your eyes.
4. Hardware and Build
The Paperwhite is built with soft plastic and all its edges are slightly curved. This makes for a more comforting hold and will also feel better while resting in our palms. It is also weighted perfectly. It’s neither too heavy nor too light. It is of just the right weight to feel both comfortable and sturdy while holding it.
The back of the device has a matte finish. While it feels very good to touch, it however is very prone to pick up fingerprint smudges. But because it is waterproof, you can easily wash it.
When it comes to hardware buttons, the Paperwhite is very minimal. It has only one button. That button is a Power Button which is placed in the bottom edge. Adjacent to the Power Button is a micro-USB connector that is used for charging. There is also a small indicator light that blinks once the device is being charged or is plugged in.
5. Supported Formats
Like all other Kindle devices, the Paperwhite supports the following formats:
- HTML
- MOBI
- TXT
- Rich Text Format (RTF)
6. Battery Life
This is one aspect of E-Readers that is the most impressive. Its battery can last several weeks. Paperwhite isn’t any different.
Even after including five different LED lights and a higher resolution screen, the Paperwhite still manages long battery life. With average usage of 30 minutes every day, while keeping the device in airplane mode, its battery lasted for up to 6 and a half weeks. That is pretty solid battery life.
7. Audible support
The Paperwhite also comes with audible support. So this means, along with reading you can also use it to listen to your favorite audiobook. The Kindle doesn’t have any headphone jack or a speaker. So you will need to be connected to a Bluetooth headphone to be able to listen to those audiobooks.
So with a Kindle Paperwhite you get all these and much more. Let us now sum up what we learned till now.
Is a Kindle Worth it Reddit
u/wisperingdeth – I have the new 2021 Paperwhite and can thoroughly recommend. And yes the Kindle is definitely worth it if you want to get into reading more. You’ll find you start to get addicted as it is so comfortable to read on, and convenient to buy new books from the store.
u/aloofyfloof – I’ve read 2.5 books this year already and last year without reading on a kindle I read around 5….the kindle is so comfortable and portable. I take it with me almost everywhere. I read on my lunch breaks. I read before bed. It’s great.
u/djturner92291d – I made the purchase and will never look back. I look at the “daily kindle ebook deals” every day and almost always find SOMETHING I was interested in. The tech is relatively cheap. Honestly, I used to love physical copy as well, but you can’t beat the convenience of kindle.
u/ShinyArtist – I definitely found it to be worth it. I started out with a basic kindle (which was more basic than the current one, eg. It didn’t have light or thumbnails and it wasn’t touch), and loved it. After 5 years, I upgraded to 7th generation paperwhite and 3 years after that, I upgraded to the 10th generation paperwhite because I wanted more space for books and audible (I have limited space on my phone for audible).
Should You Buy a Kindle in 2023? – Verdict
The Kindle is an amazing device. It might not match the experience of reading a real book but it gets very close. Other than that, you get a lot of other features that enhance your reading experience. So, I would say that the Kindle is totally worth it. And if you were to choose a Kindle device, I would recommend you to go for the Kindle Paperwhite.
- Kindle Paperwhite – Now with a 6.8” display and thinner borders, adjustable warm light, up to 10 weeks of battery life, and 20% faster page turns.
- Purpose-built for reading – With a flush-front design and 300 ppi glare-free display that reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight.
- More books in more places – Store thousands of titles, then take them all with you. A single charge via USB-C last weeks, not hours.
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Last update on 2023-12-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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