Kindle (2019 release) - With a Built-in Front Light - White + 3 Months Free Kindle Unlimited (with auto-renewal)

This is the first Kindle I have ever owned or used for more than a couple seconds. My current employer actually told me to pick one up, and I could have chosen any Kindle I wanted. After reviewing the choices I decided to purchase this one, despite it being the cheapest. Honestly, I’m quite thankful. I wanted something of a small size, and a device that would be comfortable and easy to hold with both or either individual hand. I do not need to store a million books, nor do I plan to read in a river, or while taking a shower. If that changes, then I’ll update you on the water resistance of this device ;) As far as the actual devices goes, it is a nice size, capable of shoving into a small pocket in a bag, and is easy for me to palm and hold in a variety of ways. It is extremely light, and I could easily hold this for hours. The touch screen is responsive and flipping pages is easier and faster than I anticipated, while also avoidable when just holding the Kindle to read. I was hesitant about the lack of physical buttons, and although I still wished they were present (e.g. on the sides), I lack no confidence that they will soon be forgotten. Since I read a good bit of technical books, and like to take notes, I was wondering how well this would function. Although typing up paragraphs would be challenging, I was pleasantly surprised with the responsiveness. I will probably leave shorter notes and markers on my Kindle and elaborate more when on a computer or tablet. Although it is certainly not a smartphone or computer, it superseded my expectations. I do not have experiences to compare against, being my first Kindle, nonetheless the screen itself is bright and clear, whites being a light gray, and blacks being… well, dark. I did not find an option to invert the colors (font white, background black), which was unfortunate. I also find it odd the power button is on the bottom. I definitely foresee this being bumped while resting against a surface. At this point, I am also a bit disappointed this does not use USB-C. I am guessing Amazon is saving this for a newer, more expensive device, but honestly, I feel all devices like this moving forward really should have this. Having freedom in my choice here, I am thankful I chose this Kindle variant, and given the price point, I am doubtful anyone would complain once they held it in their hands. Any shortcomings I do have, and minor and I am doubtful they will be an ongoing annoyance. Definitely recommend.

I wanted to wait a while before I reviewed this, and it's been 5 months now. I got very motivated to buy this when I was wanting to read more and was on a minimalist kick, but after I bought it, I started second guessing myself. I mean, I spent almost $100 on a device that will let me read books I still have to buy anyways? But it's been almost half a year and I have come to absolutely love this thing. The battery is incredible and can last me a week or two on one charge. Thankfully, books are generally cheaper than if you bought them physically, and with Prime Reading there are tons of free books. There's plenty of storage, I doubt I'll ever have to worry about it. The only real setback is that it is very old technology still being implemented. It's not a digital screen, think of it like a calculator screen with way more pixels. So the responsiveness to touch is kinda slow. But for most of the time, it doesn't negatively effect your reading. I was, for a while, beginning to think that I should just become a purist and only buy physical books. You won't get the same experience on a Kindle as you will with a physical book. There's no pages to turn, no colored cover to look at, no book smell. But I've come to learn that the quality of the text itself is the only thing that matters. You're not reading the feel, color, and smell of a book. I think the sheer convenience of a Kindle is unmatched. For example, the picture above shows that I was reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I bought all of the Narnia books on Kindle in a bundle for $6 on sale. I have all of the Narnia books as one collective book physically, and it's gigantic. On the Kindle, they're all there, but it's just the Kindle. Take it anywhere. It literally fits in most of my side pockets. If you can swing the money, I definitely recommend for avid readers who are seeking a more minimalist approach.

I used to have a Kindle way back when (it had a keyboard!), but it's been a couple years since then and with shelter in place, I figured this was the time to get back into my hobby of reading. One of the huge attractions to having a Kindle is the fact that you can store many books at once onto this device while having none of the weight or bulk. In an age of digital noise, I look to this device to get back into the quiet solace and concentration that reading gives me -- kind of ironic, I know. I've made it a point to read my Kindle instead of going through social media on my phone when I have a couple of minutes to spare. I've found that the Kindle has really made the decision to reach for a book instead of my phone a lot easier -- the compact size means I can throw it into any bag, the amount of GB means I can stack the books I want to read inside my library, and the adjustable screen brightness and text size / font means I can emulate the actual reading experience seamlessly. Of course, the Kindle is no absolute substitute for a bibliophile who enjoys thumbing through the pages or flipping back and forth between their reading material, but I have personally found much enjoyment getting back into reading with this little device. I also expect that it will be incredibly convenient to have once travel opens up again, so that I may read on my commutes or on airplane rides. If you're looking for a simple e-reader that lets you read on your own preferences, I would strongly recommend this Kindle. As an aside, I would not recommend purchasing the offered Kindle Library Subscription after the one month free trial unless you're making a point of looking through the library on a monthly basis to "borrow" books (or read the Harry Potter series). I've gotten more use with buying the books I'd like to read on the Kindle instead of depending on Amazon's Library (especially since I like reading more recently acclaimed books, such as Michelle Obama's Becoming or the Dune series). The Kindle pricing for books can add up, but it's definitely cheaper and less bulkier than buying the physical book.

I love my kindle, would highly recommend if you're even thinking about one! I got my kindle for the sole purpose of reading Fanfiction. I got tired of reading from my phone for numerous reasons and these are also the positives of a Kindle. 1-battery life of my phone was TERRIBLE, I was charging multiple times a day, just to read for 4 hours. -the kindle can last over a week on one charge, depending on your setting etc 2-Storage on my phone, I read BIG fics, novel length. I also like finding more to read while I'm currently reading one, but to have a long list of TBR that might be pulled by the author got confusing and daunting. -My Kindle has over 300 fanfics and 30+ normal "books" and I'm just now reaching 5 gb of storage used. 3-The size of the Kindle is light and easy to hold, when you add a cover the weight difference is noticeable, even if its very small difference. 4-The Kindle is so easy on my eyes compared to my phone, the lighting difference is noticeable, and if the "blue screen" bothers you, this will be a huge improvement! 5-No distractions, I hated it when a notification would pop up on my phone and interrupt my reading, not that I don't want to be notified, but not when I'm reading. It's so nice to just be able to read and not have texts or facebook distracting me! Negatives: 1-It isn't waterproof, but I don't usually plan on submerging my electronics in water. Any little splashes that have hit it have not effected it. 2-You have to pay for book advertisements to not appear on your screen when it's asleep. The ads don't pop up while your reading EVER, they are only on the screen when it is asleep. Even if you pay the 20$ for no ads, you still have a screen saver that is constantly on when asleep. 3-As I stated above, covers add to the weight of the Kindle, but it doesn't mean I don't want one! Cover options for the basic Kindle are slim and its disappointing.

I was really excited for my kindle to come in because I have had more time to read lately and I felt that a kindle would be useful in easy and cheaper access to books. (not to mention environmentally friendly. As much as I do love a good physical book.) This version of the Kindle of relatively easy to figure out, and navigate, stays charged for weeks if you put it to sleep, and is light and portable. the last part, is probably one of the best things about the Kindle. I recently bought a hard copy of Obama's memoir a Promised Land, and thinking about lugging that book around for as long as it will take me to read it, is making me wish I had bought it as an e-reader instead. I really like the feature that is built in where you can highlight a word and it gives you access to a definition, or if you are highlighting a phrase, will show you a wikipedia page with more background information. I like to read a lot of nonfiction books and historical books, so this feature has come in handy multiple times. The reason I am giving this only four stars compared to five is because I have had just a few unexpected problems, and while they are not big enough problems to make me want to never use my Kindle again, they are annoying. In the reviews that I read, people were all assuring that there was no glare seen in the screen. This was one of the big selling points to me because I have some books just on my iphone and the glare was the most frustrating part. I'm not sure if the lack of glare is when you are reading outside, but I am reading inside of an office and the glare of the fluorescents is hard to avoid. Definitely not as bad as an iPhone or even a fire tablet, but still bad enough to where I'm constantly having to move the screen around because the glare spots mess with my eyes when I'm trying to read. (the words still come through the glare, but it's hard to focus my eyes on it because of the glare. Hope this makes sense.) The only way there is no glare is if I'm holding the Kindle directly in front of my face. if I have it angled up towards my face and am holding it lower, the lights are directly hitting the screen and then reflecting off into my eyes. (I attached a picture of what the glare looks like at a comfortable -for me- reading position so you get an idea.) The second problem I've run into is that I feel like the screen is really sensitive. If your finger even accidentally touches the screen, it will flip the page. And sometimes I will swipe from the right of the screen to the left to turn the page forward, but it will register as if I am trying to turn back a page and I have a hard time seeing where it is that I am in the book now. These are the only two problems, but I have to work with these problems every day as they both pertain to the actual reading of the book which is why I have docked a star. Overall though, I would say that it's a pretty good deal. I bought the kind without the advertisements which was a little bit extra but honestly I didn't mind paying the extra amount and I would say personally that it's worth it. Advertisements just also bug me. Although I do miss reading from an actual book at times, I would not say that that was because of anything having to do with a Kindle. Maybe I am a little harsh of the Kindle because of that, or maybe I am just old fashioned. Ultimately, one of the biggest reasons that I got a kindle is because I 'm trying to reach a point of zero waste and the Kindle has helped me get one step closer to that goal.

I love this little thing! The slight reduction in size makes it slide easily into my purse so I can take it everywhere! The touch screen has much better response times than older Kindle models, and the lettering looks sharp and easily readable. The font sizes on this are different from on the paperwhite. I've always felt that the paperwhite font sizes jumped straight from "too small" (4) to "too big" (5). The new Basic fixes this -- using the Ember font, this kindle's size 3 is like the paperwhite's 4, this kindle's 4 is an in-between size the paperwhite doesn't have, and this kindle's 5 is like the paperwhite's 5. I like having more choices over the font size and to me the new size 4 is the perfect size for comfortable reading. The light on this is about the same as the current kindle paperwhite, but not as good as the older versions of the paperwhite. The picture with two black kindles has a 2015 paperwhite on the left, and this 2019 basic kindle on the right. This one one has a slightly bluer light, which isn't as nice for reading at night. I went to a local electronics store to compare to a 2018 paperwhite display model, and it has the same bluer color, so this is a matter of older vs. newer, not paperwhite vs. basic. The color you choose for this kindle can cause some optical illusions involving the screen. The pictures on this review with one black kindle and one white kindle are both the same 2019 basic model with the same settings. I've shown a range of backlight settings so you can compare for yourself. As shown, the border on the white makes the screen look darker and browner when unlit. When you read with the light on, it can make the light look harsh and unnatural. But I have found that for any given room lighting, there will be 1 or 2 backlight settings that look OK with the white border. The black border has downsides too - it can make the screen feel smaller and crowded. I didn't like the white one at first, but after spending a few days with both, I've decided I like the white one better - it feels more spacious, is more relaxing for long reading sessions, and seems to cause less contrast and eye strain. But I hope for future models they'll consider using light gray instead of white, which I think would be the best or both worlds.

This was my first e reader of any kind. I finally decided to give one a try. I wanted something light that I could use to read laying down in bed. I read a lot of reviews before choosing. The paper white sounded great but this being my first reader I decided to go with the basic kindle because of price in case I didn’t like using an e reader. I have been very pleasantly surprised with this reader. It is super light. It’s smaller than I thought and the page is definitely not as big as a paperback page so you have to turn the page really frequently, but I have adjusted to that. It’s worth it for how light this is and easy to use. I love the built in light. I actually have no idea how someone would use this without it. I use it as a screen dimmer. If the light is bothering my eyes I make it darker, etc. Great feature. The battery is excellent. I read about 1-2 hours per night and the charge has lasted me well over 3 weeks. I love the raised edge because it gives me finger somewhere to rest without turning the page by accident. The screen is nice. I can see how maybe the paper white is sharper though I have never seen it because this screen doesn’t look super sharp but it’s definitely sharp enough for me. It doesn’t get blurry and I have Poor eyesight. I got the one with ads for the discount and I have no idea why anyone would debate about this feature - it is not disruptive at all. It’s just a screen saver. You swipe to open and the ad goes away. Doesn’t bother me at all. Overall really happy with this device. Will upgrade when I need to as I am curious about the screen on the paper white but I love this kindle for its lightweight and small features. It’s so easy to use and I can read in bed one handed and turn the page with just one tap of a finger. Glad I took the plunge. Don’t let the ad discount feature scare you away!

I wish I had gotten a Kindle a long time ago. I've been a "bookworm" my entire life and am an avid reader. Additionally, my job calls for me to be reading news and legal documents every day, some of which are in different languages. I've had the Kindle a week now and have found it useful for both of these purposes. It really is an easy to use, quality e-reader. I bought it during the Cyber Monday sale, so that was a nice bonus to get it 30 percent off. I will continue to buy textbooks, graphic novels and cookbooks in print (just my preference). But for everything else, I will be using my Kindle from now on. It's more environmentally friendly in the long run and has already saved me money. PROS: I have small hands, and I can hold the Kindle in one hand no problem. This is nice, it makes reading very easy and enjoyable and I'm actually starting to prefer it to holding certain types of books, especially the small paperbacks. Its easy to adjust the backlight, font size and turn pages. I can do it all with one hand. The thing that really threw me off was how LIGHT the Kindle is. This is another great feature I didn't even think about. I travel quite a bit (when the world isn't ending) and am glad that this will barely add extra weight. CONS: My only complaint with the Kindle is the touch screen. It works perfectly fine for the most part but now and then I'll have to tap something two or three times before it registers. It's not something that bothers me or makes the Kindle non-functional. This is my first e-reader and I haven't used the other Kindle e-readers, the Paperwhite or the Oasis. But as someone who adores the feeling of reading a physical book, I think it says something that I have really enjoyed the Kindle. 5/5 Stars, would recommend to anyone who likes to read for pleasure. This product is worth it's price tag.