Amazon Kindle: Still an exceptional way to read

Lockdown got you reading more than ever? Good. But perhaps it also showed you that the Kindle is still an exceptional way to read.

The first Kindle with a front light for under $100 (R1,738)

The new Kindle allows readers to adjust the display brightness for comfortable reading in even more places.

“Customers consistently tell us how much they appreciate having a front light on Kindle devices so they can read in any environment, from a sunny patio to their bed at night,” said Kevin Keith, vice president of Amazon Devices.

“The team worked hard to bring this customer-favourite feature to our most affordable device, and we’re excited to introduce the all-new Kindle – the first Kindle under R3,500 with a built-in adjustable front light.”

It also comes with an updated design, the latest electronic ink technology for better contrast, glare-free display with laser-quality text that’s easy to read, and capacitive touch to prevent accidental swipes on the six-inch, 167 ppi display.

The refreshed design is still thin and light, so it’s easy to hold in one hand for long reading sessions. Plus it has enough storage to hold thousands of books so you can take your library with you.

The battery life is weeks not hours, and the durable design means you can take it with you when on the move. And it comes with three months of Kindle Unlimited for free, a $30 value. With Kindle Unlimited, you can read as much as you’d like from a collection of millions of titles at no additional cost.

Kindle devices come with instant access to the Kindle store, featuring the best selection of content, including books, audiobooks, newspapers and magazines. Kindle Unlimited provides unlimited access to millions of great titles, including books from popular authors, and titles from a range of genres.

It includes young adult books like The Selection by Kiera Cass, classics like The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and non-fiction like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.

After three months, Kindle Unlimited comes with a monthly subscription.

New features that go beyond books

The all-new Kindle helps you go beyond a book with Amazon’s newest reading features. Now, when you finish a book, it will automatically be marked as read in your library and synced across your reading devices including Kindle, Fire tablet, and the free Kindle apps for iOS and Android.

With just a few taps, you can see which books you’ve read and which you haven’t, making organising your library a breeze.

Additionally, last year, a feature was introduced to make it easier for users to find the next great read. There will more recommendations based on one’s reading history, including new and trending titles in Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Store.

These features will be delivered as a free, over-the-air update to the all-new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite Gen 6 (released in 2013), and newer devices in the coming months.

Features readers will love

The all-new Kindle includes:

• Bluetooth built-in: users can listen to their favorite audible book and switch seamlessly between reading and listening.

• Whispersync and Whispersync for Voice: saves and synchronises your last page read, bookmarks, and annotations from your Kindle eBooks and Audible books across all of your Kindle devices and apps, so users can always pick up where they left off on any device.

• Goodreads: Kindle is integrated with the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations, with over 85 million members and 86 million book reviews.

• X-Ray: explore the “bones of the book” by seeing all the passages in a book that mention relevant ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places, or topics of interest.

• Smart Lookup: integrates a full dictionary definition with other reference information via X-Ray and Wikipedia.

• Family Library: with Kindle and Kindle reading apps, users can access not only their own books but also books from the Amazon account of a spouse or partner.

• Reading benefits for Prime: Prime members can enjoy unlimited access to more than 1,000 books and magazines with Prime Reading as well as one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads.

The new device joins Kindle Paperwhite, which features a high-resolution, 300 ppi display with a flush-front design and waterproofing, and Kindle Oasis, which includes a seven-inch, high-resolution display, waterproofing and ergonomic design.

The all-new Kindle is $89.99 (R1,564) at www.amazon.com/kindle

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