Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Amazon knows not to mess with success and the Kindle Paperwhite is proof of the lessons learned on the rise to the top of the e-commerce chain. Basically the company has taken the same design that’s always worked for the Kindle and once again tweaked and improved on the market-leading eBook reader.

First of note is the most obvious - the screen resolution is touted as having 62% denser pixelation (221 ppi, to be precise) and 25% increase in contrast on previous Kindle models. The bezel has been trimmed and weight stays low at 7.5 ounces (0.2 kg), while battery life is noticeably longer at eight weeks of typical use. A suggested retail price of $180 for the premium Kindle Paperwhite model seems a bit daunting at first – particularly for an eBook reader – but this one has Wi-Fi and 3G functionality.

For lovers of apps, Kindle Paperwhite features some revolutionary new items. The “Time to Read” features is an app that records the user’s reading time and can even predict how long a given chapter or book will take to read – we’re not sure exactly what the use of this app might be, but there you have it.

A bit more immediately useful is X-Ray, which shows the reader all references to a given subject within the eBook as well as on Wikipedia and Shelfari with one click. Last but not least is Whispersync, an across-the-line addition to Amazon eBook readers. This one allows the user to switch from text eBook to audio book at a moment’s notice – quite the handy feature indeed.

So is the Kindle Paperwhite the last word in eBook readers? It might just be – until Amazon fine tunes quality again, it seems.