Best Kindle: Which Amazon e-reader should you buy?

The all-new Kindle is the cheapest Kindle ebook reader you can get, and launched 12 October for £84.99.

The basic Kindle’s first update in three years gives it a nice dusting off and brings the ereader’s specifications in line with the more premium Kindle paperwhite (£104.99, Amazon.co.uk).

That means it’s got the same 6in display but a sharper 300dpi resolution, plus extra storage, bigger battery life and, at long last, an industry-standard USB-C connection (the type used in most Android phones and modern gadgets). That means you’re way less likely to be caught short if you forget to pack your charging cable on a beach holiday.

The Kindle paperwhite is a more premium version of the basic Kindle (£69.99, Amazon.co.uk), and as such it’s got a few more useful features included. It’s also the most recently updated member of the Kindle crew. Amazon regularly refreshes the range with design tweaks and upgrades, and the Kindle Paperwhite received a small makeover in 2021.

Among other improvements it has a larger 6.8in screen and a higher-resolution display. In practical terms that means letters appear sharper and more detailed, so you can read more comfortably at your usual text size or with the Kindle held further away, or reduce the text size to fit more words on each page.

The Kindle paperwhite uses more LED lights surrounding the display so that illumination is brighter and smoother across the page. It can also adjust from a cold, blue daylight to a warmer amber colour – like the night-mode feature on a smartphone – for more comfortable reading in low-light. This model is also waterproof, so if you’re a clumsy clown who likes to read by the swimming pool or at the beach, the Kindle Paperwhite is the way to go.

The decadent sounding signature edition of the Kindle paperwhite (£104.99, Amazon.co.uk) is almost identical to the standard edition, but with a few luxury elements added.

For your extra £50 you get an ad-free lock screen, wireless charging, 32GB of storage for holding extra books and a light that adjusts itself automatically to suit your surroundings. These are interesting upgrades, but the signature edition is a tough sell for most shoppers.

The basic Kindle paperwhite doesn’t need charging very often, so plugging in isn’t a hassle, and if you rarely stray from a wi-fi network and don’t plan on using the Kindle as an audiobook player, the extra storage isn’t needed. Unlike TV shows, music and movies, books just don’t take up much space. The introduction of a light sensor for automatic brightness adjustment is the biggest improvement here, but if you’re planning on dropping £180 on a Kindle, you might want to consider shelling out a little more for the best Kindle in the range.

The Lamborghini of ereaders, the Kindle oasis is Amazon’s leading star, and pulls out all of the stops in its mission to get words out of the page and into your brain. It’s the most advanced and expensive Kindle in the range, sporting a metallic, asymmetrical design and a thicker ergonomic edge that sits comfortably in one hand. The magnetic fabric cover case (£39.99, Amazon.co.uk) doubles as bonus battery capacity, and the screen can automatically flip 180 degrees so that the Kindle can be held in either hand.

Apart from the wireless charging of the signature edition Kindle paperwhite (£104.99, Amazon.co.uk), every feature of lesser Kindles is included. Sensors automatically adjust the screen warmth and brightness depending on your surroundings. Audiobooks can pick up where you left off reading, and vice-versa. And waterproofing gives you the confidence to continue reading near puddles.

So, is it worth the extra cash? We love the Kindle oasis, but the cheaper Kindles have everything you need in an ereader. The best ereaders are the ones you forget your holding, that fade into the background so that there’s nothing standing between you and your book. The entry-level Kindle does exactly that, but if you’re a fan of bells and whistles, the oasis is one of the best-designed pieces of technology you’ll ever hold.