Amazon Kindle (2024) review: freshen up your love of reading

Amazon didn’t make any drastic changes to the overall design of the new Kindle (2024) compared to its 2022 predecessor. As such, if you have the previous model, you aren’t missing much with the new one, except for the color.

The Kindle (2024) is extremely small and lightweight, measuring only 6.2 x 4.3 x 0.32 inches (157.8 x 108.6 x 8.0 milimeters) and weighing only 5.56 ounces (158 grams), just like the 2022 version. The body of the Kindle is made with 75% post-consumer recycled plastics and 90% recycled magnesium.

Amazon still offers the standard black color but replaced the previous denim blue option with a gorgeous Matcha green. I love the green color, and it’s the reason I bought it right away — I simply love having some color in my devices, and green is one of my favorite colors. There is also a matching Matcha green fabric cover, but I chose my other favorite color: pink. The combination of pink and green was something I couldn’t pass up.

Since the overall design, size, and weight did not change, the Kindle 2024 is just as compact as ever. Its 6-inch size makes it small enough to fit in the pockets of my jackets and hoodies, and I suppose if you have big enough pants pockets, it can fit there, too. I’ve carried it around town in my small crossbody bags without much hassle.

The cases are relatively affordable at just $30, and the fabric is nicely textured and keeps the Kindle safe from everyday scuffs and scratches. The inside cover has a microfiber lining to clean and protect the screen, and the magnets that hold it closed put the display to sleep and wake it up when opened. The cover also folds back easily, allowing for one-handed reading.

Just like the overall look of the Kindle (2024), Amazon didn’t change much on the e-ink screen either. The Kindle (2024) still has a 6-inch e-ink display with capacitive touch technology. Its density is 300 pixels per inch, so the text is crisp and sharp, just like looking at an actual paper book.

Despite being a base model Kindle, you get a front light that you can adjust to your needs. Amazon made the front light on the new Kindle 25% brighter than the previous version, so it now gets as bright as the Kindle Paperwhite. Still, it’s fairly rare that I need to turn the brightness all the way up with an e-book reader, so I usually keep it somewhere in the middle. And if you have a lot of good lighting, then turning the light off completely works just fine.

Amazon also kept the dark mode on the base model Kindle, which inverses the colors so that the text is white on a black background. If you do a lot of reading late at night in the dark, it’s a good way to make the Kindle easier on your eyes.

The display also has a higher contrast ratio and faster page turning. These are small tweaks that improve the overall reading experience, but you may not notice them unless you’re using the Kindle (2024) side-by-side with an older model.

The user experience on a Kindle, at least on the base model, hasn’t changed much since the last release. It’s pretty basic, but for a device that is solely for reading books, that’s completely fine — less is more here.

When setting up the Kindle (2024), it will ask for the basics like preferred language and Wi-Fi. Then, you log in to your Amazon account. Any existing e-books that you’ve purchased or imported into the Kindle app from before will appear in the Library section. But you’re likely to spend some time browsing the Home section, too.

The Home section is where you can see titles from your library and browse for more books through the Kindle Store or Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited. If you get a Kindle, I’d recommend trying out Kindle Unlimited, as there are many books you can check out for a monthly fee. I find it helpful for discovering titles I otherwise would have never heard of.

Performance is fine. The new Kindle has 16GB of storage, which should be plenty for all the books you may want to read. I found the capacitive touchscreen very responsive, with little lag between selections. Since this is an e-ink display, there will always be a flicker when you do something on the display, but this is normal and helps prevent ghost images from happening. The Kindle (2024) is also fast to wake up when you open the cover or press the wake button.

As you read, tapping the top of the display will bring up the toolbar with options for changing reader settings, viewing the table of contents, notes and annotations, bookmarks, search, and system settings. There are actually a handful of various adjustments that you can make to the reading experience to really make it yours.

In 2022, Amazon switched the base model Kindle to USB-C for charging. This continues with the 2024 model, so that’s a welcome return. Charging it up with at least a 9W adapter takes about two hours. You can also charge it via a USB cable from a computer, which takes about four hours.

A single full charge will last up to around six weeks. Amazon makes this claim based on a half-hour of reading each day with wireless off and brightness set at 13. Actual battery life will vary depending on your own use, but since this is an e-book reader with an e-ink display, it’s safe to say that it will last at least several weeks.

I received my Kindle (2024) a day after it was announced, and I’ve only plugged it in for a full charge just once, on the day I got it. It’s been a little over two weeks now that I’ve been using it, and it’s still at 65% charge as of this writing.

Even though this is the shortest battery life of the Kindle lineup (other Kindle models get between 8 to 12 weeks of battery), it’s still perfectly fine. After all, you’ll only need to charge it up every once in a while.

Amazon continues to raise the prices of Kindles, including this base model. The Kindle (2024) starts at $110 for the lock screen ad-supported model or $130 for the ad-free version. This pricing applies to both the black and Matcha colors. For reference, the previous Kindle started at $100.

Considering that you probably aren’t looking at the Kindle when it’s locked anyway, I’m not bothered by the version with ads — especially when you pair it with one of the $30 fabric covers, which comes in four colors: Matcha, Black, Denim, and Rose.

If you have the 2022 base model Kindle, then this 2024 version is the same with a few minor tweaks, making it a hard sell. The only fundamental differences are the display, which is 25% brighter, and the new Matcha color. It’s like the 2.0 version of what Amazon sold two years ago.

But if you don’t have the 2022 Kindle, this is a fantastic Kindle to start with or upgrade to. The small and lightweight compact size makes it perfect to take with you anywhere, anytime. The e-ink display with 300 ppi is sharp and crisp, the faster page turning is a nice touch, and 16GB of storage means plenty of books to fill it up with. And with the front light and dark mode, it’s easy to read no matter where you are or what time it is.

Plus, the Matcha color is hard to resist. More devices need fun colors, and I am glad to see Amazon embracing this. For me, the color alone was worth it.