The Kindle, Amazon’s E Ink reader, will turn five years old in November. In the course of half a decade, the slab-shaped device captured the imagination (and dollars) of many book readers. Amazon has iterated on the Kindle’s design and function several times, adding keyboards, removing keyboards, sharpening the resolutions, and adding touchscreens. Amazon even went so far as to spin off the E Ink Kindle into a new line of LCD tablets, the Kindle Fire.

The focused interface and E Ink display of the Kindle has pleased many book lovers because it mimics the non-reflective quality of paper. But in the past, users complained that the Kindle doesn’t hold up to reading in dark rooms or indoors. Enter the Kindle Paperwhite—Amazon’s latest version of its E Ink line of Kindles. It comes with a lit screen, and we got our hands on it to see how it fares.

Things are pretty different in 2012 compared to the Kindle's introduction. More people are used to reading electronic books, and the tablet is becoming more of a home appliance than a novelty or luxury item. The availability of Android tablets, Kindle Fires, and iPads makes the decision to buy an e-reader more challenging. If an E Ink e-reader’s price is in the vicinity of a tablet’s, which gadget is the better buy? A Google Nexus 7 starts at $199, and a Kindle Fire costs $159. Compare those to the base price for a Kindle Paperwhite: $119. We evaluated the Paperwhite to test out some significant new features and see if it offers the most bang for your buck in a marketplace full of tablets looking to devour the Kindle.

Size, look, and feel

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At first glance, the Kindle Paperwhite resembles the Kindle Touch, an earlier iteration of the Kindle that has been discontinued from Amazon’s store. Amazon introduced the Touch in 2011, and the Paperwhite seems cut from the same cloth. The Paperwhite measures 6.7" x 4.6" x 0.36", and it weighs 7.5 oz (7.8 oz for the Wi-Fi and the 3G models, respectively). In terms of dimensions and weight, it is nearly identical to the Touch. The device comes in plain black, replacing the dark grey of the Touch and other E Ink models.

Amazon removed the poorly designed touch button from the device, and the front of the Kindle remains a sleek surface of black plastic. Three of the edges around the screen are completely smooth, and the bottom edge now features only a port for the USB charger, a battery indicator light, and the power button. The sliding button of earlier Kindle models is now gone. Instead, you now have to click down on it in order to prompt the screen to wake. Even after it wakes, you still have to swipe once to fully turn on the device. We wonder if this decision is a way to prevent the device from draining battery if a user bumps into the button by accident, or if leaving the ads up on the screen longer prompts users to buy more stuff from Amazon.

Picking up the new Kindle Paperwhite is simply a charm. Because Amazon has reduced the dimensions of the device to that of a paperback book, it’s easy to pick it up with one or two hands. In fact, using one hand is amazingly easy. I have large hands and was able to cradle the whole unit in my palm without having to stretch my fingers. Users with smaller hands may not have this luxury, but at 4.6 inches across, it will probably work for many.

The plastic on the front of the Kindle Paperwhite is a smooth, matte black, and the back of the device is covered in a rubberized plastic, also black. The back of previous versions of the Kindle were metal, and though we didn’t particularly feel it impacted the reading experience, the grip and feel of the Paperwhite lets it rest securely in your hand and acts as a deterrent to the occasional slip.

Hardware and specs

The Kindle Paperwhite is available in two options for connectivity: a Wi-Fi Model ($119) and a 3G model ($179). The device supports two-point multitouch (as compared to 10-point multi-touch on the Kindle Fire). Both models come with 2GB of internal memory.

The Wi-Fi model provides adequate connectivity for most users who simply want to download books, magazines, and newspaper subscriptions. The 3G option continues to be a great choice for users who travel a lot, since they can reach the Amazon store while out and about in more than 100 countries. The Kindle Paperwhite also features the experimental browser feature, which lets users connect to the Web. It’s decent for Internet browsing in a pinch, but it’s not going to win any awards in usability, due to the device’s performance and its virtual keyboard (which we’ll cover later on).

The battery was given a performance boost from previous models. Amazon says a single charge can last up to eight weeks, based on usage of 30 minutes per day with wireless off and with the light brightness setting at level 10. The battery held up well in our tests, both with wireless on and off. However, we noticed that the new Paperwhite’s built-in light feature really took a toll on battery life.

Unless you are constantly checking subscriptions or spending most of your time shopping instead of reading, using the device with Wi-Fi turned off will make the battery last significantly longer. However, users who enjoy the sync-to-last-page feature across other mobile devices or computers will want to keep the wireless option on at least some of the time.

The longer battery life apparently led Amazon to get rid of the wall-outlet charger that used to be included with the Kindle. The Paperwhite now comes with a single USB cable, which means you can't plug the device into a wall outlet if you're traveling or away from a computer. If you rely on your Kindle while on the road, you’re going to have to make sure you have a laptop port or a USB wall adapter handy. This change is a major inconvenience, but Amazon seems to be sending a clear message: we believe our device's battery life is good enough that you can travel often without having to worry about charging it. Whether that turns out to be true or not will depend on what kind of traveling you do, and what devices you carry with you. If you read a lot of books on a Kindle, you may not be able to afford leaving your charger cable behind.

Listing image by Casey Johnston