The humble e-reader is the evolutionary equivalent of a duck-billed platypus: at some point, it fell off the family tree. It’s been plotting its own course ever since, totally comfortable in its weirdness, utterly oblivious to the changes happening everywhere around it. That weirdness — the e-reader’s singular, purpose-suited design — has enabled it to survive the coming of the smartphone. It survived the tablet. If I had to guess, it’ll survive whatever comes next.

So, how do you build a better duck-billed platypus?

That’s the question that Amazon has to answer with the Kindle Voyage, the new flagship of the retail giant’s range of E Ink devices. The challenge is as unique as the product itself. Generally speaking, it’s pretty obvious how to make a phone or a tablet better — you always want it faster, thinner, prettier, and longer-lasting. But the Kindle Paperwhite, the new midrange (and outgoing king) of Amazon’s e-reader line, already lasts a month on a charge and is a mere fraction of the thickness of a single book that it replaces. The frontlit display is extraordinarily easy on the eyes for extended periods of time; apart from the display, an e-reader doesn’t really need to look good, it just needs to get out of the way. (Odds are you’ve got it in a case, anyway.)

At a glance, the Paperwhite seems like it’s at an evolutionary end. But life, as they say, finds a way.

The e-reader survived the smartphone, it survived the tablet, it'll survive whatever comes next I won’t dwell on software, because the Voyage’s is essentially unchanged — it’s a simple touch-centric UI that gets the job done. Amazon is adding a couple cool new features that are coming to all recent Kindle models: Word Wise, which automatically shows brief definitions of difficult words between the lines of text, and a more flexible search function that will search across your library, Goodreads, and the Kindle Store. What you’re really paying for with the Voyage, which starts at $199, is the hardware. The color of the Kindle Voyage’s chassis, like all Kindles in recent memory, is somewhere between dark gray and black. The 6-inch screen is the same size as the Paperwhite and the entry-level $79 Kindle. In other words, from a distance, it’s virtually anonymous. That’s fine — unlike a phone that’s constantly being pulled from your pocket, Kindles aren’t about hardware sizzle. The only thing you’re staring at is the screen. If you look closer, though, the subtle differences start to emerge. The Voyage is the thinnest Kindle in Amazon’s lineup at 7.6mm (compare that to 9.1mm for the Paperwhite). It’s also marginally the lightest, but I wouldn’t say that any of this matters — recent Kindles certainly aren’t hard to hold for long stretches. The most noticeable change, really, is that the Voyage is the first Amazon e-reader with a completely flush display. That’s actually a big deal — older Kindles have a deep recess, maybe a millimeter or so, from the bezel down to the screen. It’s been ages since recessed displays were acceptable in any other category of touch-enabled device, and it has always lent touch Kindles (up to and including the Paperwhite) a vaguely cheap, disposable flavor. The flush mounting also makes the simple action of moving your thumb an inch or two to change pages a more seamless, effortless motion, because you’re not navigating a change in terrain along the way. That sounds like an insanely minor improvement, but if you’re a heavy reader flipping through hundreds or perhaps thousands of pages per week — as many Kindle owners likely are — it becomes a big deal. Actually, with the Voyage, you may never move your thumb at all. A pair of gray lines and dots on either side of the front bezel can be touched lightly to advance the page or go back — "PagePress," in Amazon parlance. Haptic feedback gives your hand a little buzz as affirmation that the command has registered. I absolutely hated it at first; it felt like more effort, a return to the old-school buttons that touch Kindles were designed explicitly to escape. But after having spent a week with it, it’s wonderful. Once you find a comfortable way of holding the Voyage, you literally never need to move your hand — just apply a little pressure with your thumb (left or right will do, the device is ambidextrous) and the page changes. Both the level of pressure required to register a page change and the intensity of the haptic feedback can be tweaked in the device’s settings. And if you absolutely hate it, you can disable it entirely and just stick with the old Paperwhite method, touching the left and right sides of the actual screen to change pages.

Speaking of the screen, Amazon is touting that the Voyage’s 300dpi display is the best ever on an E Ink Kindle. They’re not lying: this is simply the best E Ink display I’ve ever seen. It’s certainly better than the gray-brown pages of the secondhand paperback you’re reading, and unless you’re really into $75 high-gloss coffee table books, it’s probably better looking than just about everything in your bookshelf. The Paperwhite was already fantastic both in terms of contrast and resolution, but if I looked closely enough, I could see ragged little edges on characters. On the Voyage, I can’t. It’s just smooth. Amazon has also improved the grayscaling to the point where graphics aren’t visibly dithered; clearly, as always, this device is primarily intended for text, but images (in the Kindle Store, for instance) won’t trigger your gag reflex. A ghost-free, instantaneous-refresh E Ink display is the dream, but it just doesn’t exist yet Alas, this screen isn’t perfect. I was hoping that it wouldn’t "ghost" — the uniquely E Ink phenomenon that leaves subtle remnants of old pages on the display — but it still does from time to time. And it doesn’t feel any faster on page turns than the Paperwhite; you’ll wait about a half second every time. A ghost-free, instantaneous-refresh E Ink display (with full color, while we’re at it) is the dream, but it just doesn’t exist yet.

Amazon also touts the anti-reflective etching on the glass that covers the Voyage’s screen, which has apparently been designed to feel like paper. I honestly can’t see or feel any improvement here — Kindles have always been fantastic at mimicking the readability of an actual book, and this one is no different. It’s fine, but if the feel of a physical page is what’s stopping you from going digital, you shouldn’t expect the Voyage to convince you. The frontlighting is still a game changer in this product category The frontlighting on the Voyage’s screen isn’t appreciably different or better than the Paperwhite’s; it might be just a touch more even, but not to the point of making a difference. It’s still a game changer in this product category — it’s the feature that really catapults e-readers beyond books, simply by making them readable in any light. The Voyage does get the added benefit of an ambient light sensor — a first for Kindle — and it’s super useful: as a Paperwhite user, I’m constantly tapping to open the menu at the top of the screen and playing with frontlight intensity depending on the room I’m in or the time of day. Finally, it’s managed automatically, and it works well; there’s even an optional "Nightlight" mode that gradually changes the brightness so it’s not a distraction. As usual, Amazon measures this Kindle’s battery life in weeks, not hours or days; in my week with it the battery seems to have drained around 25 percent with moderate use. Basically, unless you’re lost in the woods for months on end, the battery isn’t going to be a concern.

While testing the Voyage, I also had the $79 Kindle, which replaces the old $69 non-touch model. It’s a great entry-level option and a good device for children, but it feels cheap, particularly next to the top-of-the-line Voyage. I didn’t mind the $79 model’s thicker shell or cheaper plastic, but the screen is in an entirely different category. The contrast is not good at all, and perhaps worse, it doesn’t have the lauded frontlighting system that makes the Paperwhite and Voyage usable in any environment. For E Ink skeptics, it’s a far less convincing product. The back of the device harkens back to the bizarre first-generation Kindle just a little bit with its harsh lines and angles (don’t worry, it’s tasteful). The power button has been moved back here from the bottom edge, which is a little odd, but you’ll probably never touch it if you’re using a case — a magnetic latch automatically powers the Voyage on when opened and sleeps it when closed. Unfortunately, the official Amazon case for the Voyage is not good. It attaches to the device magnetically, which is cool, but it inexplicably flips over the top, not from right to left — you know, like a book does. It’s also an origami case, meaning it can be folded up to prop the Voyage upright on a surface. Origami cases make sense for tablets, but for the life of me I don’t know why you’d want one for a Kindle; you’re not going to be watching a movie on it. All it does is make the case’s cover needlessly floppy and annoying to open and close. On the whole, Amazon accomplished its goal: it built a better platypus. This is the best E Ink e-reader I’ve used, and it’s unquestionably the best that Amazon has ever made. The thing is, it’s only marginally better than the fantastic Paperwhite in several ways, and significantly better in none. Amazon is also asking a lot of money for the Voyage — it starts at $199, while a 3G model without special offers runs $289. Not since the final days of the doomed Kindle DX has an Amazon e-reader brushed up against the $300 mark. The Voyage is an easy recommendation — but if you’re on a budget, the $119 Paperwhite (which is staying in the lineup) is still the way to go. The Voyage is a joy to use and a wonderful way to read; only voracious readers with laser-sharp eyes, though, will find it $80 better.



