Amazon Updates its Basic Kindle, and Tweaks the Paperwhite with a New Color

I’m not a fan of the basic Kindle, the non-backlit version, that is simply called Kindle. (Amazon.com, Amazon UK) I find it hard to read indoors, and I greatly prefer the backlight. Amazon has just updated this device, with a new thinner, lighter model retailing for $80 or £60. It’s not a big update, but if you use the simplest model of the Kindle, and yours is getting long in the teeth, this might be the time to update.

They have also added a new color to the Kindle: it now comes in both black and white.

New kindle

Amazon has also added the new color to the $120 / £110 Paperwhite. (Amazon.com, Amazon UK) It, too, comes in both black and white, but that’s the only change they’ve made to this device.

From the photos, it doesn’t look white, but rather off-white, closer to the color of the original Kindle. I’m not sure I’d like a white Kindle; it might be too distracting to have the white body when reading; then again, this color is closer to the color of the page background, and perhaps it would be easier to read.

In any case, there’s no rose gold model, in case you were waiting for that color…