Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Customers like the quality, weight and size of the Kindle Paperwhite. They mention that it works well for reading, is pleasant to read and that the lighting display is in comparison to the other. They are also satisfied with brightness, and ease of use. However, some customers differ on touch screen and battery life.
Customers like the brightness of the product. They mention that it has a well-lit reading surface, which makes it easy to read in the dark. The adjustable brightness also improves the contrast, making it easier to see in the daytime. The light is always on, so it does not bother their partner. The brightness can be brightened and dimmed, eliminating the need for a lamp when reading at night.
"...No, not even a bit. The lighting in Kindle is much better than all the other E-Inks available in the market (Nook and Kobo) and is better than all..." Read more
"...Changing the brightness is easy and effortless! The light is always on, even at the lowest setting, which I don't have a problem with because it does..." Read more
"...Kindle is quick.The lighted display is very good and not just for reading in bed...." Read more
"...the Paperwhite is a big leap forward not only because it eliminates the need of a lamp when reading at night but the display is brighter with a..." Read more
7,219 customers mention6,310 positive909 negative
Customers like the quality of the Kindle Paperwhite. They say it is a very good e-reader, and is startingly better than the previous version. Customers also mention that the display is very good and that it is not just for reading in bed. Overall, customers are satisfied with the quality and functionality of the product.
"...It is so good and comfortable that I see myself reading more and more with it. Thank you Amazon" Read more
"...love about an e-reader - I love the fact that I can have hundreds of books at my disposal, I love being able to change fonts and font sizes at will,..." Read more
"...It's great for reading in the car also; the light doesn't distract my husband's driving (while I'm reading, not him! He doesn't read and drive!)..." Read more
"...The reading time feature is great to see if I can squeeze in another chapter or if I should wait until the next day to start that chapter...." Read more
5,795 customers mention5,368 positive427 negative
Customers like the viewing of the product. They say that the entire screen for a dramatic improvement in ease of reading, the text is crisper to the eye, and it's still pleasant to read. They also mention that it works well for reading, and that books can be read without difficulty outdoors even during a bright sunny day as well as at night. They appreciate the grayish brown color and the ability to read comfortably at night in a dark bedroom. The Paperwhite has an improved e-ink display, which is sharper, and offers options for highlighting words and portions of text.
"...with its light at the lowest level looks so good, very sharp and texts are crispy, thanks the to the screen resolution...." Read more
"...of those problems - I can read outside during the day, I can read comfortably at night in a dark bedroom, and without the bulky size of the iPad or..." Read more
"...Kindle PW with the Amazon cover since day one and it is light enough to read one handed without fatigue...." Read more
"...white background without being overly bright providing a very enjoyable reading experience...." Read more
Customers find the product easy to use. They mention that the menus and navigation are very intuitive, the touch interface response is accurate enough, and the store is very user friendly. They also appreciate the interactive tutorial that shows you everything. They say it takes less effort than the real buttons and is easy to move forward without accidentally changing pages.
"...The store is very user friendly and easy to navigate.6-Special Offers: I have ordered the one with special offers...." Read more
"...being able to change fonts and font sizes at will, I love the ease of purchasing in the Amazon ecosystem, and even the ease of adding non-Amazon..." Read more
"...I have found it to be reasonably accurate too.Battery life has been great...." Read more
"...The ads are very unobtrusive and easily to ignore. I would rather spend the money I saved on more books." Read more
3,536 customers mention3,285 positive251 negative
Customers like the weight of the product. They say it's easy to carry around, and is easy to read. Some mention the size and weight are impressive, and it'd be a great choice for someone on a tight budget.
"...Looks very sleek in black and very light weight. It is so comfortable to hold it for reading than all my other gadgets...." Read more
"...I love the weight - it's so much lighter and less bulky than the Kindle Fire, even in my preferred M-Edge Executive Jacket case, which adds quite a..." Read more
"...It is also fairly light. I have used the Kindle PW with the Amazon cover since day one and it is light enough to read one handed without fatigue...." Read more
"...It was also very convenient on a plane ride at night as I was able to see the full page of the text vs. a light attachment only reaching most of..." Read more
3,069 customers mention2,604 positive465 negative
Customers like the size of the Kindle Paperwhite. They mention that the size is perfect for what they use the e-reader for most, it's light and compact, and fits perfectly in their hands. The form factor is an amazing improvement, and the screen size is pretty perfect. The font sizing works well, and menus pop up where they're supposed to. It retains a slim profile, and some customers think the black bezel helps to accentuate the screen. The screen is six inches, which is large enough to read comfortably while, and The page turn area is also a lot bigger. Storage capacity is not a concern for any of these readers as long as your material is text-based.
"...4-Storage: Kindle comes with 2 Gb storage and I find this to be more than enough. It is just a matter of how you organize your e-books...." Read more
"...With this model, the size is perfect for what you use the Kindle for most--reading! It is also fairly light...." Read more
"...I would highly recommend the Amazon-branded case for it, as it fits snug and firm and automatically puts the unit into sleep mode when you close..." Read more
"...Ebooks dont take up space on the boat, dont mildew and are more pleasant to read than a cheap paperback where the paper quality impacts the..." Read more
2,690 customers mention1,795 positive895 negative
Customers are mixed about the battery life of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Some mention that it has great battery life, and lasts for weeks on a single charge, while others say that it's very disappointing, and they're not getting the 8-week-charge that this model touts. They say that long time or very often causes a strain on the battery, and that it drains much faster than expected.
"...Just a little geekery that would please me.Better battery life - after several days of reading 4 to 6 hours a day, the battery showed..." Read more
"...No complaints on battery life here.Like all Kindles, the ebook selection on Amazon is unmatched...." Read more
"...That makes it harder to conserve battery life because of the added work so I'll probably sync less often. One other lost feature: text-to-speech...." Read more
"...The battery life is so long on the kindle that there are not that many connections needed for charging but the USB connection does put cycles on..." Read more
1,911 customers mention1,312 positive599 negative
Customers are mixed about the touch screen of the Kindle. Some mention that they love the touch features, while others say that the touch-screen was a complete turn off for them. They say that it takes a little bit to get used to, and the touch function should be user selectable from light to hard.
"...I love the screen, I love the light, and I love the touch features!..." Read more
"...The touch screen is far superior in navigating the Kindle than the 5 way button...." Read more
"...Touchscreen: with the prior Kindle Touch model, the touch screen was a complete turn off for me...." Read more
"...(compact e-Reader,touch screen, lighting system), the Paperwhite is a very good e-Reader...." Read more
Finally, a Truly Amazing Kindle Reading Experience!
I bought my first Kindle a couple of years ago now. It was the Kindle Keyboard (i.e. the third Kindle release) and I had gotten it because I felt like the Kindle folks had finally hit their stride. The color was immediately attractive to me, the form factor and weight overall was ideal for one handed reading, and the speed was reasonable enough to where the black flashes on the screen didn't bug me. That being said, I almost never used the keyboard, navigating the screen on the directional pad was a chore, and I needed a $60 case in order to read in dim lighting in an elegant way (the first party lighted leather case). Last winter I jumped on the Kindle Touch bandwagon for one primary reason: the infared touch screen. The idea of not having to use that stupid d-pad was very enticing. Additionally, there was X-ray (which sideloads Wikipedia content for characters, places, and terms in books and tells you where in the book they're mentioned), a greatly improved case (the old case had a serious issue with the connection to the spine), and a page refresh that didn't require blacking out the screen each time. Of course, the case was still $60 in order to read in dim lighting and the smooth leather case attracted scratches like a magnet. All-in-all, this was an evolutionary step forward that I only took because of how much more I loved the Kindle than practically any other device I owned.Flash forward to two and a half weeks ago when I got my Kindle Paperwhite: there's no doubt that this is superior in nearly every way to every single Kindle ever made and now is the time to jump on the e-Reader bandwagon if you've been holding out. I'm very confident that if you enjoy reading or if you're like me and enjoy reading except when it means squinting for tiny text or lugging around heavy books, you will not regret getting a Paperwhite. I'll start out talking about the new features and what I like about it before I get to some of the areas for improvement.With each Kindle, the team has gotten better at making the onboarding experience as pain-free as possible. The Paperwhite was no exception. While I do slightly miss the fact that in the past my Kindle already had my account information on it (could be that for some unknown reason mine didn't while others did), the onscreen tutorial as soon as you switch it on is awesome. You're ready to start using it within a couple of minutes as long as you have connectivity (WiFi or 3G if you got the 3G model). One key difference on the onboarding experience this time is that they no longer make you suffer as an existing customer - getting your content on there is much easier. They've changed the UI to be more like the Amazon MP3 Player UI (and I think even the Kindle UI on non-Kindles) where you have "Cloud" section and a "Device" section with the major improvement of a drop down for type of content (Periodical, Book, etc). So now, you just scroll through your cloud content and tap the stuff you want to transfer over to your device. Since the Kindle Touch, any personal documents you've transferred to your device through Amazon is backed up in the cloud up to a reasonably high limit (books you buy through Amazon are backed up without limit). So I had over 100 items to transfer over, but because the Paperwhite is a bit zippier than past Kindles I was able to tap all the items I cared about (probably 3/4 of my library) in under 5 minutes, and over WiFi it was short work to get them all on there (notes, bookmarks, and all). What's even better though is that you can now sync your collections, as well! Once you've downloaded the content, you can sync that metadata and it'll organize all your content within seconds into their old collections. Cool, huh?Enough gushing about onboarding, let's move on to the UI. I like it, I like it a lot. Instead of the boring lists of text approach of the Kindle Touch that carried over from the pedigree of Kindles lacking a touch interface, there's now more of a cover flow-like interface that uses the covers of purchased books or the first page of personal documents sent via "Sent to Kindle" (otherwise just some text in a box). It fits 6 covers on a page and it totally looks more polished to have this. You still get X-ray as in Kindles past, so nothing surprising there, and you still tap 3/4 of the right side of the screen to go forward (or swipe right to left), 1/4 of left side of screen to go back (or swipe left to right), and top 1/5th of screen for menu (including the home icon). However, there are three new features that are wonderful. The first is the time left in your chapter or book. It's actually quite accurate. If you vary the pace you read at or linger too much on pages caught up in daydreams then maybe it's not so good for you, but it seems to be adaptive. So if you start reading something slowly and then speed up a bunch, it will adjust, I've noticed. I'm still not sure if it's per book or per device, but I do know that information isn't stored in the cloud or anything - that math is done on the device itself and if you were to wipe the device it'd go back to defaults. The sacrifice is that you have to hit the menu area at the top to get to the page number, but if you tap the lower left corner it cycles between time left in chapter, time left in book, and Kindle proprietary location. The second main change is the addition of more fonts - I was taken aback at how cool this is. For certain books certain fonts really pop - I'm reading The Princess Bride right now, primarily, and using Futura makes it feel so much more like a real book to me. As advertised, you can go one font size smaller than before, which I don't ever use but it's just as sharp as you'd expect even at that size. Oh, and of course the physical home button is gone. I thought I'd miss this but I surprisingly enough do not at all. The last major change is in the upper right corner of the navigation screens - you can not only change how you sort but how you filter (collections, novels, periodicals, etc), which is a small detail but very nice to have.Getting down to the screen itself, there are some real revolutionary changes here. First of all, it's capacitive touch. I thought this would never be possible and I could be totally wrong but I haven't heard of another e-reader pulling this off. The Kindle Touch IR touch screen was fine but took some getting used to and meant that objects other than your hands like maybe a piece of cloth from your blanket falling on the screen would turn pages. Now, much like your smartphone it requires your finger specifically to turn pages (or a sausage, but if you're reading with raw meats in your hand then you're an odd duck). Secondly, the lighting technology is phenomenal. While it's true that you can't see the light coming out of one side of the device like you can on the latest generation Nook, you can see around all the edges the slightest hint of the layer of light under the screen if you turn it at the exact right angle. Plus, at the bottom you see the tiniest bit of fading under dark conditions. Other than that, it's stunning. Everyone that I've shown it to has been equally impressed. Even better: even at its lowest brightness (which you control very easily via the top menu from any context on the device you're in), it's a good bit whiter than the Kindle Touch was. For the first time ever, I really at times felt like I was reading a paper back book in high definition. In the past the e-ink has always impressed and been super easy on my eyes, but the grayish brown background always made it feel like an e-reader, which wasn't a big deal to me. However, it's a very nice touch that you'll almost immediately appreciate. I like how under well-lit situations, keeping the light somewhere in the middle just improves the contrast and feels nice on my eyes, and turning it up to the max it doesn't even seem like it's backlit at all, just even prettier than before. In darker situations, I can turn it down to the lower half of the lighting spectrum and read without issue or eye irritation versus a bright white screen. I've only done this for 20 minute bouts because reading in the dark a ton isn't great for you, but if your lamp just isn't that bright, the Paperwhite has got your back. One other thing you may notice in my photos is the contrast improvement. It's subtle, but it's there. I couldn't really tell between the Kindle Keyboard and the Kindle Touch, but I totally can now. Don't get me wrong, it's not a life-changing improvement, but within an hour or so of reading on my Paperwhite I could feel in my eyes that something was just different other than the whiter background, and on super close inspection realized it was the addition of more pixels.A recurring issue for me in the past was the case - so how does this one stack up? This is the first Kindle case where I'd give a five star rating. It's outstanding and a great value at $40. I loved that they brought back the textured leather - it doesn't scratch up and it grips so much better in my hands. The magnetic clasp is an inspired touch. It may have been inspired by Apple, but I'll take it. It's the perfect balance between the Kindle Keyboard strap and the Kindle Touch free-balling look. When held in funky positions or dropped it doesn't fly open, but it takes very little exertion to get it open. The best part for dorks out there like me is the auto on/off thing. I thought it was just a gimmick when I heard about it, but having used it for a couple of weeks now I'm just blown away by how much it enhances my experience. I can literally read a little bit while waiting on an elevator for a second because it turns on so quickly and I love that I can shut it without being worried about hitting the physical home button the Kindle Touch had or even the IR screen itself because I know there is no physical button and that it'll turn off immediately. I like that the inside of the front cover has a nice texture to it that looks really polished and that the side, top, and bottom are a little rubbery to absorb shock better. Just as before, the Paperwhite fits so snug that you'll never have to worry about it falling out of the case or getting damaged because of how solid the shell is.So as I alluded to earlier, I do have a couple of minor gripes. I'm bummed that they did away with the swipe up and swipe down gestures. Formerly, these gestures let you skip chapters and I loved it. I'm probably going to write in to the Kindle folks and beg them to bring back this feature. I don't know why it went away. Speaking of cut features, why can't I toggle WiFi on/off from the top menu? I have to go to settings now to switch airplane mode on/off. That makes it harder to conserve battery life because of the added work so I'll probably sync less often. One other lost feature: text-to-speech. They cut the speakers and headphone jack out very quietly (coincidentally), so you'll have to opt for the cheap Kindle model if you're visually impaired, which probably makes more sense. I'm not a fan of the black color. My favorite Kindle color is still the graphite from the Kindle Keyboard. It's nice that the back is more rubbery than the smooth Kindle Touch back, but the bezel being black means that it retains your hand grease more easily (the screen itself doesn't seem to, mainly just the bezel). The fact that the home screen has a bottom row dedicated to recommendations and hot titles is kind of cool, but I wish it was opt-out. I'd prefer to use the screen real estate for more collections. Plus, it doesn't even exclude books I've already bought, which is disappointing; hopefully that'll get fixed later. Speaking of ads, the ad-supported device only saves you $20 and requires a swipe-to-unlock (because of the new case, I'm guessing). I think going ad-supported is silly now because of this - it was a lot more sensible in past Kindles. One last gripe: the Paperwhite still isn't lighter. I'm guessing they compromised here in favor of the battery life. With the case on, it actually does feel a little easier to hold in one hand than the Kindle Touch, but still not quite as nice as the Kindle Keyboard.A couple of last notes: the jury is still out for me on battery life. It's doing pretty well overall, but after decent usage for a week and some change the battery is at maybe 70%. So I don't think it'll hold up to the two months I was promised (even with WiFi off), but I think it'll easily meet at least the month that my old Kindle had even with the lighted screen, and I'm perfectly satisfied with that. It's slightly zippier overall than the Kindle Touch. Page turns are a little faster and the black screen flashes are so quick that you really barely even notice them. Web browsing is a little better, too, but still nothing to write home about.Ok, I think I've said enough here - as a whole, I hope I've given you a pretty good idea of what the Kindle Paperwhite is like. If you own a Kindle 1 or 2, you need to upgrade to this. Even if you have the Kindle Keyboard and Kindle Touch, I'd say this is a nice upgrade but probably more valuable for the Kindle Keyboard users. Personally, I don't at all regret my upgrade from the Kindle Touch. I really feel like it was much more sensible than my upgrade from the Kindle Keyboard. Book lovers unite - you finally have a device truly worthy of your affection.
First and before starting my review let me tell you that I'm a gadget person. I love to get, try different kind of gadgets if I feel I will be using them for something or another. I have iPad2, iPad3, Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy S3. I love reading a lot, but I never got any E-Ink reader. I've always been reading on my PC, iPad or kindle. The main reason for not getting one is because I love reading during bed time and that was not possible with the lack of light. And here where the Kindle Paperwhite gained me as a customer. It is my first E-Ink reader.
1-Physical form: The kindle comes with a rubbery feel from the back side and feels really comfortable to handle. You can hold it with one hand and easily use it. Looks very sleek in black and very light weight. It is so comfortable to hold it for reading than all my other gadgets. Now when I hold the iPad I feel the big difference.
2-Setup: Once you press the power button which is the only physical button the setup starts. It is very easy to get it ready. After that you will go through a tutorial which I found to be very beneficial.
3-Screen: Amazon has used a matte screen which is really good to avoid any glare in different lighting conditions. It serves the product very well. The kindle paperwhite with its light at the lowest level looks so good, very sharp and texts are crispy, thanks the to the screen resolution. Once you increase the light to its highest level you know why Amazon has chosen the name paperwhite. Yes the screen lights up so beautifully without hurting my eyes. It is perfect. I read people's reviews here giving the product one star because of the shadowing and this is really ridiculous. DON'T listen to them. They are using the light the wrong way that's why they see these shadows. I will not deny they can be seen if you concentrate on them but they are not that noticeable. The same thing goes to the screen coloring that some have seen. Actually the lighting option clearly suggests you to use a setting from level 20-24 in a brightly lit room and from 1-5 in dark rooms. Follow this and you will have no problem with coloring or shadows. I cannot see anything like that. Actually I was worried before ordering the kindle how I will adopt to it after using tablets with retina display and high resolution but now after I have this Kindle, do I miss my iPad and other tabs for reading? No, not even a bit. The lighting in Kindle is much better than all the other E-Inks available in the market (Nook and Kobo) and is better than all the other tablets as it is very comfortable to the eyes.
4-Storage: Kindle comes with 2 Gb storage and I find this to be more than enough. It is just a matter of how you organize your e-books. I personally load it with my own personal documents and download the rest from Amazon's cloud. Since you have cloud available you do not need to download everything at once.
5-Features: like X- Ray, editing fonts and margins are so good. You can customize your kindle the way you want. You also have the option to create a collection, change the view type between thumbnails and list. The store is very user friendly and easy to navigate.
6-Special Offers: I have ordered the one with special offers. And actually I find the ads to be interesting more than bothersome. These ads look even nicer on the lock screen, but that is just me.
Some people also complained about the lack of speakers so you do not have text to speech. I'm using that sometimes in my other gadgets but frankly Amazon got rid of this for the right reason and that is to reduce the weight of the device and I totally support them in this.
I have to say that I was disappointed with the wait for Kindle Paperwhite until it got shipped to me but was happy for Amazon as this indicated a huge demand for them. Amazon got a big big winner with the Paperwhite. I don't understand how can some people dislike it and give it a one star rating. Criticism should be reasonable and without any exaggeration. In my opinion the best rating the paperwhite can get is 5 stars and the worst it should get not less than 4 stars. This is a great product and I would advise you NOT to be influenced by those negative reviews and look at the positive ones. I know how you might feel because I felt the same way and was about to cancel my order but then I backed off. You will not be sorry for it and you will thank me too. ORDER IT NOW! I would like to thank Amazon for this wonderful device and I really cannot wait to see how the next generation of Kindles will get even better.
As my title says it :) I got married to my kindle Paperwhite and I think we are going to have a very long honeymoon.
UPDATE: I have uploaded three pictures showing the Paperwhite with different settings in differently lit rooms. It wins in all conditions.
UPDATE: 23 June 2013: just thought to update and say this product is as perfect as I got it first time. It is so good and comfortable that I see myself reading more and more with it. Thank you Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars
I got married.... to my Kindle Paperwhite!!
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2012
First and before starting my review let me tell you that I'm a gadget person. I love to get, try different kind of gadgets if I feel I will be using them for something or another. I have iPad2, iPad3, Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Samsung Galaxy S3. I love reading a lot, but I never got any E-Ink reader. I've always been reading on my PC, iPad or kindle. The main reason for not getting one is because I love reading during bed time and that was not possible with the lack of light. And here where the Kindle Paperwhite gained me as a customer. It is my first E-Ink reader.
1-Physical form: The kindle comes with a rubbery feel from the back side and feels really comfortable to handle. You can hold it with one hand and easily use it. Looks very sleek in black and very light weight. It is so comfortable to hold it for reading than all my other gadgets. Now when I hold the iPad I feel the big difference.
2-Setup: Once you press the power button which is the only physical button the setup starts. It is very easy to get it ready. After that you will go through a tutorial which I found to be very beneficial.
3-Screen: Amazon has used a matte screen which is really good to avoid any glare in different lighting conditions. It serves the product very well. The kindle paperwhite with its light at the lowest level looks so good, very sharp and texts are crispy, thanks the to the screen resolution. Once you increase the light to its highest level you know why Amazon has chosen the name paperwhite. Yes the screen lights up so beautifully without hurting my eyes. It is perfect. I read people's reviews here giving the product one star because of the shadowing and this is really ridiculous. DON'T listen to them. They are using the light the wrong way that's why they see these shadows. I will not deny they can be seen if you concentrate on them but they are not that noticeable. The same thing goes to the screen coloring that some have seen. Actually the lighting option clearly suggests you to use a setting from level 20-24 in a brightly lit room and from 1-5 in dark rooms. Follow this and you will have no problem with coloring or shadows. I cannot see anything like that. Actually I was worried before ordering the kindle how I will adopt to it after using tablets with retina display and high resolution but now after I have this Kindle, do I miss my iPad and other tabs for reading? No, not even a bit. The lighting in Kindle is much better than all the other E-Inks available in the market (Nook and Kobo) and is better than all the other tablets as it is very comfortable to the eyes.
4-Storage: Kindle comes with 2 Gb storage and I find this to be more than enough. It is just a matter of how you organize your e-books. I personally load it with my own personal documents and download the rest from Amazon's cloud. Since you have cloud available you do not need to download everything at once.
5-Features: like X- Ray, editing fonts and margins are so good. You can customize your kindle the way you want. You also have the option to create a collection, change the view type between thumbnails and list. The store is very user friendly and easy to navigate.
6-Special Offers: I have ordered the one with special offers. And actually I find the ads to be interesting more than bothersome. These ads look even nicer on the lock screen, but that is just me.
Some people also complained about the lack of speakers so you do not have text to speech. I'm using that sometimes in my other gadgets but frankly Amazon got rid of this for the right reason and that is to reduce the weight of the device and I totally support them in this.
I have to say that I was disappointed with the wait for Kindle Paperwhite until it got shipped to me but was happy for Amazon as this indicated a huge demand for them. Amazon got a big big winner with the Paperwhite. I don't understand how can some people dislike it and give it a one star rating. Criticism should be reasonable and without any exaggeration. In my opinion the best rating the paperwhite can get is 5 stars and the worst it should get not less than 4 stars. This is a great product and I would advise you NOT to be influenced by those negative reviews and look at the positive ones. I know how you might feel because I felt the same way and was about to cancel my order but then I backed off. You will not be sorry for it and you will thank me too. ORDER IT NOW! I would like to thank Amazon for this wonderful device and I really cannot wait to see how the next generation of Kindles will get even better.
As my title says it :) I got married to my kindle Paperwhite and I think we are going to have a very long honeymoon.
UPDATE: I have uploaded three pictures showing the Paperwhite with different settings in differently lit rooms. It wins in all conditions.
UPDATE: 23 June 2013: just thought to update and say this product is as perfect as I got it first time. It is so good and comfortable that I see myself reading more and more with it. Thank you Amazon
OK, so I have to admit that if it were possible, I'd give it 4-1/2 stars, and I'll detail why in a moment.
First of all, though, I have to convey how pleased I am with my Kindle Paperwhite! I love the screen, I love the light, and I love the touch features! I had a Kindle 3 for a long time (passed along to a friend in the hospital), and I got an original Kindle Fire last Christmas. I have also used the Kindle app on my computer as well as on my iPad and on my smartphone.
I've never been comfortable using the apps on my computer and on my phone; I've used the one on my iPad, but the device is just too big to be comfortable. I used the Kindle Fire mainly as a reading device; the tablet functions were lost on me, but I really loved the fact that I could read easily at night. The main problem was difficulty reading outside during the day. The Kindle Paperwhite solves both of those problems - I can read outside during the day, I can read comfortably at night in a dark bedroom, and without the bulky size of the iPad or the extra weight of the Kindle Fire!
What I'd like to see improved (this would account for that half-star discrepancy)
Storage size - either a larger amount of storage, or an available external storage slot. I haven't reached the storage limit, but if I use this as I expect in the future (long-distance hiking and bicycling trips) expanded storage would be nice.
Battery percentage indicator - It does show a battery at the top of the page, with a graphic indicating approximate battery left. I'd like an actual number, if possible. Just a little geekery that would please me.
Better battery life - after several days of reading 4 to 6 hours a day, the battery showed it was down to somewhere just about half. That is nowhere near 8 weeks of battery life, at half an hour of reading a day.
I did experience some "ghosting" (seeing shadows from a previous page when reading a current page) when I first started using my Paperwhite, and because of that I turned on the Page Refresh option (refreshes the screen with every page turn, instead of buffering 5 pages or so). This is under (from the home screen) "Settings", "Reading Options" and "Page Refresh". I'm not sure if this is detrimental to overall battery life or not.
Audio would be nice. I do listen to audiobooks (mostly through my library's Overdrive system, and borrowed audiobook CDs). I have an Audible account from years ago; I don't know if I would spend extra for audiobook tie-ins or not, as that's not an issue right now. Wi-fi or 3G isn't important to me either, but I can understand having the option for people who need that.
What I really, really love!
The light! It's so easy to change the light level! (As opposed to the Kindle Fire, which seemed to have a much slower response time. I always poked the settings bar more than necessary, waiting for the bar to show up so I could change the lighting.)
The screen - I know others have experienced blotchy screens or uneven lighting. I either don't have those issues, or my eyes are not sensitive enough to react to those. I did notice a slightly brighter area at the bottom, where the LEDs are located, and on the bottom left (I believe it is a reflection from the LEDs) but they don't even register after a few minutes of reading.
The screen clarity - it's just as good (if not better - I no longer have it here for comparison) as the screen on my old Kindle 3. (I bought that one because the e-ink screen was so much of an improvement over my previous Sony e-reader.) This goes along with everything I love about an e-reader - I love the fact that I can have hundreds of books at my disposal, I love being able to change fonts and font sizes at will, I love the ease of purchasing in the Amazon ecosystem, and even the ease of adding non-Amazon books to my Kindle. I love the availability of so many free books for the Kindle, and that so many in my preferred interests are available in Kindle format.
The responsiveness of the touch screen is great! I love it!
I love the weight - it's so much lighter and less bulky than the Kindle Fire, even in my preferred M-Edge Executive Jacket case, which adds quite a bit of protection. (I got the one intended for the Kindle Touch, and it fits just fine, if a little snug. I don't need to take it in & out, so that's not a concern.)
Overall, I am very, very pleased with my Paperwhite, and would certainly buy another, for myself or as gifts. I have found that my Kindles have renewed my love of reading; I have read more in the few years I've owned Kindles than I have since leaving college 20 years ago!