Amazon's redesigned Kindles add colour and a page-turn remote

Amazon has refreshed its entire Kindle range in one go. The base Kindle, the Kindle Paperwhite and the colour Kindle Colorsoft all now share a redesigned chassis that is a millimetre thinner than the models they replace, with a power button that has moved from the bottom edge to the upper right side where it is easier to find by feel.

The company says the new e-readers are about 30 per cent faster at opening books. Amazon's vice president of Kindle, Kevin Keith, said the three models also use user-replaceable batteries, a change made to comply with European Union rules on device repairability.

New finishes and an aluminium tier

Colour is the most visible change. The plastic-bodied Kindles now come in brighter finishes, including a soft purple that Amazon calls ube, and for the first time there is an aluminium option that doubles storage from 16GB to 32GB and adds a magnetically attached folio case.

The base Kindle is available now from $149.99 with 16GB of storage and lockscreen ads, or $189.99 in aluminium with 32GB and no ads. The Kindle Paperwhite costs $199.99, while the aluminium Signature Edition versions of the Paperwhite and the Colorsoft cost $249.99 and $319.99 respectively. Amazon has confirmed the Paperwhite and Colorsoft ship on 28 October, with pre-orders open now.

Physical buttons return, in the case

The Signature Editions add pogo pins on the rear that power a $79.99 magnetic case with physical page-turn buttons, echoing the long-discontinued Kindle Oasis. A $59.99 dock charges a Signature Edition upright through the same pins. Wireless charging, however, is not part of the package.

Amazon has also introduced a separate accessory for readers who want to keep their hands still. The Kindle Click is a $34.99 Bluetooth remote with soft page-turn buttons and side controls for screen brightness. It recharges over USB-C and works with any Kindle released in 2024 or later.

Our opinion

Kindle updates are usually incremental, so the breadth here is the story. Moving the power button, offering aluminium and selling a remote that quietly restores the buttons the Oasis lost all point in the same direction: Amazon is treating the act of reading as something worth refining, not just the panel. The pricing is stingier. A page-turn case plus a charging dock pushes a Signature Edition past the cost of a Paperwhite, and putting physical buttons behind the most expensive tier is an odd reward for the readers who care most about hardware. Replaceable batteries, at least, are a genuine improvement, and they arrived because regulators insisted rather than because customers asked.