Amazon has quietly unveiled a better internet browser for 10th and 11th-generation Kindle e-readers. This is a part of the new 5.16.4 update that came out on October 25h, 2023. Amazon never said anything about the expanded browser functionality but did say they made changes to Goodreads, so it functions better on an E INK screen. Good e-Reader conducted a myriad of tests since Amazon did not disclose what they did with the browser. Websites now load faster, the text is easier to read, and cookie-accept popups can now be clicked. It also looks like the layouts and CSS for websites like Wikipedia have been fixed. Checking your email through services such as Google Mail is also possible. There are also new bookmarks that Amazon has included on social media networks, including X.
I am happy that Amazon did some browser upgrades. Complex websites with lots of images and text will look good now. They persevere the same layout as if you visited the site on an internet browser like Firefox or Chrome. It looks like WEBP images are now displayed properly, including SVG. The Good e-Reader website would not display images on the home page and individual news posts, but after the update most of the java script error messages went away and images displayed properly.
If you visit very complex websites, that are are taking a long time to load. There is a feature you might not be aware of, its called Article Mode. It provides a simplified version of most websites, stripping away some of those animations and other features. Advertisements will also not be displayed.
It is straightforward to understand if you have the latest firmware and the new browser. When launching the browser, a popup message will occur and state, “This browser has limited memory and is intended for use with simple websites. Sites with animation or other complex features may load poorly or not at all.”
There is another avenue, if you are unsure whether or not you have the expanded browser, you can visit http://html5test.com, and if your rating is 464 on the Kindle browser, you have it. If the score is in the 100’s, you need to wait for Amazon to push out the latest update or sideload it yourself from the Amazon website.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
