Amazon announced the Paperwhite 4 a few days ago and this device features a waterproof design and Bluetooth functionality for Audible audiobooks. It is going to be available in the first week of November, but pre-orders have already begun. Will you purchase the new Paperwhite, or do you have your eyes on the Kobo Forma or a different e-reader?
The Paperwhite 4 features a 6 inch E Ink Carta HD capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1430×1080 and 300 PPI. PC Magazine says that “Amazon is using a plastic-backed 300ppi E Ink display, but it isn’t E Ink Mobius; it’s the company’s own design.” The screen is completely flush with the bezel and this is done because it is the first Paperwhite that is waterproof with IPX8 certification. This means you can read in the bathtub or at the beach. It is also immune to spills such as coffee or tea.
This device does have a front-lit display with five LED lights, whereas the Kindle Paperwhite 3 only had four LED lights. This lighting system primarily is used to read in the dark and Amazon claims that the additional LED will provide more uniform light across the screen. I have heard that Amazon is incorporating these LED lights on the top of the screen, whereas all prior models had them on the bottom.
Underneath the hood is a Freescale 6SLL Cortex-A9 @800M/1GHz processor and 512MB LPDDR3 of RAM. There are two different storage models, depending on your needs. The first is 8GB which is twice the amount that the Kindle Paperwhite 3 employed and a 32GB model, which is ideal for people who have large collections of manga or PDF files.
Are all the major selling points enough for you to open your wallet and place a pre-order? You can get the base 8GB model for $129.99 and $159.99 for the 32 GB model, also the 32GB with free cellular connectivity is $249.99.
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.
