Amazon has launched a redesigned Kindle family, comprising a new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Colorsoft, as the e-reader that the company first sold in November 2007 approaches its 20th anniversary next year.
The company said all three devices are thinner and lighter than their predecessors and are built around a newly designed “reverse stack” display construction, which it described as a first for the e-reader category. Every model now has a flush-front display with no raised border around the reading surface, and the colour of each device wraps from front to back.
Kindle has recorded double-digit growth globally for three consecutive years, and readers turned more than 720 billion pages on the platform in 2025. The new range starts at $149.99. None of the launch markets Amazon has listed is in India.
The 2026 lineup
The base Kindle has a 6-inch screen. Amazon called it the most pocket-sized Kindle it has made. It has 16GB of storage and up to six weeks of battery life, and the company said it opens books 30 per cent faster than the previous model. The housing uses recycled materials, and the battery uses 100 per cent recycled cobalt. It costs $149.99 in Ube, a purple shade, and Graphite.
For the first time, the 6-inch Kindle also comes with an aluminium back. That version has 32GB of storage and a housing made from 80 per cent recycled aluminium with a matte finish. It costs $189.99 in Alpine Sky Aluminium and Seaglass Green Aluminium.
The new Kindle Paperwhite is waterproof, has an adjustable warm light and offers up to 12 weeks of battery life on a single charge. Amazon said its display, which uses an oxide thin-film transistor backplane, is the largest and highest-contrast Paperwhite screen to date. The 16GB model costs $199.99 in Graphite.
The Paperwhite Signature Edition adds an aluminium rear housing, 32GB of storage, an auto-adjusting front light, pogo pin dock charging and double tap to turn pages. It costs $249.99 in Graphite and Seaglass Green.
The redesigned Kindle Colorsoft uses a light guide with nitride LEDs, which Amazon said improves colour and brightness, along with an oxide backplane and custom waveforms for faster performance. Micro-deflectors in the light guide reduce stray light, and an ultra-thin optical coating improves clarity, the company said. The 16GB Colorsoft costs $289.99 in Graphite. The Colorsoft Signature Edition, with aluminium housing, 32GB of storage, auto-adjusting light, double tap and dock charging, costs $319.99 in Graphite and Fig.
All three devices have Kids versions, starting at $179.99, with artist-designed covers and 12 months of Amazon Kids+. Amazon said children who sit down with a Kindle read for more than an hour a day on average.
The company also announced a set of accessories. Kindle Click, a $34.99 Bluetooth page-turning remote, works with the new devices and with any Kindle from 2024 onwards. A $79.99 Page-Turn Cover adds physical buttons via pogo pins, and a $59.99 Charging Dock holds the device upright. Both are limited to the Signature Edition models. Covers start at $39.99.
The Kindle and its aluminium version are on sale in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Australia. The Paperwhite and Colorsoft are opening for preorder in the same regions on a rolling basis. The Kids Kindle Colorsoft is available for preorder in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Japan.
2007: The first Kindle
The original Kindle took more than three years to develop. It went on sale on November 19, 2007, at $399 and sold out in five and a half hours.
The device had an electronic paper display, a physical keyboard and dedicated page-turn controls. It also had a built-in dictionary and search. Its 3G-powered Whispernet service let users download books wirelessly without syncing to a computer. At launch, the Kindle store had 90,000 books.
Then chief executive Jeff Bezos said the top design goal was for the device “to disappear in your hands—to get out of the way—so you can enjoy your reading.”
On the same day, Amazon launched a self-publishing service, then called Digital Text Platform and now known as Kindle Direct Publishing. In January 2008, Amazon acquired Audible, which brought more than 80,000 audiobooks.
2009: Kindle 2, the DX and the first apps
The Kindle 2 arrived in February 2009 at $359. It was slimmer, had 25 per cent longer battery life, faster page turns and 2GB of storage, enough for 1,500 titles. Its screen showed 16 shades of grey, up from four. It also added text-to-speech, with speakers for a “read-to-me” feature. By then, the catalogue had grown to 230,000 titles.
In March, Amazon released a free Kindle app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The launch introduced Whispersync, which saves and syncs reading progress across devices.
The Kindle DX followed in May with a 9.7-inch screen and auto-rotation, priced at $489. The New York Times and The Washington Post came to the DX later that year. Speaking to Newsweek that year, Bezos said: “Two years ago, none of us expected what has happened so far.”
In October 2009, the Kindle went on sale outside the US. Kindle now supports more than 30 languages across its e-readers and apps.
2010: Kindle Keyboard
The third-generation Kindle, later known as the Kindle Keyboard, launched in July 2010. It kept the 6-inch screen but had a body about 21 per cent smaller and 15 per cent lighter. Contrast improved by 50 per cent, page turns were 20 per cent faster and storage rose to 3,500 books. A Wi-Fi-only model cost $139 and the 3G version $189. An updated DX Graphite, with better contrast and a lower price, also arrived that year.
Kindle apps for Android followed in June, and Kindle for the Web, which let readers preview books in a browser, in September.
2011: Kindle Touch and sub-$100 pricing
In September 2011, Amazon launched the fourth-generation Kindle at $79 and the Kindle Touch at $99. Bezos described the prices as the “magical two-digit price point”. The basic Kindle dropped the keyboard for a five-way controller, while the Touch had a touchscreen and no physical page buttons. A 3G Touch cost $179.
The Kindle Touch introduced X-Ray, which pulled reference information from Wikipedia and Shelfari. Ad-supported versions were sold as standard, and an ad-free device cost an extra $30 or $40. That year, Amazon also launched the Kindle Fire tablet and, in November, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for Prime members.
2012: Paperwhite
The fifth-generation Kindle Paperwhite launched in September 2012. Bezos called it “the Kindle we’ve always wanted to build,” and Amazon marketed it as “the most advanced e-reader ever constructed”.
Its 212ppi display had 62 per cent more pixels and 25 per cent more contrast than before, along with a built-in front light. Battery life reached eight weeks. The Wi-Fi model cost $119 and the 3G model $179. A new base Kindle, in black, cost $69.
2013: Goodreads joins Kindle
Amazon acquired Goodreads, a community of readers, in spring 2013. The sixth-generation Paperwhite, launched in September with a faster processor, higher contrast and a more even front light, brought in Goodreads ratings, sharing and highlights. In-line footnotes, a vocabulary builder and Kindle FreeTime for parents also arrived. The 3G model rose to $189.
That month, Whispersync for Voice let users switch between reading on a Kindle and listening on Audible without losing their place. In November, Amazon launched Kindle First, which offered early access to selected titles.
2014: Kindle Unlimited and Voyage
In July 2014, Kindle Unlimited launched at $9.99 a month with access to more than 600,000 books.
The seventh-generation Kindle Voyage followed in September at $199. It was 7.6mm thick and had a 300ppi E Ink Carta screen with an auto-adjusting front light, a flat glass front and a magnesium shell. Its PagePress sensors turned pages with a light press of the thumb. Bezos called it “the next big step” in the mission to “make the device disappear, so you can lose yourself in the author’s world.” A touch-capable base Kindle launched alongside it.
In June 2015, an updated Paperwhite gained the Voyage’s 300ppi screen at the same price. It also debuted Bookerly, a font designed for digital reading.
2016-17: Oasis and waterproofing
The eighth-generation Kindle Oasis launched in April 2016 at $289.99. It had a stepped, asymmetric back, was 3.4mm at its thinnest point and weighed 4.6 ounces without its cover. The bundled leather cover carried a second battery.
Page Flip, a navigation feature for moving around a book without losing one’s place, arrived in June 2016. In October, Amazon added Prime Reading, a rotating catalogue of titles for Prime members.
The ninth-generation Oasis arrived in October 2017 with a 7-inch, 300ppi display. It was the first waterproof Kindle, rated IPX8, and the first with Bluetooth, so owners could play Audible audiobooks through headphones or speakers. It came in 8GB and 32GB versions, starting at $249.99.
2018-19: Features move down the range
The 10th-generation Paperwhite, released in 2018, had a flat front, IPX8 waterproofing, Bluetooth and Audible support, starting at $129.99 for 8GB.
In 2019, the base Kindle gained an adjustable front light, a capacitive touchscreen, Bluetooth and more storage. The Kindle Kids bundle, priced at $109.99, packaged an ad-free Kindle with a cover, an extended warranty and a year of Amazon Kids+. The 2019 Oasis added adjustable colour temperature.
2021-22: Larger screens and the Scribe
The 11th generation began in 2021 with a 6.8-inch, 300ppi Paperwhite at $139.99. It had warm lighting, dark mode and, according to Amazon, 20 per cent faster page turns. The $189.99 Paperwhite Signature Edition added auto-brightness, 32GB of storage and wireless charging, a first for a Kindle. A Paperwhite Kids edition launched the same year.
The Kindle Scribe followed in 2022 at $339. It had a 10.2-inch, 300ppi display with a paper-textured coating and a magnetically attached pen that charges on the device. Early reviews cited its inability to mark up books and its handling of PDFs, which later software updates addressed.
2024: Colour arrives
The 12th generation brought a 7-inch Paperwhite with a faster processor, a thinner body and 16GB of storage, priced at $159.99. The base Kindle gained a 300ppi screen, a brighter front light, 16GB of storage and a matcha colour option, priced at $109.99 with ads. The Scribe, now $399.99, got a new Premium pen and Active Canvas, which lets users write in the margins of books while the text wraps around their notes.
In October 2024, Amazon launched the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition at $279.99. It had a 7-inch colour display that shows 300ppi in black and white and 150ppi in colour, along with 32GB of storage and wireless charging. Amazon said its in-house adjustments to the colour panel improved colour and brightness. Kobo had launched the Libra Colour and Clara Colour that April.
2026: Older models lose support
From May 20 this year, Amazon ended support for Kindle and Kindle Fire devices released in 2012 or earlier, so they can no longer download new content from the Kindle Store. The affected e-readers are the first-generation Kindle, the Kindle DX, the DX Graphite, the Kindle Keyboard, the Kindle 4, the Kindle Touch, the Kindle 5 and the first Paperwhite. Downloaded books remain readable, but Send to Kindle and library services such as Libby and OverDrive no longer work on these devices.
In a statement, Amazon said the models “have been supported for at least 14 years — some as long as 18 years — but technology has come a long way in that time.” It said fewer than 3 per cent of its Kindle and Kindle Fire customers would be affected. Owners were offered 20 per cent off a new Kindle and a $20 e-book credit, valid until June 20.
Market position
Market research firm Market Growth Reports estimated that 72 million Kindle devices had been sold as of 2024. Industry estimates value the global e-reader market at $6.2 billion in 2023 and project it to reach $13.5 billion over the next decade. Kindle has an estimated 80 per cent share, ahead of rivals including Kobo and Nook.