New Kindle Paperwhite, A Review

If you don't look below the surface, you might be disappointed with Amazon's latest ereader offering, or maybe I should say unmoved. The new Kindle Paperwhite looks exactly like last year's model. Even the packaging is all but the same. They say it's .2 grams lighter, or something like that, but to be honest, I don't have the tactile sensitivity to feel such a minute difference in weight. Of course, it's probably wise not to change a product that is already basically perfect. I mean, what else do you need? It's got an adjustable built in light-- which is, by the way, improved over last year's built in light, i.e. more evenly distributed across the screen. It's got a higher resolution e-ink screen with "whiter whites and darker darks", though I really find it hard to see too much of an improvement there either. The page turns are slightly faster, with fewer refreshes, and the touch screen sensitivity is adequate to the task. Most of the improvements, incremental as they are, are under the hood, and it is these improvements that made me want the new Kindle Paperwhite. I really like the x-ray feature, which is useful when you need to look up a character-- like, say, in the Game of Thrones books, which have hundreds of different characters with odd names. There is a neat vocabulary type app built in that takes the words you've looked up and puts them into flashcards so you can memorize them. And it has picture-in-picture, where you can flip back through the ebook in a secondary window without losing your place. Still, that is about all that's new from what I've seen so far, so I have to say there is really not much reason to upgrade this year if you already own last year's Paperwhite. I was hoping this year would be the year Amazon releases a 7 inch e-ink Kindle, or maybe a DX with a color screen, like the Jetbook Color, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. My verdict: spend your money on some new books-- you could buy one of mine!-- and wait for something a little more innovative to come out. This year it's just baby steps for Amazon and the new Kindle Paperwhite.