underway binned: Amazon announces $119 Kindle Paperwhite with illuminated, capacitive touch display

Friday, September 7, 2012

Amazon announces $119 Kindle Paperwhite with illuminated, capacitive touch display

Have you been enviously eyeing the self-illuminating screen on the Nook SimpleTouch with GlowLight, but didn't want to give up your digital library of Kindle wares? Dear reader, today is your lucky day, with Amazon announcing the Kindle Paperwhite. No, not paperweight, Paperwhite. It has a new, front-lit display that will let you read in the dark, and a capacitive touchscreen that goes away from the IR based systems we've seen in the past.

Jeff Bezos tells us that it has 25 percent more contrast than the Pearl screens in the current Kindles and, with 212ppi, it has a 62 percent higher resolution. It relies on a fiber optic like system to direct light down onto the display, not unlike the Nook but, from what we can see, the color is much whiter. It's just 9.1mm thick, the battery is said to last for eight weeks and there are no physical buttons for control. You're entirely dependent on that touchscreen to flip those pages -- which, by the way, are said to turn 15 percent faster.

The interface has seen some tweaks too. The fonts are more detailed now, as they should be with that higher resolution, and you can tweak the brightness of the display with a slider. The software will calculate your reading speed and estimate how long it will take you to finish a given chapter or book and there are now author bios.

Price is $119 for the WiFi version and it ships October 1st! If you'd like a little 3G connectivity with your Kindle, you're looking at $179.

Gallery: Amazon announces Kindle Paperwhite