Amazon on October 1 unveiled a completely redesigned Kindle family: the base Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Paperwhite Signature Edition, Kindle Colorsoft, Colorsoft Signature Edition — plus Kids versions of each. Everything is thinner and lighter, with a new flush-front display that eliminates the raised bezel for an edge-to-edge look. Power buttons moved to the right edge, and the bodies use soft-touch plastic. The 6-inch base Kindle with 16GB starts at $149.99 in graphite and ube purple; for the first time there is an aluminum-backed variant with 32GB at $189.99 — double the storage, ad-free by default — in Alpine Sky and Seaglass Green. The Paperwhite starts at $199.99 (16GB), the Signature Edition at $249.99 (32GB); the Colorsoft starts at $289.99, the Signature Edition at $319.99.
"Rethought at every level to deliver the best Kindle experience yet," wrote Kevin Keith, Vice President of Devices, on Amazon's official blog. At media previews, Kindle leaders insisted the company is witnessing "a resurgence of reading": 2025 was the biggest year for Kindle device sales in a decade, January 2026 was the busiest month of reading in company history, and Kindle has posted double-digit global growth for three straight years — with more than 720 billion pages read in 2025 alone. With notifications, texts and emails competing for attention, "distraction-free reading isn't slowing down — it's accelerating."
2027 marks the 20th anniversary of the very first Kindle, so this full-line refresh is an early celebration. The last makeover was in 2024 (the Scribe got its own refresh in 2025). The upgrades are substantive: books open 30 percent faster; the Paperwhite uses a newly designed reverse-stack display that Amazon claims delivers the highest contrast of any Kindle, with up to 12 weeks of battery life, waterproofing as before, and auto-adjusting light plus dock charging on the Signature Edition; the Colorsoft's color E Ink display is completely redesigned, with a nitride-LED light guide for richer color and an oxide backplane for faster response — paper-like and easy on the eyes, up to 8 weeks per charge. Notably, the batteries are user-replaceable, to comply with EU regulations.
The accessories show Amazon is listening: the $34.99 Kindle Click, a Bluetooth page-turn remote that flips pages without touching the device — launched, the company admits, in response to the page-turner community on BookTok. There is also a magnetic cover with physical page-turn buttons, inspired by the dearly departed Kindle Oasis. Every model gets a Kids version with kid-friendly covers and a 12-month Amazon Kids+ subscription bundled in. And the timing — just ahead of the fall Prime Day sale — is no accident.
The new Kindle and the aluminum model went on sale October 1 in several countries; the Paperwhite and Colorsoft are rolling out through preorders. The slow-moving e-reader business is quietly heating up: Amazon's bet is that as phones get noisier, a screen that does nothing but books becomes the scarce good. Ahead of the 20th anniversary, the whole lineup is already on the shelf.