Amazon.com: Customer reviews: International Version – Kindle Paperwhite – (previous generation - 2018 release) Now Waterproof with 2x the Storage

Top positive review

Compact, Neat, Perfect

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024

Its the perfect kindle. I’ve tried some of the other versions but this one is definitely the best one. I love how elegant and clean it looks. Buying from the store and browsing is also very easy. Love it

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

James

Disappointed Kindle lover

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2019

I bought two All New Kindle Paperwhites (International Version) in late November last year: one for my wife and one for myself. My Kindle began to malfunction within days. It jumped pages, inexplicably went to the store while I was reading and randomly marked words and brought up the dictionary of its own accord, amongst other strange behavior. After my complaint to customer support, Amazon were very prompt in replacing my defective Kindle in early January of this year with one that arrived with no packaging. Was it a reconditioned one?

My wife’s Kindle began to display the same erratic behavior in late January. That, too, was promptly replaced and is, so far, still working normally.

In March my replacement Kindle began to malfunction in much the same manner as the original.

So, I am now about to begin the process of contacting Amazon customer support in the hopes of exchanging my All New Paperwhite for one that works. Wish me luck.

In the light of the above disappointing experience, a few comments about the All New Kindle Paperwhite while it worked. In my view, it is less crisp, more sluggish than my trusty 2013 Paperwhite. It is not as responsive to a tap to turn a page. Starting up now involves a waiting period. It appears to me that the definition of the print is not as sharp as my old Paperwhite. The dictionary and translations do not respond as quickly.
Would I recommend that somebody buy the All New Kindle Paperwhite (International Version)? See below.

UPDATE. 2/4/19
In response to my complaint, a brand new Kindle was delivered about a week ago. It has worked perfectly so far and I am, once again a happy customer. In my opinion the new Kindle is an improvement over the previous model in that it is slightly smaller and lighter, thus even easier to hold and use. Now I am able to say that the print is the same quality,if not better. The annoying waiting period on start up can be switched off. So, it was difficult for Amazon to improve on an almost perfect product, but I think they have done so. It is an absolute essential for the avid reader.

UPDATE 24/12/2019
Christmas Eve, and my replacement Kindle, the third, is now malfunctioning in the manner originally described above. Is it me, is it the Kindle, how long are they meant to last? I don’t know. My new year will begin with seeking a refund or replacement from Amazon. A time consuming exercise. This is not what I imagined the Kindle experience would be.

278 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Lau Hernandez 🦋

Compact, Neat, Perfect

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024

Verified Purchase

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Ivy

Perfect device for reading

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

Bought it on prime day 7th Aug 2021. Used it for two months and it functions very well.

Pros:
1. Clearly seen under the sunshine - I usually bring it out to the balcony in my office for reading. At first, I didn’t really see the difference from the iPad. One afternoon, I found it surprisingly performed very well even under sunshine. I can see every single word clearly under a sunny day.
2. Slow reaction but enough for me - It's the 2018 version so of course, it is slow in reaction compared with smart devices nowadays. But it doesn’t matter because I don’t read fast either.
3. Support my own documents - It also allows me to transfer my own documents to the device which is very convenient to me.
4. Built-in light - I can read at night! Without hurting my eyes.
5. Lightweight, thin - Super lightweight, I can hold it with a single hand without pain or put it into my small handbag, bring it to my office, read novels on the train/bus…
6. Long battery life - I usually turn it to airplane mode while reading which saves a lot of batteries.

Can’t think of any cons so far. A 100 score device considering it’s a 2018 product!

3 people found this helpful

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Majuran

Best of best… Suitable for hours of reading same as book

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

Amazon is not there in our country. Physical books also costly with international shipping.
But I love the reading, Previously downloaded eBooks from online websites, but I felt bad, I wanted to pay the author.

Then got to know about Kindle app, and happily purchased eBooks using Amazon and used it in my mobile.

But I feel, reading on screen is not good as reading on a paper….. Then got to know about this device

Ordered using international shipping from amazon.com
Delivered on time and device is best.
Hours of reading without feeling like a watching a screen. Best experience so far.

Feeling like, have wasted 25 years of life without this device. Stir feeling happy, I have much more years to travel with Kindle

Far better than a Kindle app, previously I used the kindle App. This device is better.

No blue lights…

If you love reading, you will love Kindle.

It will be great speed up the refund process of import fee deposit.
Also please consider adding cover for international shipping, Need a cover for kindle

Thank you

3 people found this helpful

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Razvan Rogoz

Incremental update to the previous generation

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

So my old Kindle broke, the same issue as with the last one - screen failure.

And I've tried to buy a new one but Amazon would not ship here. I've tried finding one in an IT&C store, of course, nobody sells Kindles here. So I've bought one from Thailand.

Now here's the thing, the price of a Paperwhite in Thailand is about $250. That's almost double. That's Oasis territory (which is close to $500). And while I love Amazon, I don't want to pay double. Fortunately, found someone selling brand new, sealed Paperwhites for almost the Amazon price.

That being said, what do I think about it?

# I think the contrast is lower and the text is not as easy to read. It's not a big deal though and definitely not a deal breaker.

# The flushed screen is interesting. I hope it protects the screen from breaking. It does reflect light a lot easier though.

# You need a new case compared to the old generations.

# Battery life seems about the same.

# Seems a bit slower than the older PP, although it may be just indexing.

# It is lighter? Seems so?

# There is more of a premium feel to it, more like a tablet.

# Audible playback which I've never used. Heard it consumes battery quite fast.

# Brightness is not as good. At 17 with the old PP, it would be almost overpowering. Here, it is meh. Of course it can go bright enough but the intensity is lowered.

I guess that's all. The Paperwhite is more or less the same since it was first introduced. I have also tried the Oasis but it's too damn expensive in Thailand. At $230, I swear I would have bought it, but at $480 USD, I'll pass. Let's hope this one lasts more than the others. I swear that after 75 - 100 books, every Kindle I own ends up breaking down. Maybe it's my fault but the last one broke down while in a cover, in a safe place.

4 people found this helpful

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Zvi Rosenfeld

A great device with some minor issues

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2021

Verified Purchase

In a nutshell, kindle was created to give a comfortable reading experience, and it does a great job on that front. I feel like other aspects of the device were compromised.

Good:
- The screen is very clear. It feels like I'm reading from a real book - but with clearer text then I've seen in any real book.
- There are no distractions. This is a very big advantage over reading from the free app on my phone, where I constantly find myself pausing from the book to check up on one thing or another.
- The screen is wider and shorter than a standard phone. I find this to be much more comfortable to read from.

Bad:
- The device is sluggish.
- The scrolling isn't continuous like on a smart-phone.
- At 6'', the screen is smaller than most modern phones (but it doesn't feel small when you read from it).
- There's no option to change the page color.
- There's a limited selection of inbuilt fonts (but it's quite easy to add new ones).
- The charger is the old micro-USB, and not the more modern USB-C. This means that I can't charge it from my phone's charger.
- The screen is not colorful. I think this makes the book covers look bad.
- Kindle is surprisingly stingy with memory. Considering how cheap flash drives are, I'd expect that kindle would either provide us with more memory, or at least make it cheaper to upgrade (it's currently about 100$ to upgrade to 32GB, when a 64GB flash drive is 10$).

2 people found this helpful

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Cliente de Kindle

Estoy satisfecho, cumple con lo que promete

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

Compré varias unidades, una para mí y otras dos para otras dos personas con varias semanas de diferencia. Todas las unidades llegaron en buen estado e incluso algunas llegaron varios días antes de lo esperado. La caja estaba bien sellada y en buen estado. A continuación describiré los pros y contras, por si le resultan útiles a alguien, pero en general puedo decir que es un buen producto.

Compré el Kindle principalmente porque no daña los ojos y en mi caso suelo leer a menudo, además ya sea por presupuesto (que los libros digitales son bastante más baratos que los físicos) o por escasez (que hay libros que es muy dificil conseguirlos en formato físico y cuando se encuentran son muy caros) el kindle me permite acceder a más libros con mayor facilidad.

Luego de un par de meses usandolo puedo decir que una de las cosas que más me ha gustado es la duración de la bateria, ya que sí es verdad que puede durar varias semanas con una sola carga. Lo único que le acaba la carga más rápido es cuando lo he usado con audiolibros, ya que se tiene que activar bluetooth y usar con audifonos inalambricos obligatoriamente. Eso sí me parece que deberían cambiarlo, ya que incluso tuve que comprar audífonos nuevos para escuchar audiolibros porque sólo tenía audifonos de cable, y que puede que al kindle le dure bastante la bateria pero si a los audifonos se le acaba entonces tampoco podrás seguir escuchando y los de cable no servirán. Sin embargo aún cuando escucho audiolibros (y tomando en cuenta que les suelo aumentar la velocidad) y a veces le activo el brillo de pantalla, igual sigue durando la bateria varios días.

Tiene brillo de pantalla que se puede controlar según la intensidad que uno necesite, tiene modo oscuro (aunque hace que a veces queden "manchas" en la pantalla por un rato cuando está activo). Algo que me sorprendió cuando me llegó fue su tamaño, pensé que la pantalla era un poco más grande (por eso incluí imagenes al lado de una regla para que se notara el tamaño), esto no es necesariamente malo, ya que al ser pequeño es muy portable, en mi caso a veces lo llevo en el bolso a mi universidad y su tamaño y peso son un gran beneficio. Sin embargo, un problema puede ser para los PDF ya que al no poder cambiar el tamaño de letra sí puede hacer falta una pantalla más grande. Se puede hacer zoom, pero es mucho más incomodo para leer
Tiene capacidad para muchos libros, actualmente tengo alrededor de 150 archivos entre libros y PDF y no he tenido problemas. Los libros que he comprado en la tienda de amazon o que he descargado gratis (la mayoría de los que tengo han sido gratuitos) tiene como ventaja que se pueden personalizar (cambiar tamaño de letra, tipo de letra, tamaño de los margenes, etc.).

En general, es un muy buen producto y estoy contento con él, lo recomiendo para personas que leen mucho o quieren versatilidad a la hora de leer. Las unicas cosas en contra que noté fue el precio, el cual para gente de mi país resulta costoso pero que en este caso al ser de decima generación y comprarlo con descuento quedó mucho más accesible, y el detalle de tener una entrada para audifonos de cable para usarlo no sólo con inalambricos, y en algunos casos la pantalla puede ser un área a favor o en contra. Además, se debe tener en cuenta que sólo incluye el cable de carga pero no el adaptador o la "cabeza" del cargador para conectarlo a corriente, por lo que al menos en mi caso opto por cargarlo conectandolo al computador.

4 people found this helpful

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Saar Namir

Never owned an E-Reader before and got it on a whim just because it was on sale

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2021

Verified Purchase

I'll keep it as short as sweet as I can.
CONS:
1. Make sure the size is right for you. The online pics alone don't make you realize how tiny it is, because they don't really compare it next to something, which is probably for better marketing because boy - it is pretty small.
2. It's not very fast. There's a noticeable delay between each page flip.
It takes a bit time for the screen to "burn" the text, or whatever it does, so maybe the system isn't fast to cut costs down because it would be bottlenecked by the screen anyways, just a guess.
3. NOT EVERY BOOK IN AMAZON'S KINDLE LIBRARY IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE PAPERWHITE.
Sorry for the caps, but I wanted "to celebrate" the arrival of the Kindle and get a book that sat on my wishlist for too long. Apparently, some titles are fine with all Kindle products, while some are not. Which makes sense when you think about it, because the "Kindle Fire", for example, is nothing but a regular Android tablet. But when both of them are under the "Kindle" name, it makes you think that every title would work regardless of the hardware it's running on. Just saying that it isn't the case.

PROS:
1. It's really easy on the eyes, doesn't feel at all like looking at a screen, zero fatigue as far as I can tell.
2. It's great with regular PDF's as well. I use it to store university books, because engineering books are really bulky and I have no space for them. But now I can pretty much carry an entire library with me wherever I go, zero hassle.
3. 8GB is a lot of space! Every book weighs a few MBs, so you do the math. I wouldn't bother paying extra for the extra space. But I would have loved to have the option to drop an extra few bucks for a bigger screen.
4. Battery is great. I guess it's because the screen doesn't have to constantly refresh itself like a phone does. The picture "burns" and stays static until a button is triggered and it knows it needs to erase it and do the next page. Honestly? I've never thought of it before, but it's an insanely smart concept.

7 people found this helpful

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Henry Gil

Best purchase ever

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is a life changer product, had really difficult time reading while traveling and out of the house.

Also, the kids love the light weight and the screen for reading.

Recommended

One person found this helpful

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José

Excelente

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024

Verified Purchase

Gran Calidad

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Reader Rabbit

I can haz buttons?

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

A recent gift, this is the first physical Kindle I've used since my original Kindle Keyboard. That large, heavy, slow object has spent years gathering dust on my (wait for it) bookshelf. I've gotten spoiled by the advantages of reading Kindle stuff on my phone: fast processor (because phone), variable backlight, and zero weight (because I'm already carrying the phone).

So this is a nice surprise. It's pretty lightweight, and compact enough to hold with one hand. The default backlighting is reasonably even, and provides good readability. There's a decent choice of typefaces and sizes. The processor is fast enough to flip pages at reasonable speed. And battery life is outstanding, even with backlighting on – at least if you keep the WiFi radio off.

I haven't dared test its "waterproof" claim by submerging it. I did try some bathtub reading, which wasn't viable: Even holdng the Kindle at arm's length, steam condensation got under the glass and fogged the display. So forget that. I guess you can confidently read in the rain? That's one advantage over a paper book.

The annoyances start when you try to do anything beyond simply reading text. Hey Amazon, a few things would make this device significantly better! And they mostly go together:

1) The user interface remains arbitrary, complex, and clumsy. The sorting options on the home screen are weirdly limited. "Settings" require you to menu-dive through 3 layers just to get at options that belong on the top level. Worse, there are separate, book-specific settings that should be global to the device.

2) Conversely, selecting portrait versus landscape display is global to the device, which is nuts. It should be document-specific.

3) If you jump out to your home/"Library" screen, simply returning to "my last place in the last book I was reading" is baffling and cumbersome. Nutty, because this is ultra-simple in the Kindle mobile app.

4) Highlighting text is extremely cumbersome, compared to the Kindle mobile app. You can't just drag and release your thumb – after releasing, you have to either select an action from a menu (like "Note"), or click again. This gets infuriating. Extending a selection is clumsy, compared to on the Kindle mobile app.

5) Typing any text, by thumbing the touchscreen, is miserable. Constant mistyping and ghost spaces are unavoidable. Backspacing over those errors is, itself, error-prone. You give up.

6) Graphics in books can be ghosty and unreadable. Zooming them up is cumbersome – it requires a long press that the device often misinterprets as a page flip. And, unlike the Kindle mobile app, flipping the device to landscape doesn't rotate graphics to expose more width.

7) The "experimental browser" is a joke. I can't get the Kindle authorized on one of my WiFi networks, because the Kindle's browser can't display that provider's login/password fields.

8) Because everything is touchscreen-driven, the black bezel around the screen quickly and constantly picks up fingerprint smears, which look icky. Why is there even a bezel? (This got a bit better when I bought a case to hold the Kindle by.)

9) The solution to much of this would be to supplement the touchscreen with 4 buttons, like Android phones do. Here, I'd assign 1 button each for Next Page, Previous Page, Settings, and Home. Bingo: Easier and quicker navigation. And fewer fingerprints, because you'd be thumbing the touchscreen only rarely, to select an option from a menu.

21 people found this helpful

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International Version – Kindle Paperwhite – (previous generation - 2018 release) Now Waterproof with 2x the Storage - 8 GB

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