Best Kindles: which Amazon Kindle should I buy?

Amazon's Kindle is the big name in ebook readers, but it has a lot of models to choose from that range from £85 to more than £300. Find out which Kindle is worth your money.

All Amazon Kindles can be used to read ebooks, but there's a world of difference between the devices - from screen size to internal storage, note-taking abilities and whether they show annoying ads. Read on to learn about the pros and cons of each.

Kindles aren't your only option if you're after an ebook reader. Find out which brands perform best in our tough tests in our pick of the best ebook readers.

Which Kindle is best?

Kindle ebook readers use e-ink screens designed to closely imitate the look of printed text in a paperback. Their screens vary in size and quality, but they're all limited to greyscale, meaning they'll only display white and various shades of grey. This means that illustrations won’t display in colour nor will websites. 

You can get some Kindles for a lower price if you don't mind ads popping up on the screen. All Kindles currently support Amazon's audiobooks service - Audible.

The standard Kindle, the latest of which was released in 2022, gives you all the basics. At the other end of the scale, the Scribe has a super-sized screen and doubles as a digital notebook. Find out the current specs and prices of all the Amazon Kindles we've reviewed below.

Prices last checked June 2024. *Cheapest price comes with pop-up ads on this Kindle. The version without ads will cost around £10 more.

Why you can trust our Kindle reviews

Best Amazon Kindles compared: Kindle vs Oasis, Paperwhite and Scribe

Amazon Kindle 2022 (from £85)

It is the cheapest, lightest and smallest Kindle. However, it costs an extra £10 to get it without ads.

It has a warm backlight, but you can't adjust the brightness. It's one of the only Kindles not to come with IPX8 water resistance (along with the Kindle Scribe), so you'll need to be careful with it around water.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2021 (from £150)

Sitting in the middle of the Kindle range, the Paperwhite has a decent-sized 6.8-inch screen and 16GB of storage. It has an adjustable backlight and is water-resistant.

The £150 version comes with ads. To get one without ads costs around £10 more.

Amazon Paperwhite Signature Edition (from £180)

The screen has double the number of LEDs of the standard Paperwhite, and the light automatically adjusts to your surroundings.

It's the only Kindle enabled for wireless charging, and you can't accidentally buy a version that comes with pop-up ads.

Amazon Kindle Oasis 2019 (from £230) 

The Amazon Kindle Oasis is currently the only Kindle that can be bought with or without 4G for downloading ebooks on the go. You don't have to pay extra for the 4G connectivity, as Amazon offers it for free.

You can get it with 32GB of storage, which should be more than enough for large collections of ebooks and a decent number of audiobooks, too. If you don't need this, there is an 8GB version for less.

It's the only Kindle that has physical buttons to turn ebook pages. If you rotate the screen, the ebook's page will automatically rotate.

Amazon Kindle Scribe with basic pen (from £330)

On Kindle's most expensive model, you can make notes with the included stylus. It has three storage options: 16GB, 32GB or a huge 64GB. You can also choose to buy it with Amazon's Premium Pen for an extra £30 or so, which has two extra function buttons. One button at the top of the pen operates as an eraser, and the other can be set to cover other editing functions quickly, such as highlighting text.

It's a big device with a 10.2-inch display equipped with auto-adjusting light sensors. It's not water-resistant.

If you're a Which? member, you can log in to find out how the different Amazon Kindles compared in our lab tests. Not yet a member? Join Which? to unlock our exclusive Amazon Kindle test results, plus all of our online reviews - from tablets, to laptops to electric cars.

Can I listen to music or audio on a Kindle?

Yes and yes. All new Amazon Kindles support audiobooks from Audible. If you switch from reading to listening, your progress will be synchronised so you can seamlessly carry on from where you left off. They support text-to-speech if no audiobook is available.

You can download MP3 files onto your Kindle via a micro-USB cable to listen to music. However, Kindles generally don't have big storage capacities, so you won't be able to have as many files as you might on a tablet or smartphone.

Kindles generally only support wireless headphones, as there's no headphone jack.

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Can I get an app for my phone or tablet instead?

You might be tempted to opt for an ebook app to use on your phone or tablet, rather than forking out for a separate device.

Amazon Kindle has an app so you can access your library from any device. Google Play and Apple iBooks also offer their own bookstores, adding yet more choices for reading on your phone.

Tablets and phones aren't as comfortable to use for long periods of time as an ebook reader, as they're heavier and have glaring LED screens. 

Also, you can rely on your Amazon Kindle's battery life to last much longer than a phone or tablet. E-ink requires very little battery power to display text. Some ebook readers can run for weeks at a time without a charge, although using the built-in light available will reduce this somewhat.

Browse all of our ebook reader reviews.

What is Amazon Kindle unlimited?

Amazon Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service that gives you access to more than one million book titles, thousands of audiobooks and select magazine subscriptions. You can access it on any device, whether a Kindle, tablet or smartphone. 

Amazon Kindle Unlimited costs £9.49 per month, and you can cancel at any time. You can sign up for a 60-day free trial to see if you like it before parting with your cash. The subscription will automatically renew after the free trial - charging you £9.49 per month if you don't cancel.

So is Amazon Kindle Unlimited worth it? If you find yourself reading at least one book a month, it's likely to work out to be the cheaper option. During your 30-day trial, explore which titles are available to make sure the types of books you want are included. Click to go to Kindle Unlimited.

What formats can a Kindle open?

Previously, Kindles could only open ebooks in Amazon's exclusive AZW format. This meant only books bought from Amazon could be read on a Kindle. Unlike other ebook readers, such as those made by Kobo, that can open ePub files, which is an open standard and can be used for buying books from third-party stores as well as 'borrowing' titles from your local library using Overdrive.

But as of 2022, Amazon supports ePub only via conversion. This means customers must use Send-to-Kindle for Web or on iOS and Android to transfer ePub files onto the device.

Do I need a 4G Kindle?

Standard Amazon Kindles come with a wi-fi connection to download ebooks from the Kindle store. But for a bit more money, you can buy one with 4G.

Getting an ebook reader with 4G access will allow you to download books wherever you are, and there’s no additional monthly cost, as Amazon pays for its own 4G connection. 4G connectivity is only truly worth it if you know you'll buy lots of books when you’re on the move or if you don't have wi-fi in your home.

Find out where to get cheap and free ebooks on your Kindle or another ebook reader.