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The all-white Kindle is back, and it has double the RAM

Updated Jun 22nd, 2016 5:22PM EDT
Kindle 2016 Update

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Amazon just made its cheapest Kindle even better. The basic $80 e-reader, aka the one that most people buy, now has double the RAM, a “more rounded” design, and Bluetooth audio. Oh, and it also now comes in white.

It’s a welcome update to a Kindle that’s been mostly overlooked in favor of its fancier cousins, the Kindle Paperwhite and the shiny new Oasis. Still, I have to say I’m a little disappointed there’s no change in the screen, which is easily the most important part of an e-reader.

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The move back to pure white is a harkening back to when the Kindle first launched. I remember my first Kindle: it was an all-white, second-gen model with the physical keyboard and the wonderfully clicky buttons to move between pages. It felt like a truly futuristic device, not just because of the space-inspired design, but also the unlimited international 3G internet, which I abused time and again while travelling.

The white option is coming both to the cheap $80 Kindle, and also to the Kindle Paperwhite. In addition to the color change, Amazon is also doubling the memory to 512MB of RAM. There’s apparently a “more rounded” physical design, but it looks pretty identical to me, still just a large rectangular e-ink screen.

The only large capability addition is Bluetooth audio, which lets blind readers connect the Kindle to Bluetooth speakers or headphones to listen to audio narration.

Chris Mills
Chris Mills News Editor

Chris Mills has been a news editor and writer for over 15 years, starting at Future Publishing, Gawker Media, and then BGR. He studied at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.