There's only one glaring hardware omission here – waterproofing doesn't exist. But for R3,000, you can't really expect it (for Amazon business reasons). This Kindle's software is a touch too-naggy for our tastes, and any software updates will just make it worse. But handling the device itself and the 'reading' part of the deal are excellent, and that's really what counts from an ereader. It's in the name.
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There’s too much tech released every year for Stuff to get to it all immediately. That’s why you’re seeing 2024’s baseline Amazon Kindle appearing here in 2026. We hadn’t seen it yet, so we couldn’t test it before. But it’s here, in a fetching green shade Amazon has chosen to call Matcha, and we’ve had a chance to play.
Our basic opinion of the Kindle range, this device included, hasn’t changed. Amazon’s hardware is unmatched when it comes to ereaders, and that’s even true of this R3,000 basic model. The American company’s software, however, grows ever more obnoxious. When you factor in that this is an ad-supported model, our irritation escalates to the point where the extra five hundred bucks for zero ads makes sense. Which, we suppose, is the point.
Easy being green
Setting up the standard Kindle isn’t difficult. If you can read — and we assume you can, if one of these has entered your possession — it’s simple enough to get from ‘out of the box’ to ‘ready to go’. But Amazon’s tendency towards overcomplication is very evident. You’ll pass through several nag screens and requests to link other accounts, most notably GoodReads, on your path toward handing Amazon money for digital books. We found the process largely irritating, but since you’ll probably only do this once per new device, it’s worth overlooking.
Once done, you’ll have a palm-sized little ereader all nice and set up. Amazon’s hardware skills for this range are as good as ever, with the USB-C charging port being an excellent addition to the unit. The wide bezels make it surprisingly grippy in a single hand, though we’d still add a cover as soon as possible. The recessed 6in display will take some abuse, but it’s irritating to get close to the end of a story only to have it ruined by a cracked panel.
The only real drawback, but a necessary one if Amazon plans to keep the PaperWhite a semi-premium device, is that there’s no waterproofing. None at all. Keep it out of the bath. Heck, keep it out of steamy rooms.
Book it to the library
Reading the 11th-generation Amazon Kindle is as pleasant an experience as it ever was. The screen’s lighting is adequate, though completely manual in this model, the 6in 300ppi touch display is responsive enough to fingertips, and the act of reading any given work is a pleasure. But the reduced price tag over more advanced models does bring a few issues to the fore.
The first is the screen’s refresh rate. It’ll behave, for the most part, but there were several occasions of slowdown when opening a new book or firing up the lock screen to access some reading material. These present as slow refreshes. It’d be a problem in a smartphone, but swapping between pages of text minimises the issue. Still, this Kindle is slower than its pricier kin.
The lock screen is another annoyance. Since this is an ad-supported model, that annoyance is intentional. Try to unlock the screen, and you’re prompted to swipe away the ad first. If Amazon’s tracking you (and they are), you’ve just confirmed that you’ve seen said advertisement, while giving it a few extra seconds of brain time. As long as the concept of subliminal advertising doesn’t actually work, you should be okay. There’s a reason there’s a tab in the Settings that’ll let you pay to make the ads go away.
Then there’s Amazon’s Kindle software. It’s been a pain in the neck ever since Amazon redesigned it for itself and not for its users. If the company’s interface grates, Kobo has an excellent alternative that feels a lot freer, but expect to pay more for that freedom.
Amazon Kindle (2024, 16GB/w. ads) verdict
If you aim to read books, and you’re not overly picky about the interface used to get you into said tomes, then the basic Amazon Kindle is an ideal purchase. The smaller form factor over the larger 7in models makes it comfortable to use in a single hand, even with a case on your device. Actual reading is excellent, too, with the screen offering up crisp text in whichever font size you need most.
It’s just the layer separating the hardware and reading aspects from each other that falls down. If you’re prolific, you probably won’t spend much time there, which is perhaps just as well. It’s not a very nice place to be, and if Amazon does many more redesigns like its software ‘upgrade’, even the excellent hardware isn’t going to save it. Not where there are better, more customisable options out there from the likes of Kobo and others. Still, if you’ve got R3,000, this’ll let you carry a little library in your pocket. If you can, though, buy the R3,500 ad-free version. It’s far less annoying to work with.
