Amazon Kindle, Paperwhite, and Colorsoft 2026: Specs, Price, Release Date

The Kindle will turn 20 in 2027. Amazon says it plans to celebrate the milestone throughout the year, but to kick things off, it’s starting with an entirely refreshed Kindle lineup.

On Thursday, the company introduced a handful of new Kindle models: a new 6-inch base Kindle, a 7-inch Kindle Paperwhite, and a 7-inch Kindle Colorsoft. You can buy Signature Editions of the latter two and Kids versions of the entire range, which include artist-designed kids cases, a year of Amazon’s worry-free guarantee for damage, and a year of Kids+, the company’s subscription service that offers unlimited access to ad-free, child-appropriate books.

The highlight is Amazon’s use of aluminum for the Kindle’s construction rather than traditional plastic. The starting tier is plastic, but you can upgrade to an all-aluminum model (Amazon uses 80 percent recycled aluminum) if you prefer that Kindle model and you just want something more robust.

It can get a little confusing with all the different SKUs, so here’s a quick rundown:

• Kindle (plastic, 16 GB, lock screen ads): $150
• Kindle (aluminum, 32 GB, no ads): $190
• Kindle Paperwhite (plastic, 16 GB, lock screen ads): $200
• Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (aluminum, 32 GB, no ads): $250
• Kindle Colorsoft (plastic, 16 GB): $290
• Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition (aluminum, 32 GB): $320
• Kids Kindle (available for every model): $180+

Lighter and Premium

The base Kindle, the aluminum version, and the Kids Kindle are on sale starting today. The Paperwhite and Colorsoft are available for preorder on a rolling basis and will launch at the end of October.

The base Kindle’s screen offers 30 percent faster page turns than its predecessor, Amazon says. The build is a whole millimeter thinner at 6.8 mm, and Amazon cut the weight by around 18 grams to 140 grams. The Kindle Paperwhite and Colorsoft are both similarly lighter (204 grams) and thinner (6.8 mm), retain the waterproof design, and feature adjustable warm reading lights. The screen refreshes 30 percent faster than the base Kindle, and the screen has a higher pixel density that makes text appear sharper.

Upgrading to the Signature Edition for both nets you the aluminum build, an ambient light sensor that adjusts brightness automatically, an accelerometer that lets you turn the screen to landscape orientation and have the pages adjust accordingly. The upgrade also adds the ability to use a double-tap gesture to turn pages.

Uniquely, the Signature Editions feature pogo pins that let you charge via Amazon’s new $60 dock, which props the device up as it charges. There’s also a new Page-Turn Cover ($80)—a case with physical page-turn buttons that magnetically attaches to the back of the devices and pairs via the pogo pins, which Amazon says offers page-turn buttons to the vocal minority that still loves them (around 5 percent of Kindle users) without adding unnecessary bulk to the device.

Don’t worry, you don’t need the case, the Signature Edition, or even a new Kindle if you just want page-turn buttons. Amazon is debuting its own Kindle Click, a $35 page-turn accessory that pairs over Bluetooth for the non-Signature (and older) Kindle models.

Kindle Ablaze

The Kindle business is booming. Amazon’s Kevin Keith, vice president of product, says Kindles have seen double-digit growth over the last three years, with 2025 being the highest sales year in more than a decade. He says 60 to 65 percent of people buying new devices have never had a Kindle before, with Gen Z, millennials, and even Gen Alpha driving the lion’s share. This past January saw the highest single-month Kindle reading volume in history.

At the same time, Kindles are more expensive than ever. “Memory pricing is a little bit crazy,” Keith says, referring to the memory shortage behind the general price bump on all electronics. Amazon upped prices of existing Kindles earlier this year; the new devices match those prices.

Part of the redesign aims to lower overall manufacturing costs and standardize the hardware. Take the refreshed display on the base Kindle—Keith says many of the improvements trickle down from the development of the Kindle Scribe. For the first time, the base Kindle has a display that sits flush with the body, just like its pricier counterparts. (It previously had a raised plastic bezel around the screen.) That whole front panel is also available in a new color: Ube (purple).

While Amazon has made Kindles with colorful fronts (like the matcha green Kindle from 2024), it hasn’t done this with flush displays. That’s because simply coloring the front would make the Ube color, for example, scatter around the screen as the frontlight reflects it, casting a purple hue on the display. To counter this, Keith says Amazon developed a new “edge-to-edge” color technology that prints two different colors under the cover lens: the Ube color backed by a layer of black. The black absorbs the light, which solves the problem. Amazon says it perfected this tech in the Scribe and ported it down here.