Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2025).

The Gavler Review.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2025) Review: Still the Default E-Reader

The Kindle Paperwhite has been the default recommendation for e-readers for years, and the 2025 refresh doesn't reinvent that formula — it just sharpens it. It sits at number one on our Best E-Readers list with a 9.7, the highest community score of any e-reader we track. Buy it if you want the simplest, most reliable path into e-reading: a crisp 300 ppi display, genuinely waterproof design, and battery life measured in weeks. Skip it only if you specifically want a stylus for note-taking (look at the Kindle Scribe) or you want to escape Amazon's closed ecosystem in favor of an open one (look at the Kobo Libra Colour). For nearly everyone else, this is still the obvious first e-reader.

What it actually is

The Paperwhite is a 7-inch, 300 ppi E Ink Carta 1300 display built around one job: reading text as comfortably as possible for as long as possible. The 2025 refresh brought a faster processor and a lighter chassis on top of an already-mature formula, so page turns feel snappier and long reading sessions produce less hand fatigue than earlier generations. Adjustable warm light shifts the display's color temperature through the evening, which is a small feature that does real work — it reduces the blue-light eye strain that makes reading right before bed harder than it needs to be.

At $160, it undercuts most dedicated e-readers with color or stylus features while still delivering IPX8 waterproofing (rated for 2 meters of immersion for 60 minutes) and 16 GB of storage — enough for thousands of books, since text-based E Ink content takes up almost no space.

In use

The core experience is what you'd expect from a device this mature: text that looks like it's printed on paper, not displayed on a screen, with none of the backlit glare or eye strain of a tablet. The E Ink Carta 1300 panel at 300 ppi renders small font sizes cleanly, and the faster 2025 processor makes page turns and menu navigation noticeably snappier than the previous generation — a meaningful quality-of-life change for anyone who's used an older Kindle and felt the lag.

Battery life is the feature that changes how you actually use the device day to day. DPReview called it "still the gold standard for e-readers. Does everything a reader needs and nothing they don't." The Verge singled out the practical impact of the battery specifically: "12 weeks of battery life is genuinely transformative compared to tablets. This is an e-reader, not a gadget." That distinction matters — a device you don't have to think about charging is a device you actually pick up instead of reaching for your phone. WIRED's take on the 2025 changes was measured but positive: "The 2025 refresh made an already-perfect device slightly faster and slightly lighter. Marginal gains, but they add up."

Where it shines

• Battery life that removes a whole category of friction. Twelve weeks per charge means the Paperwhite is one of the only gadgets in your life you genuinely forget needs power. That's not a marginal convenience — it's the difference between a device that sits in a drawer and one you actually carry.
• IPX8 waterproofing, done right. Poolside and bathtub reading stop being a risk calculation. This is a small feature on paper that removes real anxiety in practice.
• The Amazon library, without friction. Whatever you think of the ecosystem lock-in, the practical experience of buying a book and having it appear on your device in seconds, across the largest catalog available, is still unmatched by competitors.

The trade-offs — who should skip it

This is the best all-around e-reader, not the most advanced one, and the honest reasons to buy something else are specific:

• You want to write, not just read. The Paperwhite has no stylus support. If annotating PDFs or taking handwritten notes matters to you, the Kindle Scribe is built for exactly that job with a 10.2-inch display and pressure-sensitive pen.
• You want color, or you want out of Amazon's ecosystem. The Paperwhite's display is black-and-white only, and Amazon's ecosystem is closed by design — no easy sideloading, no native library-app flexibility. The Kobo Libra Colour solves both: a Kaleido 3 color display for comics and magazines, plus an open platform that supports DRM-free ePubs and Libby.
• You're indifferent to the Amazon ecosystem and want maximum flexibility. If you borrow heavily from libraries or already own a large DRM-free collection, Kobo's open approach removes friction the Paperwhite doesn't.

How it compares

On its own list, the Paperwhite's closest rival sits directly beneath it: the Kobo Libra Colour at number two, which trades Amazon's closed-but-frictionless ecosystem for an open one with a color Kaleido 3 display and physical page-turn buttons. One tier up in capability (and price) sits the Kindle Scribe, Amazon's note-taking-focused e-reader with a 10.2-inch screen and stylus — the pick if annotation is a real requirement rather than a nice-to-have. The Paperwhite's case isn't that it's the most feature-rich device on the list; it's that it does the core job — reading — better than anything else at its price and size.

The Gavler verdict

A 9.7, backed by the highest community rating of any e-reader Gavler tracks. The 2025 Kindle Paperwhite isn't a dramatic reinvention — it's a mature, well-executed refinement of the device that already defined the category. Twelve weeks of battery life, genuine waterproofing, and a crisp 300 ppi display cover what the overwhelming majority of readers actually need. Buy it as your first e-reader without a second thought; consider the Scribe only if you specifically need a stylus, and the Libra Colour only if ecosystem openness or color matters more to you than Amazon's frictionless library. For everyone else, the Paperwhite remains the easy, confident default.

Common Questions

Is the 2025 Kindle Paperwhite worth it?

For the large majority of readers, yes. It ranks first on Gavler's Best E-Readers list with a 9.7 and the highest community rating on the list — 95 out of 100. It is not the most advanced e-reader (the Kindle Scribe has a stylus, the Kobo Libra Colour has a color screen), but it is the most well-rounded: fast, light, waterproof, and backed by 12 weeks of battery life. If you read more than a handful of books a year and you're already in the Amazon ecosystem, there's no real reason to look elsewhere.

How long does the Kindle Paperwhite's battery actually last?

Up to 12 weeks per charge under typical use — roughly 30 minutes of reading a day with wireless off and screen brightness at a moderate setting. That figure will vary with brightness and reading time, but the point independent reviewers make is qualitative: it lasts weeks, not days, which changes how you relate to the device. You forget it needs charging at all, which is exactly the point of an e-reader over a tablet.

Kindle Paperwhite or Kobo Libra Colour — which should I buy?

It comes down to ecosystem, not hardware. Choose the Paperwhite if you want Amazon's library, one-tap buying, and the simplest possible experience. Choose the Libra Colour if you want to sideload DRM-free books, borrow through Libby without friction, or you specifically want color for comics and magazines. The Paperwhite is the better default for most readers; the Libra Colour is the better pick for readers who've felt boxed in by Kindle's closed ecosystem.

Is the Kindle Paperwhite waterproof?

Yes — it carries an IPX8 rating, meaning it can survive immersion in up to 2 meters of fresh water for 60 minutes. That covers the realistic risks: dropping it in the bath, getting caught in the rain at the pool, or a splash from a drink. It is not designed for saltwater or prolonged submersion, so rinse it in fresh water afterward if it takes a dunk in the ocean or a chlorinated pool.