Amazon launches Kindle Voyage e-reader

New Kindle Voyage is our thinnest, most advanced Kindle ever, with our brightest, highest resolution, and highest contrast display, plus reimagined page turns—$199

New $79 Kindle is small and light, with weeks of battery life, a 20% faster processor, twice the storage, and now with a touch interface

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 17, 2014-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today introduced the 7^th generation of Kindle: Kindle Voyage, our most advanced e-reader ever, and the new $79 Kindle, with a 20% faster processor, twice the storage, and now with a touch interface. Meet the new Kindle and Kindle Voyage at www.amazon.com/kindle-voyage.

Kindle Voyage—Our Most Advanced E-Reader—$199“Our mission with Kindle is to make the device disappear, so you can lose yourself in the author’s world,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Kindle Voyage is the next big step in this mission. With the thinnest design, highest resolution and highest contrast display, reimagined page turns, and all of the features that readers love about Kindle—books in seconds, no eyestrain or glare, readability in bright sunlight, and battery life measured in weeks, not hours—Kindle Voyage is crafted from the ground up for readers.”

All-New Design—The Thinnest Kindle Ever

Kindle Voyage features an all-new design, with a beautiful flush glass front and a magnesium back, so it is strong, thin, and light. At just 7.6 mm thin and weighing less than 6.4 ounces, Kindle Voyage is the thinnest device we’ve ever built, making it even easier to hold with one hand and read for hours.

Next Generation Paperwhite Display

Kindle Voyage uses a brand new Paperwhite display, with the highest resolution, highest contrast, and highest brightness of any Kindle. With 300 pixels per inch, the new Paperwhite display delivers laser-quality text and images. The exclusive flush-front display stack uses specially strengthened glass, which is designed to resist scratches. Since regular glass would create glare, the cover glass on Kindle Voyage is micro-etched in order to diffuse light, ensuring you can read easily in bright light without glare. The etching pattern on the glass also serves to match the feel of paper.

Adaptive Front Light—Our Smartest Front Light

In addition to being our brightest front light ever—39% brighter—the new adaptive front light automatically adjusts the brightness of the display based on the surrounding light. And because not everyone has the same lighting preferences, the adaptive front light can be fine-tuned to your personal preference. Also, since the human eye adjusts to darkness over time, the light you need when you start reading in the dark will seem too bright 30 minutes later—the adaptive front light slowly lowers the display’s brightness over time to match the way the eye responds to darkness.

PagePress—Reimagined Page Turns

Kindle Voyage introduces PagePress, a new way to turn pages. PagePress uses a custom-designed force sensor that sits directly under the bezel. You simply rest your thumb on the bezel and turn the page by lightly pressing. When you turn the page, Kindle Voyage delivers tactile feedback from a haptic actuator. The actuator delivers just enough vibration to let you know you turned the page, but is subtle enough that you won’t be distracted from your reading. You can personalize both the pressure level needed to trigger a page turn and the haptic feedback level.

Free 3G

Kindle Voyage is available with free 3G, which means you never have to hunt for or pay for a Wi-Fi hotspot—simply download and read books anytime, anywhere, in over 100 countries around the world. Amazon pays for the 3G connection, so you pay no monthly fees and sign no annual contracts.

New Origami Cover

The new origami-style cover design is inspired by the best-selling Origami covers for Fire tablets, and provides a stand for both portrait and landscape positions. Origami covers attach magnetically so they are easy to take on and off, and automatically turn your Kindle Voyage on and off when you open and close the cover. The cover is available starting at $44.99—learn more at www.amazon.com/kindle-origami.

Kindle—Now With Touch, Just $79

The all-new Kindle includes a 20% faster processor, twice the storage, and now features a touch interface and all of the latest features customers love about Kindle, including Kindle FreeTime, Goodreads, and Smart Lookup. The new Kindle is small, light, and portable—toss it in a beach bag or put it in a pocket to always have your reading with you. The new Kindle is great for anyone who’s new to e-reading:

• Readers who haven’t yet experienced an e-reader will be surprised by how easy it is to read on, with no glare even in bright sunlight, and weeks of battery life
• Readers who have never tried eBooks will love enhanced reading features like instant dictionary look-up, adjustable font sizes, and X-Ray, which lets them quickly look up character information
• Parents will love that they can give their kids a purpose-built e-reader with an easy-to-navigate touch interface, plus great features that help kids learn—Kindle FreeTime, Vocabulary Builder, and more—for just $79

The New Kindle Family: Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Voyage

All Kindle e-readers feature displays that are easy to read with no glare, even in bright sunlight, have battery life that is measured in weeks rather than hours, and are lightweight and easy to hold and read on for hours. You can now choose from three different Kindle e-readers to find the one that is best for you:

• The new $79 Kindle, with a 20% faster processor, twice the storage, and touch
• Kindle Paperwhite, the best-selling Kindle since its introduction, now with twice the storage so you never have to worry about being without a favorite title, just $119
• Kindle Voyage, with the brightest, highest contrast, and highest resolution display ever on a Kindle, just $199

All-New Reading Features for Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Voyage

• Kindle Unlimited—Enjoy unlimited reading of over 700,000 books and unlimited listening to a selection of thousands of audiobooks for just $9.99 a month.
• Kindle FreeTime Unlimited—Amazon’s all-you-can-eat subscription service built from the ground up just for kids, helps kids make the transition from picture books to chapter books. For as little as $2.99 per month, kids get unlimited access to hundreds of hand-picked chapter books and early readers, all curated for age-appropriateness, so parents don’t have to spend time and money guessing what their kids will enjoy. Includes favorites such as the Harry Potter series, The Borrowers by Mary Norton, Big Nate and Friends by Lincoln Peirce, and Newberry Medal and Honor winning books such as The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell.
• Word Wise—For readers learning English and kids learning to read, Word Wise, available on many titles, makes it easier to understand more challenging books more quickly. Short and simple definitions automatically appear above difficult words, so you can keep reading without having to stop and look up a word. To learn more or to see the various meanings the same word can have in different contexts, just tap on the word to bring up a simple card with definitions, synonyms, and more. You can adjust the number of hints you see with a simple slider, dialing them up or down as you learn and grow. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/wordwise.
• Family Library—For the first time, you can access not only your own Kindle books, but also books from the Amazon account of a spouse or partner. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/family-library.
• Expanded X-Ray for Books—X-Ray now makes it easier to explore as you read—quickly flip through all the images in a book, and use the new timeline view to easily browse the most notable passages. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/x-ray-for-books.
• Deeper Goodreads Integration—Goodreads on Kindle makes it quicker to access and update your reading status and adds the ability to preview and purchase books without leaving Goodreads. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/goodreads-integration.
• Enhanced Search—Makes it even easier to find what you are looking for by combining and previewing results from your Library, Goodreads and the Kindle Store on the same page. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/kindle-search.
• About the Book—See information about the book as you start to read, including its place in a series and author information, plus mark it as “Currently Reading” on Goodreads. See a screenshot: www.amazon.com/about-the-book.

The features above will be delivered as part of a free, over-the-air software update starting later this fall.

Customer-Favorite Features

Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Voyage include all of the features that have made the Kindle family the best-selling e-reader in the world for seven years running:

• Weeks of Battery Life—Kindle e-readers have battery life that is measured in weeks, not hours.
• No set up required—Kindle arrives pre-registered so you can start reading immediately.
• Whispersync—Saves and synchronizes your last page read, bookmarks, and annotations across all of your devices and Kindle apps, so you can always pick up where you left off.
• Worry-Free Archive—Automatically backs up your Kindle books in the cloud, so you never need to worry about losing your books—re-download your books wirelessly anytime for free.
• Goodreads—Combines the world’s largest e-reading community and the world’s largest community of book lovers.
• Smart Lookup—Integrates a full dictionary definition with other reference information via X-Ray and Wikipedia.
• Kindle FreeTime—Gives parents a simple, engaging way to encourage kids to spend more time reading. Hand-select books for your kids to read, and achievement badges are earned when they hit reading milestones. A progress report keeps parents updated on total time spent reading, number of words looked up, badges earned, and books finished.
• Time to Read—Tells you how much time it will take to finish a chapter or a book based on your personalized reading speed.
• Kindle Page Flip—Skim page-by-page, scan by chapter, or jump to anywhere in your book all without losing your place.
• Vocabulary Builder—Compiles words you look up in the dictionary into an easy-to-access list. Use these lists to quiz yourself with flashcards and instantly see words in context.
• Facebook and Twitter—Share book recommendations, highlighted sections, and meaningful quotes with friends.

World’s Best E-Book Store

Kindle e-readers come with instant access to the Kindle Store, which includes:

• Massive selection—Millions of books, newspapers and magazines, including the latest best sellers, Kindle Singles, and more.
• Kindle exclusives—Over 600,000 books are exclusive to the Kindle Store.
• Lowest book prices—Over a million titles are $4.99 or less, over 2 million are $9.99 or less.
• Kindle Owners’ Lending Library—Prime members who own a Kindle can choose from hundreds of thousands of books to borrow for free, as frequently as a book a month, with no waiting and no due dates.
• Kindle First—Access new Kindle books a month in advance of their official release date. Customers can choose one of the featured books each month for $1.99, and Prime members can make their selection for free—adding yet another benefit of Prime membership.

The new Kindle is available for pre-order today for $79 at www.amazon.com/kindle and will start shipping in October. The new Kindle Voyage is $199 and is available for pre-order today at www.amazon.com/kindle-voyage—it will start shipping in October.

About Amazon

Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire phone, Fire tablets, and Fire TV are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.