Amazon's redesigned its whole Kindle family. The new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Colorsoft were announced on 1 October, and each one gets a flush-front screen, a thinner, lighter body and colour that wraps right around the device. The base Kindle's on sale in Australia now. The Paperwhite and Colorsoft are up for pre-order.

It's the biggest shake-up of the e-reader line in years. Amazon's also added an aluminium option across all three models, plus a set of page-turning accessories. One of them is a little Bluetooth remote called Kindle Click.

What's actually new on the Kindle

The big change is the screen. In its announcement, Amazon says it built a "reverse stack display construction" and calls it a first for e-readers. Put simply, the page now sits flush with the front of the device. The raised lip around the screen is gone. That's the bit on old Kindles that collected crumbs and dust.

Photo: Jacek Halicki / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), cropped

Kevin Keith, Amazon's vice-president of devices, wrote that "every device now features a flush-front display", with "no raised border interrupting the reading surface." The Verge's Cameron Faulkner saw the devices in person, and he put it a bit more carefully. He wrote that the screen "still looks recessed, but it's flush with the bezel."

The Verge says all three models are about a millimetre thinner. Amazon says they open books 30 per cent faster than the last generation. The power button's moved as well. It used to sit on the bottom, where it was easy to bump. Now it's on the right-hand edge, near the top.

The colour of the shell now runs from the back onto the front frame. Amazon's calling the shades Ube (a purple), Alpine Sky, Seaglass Green, Graphite and Fig. Keith told The Verge the team puts a black layer around the edges of the panel, so the case colour doesn't bleed into the page.

There's one more change that'll matter if you keep a Kindle for years. Keith told The Verge every new model has a battery you can replace yourself, which brings them into line with European Union rules.

Kindle, Paperwhite and Colorsoft prices in Australia

Here's how the range lines up locally. These are the Australian prices Amazon gave 7NEWS and Digital Reviews Network, as those two outlets reported them.

The base Kindle has a 6-inch screen, 16 GB of storage and up to six weeks of battery life. It starts at A$279 in Ube or Graphite, and Amazon calls it the most pocket-sized Kindle it's ever made. For the first time, there's an aluminium-backed version of the base model too. It doubles the storage to 32 GB, comes in Alpine Sky or Seaglass Green, and costs A$299. Amazon says the housing is 80 per cent recycled aluminium.

The new Paperwhite is thinner and lighter than the last one. It's still waterproof and it keeps the adjustable warm light. Amazon claims up to 12 weeks of battery life. It's A$369 with 16 GB, in Graphite. The Paperwhite Signature Edition is A$399. For that you get 32 GB, an aluminium back, a front light that adjusts itself, charging through pogo pins, and a double-tap gesture to turn the page.

The Colorsoft is the one with the colour screen. Amazon's pitching it at comics, graphic novels, cookbooks and travel guides. It starts at A$449 with 16 GB, in Graphite. The Colorsoft Signature Edition is A$499 with 32 GB, an aluminium body and the same extras as the Paperwhite Signature Edition, in Graphite or Fig.

Amazon says the US prices are US$149.99 for the base Kindle, US$199.99 for the Paperwhite and US$289.99 for the Colorsoft.

The base Kindle and its aluminium version went on sale on 1 October in 19 countries, and Australia's one of them. Paperwhite and Colorsoft pre-orders opened the same day, on what Amazon calls "a rolling basis". The Verge reports those two models launch in the US on 28 October. That date's for the US only. Amazon hasn't published an Australian shipping date for them that we could find.

The page-turn buttons are back

Physical page-turn buttons used to be the calling card of the pricier Kindle Oasis. The new accessories bring that idea to the Paperwhite and Colorsoft, just in a different shape.

The Page-Turn Cover is a magnetic case with buttons built in. It connects through pogo pins on the back of the Signature Edition Paperwhite and Colorsoft, so it only works with those two. It's A$119.95 here and US$79.99 in the US.

Kindle Click is a small Bluetooth remote. It has buttons to turn the page and side buttons for screen brightness. Amazon reckons it's handy for reading in bed, on a treadmill or at a plane tray table. It's A$49.95 here and US$34.99 in the US. It works with all the new Kindles and with any Kindle from 2024 onwards, so some people who already own one can use it as well.

There's also a Charging Dock for the two Signature Editions at A$89.95, and covers from A$54.95 in knit fabric, plant-based leather and pebbled leather.

The Verge pointed out one thing that's missing. The Signature Editions don't charge wirelessly. Amazon's pogo-pin dock does that job instead, and there's still a USB-C port.

Why Amazon is still betting on a reading-only device

Amazon's argument here is pretty simple. Keith wrote that Kindle "has seen double-digit growth globally for three consecutive years," and that readers got through "more than 720 billion pages" in 2025.

His pitch is that a gadget that only does one thing is now a selling point. "With notifications, texts, and emails competing for our attention, distraction-free reading isn't slowing down", he wrote, adding: "it's accelerating."

You can see that in the new Kids versions too. All three models come in a Kids edition with an artist-designed cover and 12 months of Amazon Kids+. Amazon says kids who sit down with a Kindle read for more than an hour a day on average. In the US, the Kids versions start at US$179.99.

A couple of catches are worth knowing before you buy. According to The Verge, the A$279 base Kindle shows ads on the lock screen, and the aluminium version drops them. The Verge's Faulkner also found the Colorsoft's colour looked a lot like the previous model's. Amazon says the display was redesigned with a new light guide, but the core screen specs for the Paperwhite and Colorsoft haven't changed.

The launch lands in a busy stretch for gadgets, a few weeks after Apple opened iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders. Amazon put out a new Fire TV Stick 4K the day before the Kindles.

If you've got a Kindle from the last couple of years and you're happy with it, the cheapest upgrade here is the A$49.95 Click remote. If you've missed the Oasis's page-turn buttons, a Signature Edition plus its A$119.95 cover is now Amazon's official way to get them on a current Kindle.