Amazon Kindle 2024 leaked by Spanish and UK retailers

A couple of unannounced Amazon products passed through the FCC recently, and they sure looked like they could be next-gen Amazon Kindle eReaders.

Now there’s growing evidence that Amazon is preparing to refresh at least one of its Kindle devices: Spanish and UK retailers have posted product pages for a new 12th-gen Amazon Kindle, providing some details about the modest spec bumps associated with Amazon’s new entry-level Kindle.

The Spanish product listing has since been removed, but not before folks at Reddit and Good EReader captured some key details. So we know that the new model will feature the same 6 inch E Ink touchscreen display as its predecessor, with 300 pixels per inch.

So what’s new? The Kindle (2024) is said to have a front light that’s 25 percent brighter when cranked all the way up. And according to a listing at UK retailer John Lewis, users can also expect “a higher contrast ratio, and faster page turns than the previous generation.”

That’s about it. Good EReader also mentions a new “system-wide dark mode,” but I’m not sure how different that is from the Dark Mode that Amazon added to the 2022 model, which already allows you to switch from dark text on a light background to light text on a dark background.

Other features include 16GB of storage, support for Bluetooth 5.1 (allowing you to listen to audiobooks with wireless headphones or speakers), and a USB Type-C port. But those are all available on the 2022 model. The 2024 Kindle will be available in black, blue, or green color options.

The physical dimensions of the new model also appear to be pretty much the same on the 11th-gen (2022) and 12th-gen (2024) models, but the new version is a little lighter, at 154 grams (down from 158).

While it seems pretty clear at this point that a new entry-level Kindle is on the way, I suspect Amazon will refresh its Kindle Paperwhite soon as well. It’s unusual for Amazon to go more than three years without a hardware update unless the company is planning to phase out a product (pour one out for the Kindle Voyage and Kindle Oasis), and the current Kindle Paperwhite and Paperwhite Signature Edition models were released in 2021.

Update: Yep, it looks like a new Kindle Paperwhite is also on the way.

This article was first published September 25, 2024 and most recently updated October 15. 2024. 

via GoodEReader