Sure, The Matcha Kindle Is Gorgeous, But Is It a Good Buy?

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I spent a year wanting the Matcha Kindle but not being able to justify the cost or the added electronic waste in the world since I had a Kindle that worked perfectly fine. In January, I caved, and on the day I ordered the Kindle, my current Paperwhite stopped working. I guess it sensed my deep betrayal, but I was glad I wouldn't be out of a Kindle for long. I've been a devoted Kindle user since my mom put her old Kindle in my hand when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. She was tired of housing all my books. It was the perfect solution, and I've been a major Kindle user ever since. So, is the Matcha Kindle worth the hype? Are the new Kindles worth the purchase? 

Why I Didn't Get the Paperwhite Again

While my original Kindle had a physical keyboard, all of my other Kindles (this new one is number three) have been from the Paperwhite line. I was going to just order that model by default (the fancier ones are too expensive and honestly don't have much appeal to me in their additional features), but I learned that the green wasn't available in this higher tier model. Sure, I could've had raspberry or (I believe) teal, but I had my heart set on the green I'd seen all over Instagram. I was glad that the color made me do more investigating into the modern Kindle landscape since it'd been a number of years since I purchased my refurbished Paperwhite. 
It turns out that the current basic Kindle offering has all the same features as the older Paperwhites in screen quality and features. The new Paperwhites have an even longer battery life, the ability to make the screen beige instead of just black or white, and they're now waterproof. None of this held major appeal to me. Waterproof would be cool, but I've risked electrocution by reading in the bath too long to quit now. Besides the price increase, the Paperwhite comes with a hefty increase in size and weight, two things that are bigger priorities to me than features I've never had so will never miss. 
Seeing a side by side photo from one reviewer who had purchased a Kindle and a Paperwhite settled my choice instantly. The Paperwhite looked massive beside the Kindle. I have horrible spacial skills, so I'm always surprised by the size of things when they show up at my house, so the photo was extremely helpful. I want my Kindle to be light, easy to shove in a purse or pack when traveling, and not so heavy that it makes my wrist tired. 

First Impressions

Okay, I said I wanted a small Kindle, but I didn't quite realize how small it would be. It's not significantly larger than my iPhone 14 Pro. That's what I wanted, right? Yes, it is, but it was a little disconcerting. I have truly tiny hands that look like they haven't grown since I was a child, so the dimensions were perfect for me, and the Kindle is super light. It'll fit in any purse and is significantly both smaller and lighter than any Kindle I've had before. There's still plenty of real estate to display the book, and when you're reading in dark mode in the actual dark, the book feels infinite. It's cute and compact, but I could see it being maybe too small for someone with hands on the larger side. I will say this is the ultimate of portability and the perfect device for those who travel a lot or like to hold their Kindle while walking on the treadmill. 
The color is as joy inducing as it looked online. It makes me deeply happy, so that's incredible. I feel like I've massively upgraded my life just having this pop of color in the stack of items I'm always carrying around. Since I'm moving abroad and doing a lot of travel this year, I really needed a reliable Kindle, and it feels like this will do the job. 
When I first got my Kindle, I burned through ebooks so fast because I was so excited by the reading experience. It was a major upgrade from my old Kindle, much faster and more responsive. The charging also lasts longer and uses the more common USB-C port now. I'm a huge fan of how e-readers in general make it easy to truly read in any situation, especially at night. It actually got me to replace some of my evening scrolling with reading. 

The Drawbacks 

There's only one major drawback with this Kindle. The power button on the bottom is bigger and protrudes more than on past Kindle models. This wouldn't be an issue except that when I'm carrying it around with other things in my arms or in my bag, it gets turned on a lot, making the screen glow and waste unnecessary battery. This isn't a huge problem except that I was carrying laundry the other day with my Kindle in my hand buried under all the sheets. When I finished the laundry and sat down, I noticed I had an email confirming my e-book purchase. I was confused, but when I looked over at my Kindle, I found that it had turned itself on and purchased whatever book was in the ad that was currently displayed in alarmingly few clicks. I had to call Amazon and explain all of this to get my $10 back, so be warned that if you're carrying around your Kindle carelessly, it might go shopping on its own. I could solve this by paying the $20 to make my Kindle ad free (this is my biggest Kindle complaint that I purchase the device but still have to pay to remove ads), but I'm not going to give Amazon more money over that. I honestly wish that I could eliminate the ability to purchase books from my Kindle since I pretty much exclusively use it for ARCs and library books downloaded from other sources. This is probably a niche problem, but I figured it was worth noting. I'd imagine another version of this problem of it turning itself on easily is that it might turn your pages and lose your place if left in a bag that gets jostled around.

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