I attempted to learn a ebook on a 15 12 months previous Kindle

The vacation season arrives with heat, cheer, and many household time — which implies spending manner an excessive amount of time in your childhood bed room sifting by bins of trinkets and different long-forgotten bits of reminiscence. Over Thanksgiving, I stumbled upon what felt like buried retro-tech treasure: the second-generation Kindle.

After a little bit of fan-girling, I spotted the traditional system had in all probability been sporting the ‘critically low battery’ display for over a decade and did not know if it could even maintain a cost lengthy sufficient to come back again to life. I took the little hope I had and dug by an previous field of cables with my dad (thank goodness he by no means throws any away). We discovered an previous micro USB, plugged it in, and waited with bated breath for one thing to happen.

The little orange gentle that sputtered to life beside the port was a miracle, and after waking from its lengthy slumber, the E Ink show rendered a loading web page. My previous second-gen Kindle was revived, and I found a time capsule ready for me on the opposite aspect of the display. Here is how the long-lasting 2009 Kindle compares to the 2024 Kindle Paperwhite — 15 years of distinction put aspect by aspect.

Main {hardware} variations

Buttons have been huge in 2009

The very first thing you discover is how the second-gen Kindle sports activities a small display sitting above a full QWERTY keyboard (why did we ever want that?). Then there’s the singular Earlier Web page button to the left of the display, two Subsequent Web page buttons on both aspect (Amazon actually thought in regards to the lefties), and Residence button on the precise. Additionally on the precise aspect beside the keyboard is a Menu and Again button, in addition to a helpful little joystick that made cursor management a breeze again within the day.

The display is not contact, should you could not collect from the assortment of buttons at my disposal. It is a trendy comfort I am very glad the Kindle lineup pivoted to; it is extra intuitive in a world the place nearly each different system has a touchscreen, even when some customers nonetheless put money into exterior web page turners.

The facility button does not exist — the second-gen Kindle really powered on through a spring-sliding energy swap on prime of the system, sitting proper subsequent to my favourite {hardware} characteristic ever: a 3.5mm headphone jack. Nostalgia hit me like a stack of fallen books on the sight of each. Not solely have been they spectacular options for the time, however I consider they’d be simply as helpful on a modern-day Kindle.

Now, if you wish to take heed to audiobooks in 2025, you could join a pair of Bluetooth headphones or a speaker to your system to play them. I do not know if anybody’s informed Amazon that wired headphones are again as an analog style assertion, however the brand new Kindle line would rock the headphone jack and make quite a lot of customers blissful on their morning commutes.

And that energy slider — Amazon’s biggest loss was ditching it. Even within the huge 12 months 2025, I place my Kindle Paperwhite incorrect and by accident press the facility button on the underside of the e-reader and utterly interrupt my spy novel. The 15-year-old slider not solely sits out of the best way on the prime, but it surely additionally is far tougher to set off unintentional energy on or offs. If trendy Kindles did something now, I might want the facility toggle (no matter it’s) to be on the highest of the system.

Software program variations between 2009 and 2024 Kindles

Y2K might look extra iconic, however 2024 takes the person expertise to the moon

I’ve mentioned it earlier than, and I will say it once more: Kindles, even the earliest generations, set the bar excessive for all e-readers — together with all future variations of themselves. I encourage most consumers to go for the essential Kindle over any of the opposite upgraded fashions as a result of it is such a spectacular single-use system. Whereas the 2009 Kindle was revolutionary for readers, it pales compared to the studying expertise the 2024 Kindle fashions supply.

I dove into the previous Kindle’s library, which featured 15 pages of books in list-view format — there wasn’t the acquainted cover-view I’ve grown to like on trendy units. I chuckled on the tales I used to devour on there — Jules Vern’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Pittacus Lore’s I’m Quantity 4, and loads of different classics littered amongst teen romance novels and dystopian trilogies. The small display lower off nearly each title and writer title, although, so I needed to make some assumptions about what I used to be clicking.

Utilizing the joystick, I chosen The Starvation Video games, doubtless one of many final books I learn on that system earlier than upgrading, to check drive the UI. I used to be greeted by the very finish of the ebook and painstakingly clicked the earlier web page button till I landed at a standard a part of the story. The refresh fee was gradual, however not as gradual as I might’ve anticipated for the e-reader’s age. The tiny display, nonetheless, felt cluttered — the title, battery, progress bar, and obscure location numbers all competing for consideration alongside the textual content itself. It is not noticeable till you spend time studying on a brand new Kindle — the display is totally minimalist compared.

Do they have an effect on the story? No. Are they a distraction? Sure. The 2024 Kindle lineup offers you ample setting customizations, one thing that’d be extra irritating to arrange with the second-gen’s low-set joystick.

I a lot want the 2024 line’s touchscreen capabilities. And whereas it has many extra settings and customizations, the cleanliness of the interface makes it really feel much more zen than its 15-year-old great-grandparent.

Curious takeaways

Kindles have all the time finished their job

Stumbling upon the second-generation Kindle was akin to uncovering a treasure chest. I spend a lot of my time writing about Amazon’s latest e-readers that it is simple to overlook there was ever a ‘first’ system that kicked the well-known line off. Whereas I by no means had my palms on a first-gen, the second was my very first e-reader and let me learn extra books in every week than a dozen journeys to the library may have achieved.

I leaned into the nostalgia and skim on the previous Kindle for about an hour, and the second-gen nonetheless does precisely what it did greatest in 2009 — put dozens of books on a single system so I may take all of them with me wherever I went. Because the years glided by, software program and {hardware} improvements solely improved the expertise, however that little system can nonetheless get the job finished (and effectively).

The one factor holding it again is the cost — which it actually can not seem to maintain for various minutes. However what do you anticipate from an previous, weathered system that is informed extra tales than I can depend? I am not docking any factors.