I attempted to learn a e-book on a 15 yr outdated Kindle

The vacation season arrives with heat, cheer, and many household time — which suggests spending method an excessive amount of time in your childhood bed room sifting via packing containers 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 noticed the traditional system had most likely been sporting the ‘critically low battery’ display screen for over a decade and did not know if it might even maintain a cost lengthy sufficient to return again to life. I took the little hope I had and dug via an outdated field of cables with my dad (thank goodness he by no means throws any away). We discovered an outdated micro USB, plugged it in, and waited with bated breath for one thing to happen.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 My outdated second-gen Kindle was revived, and I found a time capsule ready for me on the opposite aspect of the display screen. This 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 large in 2009

The very first thing you discover is how the second-gen Kindle sports activities a small display screen 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 screen, two Subsequent Web page buttons on both aspect (Amazon actually thought concerning the lefties), and House button on the proper. Additionally on the proper aspect beside the keyboard is a Menu and Again button, in addition to a useful little joystick that made cursor management a breeze again within the day.

The display screen is not contact, for those who could not collect from the assortment of buttons at my disposal. It is a fashionable 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 spend money on exterior web page turners.

The ability button would not exist — the second-gen Kindle really powered on by way of a spring-sliding energy change 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, it’s essential to join a pair of Bluetooth headphones or a speaker to your system to play them. I do not know if anybody’s instructed Amazon that wired headphones are again as an analog vogue assertion, however the brand new Kindle line would rock the headphone jack and make quite a lot of customers pleased on their morning commutes.

And that energy slider — Amazon’s biggest loss was ditching it. Even within the large yr 2025, I place my Kindle Paperwhite fallacious and by accident press the facility button on the underside of the e-reader and fully interrupt my spy novel. The 15-year-old slider not solely sits out of the way in which on the prime, however it additionally is way more durable to set off unintended energy on or offs. If fashionable Kindles did something now, I might choose the facility toggle (no matter it’s) to be on the highest of the system.

Software program variations between 2009 and 2024 Kindles

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

I’ve stated 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 fundamental 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 provide.

I dove into the outdated 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 fashionable gadgets. 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 screen minimize 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 e-book and painstakingly clicked the earlier web page button till I landed at a traditional a part of the story. The refresh fee was gradual, however not as gradual as I’d’ve anticipated for the e-reader’s age. The tiny display screen, nevertheless, 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 screen 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 choose 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 at all times achieved 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 neglect there was ever a ‘first’ system that kicked the well-known line off. Whereas I by no means had my arms 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 browse on the outdated Kindle for about an hour, and the second-gen nonetheless does precisely what it did finest 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 achieved (and effectively).

The one factor holding it again is the cost — which it actually can not seem to preserve for quite a lot of minutes. However what do you count on from an outdated, weathered system that is instructed extra tales than I can rely? I am not docking any factors.