Amazon’s Faster Page Turns Claim for Kindles is Disingenuous

When Amazon first launched the 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite one of the main selling points was the claim that it was the fastest Kindle ever, with 25% faster page turns.

I can’t dispute the fact that it’s the fastest Kindle because at the time of release it was the fastest (the newer Kindle Scribes with upgraded hardware might have surpassed it now), but the claim of “faster page turns” still irks me, and Amazon can’t seem to get their story straight on how much faster the page turns really are on the Kindle Paperwhite specifically.

There’s conflicting information on Amazon’s website regarding their claim of faster page turns. Some pages say the Kindle Paperwhite features “20% faster page turns” and other pages for the exact same model say it has “25% faster page turns”.

It’s funny, on the main Kindle Paperwhite product page, the first bullet point says it has “20% faster page turns” if you select a Kindle with 3 months of Kindle Unlimited, and it changes to 25% when you select a version without Kindle Unlimited. Who would’ve figured a KU trial would decrease page turn speed by 5%.

First off, they never specify what it’s supposed to be faster than so I guess technically they can say whatever they want. 25%. 20%. It doesn’t really matter if they’re comparing it to the speed of a toaster. Is it supposed to be 25% faster than the 1st gen Kindle? Well, that’s probably true then.

It’s certainly not 25% or even 20% faster to turn pages than the previous 11th gen Kindle Paperwhite. Amazon’s claim is completely disingenuous in that regard.

I have both the 11th gen Kindle Paperwhite and 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite on my desk and the page turning speed is virtually identical between them—it’s close enough that I can’t tell a difference. I will say that navigating the interface and opening menus and such is a bit quicker on the 12th gen model, but the claim of 25% (or 20%, who knows which) faster page turns is entirely inaccurate.

I came to this conclusion two years ago when I compared the Paperwhite 5 and 6 and nothing has changed in that regard to this day, so it’s disheartening to see Amazon still making the faster claim when it’s not entirely accurate. I think there was a brief time when page turns were faster on the 12th gen Paperwhite, but then they updated the software on the 11th gen model soon after the newer version was released and that improved page turning speed. I’m sure the 12th gen Paperwhite is 20-25% faster to turn pages than most older Kindles, but just don’t expect it to be faster than the 11th gen Paperwhite.