![]() Speaking of lighting, the Voyage has a new trick up its sleeve: It now has an ambient light sensor so it can adjust backlighting level automatically. Doesn't sound great, I know, but I've never had an issue when too much sunlight threw a wrench into my afternoon reading plans. That enhanced glass diffuses light well, but the effect isn't as pronounced as I'd hoped - the Voyage dispenses with glare only slightly more effectively than the Paperwhite does. Surprisingly, the screen feels a little different too, since Amazon chemically etched the surface to reduce glare. Amazon clearly doesn't buy that argument, and for that I'm very grateful. Some would argue that trying to cram more pixels into an E Ink screen is overkill. Naturally, digital comic die-hards should invest in a good tablet, but the Voyage is no slouch. A menu that appeared smudgy and indistinct on the Paperwhite came through with surprising clarity on the Voyage I could tell Katie's restaurant was serving "smoked cornish hen, buttermilk mashed tubers & whipped pork fat and pickled asparagus," and that was before I zoomed in. It wasn't until I put it next to the Voyage that I realized what I was missing - details that were glossed over on the Paperwhite were easy to spot on the Voyage's high-res display. Consider the humble graphic novel: Thumbing through Bryan Lee O'Malley's Seconds wasn't bad at all on the Paperwhite, with lovingly crafted images and text boxes coming through clearly. Traditional e-readers have never been ideal for images, but the Voyage (generally) handles them with gusto. No dice: This thing is a champ, especially when you consider how awful my eyes are. I seriously spent the better part of an afternoon just sort of marveling at it, firing up different books, fiddling with typefaces/font sizes/margins and generally trying to find some arcane combination that made the onscreen text look suboptimal. The 6-inch display manages to squeeze in a full 300 pixels per inch, bringing it closer to actual ink on paper than any other E Ink screen I've seen (Kobo's Aura HD has a bigger screen, so the pixel density there doesn't quite match the Voyage). There's no two ways about it: The Voyage's screen is downright phenomenal (I fear my pictures don't do it justice). The end result? It's still not as tactile as a physical button, but it's awfully close. By default, both vibration and sensitivity are set to medium (which is plenty responsive), but you better believe I cranked both options to high in search of a more button-like experience. (Don't worry, you can still tap on the screen to change pages.) The whole thing is simple enough: Press the long vertical line on either side of the screen to turn the page, and the dot sitting above it to flip back one. I'll be honest: I still yearn for the days when the deep, satisfying click of a physical button punctuated the turn of a page, but those days are clearly over and Amazon's PagePress is about as worthy a replacement as we could get. Honestly, though, between the lack of raised bezels and that angled back, the whole thing bears more than a passing resemblance to last year's Kobo Aura (I can just imagine Kobo's Japanese overlords chortling with glee). This might not sound like the biggest improvement - it's not like the Paperwhite's recessed screen and raised bezels were particularly bothersome - but it helps the Voyage feel less like a bunch of components cobbled together and more like a single, cohesive piece of kit. More importantly, the 6-inch E Ink display is finally flush with the rest of the Voyage's body. Oh, you're a two-hander? You probably won't be able to tell. ![]() If (like me!) you're the sort of person who grips an e-reader in one hand, with a pinky helping to stabilize things, that weight reduction makes a surprisingly significant difference. That magnesium chassis makes the Voyage a little lighter, too, which some of you will notice more than others. Alas, the Voyage's matte rear (which is where the power button now lives) is a magnet for your greasy fingerprints, so reading and eating chips is inadvisable if you're stickler for appearances. After a week of tossing the Voyage in and out of my bag (which is sort of a gadget minefield, to say the least) there weren't any scuffs or smudges that a few seconds of frenzied rubbing couldn't take care of. The magnesium, as it turns out, was a really good call. Gone is the Kindle's longstanding curvy aesthetic: The Voyage borrows considerably from the Kindle Fire's design language, with a more angular back fashioned out of magnesium and capped with glossy black plastic. The last time Amazon's higher-end Kindles got a redesign was two years ago, so it's no surprise that the Voyage represents the most dramatic overhaul since that time Amazon gave up on physical keyboards. You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu.
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