Numeric keypads may be the norm these days, but that wasn’t always the case. Like many other electronic devices at the time, the very first Kindle e-readers had physical buttons for text entry. That all changed in 2011, when Amazon revealed that the fourth-generation Kindle would ditch the built-in keyboard in favor of a touchscreen interface. In press releases, Jeff Bezos touted these devices as being lighter, cheaper and easier to hold. True, but there’s no denying that older Kindles had a certain gravitas, a retro vibe that their descendants lack.
These days, you can buy a used third-generation Kindle on eBay for around $30. Although users expressed a fondness for the tactile feel of physical buttons, these devices never became collectibles. Instead, they exist as reminders of what technology was like in the strange, liminal times when things were neither entirely analog nor completely digital.
Are these devices still usable today? Is the only option to pray for the return of the keyboard? Here’s why Amazon decided to ditch physical keyboards in the first place.
Why Amazon removed physical keyboards from Kindles
The first Kindle was released in 2007 and featured the popular e-ink display, a QWERTY keyboard, and various physical navigation buttons. The second and third generation Kindles reduced the number of front buttons from 51 to 45, then to 41. In an interview with TechCrunch, Amazon’s vice president of design, Chris Green, mentioned that touch controls were always the goal. However, at the time, touchscreens were sepia instead of translucent, which caused contrast and visibility issues. After all, Amazon was trying to help people read, without causing eye strain.
However, reducing and then removing the keyboard was not a purely stylistic choice. Each physical button represents an additional manufacturing cost and a point of failure. They contribute to the weight, size and thickness of the device. This also means that, if the Kindle were to be released internationally, several different keyboard layouts would have to be designed; and in some cases entirely different alphabets are considered.
In other words, switching from physical keyboards to digital keyboards would save both the company and consumers money. It would also make repairing devices easier and allow Amazon to make Kindles more portable than ever before. Seems like a win for everyone, right? And that’s the case, except for people with circulation problems that can lead to cold fingers, whose pressures may not be picked up as reliably by touchscreens.
Can I still use an old Kindle or external keyboard on a new Kindle?
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There’s nothing stopping you from buying an old Kindle, but unless you plan to jailbreak it, your experience is likely to be pretty negative. Amazon no longer supports Kindles older than 2012, and users can’t even access the Kindle Store anymore. It’s also unclear how reliable or safe a decade-old battery is. Plus, Amazon glues Kindle batteries in place (at least for now), so replacing them is time-consuming and potentially dangerous.
Some Kindle Fire tablets support Bluetooth keyboards, but most Kindles only let you pair headphones or speakers. They also don’t recognize USB keyboards, which removes the last possible workaround. In fairness, very few e-readers these days include full keyboards, although Kindle alternatives like the Boox Go Color 7 let you connect one via Bluetooth. You’ll lose access to a few Kindle-exclusive features, but given that you’ll likely use the device for hundreds of hours, you should at least be able to interact with it the way you want.
