Amazon has released a slew of new Kindles and I’ve been testing three of them, hopping between the Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition and Kindle Colorsoft. If you’re looking to get a new e-reader, it can be puzzling to see they cost £94.99, £189.99 and £269.99 respectively. How different can they all really be, and why not just get the cheapest one?

For many people, that base model Kindle will be more than enough. It’s the smallest and lightest, has a front-lit screen for reading at night and has access to all the same titles from the Kindle Store as pricier models. I like the 6-inch screen and the fun matcha green colour of the unit I’ve been testing. It slips into my jacket pocket easily, too.

If you move up to the £124.99 Kindle Paperwhite you get a more premium-feeling device with a larger 7-inch screen that’s flush with the casing, a warm light option that makes the front light less blue for late night reading and full waterproofing, but that’s about it. I’d stick to the regular Kindle if tose things don’t matter to you.

Confusingly there’s also a Paperwhite Signature Edition, the one I’ve been testing, but the extra spend makes more sense here. You gain auto-brightness thanks to an added light sensor and it also has wireless charging if you buy the right stand accessory (currently on sale for £19.99). The materials are also an upgrade on the previous Paperwhite model, which got gummed up and scratched on the rear casing horribly quickly. The new Signature Edition in metallic black (it’s also available in jade and raspberry) feels like it could take more of a beating if you don’t want to buy a case. I can hold the unit in one hand for long periods without getting achy, which isn’t always a given with e-readers, though most of the time this is a two hand device. Then again, so are most books.

It has up to 12 weeks of battery life, double the regular Kindle, and 32GB storage, double the Kindle and cheaper Paperwhite. That’ll hold thousands of books. Amazon also says the Paperwhite has 25 percent faster page turns than before, and though it’s not immediately noticeable in everyday use, it’s a very zippy device that never misses a beat.

The Kindle Colorsoft, which I reviewed in full here, is an odd one. It is practically the Paperwhite Signature Edition but with the ability to display colour. If you want an e-reader to read comic books or graphic novels, it’s the one to get. It’s also fun to see your book covers in your library in colour, and for this reason it makes shopping on the Kindle Store a better experience as it’s as close to in-store shopping as you’ll get, your eyes caught by lovely cover designs.

But for most people I don’t think the Colorsoft is worth the extra spend. As the case has been for several years, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition has the best balance of features for the price. If you are a voracious reader of books, the Colorsoft will display all the text of those tomes in black and white anyway, so you’re best off spending less and getting the Paperwhite, as it’ll be in this mode 99 percent of the time you’re using it, and you won’t benefit from the colour on offer.

The Colorsoft’s screen also has a very slight grain to it. That’s because the uni needs to have two different display layers in order to show colour, and the pixels on that layer are more visible to the eye. The Paperwhite only needs the monochrome layer, so the white space where there’s no text is clearer, making for a better contrast.

The Paperwhite also has a dark mode that inverts black and white so you can read white text on a black screen, something the Colorsoft curiously ships without for now. Though Amazon has indicated it’ll get dark mode in a software update, the Paperwhite is the more complete package right now.

For Black Friday, Amazon is already discounting the Paperwhite Signature Edition. Usually £189.99, it’s now £154.99. While I recommend this Kindle even at full price, that sale price is very hard to beat given the extra features on offer. It shows you no adverts on the lock screen, unlike the cheapest versions of the Kindle and regular Kindle Paperwhite, and with a bit of care the device should last you several years. The noticeably better screen is what you’re really paying for over the base Kindle, as well as the build quality, and if it’s a piece of tech you’ll use every day, I believe the extra spend is worth it.

Should you be on a tight budget and don’t think the Paperwhite Signature Edition’s extra features are worth the cost, Amazon has also discounted the new basic Kindle right down to £79.99 from £94.99. That’s a great price, though I recommend spending £10 extra to buy the model without ads. It’s annoying Amazon makes you pay for this, but it makes for a much more pleasant experience.