- 6 hours ago
In this video, Phil breaks down all the settings, tips, and tricks for Amazon’s Kindle lineup. He shows you how to get free books for Kindle, how to pair bluetooth headphones to Kindle, how to improve Kindle battery life, and even how to remove ads from Kindle. He also walks through which Kindle you should buy and how to get it set up so you can start reading!
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TechTranscript
00:02Hey guys, whether you just picked up a new Kindle or want to get the most out of the one
00:06you already
00:06own, I'm here to show you the essential settings, features to try, and hidden tricks that make
00:11reading on your Kindle e-reader smoother, cleaner, and more enjoyable. Welcome back to Setup Essentials.
00:17Let's get into the video. Amazon's current Kindle lineup has a couple of different options,
00:22but the features I'm going to be talking about today should work for pretty much every Kindle
00:26model. That said, if you're wondering which Kindle you should get, I'll break it down real quick.
00:31The most affordable option is the standard Amazon Kindle. It's lightweight, super portable,
00:37and perfect for casual reading with its 6-inch, 300 PPI display. PPI means pixels per inch, so a
00:44higher PPI means more pixels are packed into each inch of the screen, which results in a sharper,
00:50clearer text. Then there's the Kindle Paperwhite, probably the most popular option with a larger,
00:567-inch display, adjustable warm light, faster page turns, and better battery life, up to 12 weeks.
01:03This is pretty much the sweet spot for most people, and my personal favorite. If you want color,
01:09Amazon released the Kindle Color Soft last year, which takes all the great experiences you get with
01:14Kindle, but adds a beautiful color e-ink display. It's great for comics, graphic novels, magazines,
01:21kids books, and really anything where color matters. And at the top of the Kindle ladder
01:26is the Kindle Scribe, which has a much larger 10.2-inch screen and supports note-taking with a stylus.
01:33It's ideal for PDFs, textbooks, journaling, and anyone who wants an all-in-one reading and writing device.
01:39If you ask me, it's a different kind of device compared to the other Kindles,
01:43so let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a dedicated Kindle Scribe video.
01:47Some Kindles, like this Paperwhite and the Color Soft, have a signature edition. This gives you a few
01:54benefits that I think are worth it if you want the best experience from your Kindle. The storage bump
01:59from 16 to 32 gigabytes is welcome, but the highlight features are the auto-adjusting light
02:04and wireless charging support. The auto-adjusting light is great when you're moving from a bright to
02:09a darker environment, and the wireless charging support is also really convenient if you want a
02:15simple way to charge your Kindle while also making it act like a cool display piece. It's important
02:20to note that the wireless charger does not come with the signature edition, and you'll have to buy
02:24it separately. It's about $45 and was made in partnership with Anker. It's a really nice quality
02:30wireless charger, and it even works with Kindle cases. Either way, I'll drop links to all these
02:35Kindles in the description if you want to check them out. There are usually some good deals running
02:39on Amazon, too. On most of the listing pages to buy a Kindle, you might see Kindle Unlimited included
02:45or without lock screen ads. Sometimes, it can be cheaper to get one that has ads on the screen.
02:51But don't worry, you won't have ads while you read. They only appear when you power off the Kindle
02:56device. If you bought a Kindle with ads and want to get rid of them, it might actually be possible.
03:01I got this tip from a Reddit post, so success rate may vary, but I personally had success with this.
03:06When you buy a Kindle, choose the cheaper, ad-supported version, and after it is received,
03:12you can contact Amazon Support to have them remove the ads. It's a neat trick that lets you get the
03:17best
03:17of both worlds. Savings and zero ads. Let's talk about how to set up your Kindle. To turn on your
03:25Kindle,
03:25press the Power button on the bottom and choose your language. Connect to Wi-Fi, and of course,
03:32you'll need your Wi-Fi password. Sign in with your Amazon account or create a new one. Choose whether
03:38you want to sync your existing Kindle library. That's if someone on your Amazon account already
03:43has or had a Kindle with some books downloaded. Now, it's pretty much ready for you to use. Super
03:49simple. There are a few settings I would recommend checking out first to get the best experience with
03:55your Kindle. Go to settings. You can find it by swiping down from the top of the screen to open
04:00the quick settings bar, then tap the gear icon. In settings, select the count. There are various
04:08settings for Amazon family and parental controls that are worth looking into if you share an Amazon
04:13household or want to set this Kindle up for your child. Back in the settings menu, select Wi-Fi and
04:20Bluetooth to make sure you connect any headphones you'd like to connect for things like audiobooks.
04:25Turn on Bluetooth, select Bluetooth devices, and then put your headphones in pairing modes. They
04:31appear in the list. Tap your headphones name on the Kindle screen to connect, and now you're set up to
04:36listen to audiobooks. Next, we will go back to the settings menu and select device options. This will be
04:44a good place to do things like manage your storage and check for software updates. Software updates
04:51should automatically download and install on your Kindle when connected wirelessly, but you could
04:56still manually run a check if you're not sure whether you're up to date. There's also some really cool
05:02hidden features that you can enable for your Kindle. You can find these within device options. The double
05:08tap feature allows you to tap the side or back of your device to turn pages and books or scroll
05:15down
05:15in home and library. It's actually a pretty handy way to navigate your Kindle, but keep in mind that
05:21when you use this feature, you can only move the page forward, not backwards. There are also some
05:27features here that I would suggest adjusting if you want the absolute best battery out of your Kindle
05:33device. Although the Kindle battery is designed to last for weeks, so it's already a powerhouse in that
05:39regard. Keep this in mind when you tweak certain quality of life features as it may be worth just
05:45keeping those on. The sleep timer is a great place to start. This is where you can set how long
05:50your
05:50Kindle should wait before it turns off the screen automatically. Power saver is a feature you can turn on
05:57if you'd like to have the sleep mode also be a low power mode. This could make your Kindle
06:03boot up slower though when you turn it back on, so don't be worried if you notice that happens.
06:08Back to settings, go to screen and brightness. Here, you can choose things like auto brightness
06:15and reduce brightness at night to allow the device to choose how bright the screen can get.
06:21The brighter the screen, the more power it drains. Pretty standard. The Kindle has a few different
06:27gestures and swipe movements you'll want to be aware of. Within the main menu, swipe up, down, left,
06:34and right to navigate various pages and settings similar to a smartphone. You can access some quick
06:41settings by tapping or swiping down on the arrow icon at the top. Here, you can make quick changes to
06:48brightness, Bluetooth, or just go to settings. While you're reading a book, you can turn a page by either
06:56swiping across the screen as if you were turning a book page or tapping on the side of the page.
07:02If you turned on the tap features from earlier in the video, you can also double tap the Kindle to
07:08move the page forward. Swiping down from the top of the screen brings up the quick menu, whereas tapping
07:14the top of the screen allows you to bring up a reading menu where you can change things like font,
07:20add bookmarks, view annotations, or just back out to the main menu. If you want your Kindle home screen
07:27to look a little less chaotic, there are a couple settings you can change right now. Tap the settings
07:33icon on the left and you can actually choose what shows up, like downloaded items only or sorting by
07:39read versus unread. Super helpful if your library is starting to look like a digital junk drawer.
07:46Then, up in the top right, hit the little double arrow icon. That switches you between grid or list
07:53view and lets you sort by most recent, title, author, or whatever makes your brain happiest.
08:00Basically, two taps and your Kindle suddenly feels way more put together. So, how do you actually download
08:07books onto your Kindle? Well, good news. The Kindle store is built in, so it makes it really easy.
08:14First, go to the home screen. Then, tap the shopping cart icon on the top right. You have various
08:22categories to choose from and can purchase books right from the store. If you have an Amazon Prime
08:29membership, the Prime Reading category provides books free of charge. Just tap Prime Reading to see the
08:36various options and tap Download on the book that you'd like to read. Bought books download instantly
08:43over Wi-Fi. Kindle Unlimited is a monthly paid subscription that gives you access to books,
08:52audiobooks, and magazine subscriptions. It's currently $12 a month, but if you recently bought a Kindle,
08:58you may have been sent to free trial, so be sure to check if you do. You can sign up
09:03from Amazon.com,
09:05or just sign up directly from the Kindle store. There are a couple of different ways to get free
09:11books on Kindle, but I'll tell you about the best and most popular one. It's called Libby. All you need
09:18is a library card, so plug it into the Libby app, and suddenly you've got your whole library's digital
09:24catalog at your fingertips. From the app on your phone, you borrow a book, press send to your Kindle,
09:31and done. The only downside is you've got a loan window, so you might have to wait on some of
09:36the
09:36popular titles, but for free, it's totally worth it. When you're reading on your Kindle, you can do much
09:43more than just look at the text. For example, you can highlight parts of a book and take notes.
09:49Press and hold on a word or a sentence, then tap highlight or note. In some books, you'll even see
09:58lines that are more commonly highlighted by other Kindle users. If you're reading and are wondering
10:03what a word means, you can quickly find out. Press and hold on a word. Dictionary, Wikipedia,
10:10and translations appear instantly. How cool! If you want to bookmark on your Kindle, simply tap
10:17the top of your screen when you are on a page and tap bookmark. A mini submenu will appear where
10:23you
10:23can select the plus icon to confirm your bookmark. To view any bookmarks you've made, you can tap the
10:30bookmark icon on the top right of your bookmarked page and navigate the submenu to select the page you
10:36want to view. It even gives you a little preview of the page so you don't have to go back
10:40and forth
10:41if you choose the wrong page. Or if you're not on a bookmarked page, tap the top of the screen
10:46to open
10:47the reading menu and select the bookmark icon to view your bookmarks. If you notice your Kindle feeling
10:54slow or it's acting up a bit, you can try restarting it by first pressing and holding the power button
11:00for 10 seconds. Then tap restart. If you want to sell or wipe your Kindle, you can go to settings,
11:09then tap device options, and then tap reset. This will wipe everything and return the Kindle to its
11:17original setup. That's all for this episode of Setup Essentials. Hopefully this guide helps you get the
11:25most out of your Kindle device, but do let me know in the comments if you have any other questions
11:29about
11:29Kindle devices. Be sure to subscribe and hit that like button and until next time, my name is Phil
11:35Rodriguez. This is Tom's Guide and I'll see you in the next video.
12:02All right, I'm just being silly.
12:02I'll see you in the next video.
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