When it comes to e-readers, Amazon’s lineup of Kindle devices leads in popularity due to their affordability and ease of use. However, Amazon’s Kindles have their flaws, particularly due to their closed ecosystem. To get the best experience in terms of customization, apps, and reading options on a Kindle, users often resort to jailbreaking it.
If you’re looking for an E Ink device similar to a Kindle, but that offers more freedom, there are a number of alternatives available, such as devices from Kobo and Boox. But now a new player has entered the scene, and it’s the first to do something no other E Ink device has done before.
Viwoods recently launched the Viwoods AiPaper Reader, which is the first E Ink device to ship with Android 16 right out of the box, Google’s latest Android update. This means it should be compatible with more apps from the Google Play Store than other E Ink devices that run on older versions of Android, and it should be supported with updates for a longer period.
The Viwoods AiPaper Reader features a black-and-white 6.13-inch Carta 1300 E Ink display with a resolution of 824 x 1648 pixels. Like the Kindle Paperwhite, it has a front-lit screen that makes reading easier at any time of day. The design of the AiPaper reader is more similar to an iPhone than a Kindle, with Viwoods saying it can be “effortlessly carried” and “slip into any pocket or bag.” The device weighs only 138g and is 6.7mm thick, making it quite slim and lightweight.
- Storage
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128GB
- Brand
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Viwoods
- Screen Size
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6.13-inch Carta 1300 E-Ink Display
- Processor
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6nm octa-core
The Viwoods AiPaper Reader is $280
It has a dedicated AI button, which supports ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or DeepSeek
The Viwoods AiPaper Reader is now available on Amazon and priced at $280, which is $120 more than the Kindle Paperwhite, which is regularly priced at $160. However, the AiPaper Reader does have notable specs under the hood that could make the price differential worthwhile to you, including a 6nm octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 2,580mAh battery, Wi-Fi 2.4G and 5G, and Bluetooth 5.1. It also supports data-only SIM cards, which allow you to get a 4G connection on the go.
It also supports a variety of document formats, including PDF, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, and EPUB3. It also supports four different image formats: PNG, JPG, BMP, and TIFF.
As the name suggests, it also supports AI models, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DeepSeek, and it has a physical AI button on the side you can use to summon one of these models to ask it questions.
The main underlying feature of the Viwoods AiPaper Reader is no doubt its support for Android 16. While there are other e-readers that run Android, none of them run Android 16 yet, so it should have the upper hand in terms of feature support and app compatibility. Viwoods notes that Android 16 gives its e-reader access to a “wide range of third-party reading apps and books.” However, it remains to be seen how well-optimized the device is for Android 16 and how the interface appears with a black-and-white E Ink display.
The AiPaper Reader isn’t the first E Ink device Viwoods has made. It is also a tablet lineup featuring two models, the Viwoods AiPaper and AiPaper Mini, both of which come with a stylus, making them more similar to the Kindle Scribe.
