This Expensive New Accessory Adds a Feature to Your Kindle That Was Previously Standard.
It’s been 14 years since Amazon released the non-touchscreen Kindle e-reader, and while I certainly don’t miss the days of slowly scrolling through my e-book library using the arrow keys on the Kindle keyboard, the transition to touch navigation has had one unfortunate consequence, at least for a small group of readers: the disappearance of physical page-turning buttons. While once standard on all Kindles, they eventually became a premium feature available only on the expensive Kindle Oasis, and were eventually dropped from the lineup altogether when that model was discontinued in 2024.
While Amazon’s fall update to the Kindle lineup brought improvements like a metal body and a flat-front design, it didn’t bring back physical buttons. Instead, the company did release a new accessory that Kevin Keith, Amazon’s vice president of Kindle, says is designed to capture roughly 5% of the market by turning your new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition into a true Kindle oasis: the Kindle Page-Turn Cover .
The Page-Turn Cover has buttons built into the case itself.
Launched alongside the new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition with a recessed front cover, the Page-Turn Cover is crafted from vegan leather (available in three colors to match your Kindle—graphite, fig, or green). It features a magnetic front closure, a soft interior lining, and a slightly textured plastic frame on the right side, which houses two thin, elongated buttons. When you insert your compatible Kindle into the cover, connecting magnetically and via built-in contact pins, it automatically pairs with your device, allowing you to turn pages with the press of a button instead of tapping.
By default, the top button advances pages one at a time, and the bottom button advances pages one at a time, though you can change the button assignment in the device settings. While some Boox and Barnes & Noble Nook devices feature physical buttons that allow you to assign various functions—such as skipping an entire chapter or quickly flipping through a book—to a long press or double-tap, at the time of writing, the Page-Turn Cover only allows you to turn one page at a time. The buttons also only work for page turning; you’ll still navigate your library and device menus using the touchscreen.
If you’re left-handed or prefer to alternate which hand you hold your e-reader with, you can change the orientation by disabling the rotation lock feature on your device. When you flip it over to hold it in your other hand, the text will automatically change orientation, and the buttons will continue to function according to your current settings.
The page-turning cover makes using your Kindle even faster.
You might think that turning pages with an accessory would slow down the device, but in my tests, the Page-Turn Cover seemed to turn pages faster than tapping the touchscreen. While new Kindles are quite fast, there’s still a noticeable delay between tapping the screen and the page advance. This doesn’t happen with the Page-Turn Cover; while the first page turn after inserting it is slightly delayed, after that it’s almost instantaneous. I don’t think this will be a dealbreaker for anyone—the difference is only a fraction of a second—but it’s worth noting.
Physical buttons are expensive.
While this is a clever move by Amazon to satisfy physical button lovers without radically redesigning the entire device line, it comes at a price for the reader—literally: the Page-Turn Cover costs around $80 and is only compatible with the $250 Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition or the $320 Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition —the only models with the metal back, contact pads, and accelerometer required for the cover to work.
In short, this means that if you want a Kindle with physical buttons, you’ll have to shell out at least $330, or $80 more than the third-generation Kindle Oasis cost when it launched in 2019. (By the way, the similarly named Boox Go 7 , one of my favorites among the best non-Kindle e-readers , can be had for around $270.)
Why are physical buttons important on an e-reader?
While most people probably don’t think twice about touching the screen to turn a page, some people simply prefer the feel of tactile buttons, or prefer not to worry about accidentally skipping a chapter or two by holding the device incorrectly.
If you’ve been living without them up until now, you probably won’t miss them, but if you’re an old-school e-reader (or just someone who really values tactile feedback), they’ll definitely be a nice bonus. Is the extra $80 worth it? That depends on the specific device model.