Amazon's newest base-model Kindles are drawing complaints from buyers who say light is escaping around the edges of the display. Users have taken to Reddit to report shadows along the screen border and, in some cases, visible strips of LED light. The problem is most noticeable when the e-readers are used in dark mode, according to those accounts.
The affected devices reportedly include both the plastic and aluminum versions and every color option. Some degree of glow at the edges can result from pairing a front-lit screen with a flush bezel, which is the design Amazon uses on these Kindles. Reddit users, however, say the images they have posted show something more pronounced than that ordinary effect, and they describe it as a defect.
According to Good e-Reader, Amazon knows about the complaints and has acknowledged that a manufacturing problem may have produced faulty units in the current batch of Kindles. The report did not specify how many devices are involved or which production runs are affected.
Amazon spokesperson Katie Condon addressed the reports in a statement to The Verge. She said that under certain, highly specific conditions, including using dark mode at higher brightness settings in a dark room, customers may notice a subtle glow on the edge of the display on devices that have colored bezels. She added that lowering the front light can reduce the effect.
The complaints center on the base-model Kindles, which feature a flush bezel intended to give the e-reader a cleaner, more modern look. That design choice is also what can make edge lighting more apparent when the surrounding room is dark and the screen brightness is turned up.
For US consumers, the reports are a quality-control concern rather than a safety one, based on the accounts and Amazon's response. Buyers who notice the glow are describing it as a cosmetic flaw that shows up in a common reading situation: a dark room with the front light raised. Amazon's guidance points to reducing the light level as a workaround, while the company's acknowledgment of a possible manufacturing issue suggests the batch itself may be at fault.
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