Amazon has announced that the Kindle Paperwhite - its first e-reader with a built-in front light - will be available in the UK.
The Paperwhite has 62% more pixels than previous models, making text look sharper and more 'book-like' than ever.
The news comes in the wake of rival bookseller Barnes and Noble's announcement that it is to bring its Nook Glowlight Touch reader to the UK.
Both readers have a soft light built for reading in bed - allowing users to read in the dark without the eyestrain caused by 'backlit' screens such as iPad.
Amazon has also announced a 'lending library' for Kindle owners in the UK - allowing users of the hit e-reader to download one book per month free.
There is a selection of 200,000 books available from the 'library'.
The new model will go on sale on October 25th, priced from £109. It's also accompanied by a colour tablet device, the Kindle HD, which also offers music and video.
Barnes and Noble's rival Nook readers and tablets also go on sale this month.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shows off the Kindle Paperwhite last month (Reuters)In the U.S., the Paperwhite has been extremely well-reviewed - beating Barnes and Noble's latest generation of Nook devices.
Tech site TechCrunch said, 'The Kindle paperwhite is a reader's dream. I'm very impressed with the simplicity of this device.'
“The response to Kindle Paperwhite has been fantastic and we’re excited to bring our most advanced e-reader ever to the UK,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO.
“This is the Kindle we have always wanted to build. It is perfect for reading in bed and on the beach, even thinner, with 8 weeks of battery life. We know that readers in the UK love reading on Kindle and we think they are going to love Kindle Paperwhite.”
Hands-on: Kindle Paperwhite vs Nook Touch
Amazon has really excelled itself with the Kindle Paperwhite. It's simple, gorgeous, and one look at the screen tells you that no other e-reader will do.
Barnes and Noble's Glowlight Touch beat Amazon to the punch with its row of LED lights to help reading in the dark, but their device looks dowdy compared to Paperwhite.
The screen on paperwhite is incredibly sharp, and easy to read in any lighting conditions - but without the strain of reading a backlit device such as iPad.
Flipping pages is done by touch, and it's amazingly responsive.
Adding a huge amount of pixels might seem pointless, but it makes text look even more like the printed page - and book covers in the Amazon store look razor-sharp.
As far as black-and-white tablets go, this is pretty much unbeatable - and seems well worth the extra over cheaper rivals such as Kobo.
