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I need to determine which firmware update to download. The Amazon site is helpful if you know exactly which generation or model of Kindle you have. But they give no guidance as to how to determine which generation or model I own.

Is there some way on the hardware or within the software to determine which generation of Kindle Paperwhite I have?

Basil Bourque
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While impossible for me to find on my own, an external link brought me to this page by Amazon with hints as to how to identify which of the many Kindle models you may have:

From the blog post, How to Tell Kindle Paperwhite Generations Apart, I learned this:

  • The first Paperwhite has big “Kindle” logo on back, versus “Amazon” for the 2nd and 3rd Paperwhites.
  • The 2nd generation of Paperwhite has a light “Kindle” logo on front versus the 3rd generation that has a blacked-out “Kindle” logo on the front.

Generations

Flowchart

I distilled the information from the articles linked above into this flowchart.

Kindle Paperwhite flow chart

Kindle Paperwhite serial numbers

LWC
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Basil Bourque
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    Can be more clear if you can add screenshot of those logos. – Sadegh May 31 '16 at 09:41
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    The logos are physical part of case, hardware, not software on screen. – Basil Bourque May 31 '16 at 14:24
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    There is also Amazon's Identify your Kindle e-reader which surprisingly is more detailed than the already referenced Amazon link. For example, it includes serial number prefixes. However those aren't necessarily complete, e.g. looked up a 6th gen Kindle and its serial number didn't match any of the listed prefixes. – maxschlepzig May 06 '20 at 19:57
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    In settings you should be able to find the serial number of your device. Then you should be able to lookup the exact version here: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Serial_Numbers – Code42 Jan 23 '21 at 19:20
  • download links in your great answer are broken, ie second version updates are at https://www.amazon.com/update_Kindle_Paperwhite_6th_Gen per https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GKMQC26VQQMM8XSW – Alec Istomin May 05 '21 at 05:13