During prime day, these go on sale so I got this model, the cheapest and most basic one, just to try it out. I'll say that the kindle subscription is actually fairly nice, and when setting up the kindle, take advantage of the free trial (whether or not you choose to continue it, it's nice to have for free). My trial is 3 months long, but I believe this varies depending on the current deals. I also got a month free for audible with two book credits, even though I'm not a new member to audible. I thought this was really cool, and all these free trials/books nearly offset the cost of the kindle.
So far I love this kindle. It's REALLY lightweight, which I appreciate. It's responsive. When the kindle is in sleep mode, you can choose to have the book you're currently reading as the sleep mode Lock Screen, which is a thoughtful touch and makes it feel more book-like.
The screen is truly anti-glare. I live in Alaska and it's summer so the sun is about 10ft away from me around 4pm. And still no glare. The anti-glare screen also does have a nice feel, reminiscent of paper.
Turning the kindle on takes no more than a few seconds. It's not instant like most devices now, but it's by no means slow.
Also while reading you can look up words, which is a nice feature to have while reading more difficult texts and expanding your vocabulary.
Lastly a pro that has to be mentioned is that you can borrow library ebooks/audiobooks from the app libby, and send them to your kindle. These books are free and will return on their own once your reservation period is up. There's wait times for some so leave notifications on so you don't miss the books you've waited months for.
All of this is in other reviews so I'll skip to the downsides of this basic model.
1) there's no dark mode. I didn't even think about this not being a feature when I ordered. I wrongfully assumed that by now, all new devices would have dark mode. But this device does not. There will only be white page with black text. I've read about dark mode with e-readers and overall even devices with the dark mode feature leave the user wanting more. I guess the anti-glare screen technology makes it difficult to also have a crisp/clear dark mode? But I'm no expert, this is just what I've seen in my research.
Now although there's no dark mode, I do find that I can read this at night in bed in the dark. The brightness levels can be turned down so low that it's not straining on the eyes. The lower brightness settings also seem to have a warmer tone to the white background which is helpful when reading at night also.
2) if you do anything but read, the navigation is fairly slow and not intuitive. this device is great as an e-reader, that's what it was built for is to only load a page once in a while. loading web graphics quickly? not so much. the video I've attached shows a reference of the navigation while reading & turning pages.
TL;DR this is a very simple e-reader but has all the things to make it a great one.