With the first Amazon Kindle Paperwhite eReaders shipping today, reviews of the the online-retailer's new product are just beginning to pour in from across the Internet. The verdict? The king of eReaders is still the king.

Amazon's line of Kindle eReaders have arguably been the gold-standard in the market since their release and it seems we can safely anoint Paperwhite as the successor to that proud legacy.

The first Kindle with a front lit display or built-in light, Paper is touted as perfect for reading anywhere, anytime. Since being unveiled Sept. 6, Amazon's new device has received almost unanimously glowing reviews. People seem to universally love the new screen, battery life, and reading apps like "time to Read." split on physical buttons

The Kindle Paperwhite costs $119 for the WiFi version and begins shipping today. It costs $179 with 3G connectivity.

Read along below for a cross-section of some early reviews of Amazon's new Kindle Paperwhite eReader.

Time:
Good
"Still based on E Ink, and still measuring 6″ diagonally, it improves the resolution and contrast and adds illumination, aiming for the most paper-like reading experience of any e-reader yet.

When it comes to content, Amazon seems to have the edge overall. It says it has 180,000 exclusive titles, and it lets members of its $79-a-year Amazon Prime service check out one book a month from a library of 180,000 tomes at no additional charge.

Amazon decisively wins this round, thanks to its remarkable new screen. It's also the best product that Amazon has sold under the Kindle moniker."

Bad
... Eliminates some capabilities of the Kindle Touch: It's ditched its speakers and headphone jack, which means that it can't play digital music and Audible audiobooks or use text-to-speech technology to narrate books.

USA Today:
Good
"The front-lit technology inside the new Kindle does a splendid job of distributing that light uniformly across the 6-inch screen. You're certainly aware of the light but hardly distracted by it.

Bookaholics will appreciate just how nice the high-resolution 6-inch grey-scale screen is. Fonts are especially sharp and crisp.

I especially appreciate the new Time to Read feature. If you're lying in bed wondering if you have enough stamina to finish a chapter or the entire book, the Kindle can help you make that determination. By detecting your reading speed, it can display how much time is left in the chapter and/or how much time in the book.

Another helpful feature is called X-Ray, a boon for folks who read lengthy books with numerous characters, fictional or historical. By summoning X-Ray, you can easily find and jump to passages in the book where the character is mentioned. In some cases you can get more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia or Amazon's owned community-powered encyclopedia, called Shelfari.

Bad
Though you can charge the Paperwhite with the supplied USB cable by hooking it up to a computer, an actual AC power plug is a $10 accessory. Some people may prefer buttons to touch-screen, more expensive than models without light."

Slash Gear:
Good
"Personally, we are big fans of the changes to the hardware. The home button wasn't exactly needed with such a simple user interface, and the improved soft-touch black matte backing certainly is nice. Although the concave back on the NOOK is still something we favor. Overall impressions on the hardware are excellent. Build quality feels top notch, and screen durability seems improved over its predecessor too.

What makes the new Paperwhite that much better than the Touch is not just the built-in light on the screen, but the 6-inch display has 62 percent more pixels (221PPI) with a 1024 x 768 resolution too. The screen looks better, text is crisp, vivid, and easy to read, and of course the light makes the reading experience top notch.

The Paperwhite uses Amazon's new patented light guide technology that actually guides the light across the screen and down, away from the eyes. Using only 4 LED's you'll get awesome options with lighting without suffering in the battery life department.

The Paperwhite screen is 25 percent better in terms of contrast for sharper and dark text. Add the better contrast to a crisp screen, then toss in the Paperwhite lighting technology this reader is excellent during daily use as always, but also great in low-light conditions.

In use, it's certainly better that using an actual tablet for extended reading periods, and since this is still e-ink you won't be lighting up the entire room if you're reading in bed. This is the best for both worlds if you ask us.

Reading is simply awesome and we've loved our limited time with the new Paperwhite

For those that want the best possible reading experience across the board the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is certainly worth your dollar"

Bad
Scant if any major issues as far as they're concerned -- Slash Gear loves the device.

CNN:
Good
"The light-up screen on the new Kindle surpasses the one on the Nook because it solves most (but not all) of the light uniformity issues evident on the earlier device..

The physical execution of the Paperwhite puts it ahead of the competition. It's light, eminently pocketable, and presents the best electronic reading experience. It keeps its crown as king of the e-readers. It has the better software features, the stellar screen, and the unstoppable ecosystem.
Nobody can compete with the online retailer's services, or the breadth of its [book] catalog.

Loved the Time to Read app: More impressive is the e-reader's ability to learn your reading speed and give you information on how long it will take you to finish a chapter, or the entire book.

In the great e-reader saga, it's clearly the one worth rooting for."

Bad
"One thing I would've liked to have seen on the Paperwhite: physical page-turn buttons. Touchscreens are great and all, but when you end up losing your place in a book, all the touchy-swipey technology in the world can't sway my belief that sometimes, a physical button is better.

Like the Nook, the light source creates a problem: blossoms of LED light appear at the bottom of the screen. It's fainter than the light-source bleed found on the Nook, but it's still there. It's only annoying at the bottom of the screen, but it breaks up the flow of an otherwise flawless screen. Fortunately, the attention Amazon has paid to the rest of the screen makes up for these lighting hiccups."