On the bottom of the Kindle Paperwhite is a micro-USB port for the charging cable. The cable has a micro-USB plug on one end and a standard USB plug on the other. Insert the micro-USB plug into the Kindle and the standard USB plug into your computer or into a plug adapter, which is then plugged into an electrical wall socket.
The Kindle Paperwhite doesn’t ship with a plug adapter. If you want to use a plug adapter, you must purchase one or use a compatible plug adapter, such as the one that comes with the Kindle 2, Kindle Keyboard, or iPhone. In addition, the charger that comes with the Kindle Fire also works with the Kindle Paperwhite.
When the Kindle Paperwhite is plugged into a power source and charging, the charge indicator light (located next to the power button) glows amber. When the device is fully charged, the light turns green.
The first time you charge your Kindle Paperwhite, the process will take about four hours. After that, charging through the USB cable and a computer takes about three hours and charging through the plug adapter takes one to two hours.
The battery charge meter is in the upper-right corner of the Home screen. It’s a good idea to recharge the battery when it has about a quarter of a charge remaining. You don’t need to top off the battery on a daily or weekly basis.
You can read and use your Kindle Paperwhite while it charges. When the Kindle Paperwhite is plugged into an electrical socket, the display doesn’t change and you can keep reading. However, when the device is plugged into the USB port on a computer, you see the following message:
If you want to read or shop on your Kindle while continuing to charge over USB, please keep the USB cable attached, but eject your Kindle from your computer.
If you want to read on your Kindle Paperwhite while it’s connected to your computer, leave it physically connected (or plugged in) to the USB port but "eject" the device through the operating system. To "eject" your Kindle Paperwhite:
In Windows 8: When you connect the Kindle Paperwhite to your computer, a menu showing the Paperwhite as an external drive appears. Right-click the Paperwhite drive icon and choose Eject from the menu that appears. A notification that it is safe to remove the Paperwhite from the computer appears on your computer screen; ignore this message. Your Kindle Paperwhite will blink and display the last screen viewed.
In Windows 7, Vista, and XP: Either left- or right-click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the lower-right corner of the taskbar and choose Eject Amazon Kindle. The screen blinks and returns to whatever was open previously.
In Mac OS X: Press Command-E. You can also drag the Kindle icon from the desktop to the trash can, or choose File→Eject.