“This kindle is brilliant, and a good size an very light in weight.”
Amazon has knocked £20 off the newest Kindle model, and shoppers are wasting no time in snapping it up. The basic Kindle would usually cost £94.99 but has dropped down to £74.99 in a limited-time deal.
At the moment, it’s currently better than half price than the next model up, the Kindle Paperwhite, which is £159.99. The main difference that sets the two aside is that the Kindle has a 6″ glare-free screen, while the Paperwhite’s is one inch bigger, and only the Paperwhite offers adjustment to how warm the screen light is.
Both devices have 300ppi resolution, 16GB of storage and at least six weeks of battery life. The Kindle comes in black or matcha green and is the most affordable e-reader available from Amazon.
The most obvious alternative to the Kindle is Kobo’s Clara model. There are two Clara readers currently on the market, a black and white version, which is reduced to £109.99 at Amazon or the Clara Colour, which is £149.99. This is cheaper than Amazon’s take on a coloured ereader, the Kindle Colorsoft, which is now £189 down from £239.99.
In the UK, Kobo is compatible with Libby while Kindle isn’t, which we would say is Kindle’s biggest setback. Libby allows readers to access audiobooks and ebooks for free from their local library, and with Kobo devices, shoppers can read them right there. It is worth keeping in mind that any highlights are lost when the book is returned to the library unless the book is purchased.
Kindle
£94.99
£74.99
Amazon
Buy Now on Amazon
This latest model has dropped in price
Amazon does have two extensive libraries available for Kindle readers. There’s the Prime library, which includes an impressive number of popular books that readers might have seen online and Amazon Short Stories that can’t be found anywhere else.
There’s also the Kindle Unlimited library, which seems to include every single popular book on BookTok, although access to this costs £9.49 a month after a 30-day free trial. This can be worth keeping in mind for those who don’t read more than two books a month.
A quick glance through the Kindle Unlimited library revealed a number of 99p books (Do Not Disturb by Frieda McFadden, Ask for Andrea by Noelle W. Ihli and When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker) and £1 books (Ever After by Amanda Prowse) that can be snapped up for less than the cost of the monthly subscription. The 99p offer also regularly applies to books not included in the Kindle Unlimited library, a great way to bulk out a Kindle library.
The classic Kindle is a tried and tested device that thousands of shoppers love. It’s pulled in an average of 4.6 out of 5 from across 5,926 global ratings. One reviewer said: “This kindle is brilliant, and a good size and very light in weight. Would highly recommend. I find a Kindle easier for reading as you can change font size and have a backlight.”
Another shopper said it was a great travel companion. They said: “Lovely little dinky thing. Small but very convenient for travelling. It works like any other Kindle.
“I got the Matcha colour for a change. Very happy with it. Battery life – you’d have to read only a little a day for it to last ‘months’. It arrived with 56% battery, but in 2 days, I’ve got it down to 17%. Easy to set up, most is already done on arrival if you already have a Kindle account. It comes with a charging cable. Very light to hold and the screen is of a reasonable size to negotiate. Really like it.
Their main qualm was that it could be difficult to find the right case if one wasn’t aware of the model they owned, they continued: “Only comment is that there are far too many different sizes available and I find getting the correct case a bit of a nightmare. I am writing down the model, year and serial number elsewhere as you cannot read the back of it. But that doesn’t detract from it’s convenience.”
