A Kindle is one of our most recommended products. It’s a gadget that gives you access to thousands of books in an instant, and isn’t meant anything but good old reading. They’re discounted during most deals holidays, including right now, as part of Black Friday deals. Our Kindle guide has more details if you aren’t sure which model to get. We’ve also rounded up the Best Ebook Readers overall (spoiler: the Paperwhite tops that list, too).
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The Paperwhites are the best of Kindle’s lineup, you just have to decide which one is for you between this model and the Signature Edition below. All are waterproof, with 6.8-inch screens that get brighter than past iterations and have adjustable warm lighting. This cheaper Paperwhite is available with 8 or 16 gigabytes of storage. This price was better during October’s Prime Day and has dropped further in the past.
We tested the Signature Edition Paperwhite (8/10, WIRED Recommends), which in addition to the specs above, gets brightness that auto-adjusts to your surroundings, wireless charging capabilities, and 32 gigabytes of storage. If storage is your only concern, 8 gigabytes holds something like 5,000 ebooks, depending on length. Audiobooks take up much more space, but you can always offload books without deleting them. This matches the price we saw during Amazon Prime Day, but is $10 more than last Black Friday.
The base Kindle is the cheapest one you can get, and it’s still a solid device if you don’t want to spend over $100. It’s also the smallest, with a 6-inch screen, but it upped its resolution from 197-pixels-per-inch (PPI) to 300 and doubled its storage from 8 gigabytes to 16. It doesn’t get as bright, and it lacks warm lighting and auto-adjusting light. It’s also not waterproof. Like the others, it was slightly cheaper in October at $75, but this is $5 less than it was last Black Friday.
With three other cheaper Kindles available, there isn’t a good excuse to spend this kind of money. This price is without lock screen ads, which we think is worth it if you’re going to splurge like this anyway. I love the physical page-turn buttons and that one side has larger bezels, so your fingers can rest comfortably without accidentally hitting the screen. The Oasis is waterproof, with auto-adjusting warm lighting, and is available with 8 or 32 gigabytes of storage. It’s $20 cheaper than it was during Prime Day, but we saw a much larger discount last Black Friday when it dropped to $165.
Last year, the Paperwhite Kids dropped to $105, and it was $110 during Prime Day this past October, so we’re hoping this deal improves. Your children don’t need kid-specific Kindles, but there are a few perks. You’ll get a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+, a kid-friendly content library with parental controls. Every kids’ Kindle comes with a case and a two-year no-questions-asked replacement guarantee, too. If your kid smashes it, it’ll be replaced. The Paperwhite Kids has 16 gigabytes of storage and is waterproof.
There is a kids’ version of the base Kindle, too. It’s cheaper and has the same 16-gigs of storage, Amazon Kids+ subscription, case, and guarantee as the Paperwhite Kids. However, it isn’t waterproof and there isn’t warm lighting. If you think your kid is prone to dropping it in the tub or spilling a drink on it, consider spending a little more for your sanity.
The Kindle Scribe (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is far too expensive and large for most of us, but if you want an ebook reader that doubles as a notebook, it works well. The 10.2-inch screen is a good size for taking notes, and has minimal lag while writing, making it feel natural to use. For $30 more the premium pen automatically triggers the eraser tool when you turn it around, so there’s less time spent switching between tools on-screen. The Scribe comes in 16-, 32-, and 64-gigabyte options, so you can fill up as many notebooks as needed. It’s not waterproof, which is an odd omission at this price, and you can’t write directly on most books—you still need to use the sticky note feature.
