Now that Amazon has started taking pre-orders for the new 6.8-inch Kindle Paperwhite, the previous generation Kindle Paperwhite is on sale to clear out remaining stock.
If you don’t care about the added features on the new Kindle Paperwhite, (larger screen, warm frontlight, longer battery life) you can get the Paperwhite 4 for nearly half the price of the new model.
Since they are still updating the software on older Kindles, there appears to be no difference on the software side of things so functionally the previous Paperwhite is the same software-wise, although Amazon claims the new model can turn pages 20% faster.
Amazon recently put out a notice that Kindles will continue to get security updates for 4 years after they stop selling a particular model on their website, so the Paperwhite 4 should still get updates through most of 2025.
Unfortunately they don’t have any of the Paperwhite 4 accessories on sale but maybe they’ll start marking down some covers soon as well. They do have the bundle packages on sale.
Update: Woot also has some refurbished Kindles available again for cheap.
Kindle Paperwhite 4 Clearance Sale
Kindle Paperwhite 4 – $79.99 ($50 off) 8GB model
Kindle Paperwhite 4 – $94.99 ($65 off) 32GB model
Kindle Paperwhite Essentials Bundle – $119.97 ($60 off)
Kindle Paperwhite Hunger Games Bundle – $119.97 ($60 off)
I know a lot of people don’t like this version of the paperwhite but it did me very well as my stepping stone into eink, especially as at the time most of my books were from US libraries and kindles.
Now that I’ve moved, my needs have slightly changed where I prefer a combination of android and pocketbook for my needs. I never found the PW4 unclear as others have indicated, and is a very sturdy device (taken falls, dunks in soapy bathwater, as well as being manhandled by my 4 y/o nephew, and flung around while in my bag). I still keep it around to take out and about with me. I think it’s an excellent option for a 6” device especially for those who have a KU subscription or are subscribed to US libraries.
As a side note, definitely more reliable than Kobo these days on this matter (which has greatly disappointed me); we have a couple of kobos at home as well but since the last update I’m able to log into my overdrive account but can’t sync any borrowed books which are available in their catalogue (despite saying sync is complete)- something Kobo support has handled terribly just saying to connect to a computer and transfer via ADE. A highly advertised feature which was the reason for purchase doesn’t work. They haven’t allowed for a return of the devices nor have they been able to resolve the issue. Indeed they claimed they’d add credit onto our account but never did.