Looking back at 2023, it was one of the worst years in the past decade for new dedicated reading devices. Very few new devices were released this year, and most new models that did come out were just basically re-releases of existing models with a few minor changes.
Amazon didn’t release a single new Kindle model in 2023—that’s only the second time that has happened in the history of Kindles. And now it looks like the Kindle Oasis is being phased out so we’re losing another model without gaining anything new so things are even worse than before.
It was a down year for Kobo as well. The only new model they released in 2023 was the Kobo Elipsa 2E, and it was almost exactly the same as the first gen model; the only notable difference was the addition of a warm frontlight.
Unfortunately 2022 wasn’t much better for Kobo either. The only new model they released last year was the Kobo Clara 2E. They gave it a few minor upgrades and reused the same design from the previous model from 4 years earlier. New ideas seem to be in short supply at Kobo.
Onyx released about a dozen “new” devices like they do every year, but most are just slightly tweaked versions of existing models, and at least two have already been discontinued (typical Onyx, flightier than a flock of pigeons). They just released the Note Air3 and it’s hardly any different than the original Note Air from 2020.
There was one new device from Onyx this year that wasn’t based off an existing model, the phone-shaped Boox Palma with a 6.13″ E Ink screen, and it has some potential as a highly-portable and pocketable ereader, but it costs nearly as much as the 10.2″ Kindle Scribe. I’m hoping they’ll release a less expensive Lite version in 2024.
One bright spot in 2023, we saw the release of a few color E Ink devices that use the newer Kaleido 3 screens from E Ink. There’s the PocketBook InkPad Color 3 and the Tab Ultra C from Onyx, along with the Note Air3 C. Color E Ink still doesn’t look as good as black and white E Ink when it comes to displaying regular text, but the resolution has improved and so has the color quality.
PocketBook released a bunch of new ereaders in 2023 so it wasn’t a down year across the board for all ereader companies. PocketBook mostly just re-released their existing products with new designs and a few token upgrades like USB-C ports, but at least they made some improvements and continued to evolve their brand.
Barnes and Noble released a new 7.8″ Nook GlowLight 4 Plus, but not very many people seem to care about Nooks anymore. If Amazon released the same exact thing as a Kindle it would be a huge success, but Amazon seems to care about as much for new Kindles as people care about Nooks these days.
Hopefully we’ll see more new ereaders getting released in 2024, and hopefully some of these ereader companies will actually release something new that isn’t just a rehash of existing products.
I want a new Unicorn, a Kobo Sage with the 8″ screen and buttons, and a feature that I can connect it to my computer by cable and drag/drop my Kindle books into it and have them work without having to know how to use any outside software etc.
Remember how this time last year all the news outlets was saying Gallery 3 screens are the future and in the end only Bigme came out with the Galy. It had horrible battery life and slow refresh rates. Every other company that was reported last year to be working on a Gallery 3 ereader ended up not making one.
I think 2023 was the year of large(sometimes) format e notes and company’s coming out with colour displays. Those were the “it” things so e readers fell by the wayside. Once the newness wears off there is still room for new pure e readers even if they’re rehashed ideas or upspec devices. A new Kobo mini would be nice to have as small pocketable e readers are near non existent (I don’t count e ink “phones” as e readers). Kindle kept the current form Oasis far too long and charged a premium price for things the Paperwhite had as well (other than buttons) but for less, so it was time for Oasis to go. Onyx it seems gets a bunch of good ideas and decides to pursue each one regardless of how much the ideas overlap eachother. And they do that every few months. Your new Onyx device will probably have a better version in months.
I strongly disagree with your comments about Oasis. No only does it have buttons, but it is lightly and feels much better in the hand. It shouldn’t be discontinued; it should be updated where it would again become the best Kindle.
Oasis vs Paperwhite:
– easier to hold and lighter feeling
– premium metal design
– page-turn buttons
– ability tu turn-off touch (so you can easily wipe screen anytime you want and drops of water don’t make your reader go rogue)
– more LEDs lights
– much nicer leather cases
Overall it felt premium and Paperwhite isn’t anywhere near the quality of Oasis.
On a positive note, at least there wasn’t any FOMO issues. (Fear of missing out…) Although I did try the Scribe for a day but didn’t care for it. Hand surgery and arthritis issues make it hard to hold heavier things plus I have an iPad and a few e-ink readers.
(Even the newer iPhones don’t interest me. I’m still plugging along with my SE 2… and got a new battery installed last year before the price increase, so it should last a little longer.)
Lou Sevens here= happy holidays everyone. I think the fact it wasn’t groundbreaking was that Amazon in my opinion hit a home run with the Scribe and the last Paperwhite was really good as it got the screen around 7 inches.
I agree about the Oasis feeling premium- however the battery life on it was never great but I loved the click of the buttons for page turning.
My hope would be a paperwhite with buttons and for the next scribe to be color.
Yes please on buttons! I’d take them on the Paperwhite—wish Amazon would bring back a smaller ereader with buttons. At this rate as a woman with small hands I’m going to have to buy the original Kindle once my OG Oasis dies as the current Oasis is way too big
I have been doing some cleaning up and clearing out. I found my Sony PRS-600. I haven’t seen it in ages. Remember back in those days we were all so excited for the new models of eReaders to come out? And there was something to get excited about. New features, faster processors, better screens, wifi and waterproofing. New models were being released so frequently you were almost afraid to buy something as something much better might be out in a few weeks.
I do remember that I always found the screen of the PRS-600 to be a bit lighter than I liked but, the build quality! I wish that Sony hadn’t gotten out of the market but I understand why they did.
I forgot that you couldn’t use a charging brick with this one and thought that the battery was too dead to charge. It’s plugged into my laptop now. Hopefully I didn’t cause any damage. I might order an aftermarket battery from Amazon out of curiosity. They’re still available.
People can’t put their phones down long enough to read a book.anymore. Sadly, we are probably going to have to wait for years between releases from now on.