One thing about Kindle ereaders that’s kind of unique (and strange) is the fact that newer models don’t offer very many upgrades if you’re coming from an older model, even going back as much as 10 years.
When it comes to other types of electronic gadgets, most companies are trying to get people to upgrade to a newer model every year or two. Some people opt to skip a few upgrade cycles, but after several years there’s usually a pretty good reason to upgrade to a new model for one reason or another.
That’s not the case with Kindles.
I’m still using a Kindle Voyage that was released back in 2014, and I could make a good argument that it’s an upgrade over any current Kindle model that Amazon offers.
The Kindle Oasis is another model that could easily be considered an upgrade over the current crop of Kindles, and not just the most recent version but going back to the 1st Kindle Oasis model as well.
Isn’t that weird? Imagine buying a Kindle 5, 7, even 10 years ago, and you decide you want to “upgrade” to a newer model, but you find out the current Kindle offerings really aren’t much of an upgrade at all.
The Kindle Paperwhite does offer a few new features that older Kindles lack, like dark mode and the option to control the tone of the frontlight, but the build quality, the plastic front layer, the lack of page buttons are all downgrades compared to the Kindle Voyage and Kindle Oasis.
The Kindle Scribe is the one current model that you could argue is an upgrade over most older models, but the fact that it’s so much larger than regular 6″ and 7″ Kindles kind of sets it apart into its own separate category. A lot of people simply aren’t interested in reading ebooks on such a large device.
Amazon tends to release new Kindles in the later part of year, but last year they didn’t release any new Kindles at all, and the current Kindle Paperwhite will turn 3 years old soon. Hopefully they’ll release a new Kindle or two later this year that gives people some good reasons to consider upgrading.
Not offering adequate upgrades from older models is such an unusual thing for a company like Amazon to do. You’d think they’d be doing everything they could to get people to buy more Kindles from them.
Seems strange that a company that dominates content sales would produce so few innovations on devices. I suppose there may be an “all new Kindle Oasis with all new color e-paper ” with the same old body this fall. Bizarre that a company as monopolistic as Amazon is so anemic in this small corner of their empire.
I actually want to try a large color device(9 or 10″). Odds are Kobo does this before Amazon.
Now that Kindle app for Anna’s text to speech, I don’t see much need in getting a new Kindle in the near future. I have purchased a refurbished Kindle PW11 and a refurbished basic Kindle 11. But now that the Kindle app has text to speech I seldom use them. I also have a Fire HD8 that I have basically retired now due to the app text to speech. .
The irresistable conclusion is that e-readers are slowly going the way of the dumbphone. They’re another single-purpose device doomed by the uqiquity of the smartphone/tablet (see also digital cameras, GPS PNDs, etc). The arguments for a Kindle versus the Kindle app on another device are obvious to those of us who prefer e-ink displays, but we’re not a growing market segment, quite the opposite. We may well have seen the last generation of Kindles. The glacial pace of development (indeed the atrophy of the line since the Voyage) does nothing to suggest otherwise.
I totally agree. I think one of the only reasons that I would upgrade would be if they added buttons or even the haptic buttons that the Voyage had. That being said, I bought a refurbished Oasis last year that surprisingly is perfect with the lighting and display. (I’m one of “those” people who needs the lighting to be even, etc. I’ve exchanged sooo many Voyages, Paperwhites, and Oasis devices that were purchased new.) Both of my Signature Paperwhites were also perfect upon arrival – with the exception of not having page turn buttons. 😉
I don’t see a “need” to upgrade my Kindles. Realistically, I didn’t have a need to upgrade when I got the Signatures either, although I was intrigued with the wireless charging.
I tried the Scribe but I sent it back. I tried to justify it, but then decided that my iPad could tick all those boxes too and the pictures would be in color plus I can vertically scroll while reading. (I’m still very thankful that when I was in college, we still used text books and notebooks… but I did go to the first college that provided Thinkpad laptops to all of their students.)
This discussion about new kindles IMHO misses the point. .It’s like the story of the Gillette raazo. They will almost give them away so long as you buy the blades. With the kindle, it is all about buying the books
Came here to say this! It makes sense for other ereader companies to upgrade their devices, but since Amazon has such a stranglehold I think it’d make sense for them to sell the Kindle once and then encourage people to keep buying ebooks for it.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were selling Kindles for a loss just to capture the audience (not saying they actually are, but it would make sense for them to do it…and that’d be all the more reason not to try to sell more to existing Kindle owners).
I don’t see this as a problem or anything new. It was always like this with Kindle. People just tend to use readers for many years. Amazon 100% has zero problem with it as they only care about book sales. I doubt that there are any significant profits on Kindle devices. But yeah, some things really feel like downgrades. If my Kindle 3 keyboard had (warm) frontlight, it would be a perfect ereader. It didn’t have flushed screen, it had matte finish (no fingerprints), battery life was incredible and it had page turn buttons on both sides which were much nicer than buttons on any other ereader I ever used. Nowadays Kindle Paperwhite is on the other hand one of the worst devices I ever tried.
If ereaders would disappear because people are using apps on other devices, then I still hope the eink technology survives.
I don’t know if they will ever be able to make it as fast as an LCD screen, but imagine that, that would be fantastic: a screen that only refreshes when necessary, but can refresh as fast as needed, that has the same number of vivid colours as a traditional LCD screen, is easy on the eyes and can be used outdoors.
If they ever make such a screen then it would be the holy grail of screen technology.
My last Kindle upgrade was from Voyage to the Kindle Oasis 2 (2017). Both screens comparable for sharpness & contrast, however, the Oasis 2 did not have the same unpleasant super cold tone that the Voyage did, plus it had a larger screen. So the Oasis was more pleasant to read on, day or night.
But because of that, I didn’t see a strong need to upgrade to the Oasis 3 two years later *just* to get a warm front light. I have had that on my Kobos since 2016, and I read more on my Kobos than on my Kindle, so it wasn’t worth the cost for a reader that serves primarily as easy access to Kindle freebies and as a testing device.
As long as my Kindle Oasis 2 keeps going, I see no reason at all to buy another Kindle. And it’s going strong. By the way, though my Kindle Oasis 2 is old enough for Amazon to have dropped firmware support for it, it DOES have dark mode.
I don’t really have a huge problem if manufacturers don’t upgrade every two years or even every three to four years. The basic purpose of the reader is still being accomplished, and the e-ink tech is just not changing that rapidly.
I suppose for Kindle, they could bring back a premium device, but that seems unlikely, since it’s been what, five years since Oasis 3 came out?
I still use my 14-year-old iRiver StoryHD. The only reason I eventually bought an InkPad 3 Pro was for the front light.
SD card side loading and page turn buttons are essential features for me. If Kindle makes a great color version with easy access to graphic novels maybe that will be my third ereader. If not, I’m pretty content and therein lies the problem. Neither of my ereaders backgrounds are as white as the paperwhite, and the text isn’t as black but they’re good enough. I’ve got old paperbacks with worse contrast.
I mean, what all do you need an eReader to do? I think Kindles, for the most part, are not intended to be used and thrown away every 2-3 years. The devices are fairly tough, and they do one thing well: display books.
Now, the scribe was the last interesting kindle to be released, and I ended up picking up a used one, not to replace my oasis (which usually stays in the purse to be used on the go) but to have a large, warm-lighted device for reading myself to sleep. However, it cannot replace my oasis. It’s too big to stuff in a purse and there is no modem.
Do I need or want an upgrade? I mean a USB-C port on an Oasis-like device would be nice. But since Amazon has apparently given up on cellular feature, it would be a downgrade. I suspect the next big Kindle thing will be some type of color screen. If I had a “wish” beyond that, it would probably be for the MP3 player and speakers to return.
The better that ereaders get, the harder it is to make them even better. My Paperwhite 5 and my Scribe are the two best ereaders I have ever owned, and each was an important upgrade. I got the Paperwhite 5 for its warm lighting, and I got the Scribe for its large size. Apart from adding color, which is important mainly for comic books and magazines, I’m not sure what new features would seriously interest me in a new Kindle. Since the Kindle devices have probably been loss leaders to get people to buy Kindle books, it doesn’t surprise me that Amazon would slow down the development of new Kindles now that the latest ones are so good. As Kindle development slows down, I hope this will lead to longer support for the current models.
I’m still using a voyage as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this fall. I have three old paperwhites that my kids use. Once they have something that I want to upgrade to, I’ll replace those as well just so that they can all share charging cables. I’d love to see a new voyage, I like the form factor a lot more than the oasis. I’d be happy with a smaller scribe as well. I’m just used to the 6-7” format for reading. It’s comfortable in any environment.