If Amazon expects people to pay $149.99 for a basic Kindle now, they should at least get rid of the ridiculous requirement to pay them an additional $20 on top of that to get rid of the advertisements that appear on the sleep screen when the device is turned off.
It’s crazy to expect people to pay $169.99 for an ad-free basic Kindle when they can get a lower price from a different brand by shopping around a little. The Kobo Clara BW is $159.99 without ads (and it’s currently on sale for $139.99), and it also includes some upgrades over the basic Kindle, like a warm frontlight and waterproofing, and it’s user repairable so you can buy parts and fix it if something breaks.
You can get an Xteink ereader for a fraction the price of an entry-level Kindle. The Xteink X3 is currently on sale for $63.19. It’s more basic than the Kindle, but it’s a lot smaller and more portable, and the open software is more customizable. It has a lot going for it for being so cheap, and now suddenly the new X4 Pro with a frontlight and touchscreen is looking more reasonable at $99 with the basic Kindle now priced much higher.
Pocketbook also sells some ereaders that are now cheaper than the basic Kindle, some that add page buttons and expandable storage. I just reviewed the Pocketbook Era Lite, and it’s a much nicer overall device than the basic Kindle, and it’s only $30 more expensive with a larger 7″ screen. Plus it’s water-resistant and it adds a warm light, not to mention a bunch of other features the Kindle lacks.
Even the new Boox Go 6 Gen II looks more reasonably-priced at $199.99 now. For an extra $30 you get something vastly more capable with an Android operating system, and it has some hardware upgrades too with the addition of a microSD card slot, double the storage space, and support for using a stylus.
Amazon really should reconsider their strategy with ad-supported Kindles moving forward. Kindles with ads have always been cheaper than the competition so they were justifiable, but now that ad-supported Kindles are more expensive than ad-free alternatives it’s not a good look. Asking people to pay $40-$50 more for Kindles is a big jump, and expecting them to pay an extra $20 on top of that for ad-free Kindles just goes too far. Amazon already decided not to run ads on the Kindle Colorsoft and Kindle Scribes, and with the current prices that needs to happen to the Paperwhite and basic Kindle as well.
I totally agree. I make sure my Kindles are ad free period. My home network blocks all ads from the websites I visit. And it does cause some headaches but over my IT professional life I have seen so many networks and devices infected by malwear and viruses just from ads. My network also does scans of everything coming in.
Now is the time to leave the kindle ecosystem. Between steep hardware price hikes, tighter DRM, and closed formats, Amazon’s ebook platform is no longer a top choice.
I’ve opted to take advantage of last-minute deals, buy a couple of Kindles at very low prices, install KOReader and customise it to look like the Kobo reading experience. So I’ve got some very cheap e-readers with great hardware and exceptional battery life, whilst still having the Amazon ecosystem at my disposal should I want to use it. It’s another way of looking at it.
That said, at these prices, it’s going to be hard for me to buy another Kindle. But I’m convinced that in the future we’ll see offers that continue to position them as the cheapest e-readers on the market. With other brands, it’s going to be harder to find significant deals.
I can’t wait to set up something like this in my house too! I loathe ads, but I still need them to come through my network due to the line of work I’m currently in.
In my opinion… even if the basic kindle gets refreshed with a warm light… that doesn’t justify $150, for the “Entry-level” Kindle.