Amazon has just dropped the price of the Kindle Voyage by 25%, taking the price from $199 down to $149.
It’s unclear if this is a permanent price decrease or a temporary deal, but they aren’t advertising it as being on sale. It’s labeled as if $149 is the regular price.
Usually with a sale they put a line through the regular price and show how much of a discount you’re getting, but not this time.
Amazon does this kind of thing every once in awhile. I think they’re probably doing some tests to see how sales compare at the two different price points.
Either way they’re definitely up to something. A couple weeks ago they removed the basic Kindle from all the Kindle pages and search results. Then they brought it back a couple days later. They had to be doing some kind of testing to go through all that trouble.
The Kindle Voyage will be 4 years old this fall so a price decrease makes sense, especially if they’re going to release new Kindle models soon.
Maybe they should just permanently drop the price of the Kindle Paperwhite to $99 or $89 and make it the entry-level model. They have it on sale every few weeks anyway.
Then they could release a new Kindle Voyage in the $150 price range. It doesn’t really make sense to have the Paperwhite at $120 with the superior Voyage only $30 more.
Certified refurbished Kindle Voyages remain on sale as well. The Wi-Fi model is $129 and the 3G model is $149.
I agree. The basic Kindle drives people away (judging by reviews) due to the low contrast. The Basic should be discontinued, the Paperwhite should become the new entry level model with a price drop, and the Voyage should be replaced.
I would bet such a proposed new Voyage would have page turn buttons and a color changing light like the new Nook model but preserve the glossy screen and form factor of the Voyage.
It would be great if they slightly tweaked the Paperwhite and made it the entry-level model. The Paperwhite has been sporting the exact same design since 2012; it’s way overdue for an update. Compared to other 6-inch ereaders it’s a tank. They should shave 40 grams off the weight and make it so the light turns off for those that don’t want it. Or they should release a smaller entry-level model that can easily fit in a pocket. I’ve been reading on the 5-inch Sony PRS-350 a lot lately and it’s great for portability. A 4.3-inch model could be good too. Everyone says there’s no need for smaller ereaders with large cellphones being so prevalent but reading on a phone sucks, especially outdoors. Personally I feel like 6-inch ereaders are too big and bulky to carry around in a pocket. I’d be all for a smaller Kindle.
The basic kindle has a place, and it is outdoors. If you are reading it in sunlight it’s a champ.
Yes my Aura H2O is the same size as the Paperwhite! And my Oasis 2 is the same weight. And they have 7 inch screens. It is funny that the basic looks better than the Paperwhite!
I would *love* page turn buttons! Either on a Paperwhite or Voyage size reader. I briefly had a basic Kindle for at work/in car but I returned it. Wow! If it had the light temp color change abilities, it would be virtually perfect.
What about just one page turn button? I’ve been using the Kobo Clara HD lately and I like holding it from the bottom but that makes it a hassle to turn pages. I was thinking if it just had one button in the big space below the screen like the old Kobo Touch used to have that would be great for turning pages. I page back so infrequently that I wouldn’t mind touching the screen for that. The button was a home button on the Touch but that’s kind of pointless when you think about it since you turn pages much more frequently than going to the homescreen on an ebook reader.
Well, you can always import a Pocketbook Touch HD 2, which covers these requirements. Just this month I decided to research all of the recent competitors and discovered that Pocketbooks are actually awesome. I got both the Pocketbook HD 2 Inkpad 3 and they are great. I just wish that inkpad 3 had infrared touch like the glowlight 3 and touch hs2 as the text on them has noticeably better contrast.
I believe it’s been discussed lots of times, but I’ll ask one time. Is it worth a try buying Voyage if I can’t bare reading on Paperwhite due to the fuzzy text problem? Thank you!
The Voyage is generally regarded as having one of clearest E Ink screens so if it doesn’t cut it then probably none will. Ones with infrared touchscreens are also very clear but not many exists anymore, especially with 300 ppi.
Agree that the IR Screens are superior in clarity and as far as the Voyage it is the BEST Kindle IMO. The clarity and contrast beats all of them and the design is still my favorite of any eReader. I however, and I have been saying this forever, hope Amazon releases a Basic Kindle with 300ppi. Even if I turn the Voyage Light off and with how razorsharp it is, it still doesnt compare with the Kindle basic 4 that I have. Example, the background is way whiter and the text just “pops” out way more on my Basic 4 than on even my Voyage. Of course the text isnt as sharp but the text itself just seems to float on the screen on my basic. I can only imagine what a Basic 300ppi would look like.
You talk about the superiority of IR screens and then mention the Kindle 4, which doesn’t use IR. Did you mean the Kindle Touch?
I think you’re looking at an optical illusion. The text appears darker because the font is rendered thicker at the lower resolution. If you crank up the boldness setting on the Voyage the basic will no longer pop more than the Voyage.
I talk about IR screens in relation to how much better the screens are on the new Glowlight, the Kobo GLO HD and the Original Aura H2O all of which use IR screens. I have used all and have made side by side comparisons to current eReaders that use capacitive screens such as the the Aura One, the new H2O edition and all current Kindles. And the IR screens are much clearer with better contrast and sharper text which seem to float above the screen.
That is why I say IR is superior from personal experience.
Also as far as a Basic Kindle goes, IMO it has better readability than say for example than a Paperwhite or Oasis with the lights off. The text just pops out more. As an example take the Basic Kindle and a Paperwhite outdoors, and make a side by side comparison with the lights off and you’ll see what i mean by better reading legibility.
As a side note the Kindle Keyboard and Kindle 4 black version with 2gb of storage (not the inferior touch) has a much white screen and darker clearer text than the new and MUCH inferior basic kindles with touch screens. I believe this due to the fact of added layers to allow for touch screens washes out the clarity.
Funny, I checked the comparison table for Kindles, and Voyage is still 199.99!
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the price go back to $199 in a few days. I remember with the first Fire HD 8 they dropped the price to like $89 out of the blue one day when it normally sold for like $150. Then when they released the next Fire HD 8 they lowered the specs and priced it at $89.
I just checked all the Kindle reader pages and I couldn’t find a comparison table on any of the pages.
Does Amazon not offer installment payments on Kindles anymore? I dont see that as an option now 😢
I’m seeing a 5 month installment; appearing in the upper right of the page
I’m guessing that they’ll drop either the Voyage or the PaperWhite and introduce a new model of the remaining device in this price range.
Now is probably not a great time to buy either the PW or Voyage
Voyage is back up to $199.
Amazon is doing strange things with Kindle prices lately. Sometimes the Paperwhite is showing a price of $89, but then it changes to $119 when you go to checkout. I don’t know why they keep messing with it.
Well. Voyage is down to $149.99!
They keep changing the prices lately. The Paperwhite occasionally drops to $89 for a few hours, then goes back to $119. They’re probably doing some testing with the different price points. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the next new Kindles priced at $89 and $149 after they keep doing this.