Summer travel has a way of making people remember they meant to read more. The newest Kindle Paperwhite is the right time to act on that: Amazon has the 16GB ad-supported version at $134, down from its regular $159, and the version without lockscreen ads at $154, down from $179. Both are at their best prices of the last few month, and the Paperwhite is currently sitting in the top 10 best-selling electronics on Amazon which means stock won’t last at this price.
Weeks of battery, a glare-free screen, and nothing to distract you
The newest Paperwhite gets a 7-inch display, up from the previous 6.8 inches, with a higher contrast ratio and page turns that are 25% faster than the last generation. That might sound like a minor upgrade until you’re 400 pages into a novel and the screen responsiveness is the difference between a reading session that flows and one that doesn’t. The glare-free panel stays sharp in direct sunlight, which is exactly where a phone screen becomes unusable and a physical book requires constant repositioning to avoid the light. Brightness adjusts from white to amber, so reading at night doesn’t require turning the room light on or squinting at a harsh white screen.
Battery life runs up to 12 weeks on a single USB-C charge, which covers a two-week holiday, the journey there and back, and several weeks of commuting before you need to think about plugging it in. The waterproof rating means it survives poolside or beach use without a case, and the ultra-thin design fits flat in any bag without taking up meaningful space. The 16GB of storage holds thousands of books, so running out of reading material mid-trip is not a real concern.
The other thing worth saying out loud: the Kindle has no social media, no notifications, and no other apps. That’s not a limitation, it’s the point. Picking it up instead of your phone for 30 minutes before sleep is the kind of habit that’s easy to build when the device only does one thing and does it well. For anyone who has been meaning to read more but keeps getting pulled back into their phone, the Paperwhite removes the friction.
The ad-supported version at $134 shows lockscreen ads when the device is asleep which are unobtrusive enough that most people stop noticing them within a few days. The $154 version removes them entirely if that bothers you. Both versions access the same library of over 15 million titles in the Kindle Store, and a Kindle Unlimited subscription adds all-you-can-read access to a large catalog including best sellers if you read frequently enough to make that worthwhile.
With over 18,000 reviews at 4.7 stars and more than 10,000 units sold last month, this is the best e-reader on the market at any price. With summer a few weeks away, it’s the right moment to pick one up.