At WIRED, we’re big fans of Kindles. It’s an excellent solution for bookworms who always want access to tons of books on the go in a compact, lightweight form factor. But they can be expensive. If you’ve been holding off on buying one, you’re in luck, because our favorite models are currently discounted during Amazon’s October Prime Day sale.
As a reminder, we don’t recommend anything we don’t test, and we test year-round. If you don’t see anything you like here, don’t forget to check out our guides to the Best Kindles, Best Ebook Readers, and Best Ebook Subscriptions. As always, you need an Amazon Prime membership to get the deal price, but you can sign up for a free trial and Prime offers plenty of perks.
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Kindle Deals
This is currently our favorite Kindle. It packs a 6.8-inch display with small bezels, adjustable warm lighting, and 16 gigabytes of storage. It also comes with a USB-C port for wireless charging. We also suggest spending the extra $20 to get rid of lockscreen ads. We are seeing rumors that new Kindles are coming, and Amazon does upgrade the Paperwhite regularly. However, this model still performs very well.
This is the base Kindle and the smallest option. Coming in at 6.2 inches tall and 4.3-inches wide, it’s a great choice if you find the Kindle too unwieldy to hold with one hand. The 6-inch screen also comes with 300 pixels per inch—an increase from the 197 ppi on its predecessor. Other updates include an increase from 8 gigabytes to 16 and a USB-C port for charging. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with warm lighting or auto-adjusting brightness, and it isn’t waterproof.
We recommend the Scribe (8/10, WIRED Recommends) for note-taking and drawing. Because it’s a Kindle, the reading experience is still seamless, but the large 10.2-inch screen is ideal for taking notes, marking up PDFs, and illustrating. However, we don’t recommend it for professional artists who want something a bit more complex. You also can’t write on book pages (for those who like to annotate while reading), and it isn’t waterproof. You’ll also have the choice between 16-, 32-, and 64-gigabyte options.
This is our favorite Kindle for kids. It comes with a kid-friendly content library, parental controls, a year’s subscription to Amazon Kids+, and a two-year warranty. It also has a high-resolution 300-ppi display and the ability to switch between light and dark modes. We’ve seen it dip slightly lower in the past, between $105 and $110, but this is still a solid deal.
Kindle Accessory Deals
This is a great accessory if you’re looking for a more comfortable way to hold your Kindle. The soft silicone straps attach to the back of the e-reader and provide you with a better spot to rest your hands. It’s available in multiple sizes depending on the type of e-reader you have.
The standard Amazon fabric cover isn’t on sale, but if you want to protect your Kindle from damage, we recommend a cover. These open like a book and come in various colors, including blue, pink, green, and black. They’re also made from post-consumer recycled fabric. This is for the basic Kindle, but it’s also available for the Paperwhite.
WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell tested this and said it makes for a super convenient and comfortable experience, especially if you have any sources of chronic pain in your hands and wrists. The clamp is easy to attach to bed frames and side tables. and it’s lightweight enough to use anywhere (with enough resistance to the neck that it won’t fall forward or out of the position you place it in).
This is our top pick in our guide to The Best Reading Lights. It’s a clip-on with an adjustable gooseneck and two swiveling light bars that pack seven LEDs each. You can also cycle through five levels of brightness and three color temperature modes, as well as six brightness settings.
This is my favorite reading light. It looks a little silly, but it’s an excellent alternative to a clip-on reading light. It’s adjustable, lightweight, and comes with three color temperature modes as well as six brightness settings. It’s rechargeable too, with up to 80 hours of battery life when on the dimmer settings.
Source: Wired