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TechRadar

Lance Ulanoff

I lost my Kindle on an airplane – this is how I’ll choose my new one on Prime Day

Kindle Amazon Delta Samsung

I started slowly, but within minutes I was frenetically tearing through my backpack’s seemingly 200 pockets searching for my beloved Amazon Kindle. It had to be there, somewhere. But it wasn’t; and I soon accepted that I’d left it behind on my flight to Paris for Samsung Unpacked.

Twelve years – that’s how long I owned that Kindle. It was the first Paperwhite edition, bringing higher contrast to the 212ppi reflective E Ink screen. It had built-in 3G that no longer worked, and an experimental web browser that was all but useless. There was a built-in LED light to illuminate the screen when there wasn’t enough sun or ambient light for comfortable reading, but I usually turned it way down because the vaunted weeks of battery life had shrunk to maybe a week (I also kept the built-in Wi-Fi turned off most of the time, until I was ready to download a new book).

Yet, I loved my Kindle for its portability and simplicity. It flew all over the world with me, made many trips to the beach, and probably watched me fall asleep reading more times than I care to admit. I contacted Delta airlines, which has tried in vain to locate the the 6-inch-screen device. I appreciate the effort, but I know what I have to do: buy a new Kindle.

I should mention that I own a Kindle Scribe, which is a lovely 10.2-inch ereader that even allows for stylus input, but it’s too large to take to the beach; and when I travel I always look for ways to lower the weight of my backpack and, as thin as the Scribe is, it’s still double the weight of a standard Kindle.

The author in happier times with his classic Kindle Paperwhite (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)

Prime Day to the rescue

If there’s a silver lining to the timing of my gadget misfortune it’s that Amazon Prime Day (July 16-17) is upon us, which means there’s a solid chance that I’ll find an excellent deal on one or more of the three core best Kindle ereader options: Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. Amazon also lists the Kindle Oasis if you search for it, but it doesn't appear to ship globally anymore, and more importantly not to my neighborhood in the US.

The differences across the three core Kindle models are now small, but worth considering. All offer 300ppi screens and weeks of battery life, but screen sizes vary from six inches to 6.8 inches, and the basic Kindle does not offer a flush-front design. You can get an ample 16GB of storage in both the basic Kindle and Paperwhite, while the Signature Edition gives you 32GB.

My Paperwhite had just 2GB of storage and, to be honest, it was enough. Part of the reason is that it makes little sense to read, for instance, graphic novels (lots of color graphics and larger files) on the monochrome E Ink display, and even a 300-page book of text might only take up 2.6MB of space.

All the Kindles I'm looking at have touchscreens, but you don’t get waterproofing unless you upgrade to at least the Paperwhite, and only the Signature gets you wireless charging.

My lost Kindle was so old it still used a micro USB charger, which meant that when I did have to charge it I had to go hunting for one of my few remaining micro USB cables.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (Image credit: Amazon Kindle)

The price variation across these three core options is considerable. In the US I could pay from $99.99 for the basic Kindle up to $189.99 for the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition. However, as I noted above, it’s almost Prime Day, which means often considerable discounts on Amazon's own devices.

Naturally, I want to go for the Signature model, but paying almost $200 for a device that essentially does one thing very well (I guess Audible book playback sort of makes it two things) does not appeal to me.

The Paperwhite, which is currently $149.99 in the US, might drop to $99, which would make it an excellent deal, but it’s unlikely that my desired Signature will fall below $150; it might, but I’m not counting on it. Also, do I really need to pay that much more just to get wireless charging? Even the number of LEDS – 17 – is the same as on the regular Paperwhite, I also don’t think auto LED-light adjustment is worth the extra bucks.

Okay, I think I decided. As soon as the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite goes on sale this Prime Day, I’ll pull the trigger. Unless of course, Delta finds my old Kindle, in which case I might keep using it – at least until Black Friday.