Lately, it seems as though the biggest happenings in the E Ink world revolve around large note-taking devices like the Kindle Scribe and color offerings such as the apt-titled Kobo Libra Colour. That said, if you’re looking for a basic ebook reader to burn through your summer reading list, there’s nothing wrong with picking up a last-gen e-reader like the 2018 Kindle Paperwhite — which happens to be on sale at Amazon (via Woot) in used condition with ads for $49.99.
Amazon’s last-gen Paperwhite has become more difficult to find since the arrival of the 2021 model, even if it isn’t a dramatic step down in terms of features. It still carries an IPX8 rating for full resistance against water immersion, as well as a crisp six-inch, 300ppi display and support for Audible audiobooks via Bluetooth headphones. The newer Paperwhite sports a bigger display and better backlighting — not to mention wireless charging, if you opt for the 32GB Signature Edition — but it rarely drops below $100 in price, even when on sale. The real travesty here is the fact that the 10th-gen Paperwhite only offers a mere 8GB of storage in its base configuration and uses Micro USB for charging instead of USB-C, which, even in 2018, felt like a miss.