Pre-order the new 6.8-inch Kindle Paperwhite starting at $140 (w/Ads, 8GB) OR Signature Edition for $190 (no Ads, 32GB, wireless charging, auto-adjusting light sensors)

Hooray-hooray e-reader fans! As rumor-leaked, Amazon has finally decided to increase the screen-size of the Paperwhite Kindle e-reader!

The new waterproof 6.8-inch Kindle Paperwhite e-reader is available for pre-ordering with an October 27 (2021) release date estimate. This is also known as the 11th generation Kindle.

The price of the 8GB base-model Paperwhite with Sponsored Ads is $140, and Without Ads is $160.

Unlike the past, this time around Amazon is adding more features and a different name to the 32GB model. IT is the Paperwhite Signature Edition and it goes for $190 (without Ads option only). So that’s only $30 more than the without-Ads base-model Paperwhite and you get three more benefits see paragraph below:

In addition to 32GB instead of 8GB, the Signature edition offers wireless charging AND auto-adjusting light sensors. These three features are NOT available on the 8GB base model. So 32GB is no longer just for manga and long complicated ebooks and PDFs and large libraries of ebooks/docs 🙂

Amazon also offers bundles with various accessories (cork case, fabric case, leather case) that include a wireless charging dock (for the 32GB Signature edition – NICE!). Needless to say these cost more but not a lot more. For example, the Leather bundle is only $230 (so it’s +$40 for the Leather accessories bundle)…

You can see most of the available bundles at the Kindle Bundle Best Sellers list…

For a limited time, the two adult Paperwhite models come with a 4-month FREE Kindle Unlimited subscription. A great way to read a LOT of ebooks (especially if you like to binge-read). Just post a couple of alerts in your calendar to cancel if you don’t want it to auto-renew. Or if you forget, pester the customer service to undo it 🙂

There’s also a Kids edition that is based on the base 8GB Paperwhite for $160 that includes enough freebies that some adults may choose to buy it? (free access to select Kindle Kids ebooks, 2-year worry-free guarantee). Three color options, one is black, the other two are kidz-stylez 😉

The now previous generation 8GB 6-inch Paperwhite (with Ads) has dropped to $80. I doubt the new 6.8″ Paperwhite is gonna get anywhere this close in price, somebody has to pay for the R&D that went into the new 6.8″ display and e-reader innards and wireless charging and such 😉

There’s also a 20% off Trade-In promotion. You get 20% off on this new purchase, PLUS a gift card for the value of your old Kindle. The system finds the Kindles linked to your account and automatically makes offers on them. For example, I got a $5 gift card ofer for one of the prehistoric Kindle with Keyboard devices. So the benefit is not the $5 I would get on the value of the old Kindle, but the 20% off discount I would get on the purchase price of the all new device!

PS: if you have any old unused Kindles hanging around, and want to get the 20% Trade-In discount, you may want to revitalize them (charge, link to your account, etc), to become eligible for the 20% off trade-in discount. Having said that, I don’t know if their system has any measures in place to prevent making upgrade offers on newly-registered devices. Unfortunately I don’t have any extra unregistered Kindles lying around to test it.

PS2: please feel free to send me the new 6.8″ Paperwhite Signature edition if you don’t want it 😉