In October, Amazon announced its refreshed Kindle lineup, its first significant design overhaul in years. The highlights included a new edge-to-edge design that eliminated traditional raised bezels, thinner and lighter Paperwhite and Colorsoft models with better displays, and page-turning accessories like a Bluetooth remote and a magnetic cover with page-turn buttons. However, given the impact of the global memory-chip shortage driven by the AI boom, the new Kindles also debuted with pricing that had increased by $40 to $50 across the lineup. That makes it more difficult for the average consumer to consider buying one of the more premium devices. For that reason, the Kindle I most wanted to get my hands on was the 6-inch entry-level device, which starts at $169.99 for the ad-free version. With the price hikes, this is the Kindle that will remain the most affordable to new e-reader buyers. The question I weighed was whether or not the basic Kindle is even worth buying at this price...
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