The 12th 11th gen one (5th gen Paperwhite, 8 GB) is on sale right now for a good price with a fabric smart case (that wakes/sleeps the Kindle automagically) and a wall charger (and I presume a cable for same) for around $118. USB-C, water resistant etc. “Ad supported” on lock screen but who cares. I usually turn the WiFi off anyway once I’m done syncing my Amazon-bought books.
If someone’s gotten one I’d love to hear some impressions. Also, whether they still work with Calibre for e-book management.
Cool. How do you like it so far? I went ahead and ordered the bundle I mentioned (a Lightning Deal). Hope I can still use Calibre with it. Does the Kindle still support the .mobi format? Have you had other Kindles or e-readers?
I myself have had two Kindles: a 2010 Kindle Keyboard (3rd gen Kindle) and a 3rd gen Paperwhite bought in 2015.
My old Paperwhite is my gym Kindle, with the fabric cover. Built like a tank, keeps working fine, the only thing I don’t like about it is the nasty mini-USB connector. A USB-C version sounds grand, but this one still works fine, even better than my flaky Oasis.
I got this generation of Paperwhite when it first came out, early this year (?). Upgrading from a first gen Kindle Voyage, it was noticeably snappier. Otherwise the screens and lighting quality seemed comparable, which means good.
One downside is the new screen seems to scratch more easily than my Voyage, which I had for years and years without a mark. I wish I had gotten a screen protector/case.
There is so much confusion over this. Kindle e-readers still natively support mobi and still do not natively support epub. What has changed is the Send to Kindle function, which will no longer accept mobi files and will now accept (and convert) epub. If you just directly load those things onto your Kindle via an application like Calibre and a direct cable connection to your PC, it will be able to read the mobi files and will not understand what to do with epub (but of course Calibre’s always supported automatically converting epubs to a Kindle readable format or vice versa). The current Kindle format is still based on mobi, it is just a newer and more feature rich version, so it seems unlikely that they will fully ditch mobi or actually directly support epub.
BTW, is there an ELI5 guide for converting books from epub to mobi? I never know what settings to use in the Calibre options so I leave them at the default.
I ordered the new model last night. I have a 1st gen Paperwhite which I bought at launch, but it’s getting super sluggish and the battery doesn’t last all that long. Besides, it’s worth the cost just to move to USB-C.
I wouldn’t run around with one of these without a case, not that they’re that expensive but unless the screens are made of some super-tough glass I don’t see how they could avoid getting scratched. Heck, my Kindle Paperwhite (2015) screen managed to get a small scratch on it even with a case.
Pretty easily. I’ve never had screen scratching problems with any of my Kindles or my tablets or my phones. I have a case for my Kobo because it folds back into a stand, but I wouldn’t bother otherwise.
I ended up getting an Amazon fabric one (dark gray) because the bundle price was good. Not quite as nice as the leather cover for the third version of the Paperwhite from 2015.
