Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite is nearly matching its Black Friday low

If you missed the first sale on the 2024 Kindle Paperwhite during Black Friday, now’s your chance to write your own redemption arc. Right now, you can get Amazon’s newest ad-supported ebook reader at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $134.99 ($25 off). That’s still $5 shy of its all-time low, but it’s a pretty good discount this early into its life. You can also get it without ads at Amazon for $154.99 ($25 off).

There’s not much incentive to upgrade if you already own an older Paperwhite, but if you’re an avid reader, you’ll likely appreciate the newly minted seven-inch display, which is the biggest of any Paperwhite to date. It’s also 25 percent brighter than the previous model and features a higher contrast ratio, allowing for improved readability. The jump from 10 weeks of battery life to three months is a more substantial upgrade — as is a new processor, which supposedly makes a big difference when it comes to page-turning speeds — but we’ll need to finish putting Amazon’s latest e-reader through its paces before rendering our final verdict.

However, despite the iterative nature of the aforementioned updates, there’s a good chance the 12th-gen Paperwhite is going to remain the best option for most people. Amazon’s new entry-level Kindle is a bit smaller (and slower), and while the jazzy Kindle Colorsoft offers the best color screen on an e-reader so far, it will run you an extra $120 over the Paperwhite. That’s a lot for a non-essential upgrade.

More deals to beat the holiday crunch

• Now through December 25th, Grid is taking $100 off its Grid 1 frame — which bears the iPhone 2G’s guts for all to see — when you use Verge-exclusive code TV100, which drops it to $299. You can also use code TV20 to take 20 percent off any other product in the studio’s online store, so long as it’s not part of an ongoing promo. Grid’s disassembled, explosive displays offer a museum-style look at the components that make up some of the most iconic gadgets to hit the scene over the years. They’re also a great gift for wannabe tinkerers who appreciate the beauty of circuitry, especially since they’ll arrive before Christmas if you act fast enough.
• If you don’t need a robot vacuum that can sweep your baseboards or empty its own bin, the Eufy 11S Max is on sale at Amazon and Walmart for $129.99 ($120 off), which is one of its better prices to date. The entry-level robovac isn’t the smartest option available, but it’s at least aware enough not to bump into walls or tumble over stairs. The 11S Max offers good carpet and hard surface cleaning with relative quietness, too, and its 600ml bin is roomy enough to go through several cleanings before it needs to be dumped.
• A small, fast charger like Anker’s Prime Charger can come in handy if you’re traveling for the holidays. Luckily, Amazon and Anker are selling the 100W GaN charger for a record-tying $45.99 ($39 off), the latter with promo code WS7DV2FXJI84. Anker’s charger is thin enough not to horde all the space on a wall socket yet fast enough to charge almost anything (laptops included). It has three ports (two USB-C and one USB-A) to cover your charging needs, along with a folding prong for convenient storage.