Best Buy has dropped prices on most of Amazon’s Kindle line as part of its Black Friday in July sale, putting the 12th-generation Kindle Paperwhite at $124.99. That is $35 below its listed $159.99 price, and Target is showing the same price for the ad-supported model.
The Paperwhite is the cleanest deal in the bunch because it is the Kindle The Verge recommends for most readers. The current model has a 7-inch, 300ppi display, waterproofing, an adjustable warm light for late-night reading, and battery life rated at more than a month per charge. For an e-reader, that is the useful stuff, rather than a spec-sheet cosplay routine.
Kindle deals at Best Buy
- Kindle Paperwhite, 16GB, with ads: $124.99, down from $159.99.
- Kindle Kids, 16GB: $99.99, down from $129.99.
- Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, 32GB: $219.99, down $60.
- Kindle Scribe, 32GB: $379.99, down from $499.99.
- Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, 32GB: $479.99, down from $629.99.
The Kindle Kids discount is not just for children. Amazon uses the same hardware as the standard Kindle, according to The Verge, including a 300ppi display and USB-C charging. The Kids bundle adds a cover, removes lock-screen ads, includes a two-year worry-free guarantee, and comes with six months of Amazon Kids Plus. Target is also listing the Kids model at $99.99.
Readers who want color have two options in the sale. The Kindle Colorsoft adds a color E Ink panel and can show color content at up to 150ppi, which makes it a better fit for comics and graphic novels than a monochrome Kindle. The Signature Edition adds 32GB of storage and wireless charging, according to Best Buy’s listing.
The Scribe models are for people who want a Kindle that also handles handwriting. Best Buy lists the standard Kindle Scribe at $379.99 and the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft at $479.99. Both have 11-inch displays and include a stylus for notes, Kindle book annotations, and document markup. Amazon also includes notebook templates and AI tools that can summarize notes or tidy up handwriting, according to The Verge.
The practical difference is the screen. The Scribe Colorsoft uses color E Ink, which should be more useful for reviewing color documents or organizing notes with different colors. The standard Scribe keeps the bigger writing surface but skips color.
Other retailers are matching some of the Kindle discounts. Amazon and Best Buy list the 16GB Kindle Colorsoft at $189.99, down from $249.99, while Target lists it at full price. As with any retail sale, the price that matters is the one at checkout, because deal pages tend to age like unrefrigerated milk.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
