I’ve covered every Amazon Prime Day for the past seven years, so I know what products are on sale and what the best deals are to expect. That’s why my advice is always the same: if you want to buy an Amazon product, like a Fire TV, Echo Dot, or Kindle, wait for the retailer’s members’ sale. That’s when we see the best prices of the year on all of those products.
But wait a minute, what’s up with all these disappointing Kindle deals this year?
Let’s start with the standard Kindle, which currently costs $84.99 at Amazon US and £64.99 at Amazon UK.
The UK deal? It’s actually pretty good. It’s the lowest price ever for the device – a deal not seen for over a year. Still, it’s only £5 cheaper than the deal available on Black Friday last year. Decent, but not great.
In the US, however, it’s all wrong. That $84.99 price tag isn’t even the lowest price I’ve seen this year, and it’s a whopping $10 more than the previous record low price available during the secondary, smaller Prime Day-style sale in October 2023.
For a sale that’s supposed to reward Amazon Prime members with exclusive, unbeatable deals, this feels incredibly underwhelming. But that’s just the beginning.
Getting worse
Now we move on to the Kindle Paperwhite, which is the biggest offender in terms of deals this year, regardless of which region you live in. You can pick it up for $134.99 from Amazon US and for £129.99 from Amazon UK this Prime Day – but I’m not sure I’d advise you to hit the ‘buy’ button.
Why? Well, it was cheaper before – in some cases, much cheaper.
Let’s first head to the US, where according to our price tracking the Kindle Paperwhite was down to just $114.99 earlier this year. Worse still, it was even cheaper during the second Prime Day back in October of last year, when it dropped to $99.99. An extra $35 was added to the deal price, seemingly out of nowhere, which is a shame considering how many people I spoke to had their eye on one during that sale.
It’s a similar, but not quite as damning, story in the UK. Once again, the Kindle Paperwhite is cheaper than this year’s Prime Day deal – and that was just two months ago. Granted, it was only £10 less in May; but I have to reiterate that since this offer is exclusive to Prime members (who pay a membership fee to get access to these deals, remember), the fact that it was cheaper for everyone else previously does sting a little.
Is there a better time to buy?
Now that you’ve seen the numbers, I come to the most important question: should you still buy a Kindle this Prime Day? As with many things in life, there’s no simple yes or no answer, but I can offer some advice based on my experience hunting for deals and what I expect to see in sales later this year.
The Kindle Scribe is the lone exception, with new record low prices for this e-reader/notebook in both the US and UK.
Firstly, if you really want your new e-reader now and aren’t too worried about having to spend a few extra dollars or pounds, then buying during Prime Day is a perfectly valid move. The deals are reasonable, if not exceptional, and the price differences compared to previous record-low offers aren’t too dramatic – depending on the model.
If, on the other hand, you’re only looking for a bargain, or if you’re considering upgrading from your old Kindle to a new device if the price is right, you’ll have a tougher decision to make this year.
If you want the basic Kindle, I think you can buy it relatively safely today without the risk of getting stung by a much better price cut in the coming months. With this basic e-reader equal to its all-time low price, or just a few dollars above it, it’s not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. It doesn’t feel great, but it’s fine.
When it comes to the Kindle Paperwhite, however, it’s a lot easier to argue against holding off for now – especially in the US. With this improved e-reader now a whopping $35 cheaper (and down to $114.99 even for non-Prime members), there’s every chance of a better deal in the coming months or on Black Friday.
The Kindle Scribe is the lone outlier in all of this, with new record-low prices available for the ereader-meets-notebook in both the US and UK. It’s down to $234.99 at Amazon US and down to £209.99 at Amazon UK . If that’s on your shopping list, I think this might be your best chance to pick one up.
Of course, I don’t have any inside information on this. Amazon could have decided it didn’t want to discount the Kindle as much, or inflationary pressures could have meant that those bigger price cuts were a thing of the past. My gut feeling is that you’ll save more money later in the year.
Anyway, I felt it was important to point out that this year’s Amazon Prime Day Kindle deals aren’t all as good as they initially appear.