Topic
Dedicated devices for reading books on electronic-paper screens, a category led by Amazon's Kindle and Rakuten's Kobo alongside smaller entrants.
Wired says Amazon's Kindle Aluminum has 32 GB, double the plastic model, but no warm light and no auto-adjusting light. The reviewer loves the color yet calls the upgrade hard to justify. The choice turns on which missing features you would use.
Reality
Amazon's physical Kindle page-turn buttons return only as an $80 Page-Turn Cover that fits the Signature Edition Colorsoft and Paperwhite. A control the first Kindles had built in now requires buying the top-tier model and then a case.
Reality
Amazon moved the power button to the right side on all seven 13th-generation Kindles after years of complaints about accidental presses. Display upgrades are scant, so the case for owners of older Kindles rests mostly on the button and the new finishes.
Perspective Coverage
24 publishersReality
Amazon rebuilt every 2026 Kindle with a flush screen, selling the base model at full price now and shipping the Paperwhite and Colorsoft on October 28. Amazon now has to decide whether its October 6-7 sale cuts prices on hardware that has barely gone on sale or not yet shipped.
Reality
Boox opened pre-orders for the Picco, a 3.97-inch, 58-gram e-reader from $99 that is smaller than any Xteink model. It brings an established maker into a pocket category built on viral attention, with no reported figures yet on whether owners keep using these readers.
Perspective Coverage
4 publishersReality
The X4 Pro has a front light, a 72-gram body and no e-book store. Fast Company's reviewer planned to replace its stock software before the device arrived, and the replacement is maintained by unpaid coders.
Reality