NEW YORK— Amazon's new entry-level Kindle reader is lighter in the hand — and in the wallet.
The e-reader, which just goes by the name Kindle, is 11% thinner and 16% lighter (5.67 ounces) compared to the prior entry-level Kindle and with double the memory (512 MB). Its price: $79.99.
That's a reprieve from the sticker shock that followed Amazon's last rollout in its popular line of e-readers. The Oasis came with a new design, a lighter weight, and at $289.99, a comparatively hefty price-tag.
The new model is spare in other ways.
This latest model does not come with a built-in reading light, unlike Oasis, or the most popular in the Kindle portfolio, the $119.99 Paperwhite. The screen's resolution is not nearly the resolution of its premium siblings. It does include all the other features across the Kindle lineup, most notably a battery promised to last for weeks.
There's also a few new reading features. This is the first Kindle with built-in Bluetooth audio support, letting visually impaired users exploit a VoiceView screen reader to have books or other content on the screen read aloud, without the need for an adaptor. You’ll be able to pair the Kindle with a Bluetooth headphone or speaker.
A separate new feature will let you export notes and highlights from a book, as a PDF or spreadsheet file, and print them out for the book club. This feature will arrive via an over-the-air software update in a few weeks, Amazon says.
Amazon has also added a Chinese version of the Word Wise feature that offers short hints or definitions for challenging words in tiny type next to the words in the text. (Readers can switch back and forth between English and Simplified Chinese).
The latest Kindle is Wi-Fi only — no cellular option — and will be available in black or white. It can be preordered Wednesday and will ship in a few weeks. Amazon announced that Paperwhite will also now be available in white.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter
