End of the Voyage: Amazon stops selling its $200 Kindle

By Trevor Mogg Published August 21, 2018

Amazon Kindle Voyage — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Amazon has ended the Voyage.

We’re talking about the Kindle ebook reader that it launched in 2014. Multiple reports in recent days have noted how the online shopping giant has quietly removed the device from its online store, as well as from the comparison table that showed it alongside the other Kindles.

Recommended Videos

That means consumers looking for an Amazon-made ebook reader now have a slightly narrower choice, with the offerings including the basic Kindle starting at $80, the Kindle Paperwhite starting at $120, and the top-of-the-range Kindle Oasis starting at $250. The Kindle Voyage retailed for $200.

When it launched four years ago, the Voyage offered several extras over the basic Kindle and Paperwhite, including a slimmer, lighter build, and improved screen resolution.

In its 2014 review, Digital Trends described the Voyage as Amazon’s “finest ebook reader yet,” if not “the best devoted e-reader you can buy.”

Anyone looking for a high-end reader among Amazon’s range of devices will now look to the Oasis, launched by the Seattle-based company in 2016. Last year Amazon revamped the Oasis, making it the first waterproof Kindle in the lineup.

The new Oasis is also slimmer than its predecessor and comes with an improved battery life of up to six weeks. If it’s too pricey, the original Kindle is still out there and offers a solid setup for ebook fans. You might also be able to pick up a refurbished Voyage from Amazon’s online store — at the time of writing, there was one listed for $140.

And, of course, there are a number of decent alternative designs from Amazon’s competitors.

These include the Kobo Aura One. The $230 device features an impressive 7.8-inch E Ink high-definition touchscreen with a night setting to eliminate blue light for bedtime readers. It also supports a wider range of ebook formats than its rivals.

At the other end of the price scale is the Kobo Clara HD, which comes with a $130 price tag. This comes with a front-lit display, a clear 300 PPI display, and, like the Aura One, support for multiple formats. And its 8GB of storage means you’ll have enough space for more than 5,000 books, which, let’s be honest, is more than enough for your next vacation. Or indeed, all of your vacations put together.

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Topics

Phones

Enter the wrong PIN 13 times and your Galaxy phone is locked for good

New Galaxy phones will require a factory reset after 13 failed unlock attempts

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone in blue color.

Samsung is making the lock screen much harder to break on Galaxy devices launching with Android 17-based One UI 9. Enter the wrong PIN, pattern, or password 13 times, and the phone will stop accepting attempts. A full factory reset will then be the only way to use it again.

The change is designed to stop brute-force attacks, where someone repeatedly guesses different passwords until one works. It is a major shift from older One UI versions, which mainly relied on temporary waiting periods rather than a mandatory final lockout.

Computing

Stop fighting with your roomie over outlets and get one of these multi-port chargers before you head back to school

One plug, zero drama, all your devices charged by morning.

Satechi ChargeView

Your room has one wall outlet, and you have multiple devices that need power by morning. Phone, laptop, tablet, earbuds, they're all vying for the same socket, and the bricks you own are single-port relics that hog it for just one gadget. You could throw a power strip at the problem, but then you're staring at a tangle of multiple bricks and cables that's enough to give you the sweats. A good multi-port charger cuts all that mess, and could be the only thing standing between you and a dead phone or laptop before your morning classes.

Back-to-school season is a smart time to buy one. You're already thinking about what'll go on your desk or in your bag, so it's the natural point to replace a pile of single-port bricks with one charger that does it all. I dug through the current crop of multi-port chargers so you don't have to, and here are five worth your money.

Phones

Back-to-school phone shopping on a tight budget? Here’s the one phone I’d recommend without hesitation

The budget phone market got messy this year, but one phone still makes sense.

Galaxy A17 in all colors on gradient background

Somewhere between the last day of school and the first day back, your phone conked out. Perhaps the screen shattered after a particularly nasty fall, or its battery regularly gives up by noon, or apps take so long to launch that by the time they do, you've forgotten why you opened them in the first place. You don't think it'll last another school year, but between all the school supplies and everything else, a budget phone is all your wallet can handle right now.

Fortunately for you, cheap phones have come a long way, offering better screens, bigger batteries, and more capable cameras than devices launched just a couple of years ago. Since you're already prepping to head back to school, this is as good a time as any to lay your old phone to rest and lock in an upgrade. But unfortunately, the timing isn't great for the smartphone industry in general, and that has had a real impact on entry-level phones.