The new Amazon Kindle Scribe is a massive shake-up for the retail giant’s line of ereaders, bringing the biggest screen and most storage we’ve ever seen for a Kindle, plus, for the first time, a stylus for note-taking.
Interested fans, though, may be put off by the ereader’s hefty $339 / £329 starting price, which goes up even higher if you want more storage or the Premium Pen with more note-taking features.
When the Amazon Kindle Scribe was first announced, its release date wasn’t actually mentioned, but shortly after the launch event, Amazon confirmed the availability window via the ereader’s official store listing. And there’s some bad news for people looking for a cheaper device.
The Kindle Scribe is officially going on sale on November 30, over two months after its announcement. But in those two months, two massive deals opportunities are happening, which means the new Amazon ereader won’t be available at a discount at either of them.
A big two months for sales
On October 11 and 12, the second Prime Day sales event of the year, which we’re calling Prime Day 2, is taking place. It remains to be seen how big this is for third-party manufacturers, but it’s almost certain that Amazon will discount its own products by quite a bit – in fact, early sales are already doing just that.
But the biggest sales event of the year is after that – Black Friday deals are a popular way to pick up pre-Christmas gadgets for less, but this year, that Friday is on November 25. Even Cyber Monday, which used to be the tech-gadget sales event before Black Friday took that mantle, is on November 28.
Amazon’s choice of this date likely isn’t a coincidence, as it wouldn’t launch a new tech product when everyone was spending their money on other gadgets – particularly if it wouldn’t go on sale at a discount from its RRP.
Instead, the Kindle Scribe is likely being launched as a holiday product, so people can buy it as a gift or pick one up to prepare for the holiday break.
When the device goes on sale, or nears release, we’ll test out the gadget to see where it ranks on our list of the best Kindles. But if you’re really keen, you can already pre-order the thing to ensure you get it straight away.