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It was 2012 when someone in Amazon customer services lied to me about being able to fully turn off the backlight on the new Kindle Paperwhite and I needed to return one, and I was wondering if they still had the same limitations. Maybe, maybe not:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/13i4r7x/kindle_paperwhite_can_lights_be_completely_turned/
https://www.quora.com/Can-you-turn-off-the-light-on-a-Kindle-Paperwhite

Apparently they're now on the Paperwhite 6, which confusingly is a 7" model using E Ink Carta 1300. Which might be just enough space (6" isn't really) but there's still nothing available sized between those and the really expensive 10" ones: https://comparisontabl.es/kindle-e-readers/

Reviews are still mixed on the state of current e-ink screens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhy_4cWiWKI
https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2024/05/03/e-ink-carta-1300-is-not-a-worthwhile-upgrade/

Amazon currently wants 170 GBP for a 2024 12th generation Paperwhite, and they're around 125 new or as new on eBay. However, as any old Kindle can be traded in for 20% off and a minimal value gift card, the price new is really about 130. That's still a bit of a hard sell when 10" tablets are as low as 60, or an 11.5" Honor Pad X9 is 130. I'd like an 8" e-ink screen for what Amazon are asking, as the screen on my 8" tablet equates to a small standard size 11x18cm paperback book.

To be fair, larger 12.5x19.5cm paperback books do tend to waste the extra size with larger margins. But whilst text tends to fit within a 7" diagonal with either, that's without much if any margin and Kindles come in black, teal and pink, but not white. This is something I really don't understand, as having a thick dark bezel around a page feels claustrophobic. It's one of the reasons I got a white tablet, and out of the e-ink devices I've had/have the 6" white Kobo one felt the most comfortable.

Somewhat more major is that they've quietly made the Kindle 4 (like the one above) and older models completely unusable with purchased content. Not just blocking downloading the files and transferring them to the device, which worked well, but apparently you can no longer "deliver" and sync a book to them either.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/1inr9uy/fyi_amazon_is_removing_download_transfer_option/
"Starting February 26, 2025, the “Download & Transfer via USB” option will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the “Deliver or Remove from Device” option."

So you make sure the device is up-to-date, sign in with email/password, then email/passwordOTP and it still won't sync books queued for delivery. Buried in a forum you find:
https://uk.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D5Kf00003BwGXmKAN/kindle-wont-download-books
"On March 31, 2025, Amazon ended all downloads to Kindle E-Readers and Fire tablets launched prior to 2012 and use Mobi8 content that does not support secure YJ format. Amazon can no longer support Mobi8 downloads and will only support more secure YJ downloads."

So you could manually transfer other books with Calibre, but can't use the ones you've bought from Amazon on the Amazon device. No more ebook sales for them, I think is the only reasonable response, and (as is unfortunately often the case) people who pirate media are getting a much better experience.

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