I’m never buying another Kindle, and neither should you

I’ve carried a Kindle in my bag for over a decade. Through every hardware iteration, from the physical keyboard right up to the latest Paperwhite, a Kindle has been with me everywhere — be it on an airplane, a train ride, the doctor’s office, or my bedside. My all-time favorite ebook reader is, hands down, the Kindle Oasis. For years, I’ve defended the ecosystem because it was convenient and the screens were the gold standard for e-ink readers. But things have changed.

Looking at the current state of my digital library in 2026, that long-standing loyalty to Amazon’s readers is no longer a thing. The recent announcement that Amazon is sunsetting older hardware was the final straw, and it’s changed the way I look at Kindles. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it’s a wake-up call for anyone who values digital ownership.

If the writing wasn’t already on the wall, for Amazon, the e-reader is clearly no longer a tool for readers; it is quite simply a portal for a storefront. In a world where we are increasingly forced to rent our digital lives through subscription services, our books should be the one place where ownership still matters. However, Amazon’s recent moves prove that ownership is no longer a priority for the brand, and that is why I am finally walking away from the Kindle for good. Here is why you should consider doing the same.

If you’re not caught up on the latest in the Kindle world, here’s what you need to know. If you own a Kindle released before 2013, your device is effectively on death row. Amazon recently confirmed that starting May 20, these older models will lose all access to the Kindle Store. While you can technically keep reading books already on the device, the real kicker is the factory reset limitation built into the software. If you ever need to reset your device or try to register it to a new account after the deadline, it becomes a literal paperweight. As an archivist and fan of older Kindle hardware, this move is absolutely shocking.

If anything, the move is a sharp reminder that when you buy into the Kindle ecosystem, you are effectively renting access from Amazon. The company is using security updates as a justification to move users toward newer hardware, but the reality is that many of these devices are still perfectly functional for reading text. By cutting off the ability to re-register them, Amazon is creating a massive wave of e-waste and forcing an upgrade cycle that many users simply do not want or need.

There’s the staggering environmental cost of the move, of course. But what concerns me more is the fact that most of these Kindles have perfectly functional e-ink screens and batteries that could last years of light reading. Instead of providing a path for long-term support or open-sourcing the legacy software, Amazon is choosing the landfill. And I’m not comfortable with that. Not from a company named after a literal rainforest.

Contrast this with the approach taken by Kobo. Amazon’s biggest rival in the e-reader space has formed an official partnership with iFixit to provide repair kits and guides for its latest models. The Kobo Libra Colour and Clara are designed to be opened and repaired. When you buy a Kindle, you are buying a disposable product with a predetermined shelf life. Meanwhile, when you buy a Kobo, you are buying a tool that can be maintained for a decade or more.

For a company that practically invented the modern e-reader, Amazon has become remarkably lazy with its software. If you look at a Kindle from 2018 and a Kindle from 2026, the user interface is nearly identical. We are still dealing with a home screen that prioritizes advertisements and promoted recommendations over your actual library. Navigating a large collection of books remains a chore, with sluggish animations and a lack of robust folder management that has been a standard feature on rival devices for years.

In 2026, the Kindle UI keeps moving further away from focusing on the library to the storefront. The latest updates make it harder to find your own sideloaded books while keeping Kindle Unlimited recommendations front and center. Look, I get it; Amazon’s goal was always to subsidize hardware costs by making money on books. But it has reached a point where Amazon has effectively turned your device into a billboard. You are paying for the privilege of being marketed to every time you wake up your device — unless you pay up.

Amazon’s 2026 roadmap is also heavily focused on AI reading assistants and cloud-based summaries. This is essentially a data-mining operation. Amazon is not just tracking what you buy; it is tracking how you read. It knows how fast you turn pages, which sections you skip, and exactly what you highlight to feed its large language models. Yes, you can put your Kindle in airplane mode, but it doesn’t change the facts about the direction the company is taking.

This level of telemetry is invasive for a device that is supposed to be a private reading experience. Nor did I ever sign up for it. Competitors like Kobo offer an offline-first experience that does not require a constant heartbeat to a central server to function as the default. Elsewhere, on a Boox device, you have total control over which apps can access the internet. With Kindle, it increasingly looks like the privacy trade-off is the hidden cost of the hardware, and I’m not comfortable with it.

The fact of the matter is that the Kindle is no longer your only, or best, option. There are plenty of alternatives available if you want a dedicated e-reader that respects the idea of ownership. Kobo is the logical next step. Devices like the Kobo Libra Colour offer hardware that is often superior, or at the very least equivalent, to the Kindle Paperwhite at similar price points. The standout feature is native OverDrive and Libby integration. On a Kobo, you can browse, borrow, and return library books directly on the device without ever needing to touch a phone or a computer, provided you are in a supported country.

Kobo also uses the industry-standard ePub format. This means you are not locked into one store. You can buy books from Google Play, Kobo, or various independent bookstores and simply drag and drop them onto the device via USB. Kobo devices also feature much better typography settings. For those who prefer physical buttons, Kobo has kept them as a standard feature on its mid-range devices, something that the Amazon Kindle appears to be allergic to.

One of the biggest reasons to stick to the Kindle was the overall experience it offered. Ironically, Kindle’s experience advantages are no longer really a thing. If you really want the ultimate no-compromise experience, Onyx Boox has been steadily changing the game. Devices like the Boox Palma 2 or the Go 10.3 are not just e-readers. Instead, these devices are e-ink tablets running a full version of Android that dramatically open up opportunities for customization.

In my opinion, this should be the top option for anyone who wants to leave Kindle hardware but keep their Kindle books. Because these devices have the Google Play Store, you can simply install the Kindle app. You get the benefits of the Amazon bookstore and your existing library, but you get to use it on hardware that is faster and better designed.

Using the Kindle app on a Boox device actually provides a better experience than using a Kindle. You get smoother scrolling and the ability to use third-party fonts without any restrictions. Plus, you can run other apps like Spotify for background music or Notion and Goodreads for book tracking. You are no longer limited to what Amazon thinks you should be doing with your device. Instead, you are in full control of the software experience.

Another area where Amazon used to lead was display quality, but that gap has closed. The newest Kobo and Boox devices are using the latest e-ink Carta 1300 panels. These panels offer significantly better contrast and faster refresh rates than the older Carta 1200 found in most Kindles. This means virtually non-existent ghosting and text that looks perfectly crisp.

Having used a range of Boox hardware, I can say the Boox Go 10.3 is a particularly impressive piece of hardware. Between the high-resolution screen and a panel that sits closer to the surface, you get a remarkably paper-like experience. Plus, the stylus integration goes above and beyond what you’ll find on equivalent Kindle hardware. If you do any amount of note-taking, the Scribe feels like a toy compared to the much more feature-packed Boox tablets. As I mentioned earlier, the Kindle really isn’t the epitome of a quality reading experience anymore.

The biggest fear people have when leaving behind the Kindle is that they will lose access to books. This is a myth. While Amazon does have some exclusive self-published titles, the vast majority of mainstream books are available on every platform. Kobo, Google Play Books, and Apple Books all have catalogs that rival Amazon in size. In many cases, you can actually find better deals on these platforms.

Even Amazon seems to be acknowledging that it can’t take its audience for granted. Starting in January 2026, Amazon has begun allowing users to download DRM-free versions (Digital Rights Management) of select ePub and PDF files directly from their management page. This only applies to books where the publisher has opted out of DRM, but it is a massive shift. It proves that even Amazon knows the proprietary formats are becoming a liability in a market that is moving toward open standards.

For the books you already own that still have DRM, you do not have to leave them behind. There are ways to manage your digital library using tools like Calibre and a few plugins that let you import your Kindle purchases into a central database. This allows you to convert them to ePub and move them to any device you choose.

The goal isn’t just convenience. Digital preservation is extremely important to me and millions of other users. If Amazon decides to delete a book from its servers or shut down your account, you still have the file you paid for. Having a local, DRM-free backup of your library is the only way to ensure that your collection survives the whims of a multi-trillion-dollar corporation. Once your books are in Calibre, you can use powerful tools to fix metadata, add high-resolution covers, and read them on whatever device you want.

The e-reader market in 2026 is the most competitive it has ever been. We have reached a point where Amazon’s ecosystem no longer offers enough unique value to justify its restrictions. Combine that with Amazon’s move to brick older hardware, to me, it is just the final sign that the customer is not the priority for the company. Between the seamless library integration of Kobo and the raw power of Android-based readers from Boox, there is no reason to buy another Kindle.

If you want the best reading experience, buy a Kobo. If you want a powerful e-ink tablet that does everything, buy a Boox. If you want to actually own the books you pay for, use Calibre. But until Amazon turns the ship around with its digital and hardware policies, I do not plan to give Amazon another cent for a device that it can take away from me with a single server-side update. My library deserves better than that. And so does yours.