My 2011 Kindle 4 Basic. Super cheap because it was an ad-supported version.
This was called the “Kindle with Special Offers” and sold for $79 because the screen saver would display different ads, while the version without ads cost $109.
Of course, I installed the hack to get rid of the ads as soon as I received it. haha
That $79 price was super low for a 6-inch E Ink reader back in 2011 and helped make the Kindle much more of a mass-market device.
Advertising Was Part of the Deal
The cheaper Kindle displayed what Amazon called “Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers.” When the Kindle went to sleep, instead of the traditional author portraits and decorative screensavers, you might see an advertisement.
There was also a small sponsored area at the bottom of the home/library screen. Ads did not appear inside the book while you were actually reading.
Some of the early promotions were actually substantial coupons rather than ordinary ads. Amazon offered things such as discounted Amazon gift cards, cheap Audible books, discounted MP3 albums, and deals on other products.
The Device
Deliberately stripped down compared with the Kindle Keyboard. It kept the 6-inch Pearl E Ink display, but Amazon eliminated the physical QWERTY keyboard.
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6-inch E Ink Pearl screen
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About 5.98 ounces. Roughly 30% lighter than the Kindle Keyboard
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About 18% smaller
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2 GB internal storage
Around one month of battery life under Amazon’s stated conditions. No touchscreen. No cellular 3G version of this basic model. No physical keyboard. No audio output, which also meant no text-to-speech or MP3 playback
This Kindle was arguably one of the turning points in e-reader history. A few years earlier, the original Kindle had launched for $399. Now Amazon had pushed a competent E Ink reader below $80, partly because advertising subsidized the hardware.
It also established a business model Amazon continued for many later Kindles: pay less for a Kindle with lock-screen advertising, or pay more to remove the ads.
Fun historical detail: When Amazon launched Special Offers, it didn't present the advertisements as an unfortunate compromise. It marketed them almost like an additional Kindle feature.
Some early deals really were good enough that customers deliberately bought the Special Offers version for access to them.
Amazon said the Special Offers Kindle quickly became its bestselling Kindle model.
Visually, the Kindle 4 is pretty distinctive now. It's is probably one of the simplest-looking physical-button Kindles Amazon ever made.
9 replies
This price drop must be part of the reason why my Dad bought one of these ad supported kindle 4's way back when. He used it for a little while before he finally got a smartphone through work I think. At some point he took that kindle to work and left it in a drawer for years.
About a year ago, I saw this video about kindle jailbreaking (the dammit jeff one if you are familiar) and decided I wanted to give it a shot since I love jailbreaking old game consoles. I asked him about it and he brought it home from work. I had to charge it up for a while to get it to turn on, but it seems like the original battery is still going strong after 15 years.
Once I got KOreader working on it, having a dedicated eink reader has had me reading more than I have since elementary school. Not having a keyboard (either physical or touchscreen) is a bit annoying, but I will probably use this kindle until nobody makes replacement batteries for it anymore... At that point I'll buy something more open source and not made by Amazon.
That's awesome. One of the great things about this tech is that you could just start it up after 15 years, and then use it today. Love that! Fun story!
Had the same experience when I bought my kobo in ~2018. Started reading a heck of a lot more because I didn't have to shell out twenty plus dollars for a book or wait for a hold at the library. Now I just find an epub (blessed be thy name) and start reading.
Thats mine :D but having much worse screen. Use it every day.
Glad someone else got rid of the "Special Offers" deal. It was so annoying.
I can't remember how I did it on this one though because it was so long ago, so no idea if it's still a workable hack.
I think you had to delete a file or something? It was a while back. I remember you could even add in your own formatted image.
Honestly theres better ebook readers out there, but I did like the actual buttons. I think the 3 was better and if I were to go back, thats the one I would get.
The 3 is easier to change out batteries on too.
The glue was soooo difficult to get off! Im glad the 3 is great at that.
I have no idea why ebook reader manufactures dont use screws or something.
Had this one but the screen was busted when I dropped it from my bed. Miss it a lot, the replacement kindle's buttons are plasticky and the touch screen does ghost touches sometimes.