In case you solid your thoughts again to Might of this yr, it was introduced that older Amazon Kindle ereaders will probably be dropping a key function sooner or later; we’re sorry to say that this ‘future’ date has lastly come to move.

This key function is the flexibility to purchase books on the gadget – yeah, it’s a fairly main function – although you’re nonetheless capable of ship information over to the ereader, so it doesn’t make your Kindle completely redundant.

Affected Kindles are the fourth- and fifth-generation fashions, which got here out in 2011 and 2012, in addition to the Keyboard and Worldwide fashions. You may test your Kindle mannequin quantity within the Settings menu of the gadget, below Gadget Information, although it might be simpler merely to test whether or not you possibly can nonetheless purchase an e book.

Nevertheless you don’t have to consign your Kindle to a dumpster right away – like we mentioned, there are nonetheless methods to get digital information onto your Kindle, and maintain studying them. In reality, we’d think about that some folks don’t even use the on-device Kindle Retailer, because it’s rather a lot slower and clunkier to make use of than the web site and app.

In case you purchase books on the Kindle Retailer in your pc browser, you possibly can instantly ship them over to your Kindle, so the e-book will probably be accessible if you subsequent join the ereader to the net. Alternatively, you possibly can send PDFs and other files to your Kindle and this nonetheless works advantageous.

It’s price declaring, although, that if you have an Android phone it’s quite the palaver sending books to your Kindle.

Evaluation: however do you want a brand new Kindle?

The Kindle Retailer workarounds imply your ereader remains to be advantageous to make use of for studying books on the go. Nevertheless in case you do have an historic Kindle, there may be different causes to improve.

Gadgets can lose their battery life over time, that means you’re not getting the weeks of studying that you just’re used to. And your gadget might have been bashed or injury from the conventional put on and tear of use, significantly within the port division as that’s the place haphazard cable insertion may cause injury – keep in mind, the gadgets dropping onboard Kindle Retailer are a minimum of 10 years previous.

So when you’ve got an affected ereader, chances are you’ll be contemplating shopping for a brand new one, and upgrading to a more moderen mannequin for the latest options they’ve introduced.

If that’s you, we must always in all probability spotlight Amazon’s trade-in program (opens in new tab) for older gadgets, which helps you to commerce in an getting old gadget to get cash off a brand new one. That’s in case you don’t wish to move your Kindle to a buddy who may use it, in fact.

Whether or not or not you’re choosing a trade-in, there are sometimes some good offers on ereaders, and we’ll share the very best ones in your area beneath:

Tom’s position within the TechRadar group is to focus on telephones and tablets, however he additionally takes on different tech like electrical scooters, smartwatches, health, cellular gaming and extra. He’s primarily based in London, UK.

He graduated in American Literature and Artistic Writing from the College of East Anglia. Previous to working in TechRadar freelanced in tech, gaming and leisure, and likewise spent a few years working as a mixologist. Outdoors of TechRadar he works in movie as a screenwriter, director and producer.