New Amazon Kindle launches in Australia next week for $139

UPDATE | With Amazon's new Kindle 4 ebook reader now available in Australia, alongside the Kindle Keyboard model, we've put together this practical guide to which Kindle is best to buy.

PREVIOUS | Amazon's latest Kindle ebook reader will hit Australia next week, but it won't be the Kindle Touch or the Kindle Fire tablet – only the entry-level non-touch Kindle wi-fi.

The new fourth-gen Kindle, which will be sold through Dick Smith Electronics for $139 when it launches on October 31, ditches the conventional keyboard of all previous Kindles.

This trims both the size – it's slightly smaller in every dimension – and weight, which comes down by almost a third to a featherweight 170 grams.

Not that anybody ever complained about the wildly successful third-gen Kindle being too large or too heavy, but there are many (this writer among them) who would gladly have foregone that model's keyboard.

DSE will continue to sell the 'Kindle Keyboard' model alongside the new Kindle, at $159 for the wi-fi only edition and $219 for 3G and wi-fi.

The new model sports the same superb 6 inch e-ink display as its predecessor, although it does cut a few corners along with the price tag: battery life on standby is halved to one month, and there's only 2GB of storage instead of 4GB. Neither of which is a deal-breaker, especially when even that 2GB of memory can hold over a thousand books.

As for the Kindle Touch and the Android-powered Kindle Fire tablet: for now, those are available only in the USA and there's no word on any planned Aussie release.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.