It finally happened. After sixteen years of using ereaders with E Ink screens I finally broke one today. I’ve had batteries die and the power button stopped working on my Kobo Glo, but this is the first time I’ve actually broken one of my ebook readers to the point where it is no longer usable.
Unfortunately it was one of my favorite devices of all time, and it was unquestionably my favorite Kindle. And it was my fault that it broke. But my Kindle Voyage had a good run.
I bought it used off of eBay in 2018. I bought one new when it first came out, but it had a blotchy frontlight that annoyed me so I got rid of it in 2016.
I was fully expecting Amazon to release an improved 2nd gen Voyage at some point. But that never happened. So I decided to get another one because it had the best screen I’d ever seen (frontlight excluded). The one I got on eBay ended up having a really nice and even frontlight, so I ended up liking it better than the first one I had.
Over the years I reviewed dozens of new ereaders, and none of them had a screen as nice as the Kindle Voyage. It just had a clearer quality with darker blacks than other E Ink devices. Current ereaders like the 12th gen Kindle Paperwhite can finally get close to the darkness of the black ink, but still nothing can quite match the clarity of the Kindle Voyage’s micro-etched glass screen.
Be Careful Putting eReaders in Your Pockets
My Kindle Voyage broke because I had it in my back pocket and I sat on it. The screen cracked. E Ink screens are known for being really fragile and easy to break because of the thin glass back panel, so you should never apply pressure to them or twist them.
But it wasn’t the E Ink screen that broke; it was the front glass layer. The screen still works fine, and the device still turns on and off, but the touchscreen no longer works with the cracked front panel.
I’ve sat down on my Kindle Voyage a hundred times before (I usually lean away from it) and it never broke. But this time was different.
Kindles are more durable than most brands, but they can still break. Sitting on them is a bad idea. Putting them in a bag with other heavy objects is also something that should be avoided.
Lack of Alternatives
At this point I don’t want to buy another used Kindle Voyage since it was released over a decade ago, but it’s kind of sad how few alternatives there are in 2025.
Most 6″ ebook readers that are available now are made out of cheap plastic, and very few of them have page-turn buttons. The larger 7″ models have buttons, but they are too wide to fit in most pockets.
I really like the Boox Palma 2, but I just feel like it’s too expensive to use as a basic ereader, and I’m afraid it will eventually break if I carry it around in a pocket.
Pocketbook sells a few 6″ models with page buttons on Amazon, and I currently have one of their basic models, but the low resolution screen is hard to accept after using 300 ppi screens for so long.
I’ll probably just start carrying around a Kobo Clara or basic Kindle for a while and see what sticks, but I wish there were some nicer options more like the Kindle Voyage.
