[madagascaradam]

Hi, I have a 1st gen Kindle Paperwhite that I've read regularly for 6 years (my only e-reader). I've loved it. I added the standard hacks but only really use the Kindle Collections hack (for easy collections, mainly for nested collections) and the screensavers. I don't often bother with the other hacks at all. I also use calibre to convert my non-Amazon books to Kindle format (or to turn my own documents into ebooks), so book file type is no issue to me as I can easily convert all of my books into any file type I want.

I've had no real problems with it until a couple years ago when I ran out of storage space and have to delete books from time to time in order to add new ones. But the last few months have seen the battery life drop dramatically. I regularly read it at least an hour a day, though often a couple hours a day, and sometimes I use it for up to 12 hours or more a day (when on long trips, which are sometimes frequent). There was a time when I'd only charge it once every 1-2 months (sometimes even longer if I was in a low-reading spell). But now I feel like the battery only lasts for about maybe 6 hours of usage at most... and that went down fast to this point just within a few months. So, I feel like I really NEED to replace it now. (Of course, it also has quite a lot of nicks and scratches and dirt accumulating at the corners that I just can't seem to get rid of. Being a 1st-gen PW the lighting it also a bit uneven but it doesn't really bother me.)

So, what's the best replacement for my 1st gen PW? I don't mind switching to another ebook reader format as I rarely used the Amazon bookstore and regardless, I can always remove the DRM from my purchased books (wherever I purchase them) and convert the format to the reader I'll use. I'll list my ereader feature specs in the desire I appreciate/need them and I'll specifically list some I don't need. I'm also price-conscious, so the best I can get for a good price is important (preferably below $100 or not much over it):

1. lighting is a must (I often read in the dark) - so any ereader that's lit at least as well as the PW 1 is nice, but if there are newer/better features, then please let me know

2. great battery life. My old kindle keyboard had a great battery life, then my paperwhite had a great battery life for years. I'd like to return to that ~1 month or more battery life (at least a solid 48 hours of constant use battery life would be appropriate, in my opinion... I don't know if I'm estimating that right, but that seems like what my older kindles could perform in their prime)

3. be able to use nested collections (I've used "Kindle Collections" for a long time and it works well... if my new ereader can do this by default, great! if not, then as long as I can jailbreak it and use something like "Kindle Collections" in order to get nested collections and manage it all with Calibre, then that's just as good)

4. More storage space - 4GB or more. 4GB might be enough (to replace the 2GB I only recently filled). But as I see that many newer ebooks often are larger files, then having 8GB could come in really handy.

5. Decent page-turning speed, no less than the PW 1, but faster would be nice.

6. I really like the touch screen. Not absolutely necessary, but this is at the top of my list for desired but non-essential features

7. A decent resolution, again, no less than the PW 1 would be good, but a higher resolution is nice.

8. I've seen that the new kindle paperwhite is waterproof and has its screen flush with the plastic part. The waterproof could come in fairly handy for me and the screen being flush would be nice because I could wipe off dirt more easily (and not get it stuck there permanently like some of it is now). Neither the flush screen nor the waterproof are a must for me, but if they're affordable together with my other desires above, then that's great!

9. I'd like to be able to change my screensavers (as I've done in the past with the screen savers hack) ... this isn't absolutely necessary as long as the new one has a tasteful selection and little-to-no advertising (I believe Kindle's selections in the past have been tasteful, but I still prefer my own screensavers where possible)

10. I don't need any audio features whatsoever. I never do audio books. I won't use my kindle for music or anything except actually reading/viewing books and documents

11. I don't actually even need any sort of network (even wi-fi) connection. I'm more comfortable sideloading all my books since I manage it with calibre. I don't want to use a wi-fi or data connection to do that (as my network mb/gb are usually limited where I live).

12. I really don't want any sort of "special offers" or other advertising - I find it incredibly annoying. I found that with my old PW (which I accidentally got with special offers), as long as I never connect it to the internet (which I don't) the offers mainly disappear and are replaced with a default screen at bottom (that I ignore) and I replaced the screensavers with the SS hack... so that's all great. It'd be great to have ZERO space for ads, but if I have to get something with some ads, then they need to be very unobtrusive.


Please let me know your recommendations for a replacement for my PW 1! As I said above, my only real experience is with kindles and I've loved it, but I'm by no means locked into the Amazon bookspace framework as I only sideload books and often find free books (or use my own documents) and convert the file types, etc. So if another ereader performs as well and has a better price (particularly with my top-4 stats above: lighting, good battery life, nested collections, and 4GB+ storage space) then I'll totally go for another ereader.

Thanks for any help any of you can offer!