Skip to main content

Amazon Launches the Kindle Voyage (in Canada) for a Reasonable $299

18113075590_12094b1248_hAmazon’s flagship ereader launched in the US in September 2014, but it only just became available on Amazon.ca just this week.

A member of MobileRead noticed that Amazon quietly listed the Kindle Voyage on Amazon.ca this week. The list price is $299 CAD, or about twice the price of the Kindle Paperwhite in Canada, but the price of the Voyage is more reasonable than it first appears.

When converted to US dollars, the Voyage costs about $219 USD, or the unsubsidized price of the Voyage in the US. In other words, Canadians are paying about the same price as Americans for the Voyage.

The Voyage has proven popular with reviewers and with some users, who laud the ereader for its premium features. I think it costs too much, but the Paperwhite, on the other hand, is a steal in Canada.

That model has the same 6″ 300 ppi Carta E-ink screen as on the Voyage, only at about half the price in Canada ($139 CAD, or $102 USD). On the other hand the Paperwhite lacks the haptic feedback and flush-mounted touchscreen found on the Voyage, but I’d say that trade off is worth it.

image by kenming_wang

Similar Articles


Comments


Patrick February 18, 2016 um 10:28 am

I can almost buy two kobo aura H2O’s for that price.

Nate Hoffelder February 18, 2016 um 10:49 am

How much does the Aura H2O cost in Canada?


Patrick February 18, 2016 um 10:53 am

179.99. Heck you can get an iPad mini for 329.99 in Canada.

Nate Hoffelder February 18, 2016 um 11:22 am

Damn. In that context, the Voyage is expensive.

Frank February 18, 2016 um 12:50 pm

The Mini 2 is around 329 in Canada, but that is using 2.5 year old technology and only has 16GB of storage. Note the Mini 3 is pretty much the same as Mini 2, except for Touch ID.
Mini 4, the current model that is 4 months old, is 399 in US and 549 in Canada.
E Ink vs LCD screen makes a difference when reading, especially at night.

Patrick February 18, 2016 um 11:21 pm

But the voyage isn’t exactly new tech either, it’s going into its second year soon.


Jason February 18, 2016 um 4:42 pm

Dear Amazon. Keep it.


poiboy February 18, 2016 um 8:02 pm

as a kindle voyage owner.. its worth the quality (as an avid reader).


Joanna Cabot February 18, 2016 um 11:09 pm

I don’t really understand why everyone wants to convert the price into American dollars. Canadians who are getting paid in Canadian dollars and buying from this Canadian store have to shell out 300 big ones. Converting it to American dollars is about as useful in that context as listing the price in pounds in Euros.


Rasputin February 19, 2016 um 7:18 am

You argue $300 CDN for an e-reader makes sense. The other day you said KU authors getting less per page even though there is more money in the pot made sense. Seeing a pattern here?

Nate Hoffelder February 19, 2016 um 7:23 am

I didn’t say it made sense. I said it was reasonable because it’s close to the US price. I think it costs too much, but a lot of people disagree so in this situation I will simply hide behind them.


DavidW February 19, 2016 um 7:58 am

The Kobo Aura H20 is 180 CND, so you might want to rethink the Voyage being a reasonable price.

And IMO both the haptic feedback and flush screen are actually not great features. Why doesn’t Amazon just bring back real buttons, how hard is that to understand!? Oh they’re not reliable you say? Guess what? The buttons on my Kindle 3 are still fine.

Nate Hoffelder February 19, 2016 um 8:03 am

I like buttons, too.

(I never really expected to get into this kind of debate over semantics, but …) Part of the reason I called the price reasonable was that fool over at GoodeReader, and the discussion at MobileRead where several people disporved the initial complaint by showing that the price was similar to the US price.


Rasputin February 19, 2016 um 8:02 am

Compare the Teleread article title: CDN$ 299 for a Kindle Voyage? Outrageous!

and yours: Amazon Launches the Kindle Voyage (in Canada) for a Reasonable $299

Outrageous VS Reasonable. Hmm. Which one is more eye-grabbing, and factual as well?

You missed the boat on the KU article too. The title could have said "Amazon KU makes more money and pays authors less (per page)"

But no. Instead it "made sense." Because Amazon is bundling KU free to new device buyers? So what is Amazon saying? That KU works are of no value and therefore quality? So much to talk about that inspires debate.

Nate Hoffelder February 19, 2016 um 8:22 am

The only I time I used the word "sense" in that other post was when I wrote "it would make sense that KU usage would reach a new high in January". So holding that against me is a swing and a miss.

And as for the title, I used "Kindle Unlimited Funding Reaches New Peak in January 2016 as the Per-Page Payment Drops". My title says basically the same thing as yours, only mine is more accurate. Yours is arguably wrong (with the funding pool having gone up, authors -plural- are being paid _more_).


Haesslich February 19, 2016 um 10:34 am

At $300 CAD, the Voyage is hard to justify as an eReader, especially without an SD card slot or other extra (beyond haptic "buttons") functionality over the similarly sized Kobo Glo HD (which was on sale for $100 CAD a week or so ago) or the slightly larger but also larger screened Aura H2O which also has an SD card slot and waterproofing. Or an iPad Mini 2G/Android tablet, both of which have higher resolution screens.

The Voyage with 3G,on the other hand, has no competition in its functionality or price range – nobody else offers an Eink eReader with it now, and most cellular capable tablets are about $50-100 more expensive, not counting data plans.


Jennifer February 19, 2016 um 10:59 am

I love my Kobo H2O – got it the week it came out in 2014 and it’s still working flawlessly. Being waterproof it’s great for the beach or pool, and I think it’s a much better buy. Also, it’s important to remember if you want to borrow ebooks from Canadian libraries that they do not work with Kindle ereaders (they use the mobi format, and Canadian libraries only offer ePub/PDFs).


Rasputin February 19, 2016 um 11:24 am

Also the Kobo is much better at reading pdf files. The Voyage is pretty limited device.


Amir February 22, 2016 um 9:11 am

To me,it is more likely obvious that Amazon first sold this e-reader in States.Then it went to be over-saturated.Now they remember that their north neighbourhood may have more diefen bucks to shell out.No Amazon,thank you(Diefen bucks refers to the Canadian prime minister Diefenbaker who himslef and his political party led the Canadian dollars value falling off to almost ground zero between 1957-1963)!


Write a Comment