Amazon’s new Kindle has eight times more storage, but you can’t get it in U.S.

By Lulu Chang October 18, 2016

amazon manga model kindle paperwhite screen shot 2016 10 18 at 11 25 37 am — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Voracious reader? Now, your Kindle can finally keep up with you. That is, if you’re in Japan. Sorry friends, apparently, the American appetite for books — or at least for graphic novels — hasn’t quite caught up to our friends overseas, which may explain why Amazon has launched a new Kindle for its Japanese market that boasts eight times as much storage as the original version. That’s right — the new “Manga Model” Kindle Paperwhite has 32GB of storage, because, let’s be honest, 4GB is practically a crime.

While the Manga Model is otherwise almost indistinguishable from the original Paperwhite, the 32GB storage aspect certainly sets it heads and shoulders above the rest. Amazon estimates that this amount of memory can hold about 700 books, and if you’re a Manga fan, that means keeping the entirety of the very hefty Naruto, Asari-chan, and Kochikame series on your device. And because you’ll clearly be flying through the pages (when you’ve got so many to read), Amazon also says that it’s upped its page-turning speed by 33 percent.

According to Amazon Japan President Jasper Chan, the Manga Model was designed specifically as a response to Japanese manga fans. With its high-resolution display, eight times the storage capacity, and rapid page-turning abilities, Chan said that the newest Kindle is the “best … for comic lovers.”

You can currently pre-order the Kindle Manga Model for 16,280 yen ($157) or 12,280 yen ($118) for Amazon Prime members, which makes it 2,000 yen ($19) more expensive than the regular Paperwhite. But remember, it’s only around for Japanese customers, and very few of them at that — Amazon isn’t making too many of its Manga Models, so we’ll just have to wait and see how popular these guys are, and hope and pray that one sweet day, they make their way across the Pacific. Until then, we’ll just have to settle for our own Kindles and their sad storage capacities.

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