Having countless stories in the palm of your hand is an exciting prospect, and it’s one of the reasons e-readers are so popular. You can load up your tablet with hundreds of novels, memoirs, comics, and more, flipping between stories and reading at your whims.

Yet there’s a temptation with so many electronics, from laptops to watches to streaming sticks, to constantly invest in the latest, next iteration. Kindles in particular occupy quite the range, with a variety of options for all kinds of readers, and newer versions coming online every year. Amazon is also eager to put these on sale often, increasing the temptation.

While there’s some value in buying the newest version of a product after a couple of years, namely smartphones, I’m here to tell you shouldn’t really buy a new Kindle. Not until your old Kindle simply doesn’t work anymore. Here’s why.

Kindles are designed for readers

Don’t overthink a next-gen upgrade

The main reason you shouldn’t rush to upgrade your Kindle is that there likely isn’t going to be anything that helps the central purpose of a Kindle, which is to read. The basic requirements of a Kindle, or any e-reader for that matter, are to provide storage for ebooks and allow you to read them in different lighting without hurting your eyes. You really only need basic functions and every Kindle is going to support that.

There really isn’t too much more to an e-reader that is absolutely necessary, and there isn’t much that changes that core functionality. You’d be hard-pressed to discern a big difference in things like processing power among Kindles. Even battery life and storage space aren’t as important as they are in other devices because Kindles don’t require a lot of power and books don’t take up that much space.

If your Kindle displays text well enough for you to read, and it can hold a charge, then that Kindle has successfully provided you with everything you need to read.

Don’t get caught up with superfluous features

Part of the temptation to invest in a new Kindle is that the latest models introduce flashy new features that come across as if they’re needed. But when you again consider the core purpose of a Kindle, there are a lot of extras that quickly become unnecessary.

Color is one of the big features Kindles are pushing. While it’s nice to see a cover in color as you open up your e-reader, the Kindle Colorsoft really only benefits those who read a lot of comics or graphic novels. Then there is the Kindle Scribe, which allows you to use your Kindle as a notebook. It’s a nice feature, but one that is likely only used selectively by writers taking notes who aren’t inclined to use a tablet or app.

Even ad-supported Kindles aren’t as annoying as one might think. A quick page pops up advertising a collection of books along with a cheesy slogan, which you can quickly ignore to get on with your reading. Just be mindful of how much you will really be using any new features.

Missing features and update issues

A new Kindle may keep you waiting and online

Another strong reason not to upgrade is that your newer model isn’t guaranteed to be any better. At least not right away. While there may be more features, some of which are surely unnecessary, you also may be left out of the features you were expecting.

For example, Kindle Colorsoft, for reasons that can only be purposefully cruel, does not allow you to toggle to dark mode. You may have the option to change the color of the text and background within a specific book, but you can’t change the tablet as a whole.The main requirement for an e-reader is to allow users a comfortable reading experience in any situation, whether it’s bright light or a dark bedroom. That a new Kindle doesn’t allow you the simplest of functions, a function that is present in just about every app and browser, is an insult to users.

Amazon provides updates regularly for its Kindle, but you shouldn’t have to wait for features to come online after you buy the tablet. Amazon wants to keep you waiting and connected online so that it can stay in touch with you, but there’s no guarantee the updates with make things better.

Amazon isn’t a big fan of reading and writing

Issues with Goodreads and a drive for sales plague Kindles

Lastly, there are concerns around investing in anything Amazon has to offer. Reading should be a personal experience that allows you to disconnect from the world, but Amazon wants you connected to its marketplace and ready to make purchases on a whim. When you invest in an Amazon product, it tries its best to keep you in its vast ecosystem, pushing on you services and subscriptions and apps and free trials to keep you engaged.

That Goodreads is so unpopular and plagued with issues points to how Amazon really feels about authors and readers. The app for book sharing and tracking is outdated and unsupportive of writers; community members have been able to review books that haven’t been published yet, while some authors have even been threatened with bad reviews by scammers.

Reading should be fun, engaging, and inspiring, and nothing about that experience should focus on commerce. Keep hold of your Kindle as long as you can, and while you’re at it, keep it offline as much as possible.