Amazon today announced its least expensive and lightest Kindle ever. The new Kindle will start in price at $79 and weigh 30 percent less than the current Kindle model, Amazon announced at a press event in New York. It's available to order today at Amazon's site.

The new Kindle promises to dramatically lower the entry-level price for a quality e-book reader in the standard 6-inch size, most of which now sell for around $140. The $79 Kindle will be one of its Special Offers editions, which have ads and special offers on their screensaver and home pages. An ad-free version of the new Kindle will also be available, for $109.

Unlike the Kindle Touch, which Bezos also announced this morning, the new Kindle will not have a touchscreen: You'll navigate using the familiar Kindle page-turn bars on each side of the screen, which Bezos said have been redesigned for easier turns. Amazon promises the new devices will turn pages 10 per cent faster than its predecessors. Like the new Touch devices, the $79 Kindle will use Pearl E Ink screens, as do the current Kindles and most other competitors.

We’ll have more later on the new Kindle—and on the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet that's expected to be announced at the event.

The $79 Kindle (photo: Amazon)