89
Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Display / readability Best in terms of readability, viewing angles and contrast.
- Battery life Hard to verify the claim of 1 month battery with WiFi off and 30 minutes reading but the battery is long lasting.
- Store and selection of titles Amazon has a wider selection of books compared to iBooks but pales in comparison to Barnes and Noble.
- Ease of use Simple to use, although not having a keyboard can be annoying if you buy books directly on the device.
- Document support Supports all major formats, but the lack of ePub support sticks like a sore thumb.
- Storage capacity Holds 1400 text only books, this reduces with books having images.
- Durability Feels solid, the plastic finish offers an anti slip grip.
- Design and form factor The page turn buttons are a little awkward to press, but overall the design is great, good for one hand use.
- Portability (size / weight) Extremely thin and light, fits into any bag and as the promo video highlights (at the back of a jeans pocket).
Detailed review
At the Kindle Fire, Amazon made sweeping changes to their line of Kindle eReaders. Most notable in my opinion was the $79 Kindle (with special offers, $109 without offers or for overseas customers). This version of the Kindle is the only internationally shipping version of the Kindle (the Touch, Touch 3G and Fire are US only).
The Kindle isn't designed to do anything else except offer a great reading experience and it does precisely that, if you read Jeff Bezos' welcome message on the Kindle, it is meant to "disappear" engross the reader into the actual book, well said and perfectly executed.
The Kindle features an e-ink screen, unlike traditional LCD or LED displays, these aren't backlit and thence they do not reflect any light of their own, intact they absorb light, allowing you to read even in bright sunlight, something that is really difficult on LCD displays.
All the devices have eschewed the hardware keyboard, the higher end models have touchscreens for input but the lack of touchscreen input makes text entry a painful, annoying and frustrating experience. Personally, for this device the best way is to buy books on Amazon and deliver it to the device over whispersync.
Text input is done by bringing up the keyboard (using the dedicated button on the device) and then navigating with the 5 way button (it is tedious and annoying especially with the refresh rates of the screen).
The page turns on the device have been improved, this is my first Kindle so I don't have archive data to benchmark it, the screen does a full refresh "once every 6 page turns" which can be changed in the settings if you want it to do it at every page turn (unnecessary).
The Amazon Store has great variety of content, I think it has slightly more books for sale than iBooks but comes nowhere close to Barnes and Noble (but then again B&N doesn't ship the Nook overseas). The whispersync feature is lightyears ahead of the competition. The experimental browser in my opinion is useless and unnecessary.
At the end of it, this is an ebook reader, nothing more, nothing less and it is probably the best in the world, the price is right, the "special offers" rightly do not appear in the book but only when the device is idle.
Perfect companion device to the iPad.
The Kindle isn't designed to do anything else except offer a great reading experience and it does precisely that, if you read Jeff Bezos' welcome message on the Kindle, it is meant to "disappear" engross the reader into the actual book, well said and perfectly executed.
The Kindle features an e-ink screen, unlike traditional LCD or LED displays, these aren't backlit and thence they do not reflect any light of their own, intact they absorb light, allowing you to read even in bright sunlight, something that is really difficult on LCD displays.
All the devices have eschewed the hardware keyboard, the higher end models have touchscreens for input but the lack of touchscreen input makes text entry a painful, annoying and frustrating experience. Personally, for this device the best way is to buy books on Amazon and deliver it to the device over whispersync.
Text input is done by bringing up the keyboard (using the dedicated button on the device) and then navigating with the 5 way button (it is tedious and annoying especially with the refresh rates of the screen).
The page turns on the device have been improved, this is my first Kindle so I don't have archive data to benchmark it, the screen does a full refresh "once every 6 page turns" which can be changed in the settings if you want it to do it at every page turn (unnecessary).
The Amazon Store has great variety of content, I think it has slightly more books for sale than iBooks but comes nowhere close to Barnes and Noble (but then again B&N doesn't ship the Nook overseas). The whispersync feature is lightyears ahead of the competition. The experimental browser in my opinion is useless and unnecessary.
At the end of it, this is an ebook reader, nothing more, nothing less and it is probably the best in the world, the price is right, the "special offers" rightly do not appear in the book but only when the device is idle.
Perfect companion device to the iPad.
good review!
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