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Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Display / readability The best on the market for me. I can't read on a backlit display. Wish the resolution was higher but I assume that is in the pipeline
- Battery life Battery life seems worse than older kindles because the display refreshes a lot more when interacting with touch. But still miles ahead of other products
- Store and selection of titles One of the reasons I stuck with Kindle is the way your library stays with you everywhere you go.
- Ease of use Many benefits and some big trade-offs come with touch.
- Document support I love the way I can right-click documents on my PC and send them wirelessly to the Kindle. Docs, PDF, and any mobi files are supported. epub is not.
- Storage capacity No comments
- Durability No comments
- Design and form factor Putting the content first is appealing but raised bezel is a turn-off
- Portability (size / weight) Biggest advantage of removing the keyboard. It fits perfectly in your hand.
Detailed review
I owned a Kindle 3rd generation which was stolen, so I was in the market for a new e-reader and considered the Nook as well as other Kindles. Ultimately I decided to get the Kindle Touch. I'll focus on the benefits and downsides of the new design. The number one benefit of touch is that books become much more interactive. Highlighting words for definitions and annotations is so much more effortless than with the old d-pad. I have restarted my LA Times subscription and it is amazing how much more natural it feels to navigate through a newspaper with the new interface.
I personally feel that the Kindle 3rd gen was the peak of design for the brand. It was slim and handsome, but it had its own issues with usability. I was constantly accidentally pressing buttons when adjusting the device in my hands, an issue that has plagued Amazon's designs since the early days. The new Kindle has a buttonless bezel which allows you to truly sit back and enjoy the content on the screen.
However, the trade-off is a large, unsightly, and raised bezel which dominates the face of the device. It's function over form, unusual in this day and age so it's a mixed blessing. The device looks like a picture frame. It feels outstanding in the hands, though. Very balanced and ergonomic in every position, including landscape mode which I like for PDFs.
The touch keyboard is definitely better than the old hardware one. Amazon has stood on the shoulders of giants here and duplicated the type of keyboard found on many smartphones and tablets, which is a good thing. Some of the new gestures are better and some are kind of wonky. I wish there was a menu key because I find tapping the upper edge to get options to be unintuitive. The text-to-speech functionality has always been a favorite function to me. I like to read before bed and so having a voice to assist me when my eyes are tired is great. But it's annoying that I have to continuously turn off the voice when I want to annotate or click to see a footnote. Why can't I do both at once?
E-readers are still developing. I think in a few years we will have full-color magazines on e-ink displays, with much higher resolution. I considered buying the Nook with Glowlight, which integrates a lighted layer on the device, but ultimately decided to go with Kindle and get a lighted case. I didn't get the ad-enabled option because I don't think it's worth the savings, and I got 3g so my subscription content will be delivered when traveling when I often don't have access to wifi.
Overall, I recommend the Kindle Touch because the immense benefits of the technology outweigh the quirks of a still-developing product category. I think Amazon's advantage of scale and experience gives it the edge over Barnes and Noble's and Sony's competitors.
I personally feel that the Kindle 3rd gen was the peak of design for the brand. It was slim and handsome, but it had its own issues with usability. I was constantly accidentally pressing buttons when adjusting the device in my hands, an issue that has plagued Amazon's designs since the early days. The new Kindle has a buttonless bezel which allows you to truly sit back and enjoy the content on the screen.
However, the trade-off is a large, unsightly, and raised bezel which dominates the face of the device. It's function over form, unusual in this day and age so it's a mixed blessing. The device looks like a picture frame. It feels outstanding in the hands, though. Very balanced and ergonomic in every position, including landscape mode which I like for PDFs.
The touch keyboard is definitely better than the old hardware one. Amazon has stood on the shoulders of giants here and duplicated the type of keyboard found on many smartphones and tablets, which is a good thing. Some of the new gestures are better and some are kind of wonky. I wish there was a menu key because I find tapping the upper edge to get options to be unintuitive. The text-to-speech functionality has always been a favorite function to me. I like to read before bed and so having a voice to assist me when my eyes are tired is great. But it's annoying that I have to continuously turn off the voice when I want to annotate or click to see a footnote. Why can't I do both at once?
E-readers are still developing. I think in a few years we will have full-color magazines on e-ink displays, with much higher resolution. I considered buying the Nook with Glowlight, which integrates a lighted layer on the device, but ultimately decided to go with Kindle and get a lighted case. I didn't get the ad-enabled option because I don't think it's worth the savings, and I got 3g so my subscription content will be delivered when traveling when I often don't have access to wifi.
Overall, I recommend the Kindle Touch because the immense benefits of the technology outweigh the quirks of a still-developing product category. I think Amazon's advantage of scale and experience gives it the edge over Barnes and Noble's and Sony's competitors.
good review!
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