Amazon Kindle Review
Just after the release of the new Kindle, I got an e-mail from Amazon about it. Being an avid e-book reader (since 1994, on notebooks, passing through many palmtops and smartphones), I of course knew all about the previous Kindle models.
And quite frankly, I thought they were very reasonably priced - before Brazilian taxes, that is. I also wanted to see how the iPads did - and mostly important, iPad clones based on Android - before buying one.
Now that I've seen how the Samsung Galaxy tablet is going to be priced in Brazil (about 5 times the price of the new Wi-Fi Kindle), and with the new, much cheaper release, I bought one.
I received it about 4 days later, which I think is awesome fast, although not surprising - I got books from them regularly in about this time years ago, when I bought books from them via DHL.
The box itself is surprising - it is tiny and very light. Clearly Amazon wanted very much for the packaging to be cheap, light and ecologic. The Kindle box is already the mailing box, and the only other things included are an USB cable with a power plug adapter, and a small manual.
Since the Kindle screen doesn't erase when it's off, they send it with the basic instructions about attaching the USB cable and charging, which looks pretty cool. After setting it to charge, I turned it on and connected it to my Wi-Fi - very simple, it just found it and I typed in the password.
In a few seconds it downloaded my book list, and I got one of the e-books I had bought but still didn't read on my notebook (Dexter is Delicious).
There is a fairly complete manual loaded in, too, and it's both useful as is, and when you need it as reference the search system comes in handy.
Of course, the most important point of the review is how good it is for reading books. I loved it. It feels much more natural than any other screen I've used, and it's very close to paper, except that the contrast is slightly worse. But it's hardly noticeable.
Buying books after reading a sample is incredibly easy and fast, too.
The built-in dictionary looks great, and is very easy to use. You can also highlight passages and write notes, and a neat unexpected feature is that if enough people highlight the same section, it will show that for you. I imagine that would be great on textbooks, but even on fiction it is cool to see what pops up there.
The whole device isn't that much larger than the screen, and fairly light. It's small enough that I feel it's a bit delicate to hold, given the grasping area.
You can also use PDFs on it, but while it does work, since it can't reflow PDFs to fit the screen, you have to zoom out a LOT to see anything. It's usable, but pretty bad.
I have a few technical books from The Pragmatic Bookshelf in MOBI format. They look great on the Kindle.
You can also browse with it. That looks ok, and is usable for short look-ups. I wouldn't want to use it for extended time.
One cool, unexpected feature are the screen-saver pictures it sets the screen to when it goes to sleep. There are many wonderful illustrations and author pictures. So far I've seen more than a dozen of them, and no repeats so far...
I can't report on battery usage yet. I've only had it for 4 days, and although I read a whole book on it, there was no change in the battery status. That is awesome to me - on my last Palm, for example, if I read a lot on a day I'd have to recharge 2 times.
Overall, I'd strongly recommend the Kindle if you like reading e-books, and maybe even if you don't yet, but love books. If you read around a lot on places without Wi-Fi, maybe the Kindle 3G+Wi-Fi would be better, though.
And quite frankly, I thought they were very reasonably priced - before Brazilian taxes, that is. I also wanted to see how the iPads did - and mostly important, iPad clones based on Android - before buying one.
Now that I've seen how the Samsung Galaxy tablet is going to be priced in Brazil (about 5 times the price of the new Wi-Fi Kindle), and with the new, much cheaper release, I bought one.
I received it about 4 days later, which I think is awesome fast, although not surprising - I got books from them regularly in about this time years ago, when I bought books from them via DHL.
The box itself is surprising - it is tiny and very light. Clearly Amazon wanted very much for the packaging to be cheap, light and ecologic. The Kindle box is already the mailing box, and the only other things included are an USB cable with a power plug adapter, and a small manual.
Since the Kindle screen doesn't erase when it's off, they send it with the basic instructions about attaching the USB cable and charging, which looks pretty cool. After setting it to charge, I turned it on and connected it to my Wi-Fi - very simple, it just found it and I typed in the password.
In a few seconds it downloaded my book list, and I got one of the e-books I had bought but still didn't read on my notebook (Dexter is Delicious).
There is a fairly complete manual loaded in, too, and it's both useful as is, and when you need it as reference the search system comes in handy.
Of course, the most important point of the review is how good it is for reading books. I loved it. It feels much more natural than any other screen I've used, and it's very close to paper, except that the contrast is slightly worse. But it's hardly noticeable.
Buying books after reading a sample is incredibly easy and fast, too.
The built-in dictionary looks great, and is very easy to use. You can also highlight passages and write notes, and a neat unexpected feature is that if enough people highlight the same section, it will show that for you. I imagine that would be great on textbooks, but even on fiction it is cool to see what pops up there.
The whole device isn't that much larger than the screen, and fairly light. It's small enough that I feel it's a bit delicate to hold, given the grasping area.
You can also use PDFs on it, but while it does work, since it can't reflow PDFs to fit the screen, you have to zoom out a LOT to see anything. It's usable, but pretty bad.
I have a few technical books from The Pragmatic Bookshelf in MOBI format. They look great on the Kindle.
You can also browse with it. That looks ok, and is usable for short look-ups. I wouldn't want to use it for extended time.
One cool, unexpected feature are the screen-saver pictures it sets the screen to when it goes to sleep. There are many wonderful illustrations and author pictures. So far I've seen more than a dozen of them, and no repeats so far...
I can't report on battery usage yet. I've only had it for 4 days, and although I read a whole book on it, there was no change in the battery status. That is awesome to me - on my last Palm, for example, if I read a lot on a day I'd have to recharge 2 times.
Overall, I'd strongly recommend the Kindle if you like reading e-books, and maybe even if you don't yet, but love books. If you read around a lot on places without Wi-Fi, maybe the Kindle 3G+Wi-Fi would be better, though.
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