I have wanted to own a Kindle for some time now and recently purchased the Wi-Fi 6" Display in Graphite color. I have owned it for a little over a month so I may not have discovered all the features, but I love this device!
Let me start by saying that this device does everything it claims to do. The ink contrast is fabulous! My main reason for purchasing it was because I am an avid cruiser and do not want to pack cumbersome books to take onboard the ship and I could not read on my laptop out on the deck because you can't see the screen. So the Kindle was the perfect solution.
Pros:
1. Fabulous reading contrast--easy to read in bright sunlight or inside with overhead lights or a book light (purchased separately).
2. Purchased books can be placed in categories that you label so it is easy to keep books organized and easily accessible.
3. Whispersync technology allows me to read on the kindle and on my iphone without having to remember what page I was on. (On the Kindle you must press the HOME screen and the Wi-Fi must be connected so the information will be sent to AMAZON's site. On the Iphone you must also return to the home screen on the Kindle App so the data will be saved or it will not sync the two locations.) When you open the book on either devide it will ask if you would like to sync to the furthest location read.
4. Battery life is very good (even better if you keep the Wi-Fi turned off while reading--but be sure to turn it back on before closing the book or it won't save your place for to sync with other devices!) I have had my Kindle for a little over a month and have read quite a bit and played games on it and I have only had to charge it once!
5. Very lightweight--I can easily hold it in one hand and turn pages with a light touch on the button. I do have to prop the corner of the Kindle into my palm so it was a little tricky to get used to when you are used to holding a book with two sides, but after figuring it out it was very comfortable to hold. (I have purchased a case, but I still prefer to read with the Kindle out of the case because the case adds quite a bit of weight)
6. Bookmarking/Highlighting features are great! You have the option to turn off where it notifies you of other readers' highlights, but I find it interesting to see what other people found worthy of highlighting.
7. Built in dictionary is FABULOUS!! As a connoisseur of words, I love being able to scroll to a word I do not know and have the definition pop right up on the screen. Not having to leave the book and go look up a definition is one of my favorite features.
Cons: (Well, not really cons, but things that could be improved upon!)
1. So far I have not been able to find a place to delete a book from my Kindle that I no longer wish to have on the device. Sometimes I start reading a book and do not like it so I want it to be gone! Or, if I have read a book and know I will never re-read it, I also would like to have the option to remove it. I will keep looking though!
2. When adding a book to a category, the entire list of books shows up as available for that category even if they are already placed in a different category. I suppose that some people may wish to place books in 2 different categories, but I find it rather cumbersome to have to sift through PAGES of books to find the new one I just purchased to add to a category.
3. Again, maybe I have just not figured this out yet, but when I go to the "My Clippings" area on the Kindle where it keeps track of your highlights, I cannot find an option to delete highlights. The only way I can find to do it is by returning to the book itself and locating the highlightin the text to delete. It would be nice to have this option from the "My clippings" location.
4. It would be great if the Kindle had an option for showing whether you had read a book or not. With so many books on the device, after awhile you don't always remember the titles of the ones you have read. That can be kind of frustrating when you are looking for a new book and you open several and find you have already read them.
5. It would be GREAT if the Kindle would include the book synopsis when you place your cursor over a book on your device. When I have purchased multiple books at one time I do not remember what the book was about by the time I get to it on my list. I want to be able to read a synopsis so I can decide if I am in the mood for that particular book at that time. I can go online to Amazon and read it, of course, but that is annoying. I think it should be available when you click on the book.
6. The "sleep" mode features pre-selected pictures, which I sometimes do not like--some of them are neat because they are famous authors, but some are pictures of...fish, which is weird. It would be great if you could choose to turn off the pre-selected pictures, or choose from a list of them which one you would like to show on the screen every time it goes to sleep.
Overall--I LOVE the Kindle. I am an avid reader and this device allows me to read on the go without carrying cumbersome books around! I recommend this device to anyone who loves to read!!
A Hop, a Leap, and a Bound from the Kindle 1!
I had a very good relationship with my Kindle 1 and was unsure if a newer generation Kindle would ever win me over. Sure the K1 had its quirks but the thing had stolen my heart so much so that its grievances hardly bothered me. It was not until I realized how many hoops the Amazon team jumped through to get the K3 ready for the dog and pony show that I was convinced. I then did the very hard thing of looking at my K1 with a critical eye and recognizing the innovations that had been made on its new cousin. Below is a summary of the highlights and the lowlights of Amazon's efforts with the K3... (To skip to the main points, simply read the headers of each section.) THE GOODS: Text as Crisp and Pristine as Ever- Book readers and K1 veterans alike will notice the sharpness of the K3's text. One side effect of the K1 text was the fact that the edges of letters had a slight fuzziness to them and were a little on the skinny side. This is certainly not the case with the K3's text...its big, its bold, and its beautiful. Funny enough, I even encounter the mythical "read faster" effect on the K3 because the font is so easy on the eyes. Ferrari Page Turn and Interface Speeds- The K1's speed could be best compared to that of turning a page on an actual book. Sure that may be decent but it is only natural to expect our technology to be more responsive than their real life counterparts. The duration of the classic e-reader flash is incredibly short on the K3 and should jar those who disliked it on the K1 much less. However, the star of the speed category should not only be awarded to the page turns, but the interface speed itself. I hardly notice any delay when moving the cursor around or using the menus on the K3. From a Respectable Middleweight to a Light as Air Featherweight- The K1 was hardly a brick in the hand even after outfitting it with a cover. However, the minute you popped the thing in your pack you would feel that you added on some undesired weight. The K3 has gone on quite the diet and rests like a feather on the hand. Covered or uncovered, you will not notice it at all in your carrying case. I swear one of these days I'll have forgotten which bag I put it in heh... Still the Same Great Selection- The Amazon store always manages to stock any book I'm looking for. While there will be a few select instances where one obscure novel or another has not had the Kindle treatment, pretty much any mainstream book in existence is still 60 seconds away. Also the great thing to keep in mind is all the free books at your finger tips. You're guaranteed to find almost any 100 year old public domain classic either within the Amazon catalogue or other great sources. The only irksome quality about the store itself is that it only sells the Kindle proprietary format, as that is the only type of ebook that can be read by the Kindle...I will cover more on this later. Wonderful Wi-Fi- While I did chuck up the extra dough to get the free 3G coverage, I knew I would primarily start utilizing the Wi-Fi feature. Hooking up to the home wireless was a breeze and many out there who settled for the $139 Wi-Fi only Kindle will not be disappointed. So far it doesn't seem to suck up the battery like the 3G might and the connection is as reliable as the Wi-Fi on my laptops. Enjoying Wi-Fi on your K3 may take a bit of tech-savviness though, especially if someone other than you set up your router and put a password on your network. Other than that, you should be hooked up fairly quickly after a simple brushing up on the basics of wireless connectivity. THE BADS: Memory Card Slot Axed- Some ebook/media hoarders will be angry that the memory card slot was axed. 3,500 books is more than enough for me but I can certainly understand that my needs do not reflect everyone else's needs. Memory cards also serve as a nice physical backup of content as well. I even know of some folks who categorized their K1 books via memory card to compensate for the lack of the K2/K3 collections feature. While those who took the plunge to purchase the K2 got over the demolition of this nice feature, I still believe in the future Kindle generations to come, a memory card slot should return. Lackluster Web Browser- The web browser on the K3 is still on the sluggish side unlike the other speedy interfaces on the device. I never bought the K3 thinking I'd use it for web browsing but several people still desire a Swiss Army knife quality to their gadgets. Those who are picturing their decent Blackberry browsers, neat Iphone/Ipad browsers, or similar things will probably be disappointed upon looking at this. As I said earlier though, this was never a biggie to me and at the end of the day the most use the browser on the K3 will get from me is for emergency internet access. PDF Viewing Still Leaves Alot to Be Desired- While I do appreciate Amazon's efforts to correct PDF viewing on the Kindle, its still not simple and snappy enough to leave me satisfied. The zoom feature is utterly essential and does great in a pinch but the fact still remains, that if a PDF is not properly formatted for the Kindle, it will look terrible. Thankfully I am aware of the techniques to easily accomplish this task or if I'm lazy can email a file to Amazon to let them have a go at it. However, many out there who simply want a device where they can pop a file on it and be done with it, will be quite disappointed. Another grievance regarding PDF viewing is that auto-rotation, while present on the Kindle DX, is not included on the K3...meaning that you have to open up another menu when you want to view something in landscape. Still No ePub Support- Though there are several programs which can correct the pitfall of no ePub support on Kindles (Calibre or Mobipocket Creator for example), the fact still remains that there is no native support for ePub. Even with software solutions, DRMs can get in the way in which case there is no chance at all for you to convert your favorite ebook to Kindle format (legally that is). However, it may not be fair to point the finger at Amazon regarding this issue. Most of the e-readers on the market are limiting the format of books they can recognize to their own proprietary formats. At the end of the day, this "bad" can pretty much apply to most of the e-readers on the market in general. Unfortunately there is only so much that can be covered in a review and the K3 bears other numerous improvements that I did not mention (TTS integration, quieter page turns, longer battery life, etc.) At the end of the day, the breakdown above should generally give you an idea of what was done successfully or unsuccessfully on Amazon's newest Kindle. Whether you are still an eternal lover of the printed page or a K1 oldie hesitant to give up on a good thing, the K3 will improve your reading experience and then some.
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2010
