KINDLE REVIEWS

Read what other people say about their Kindles.........

What the papers say..

"	The Kindle is a triumph. It's a beautifully designed eBook reader with a gorgeous display offering a superbly integrated book-buying experience. ... Amazon has delivered a game-changing device at a bargain price; it is deservedly onto a winner here. " - PC Pro
"	They've cracked it — this is the future." - London Evening Standard
"	Its e-ink display is a thing of great beauty." - The Independent
"	Battery life is long enough for space shuttle missions." - Wired
"	Kindle's winning combination of noteworthy upgrades—an improved screen, better battery life, lighter weight, and lower price—vaults it to the top of the e-book reader category." - CNet
"	Just as digital music knocked down the price of an album… …Kindle is doing it for books. It's about time." - Live Magazine, Mail on Sunday
"	Speaking as a consumer, I’ll be buying a Kindle." - Matt Warman, Telegraph.co.uk

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5.0 out of 5 stars  KINDLE TOUCH

I've been a Kindle owner since the very old and chunky Kindle 2 device. Here's my personal pros and cons on the new Kindle Touch:

PROS ON THE KINDLE TOUCH:

1) Smaller and lighter than my previous Kindle Keyboard model. Dispensing with the physical keyboard and using an on-screen keyboard has saved a lot of space. This makes it nice and light to hold and also it's now small enough to fit into most of my handbags too.

2) The touch aspect is very responsive which is both good and bad. It's ever so easy to turn pages with a very light press on the right side for moving on a page or left for moving back. You can also swipe to turn pages too which again is very easy. I love the fact that Amazon have added up and down swiping while reading which means you can move to the next or previous chapter very quickly - if chapter markers have been added by the publishers in the book.

3) Using a touch screen is probably more intuitive for most people who are used to tablets and touch screen gadgets. It's great to be able to simply touch a word and you get your dictionary definition rather than having to navigate down to a word using buttons and then select it which is tedious.

4) I was very concerned about fingerprints over the reading screen but I've been pleasantly suprised with that. You do get fingerprints but they are admittedly very difficult to see on the matt finished screen unless you look closely. So hopefully that shouldn't put you off if fingerprints are a worry.

5) The text is clear and easy to read with lots of options of changing the size of the text and a few options on the font - just the same as with the Kindle Keyboard model. I compared both screens on my old and new device and noticed no difference with clarity of text between the two models.

6) Great new X-Ray feature (only works with some books where the publisher has provided it) which means you can see more info about characters, events and places with your book. This has been brilliant with reading the Harry Potter books where sometimes I want more detail. No having to go online to look it up - the extra info is there for you.

7) Some operations are made a lot easier with the Touch model like selecting words to get a dictionary definition, highlighting your favourite passages and quotes, adding a bookmark by just pressing the top right corner etc.

CONS ON THE KINDLE TOUCH:

1) I can't type as quickly on a touch screen keyboard as I can on the physical one on my Kindle Keyboard model. This may not be an issue for most people but I use my Kindle as a research tool as well as to read books so sometimes I can make extensive notes. This will be a pain for me with the touch model - plus sometimes my fingers press the wrong key on the Touch model because they're not very big.

2) The touch screen is very responsive which has its good points as I mentioned in the pros. But it also causes some issues too because if I don't press the power button when I'm done reading to activate the screensaver right away then any accidental movement on top of the screen causes something to happen which has ended up with me losing my place while reading a few times. Also my clumsy fingers have pressed on screen items by mistake on a number of occasions causing me confusion as to where I was.

3) I definitely seem to get more screen ghosting with this model than with my Kindle Keyboard so I'm a little disappointed in that. First thing you might want to do when you get your Touch is to go to settings and make sure you get the device to refresh the e-ink on every page turn. If you don't then I kid you not, you will see parts of the previous screen 'ink' on the current page that you're reading and this is known as screen ghosting. It's very annoying. Even having the page refresh on every turn, I still get a little of this ghosting so that's a slight con for me.

4) My BIGGEST CON with this new Kindle is the lack of physical page turn buttons. Yes, I know it's a Touch model but personally I'd prefer the option of being able to use page turn buttons while reading OR to use the screen to navigate. Problem with using the screen is that your thumb (which you'll use to move forward and back whether tapping or swiping) ends up obstructing some of what you're reading. If you're a fast reader and turning pages quickly, this can be pretty annoying. I love the physical page turn buttons on my Kindle Keyboard and I just wish that Amazon had provided them as well with this model. Personally I don't want to have to touch the screen to do every single thing.

So while I think this new model is great and has many advantages over the Kindle Keyboard, I'm not giving it a full-out 5 star rating because the device isn't quite perfect for me. I don't see any improvement with the sharpness or clarity of text over the previous model, I do get a little of the annoying screen ghosting and I just wish Amazon had provided those physical page turn buttons as well so you're not forced into having to read by touching (and covering) the screen.

And that's my very honest take on it. Great model but just missed the mark of being the perfect Kindle model for me.

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KINDLE KEYBOARD

I hemmed and hawed a lot before ordering the Kindle; my first e-reader. I thought perhaps I'd miss something about the experience of reading a book. Perhaps I'd miss the feel of it, or the smell, or turning the pages. In actual fact, the only thing I miss is being able to re-read the cover and back page when I put it to rest after a long read. There's something satisfying about absorbing the cover and imprinting it on your memory, especially after you finish the last page of a book. Anyway, it's a minor point. In every other detail the Kindle is a superior reading experience.

The weight of the Kindle is a significant factor. A large paperback or hardback can be annoying to read, especially if you're in bed. Remember holding a heavy paperback above you? Or how annoying it is when you lie on your side and one page of the open book is easier to read than the other? Or pinning a book open on the pillow with one hand as you read? Well, all that's out the window. Reading a lightweight e-reader is comfortable and handy and it's almost impossible to lose a page. Need to stop reading for a moment? Just put the Kindle to one side, and when you return it's still there, on the same page. The only time I lose a page is when I grip either side of the device wrongly and turn a page forward or backward unexpectedly; easily resolved though.

I've tried turning pages on other devices. For example, on the iPad there's a page-turning graphic where the page rolls across the screen under your fingertips. Fact: page-turning is NOT the exciting part of reading a book. If you're enjoying a book you don't even notice that you're turning the pages. However, when I tried a different brand of e-reader I was dispapointed at the slowness of the page turns and the way the device seemed to have a fit as the page refreshed. It was distracting. This is not a problem the Kindle suffers from. The page turns are swift and delicate and do not interrupt the reading experience. On top of all this, you've got a crystal clear display and the ability to adjust the font size.

The first book I downloaded and read was "I Shall Wear Midnight" by Terry Pratchett, which had just been published. I found that, just like with a book, you soon forget you're turning pages and you get lost in the story. This is exactly what I hoped for. If the device had intruded into the reading, it would have been a lesser experience than using a book. I hope the day never comes when the Kindle beeps when an email arrives - this device is geared toward reading and I hope it stays that way. At the moment it is unobtrusive and the reading experience is fantastic.

The book browsing and buying experience is good, as expected. It's perfectly fast on WiFi. I haven't really had cause to test the 3G yet. The experimental web-browsing function works quite well on Wikipedia, although is not something I'm particularly interested in on an e-reader. The music plays nicely, and the text-to-voice function is pretty good, although everything sounds like it's being read by Stephen Hawking. However, the quality of the speakers is very good (better, I think, than on my iphone) and so proper audiobooks come across loud and clear. These are certainly interesting features and it doesn't do any harm for them to be there.

There's a free Minesweeper game if you press ALT+SHIFT+M. This is quite a fun 'easter egg', but I wouldn't want to encourage Amazon to detract from the main function of the device: reading. Not sure why there's an unused microphone on the device either. Goodness knows what they're planning. :)

I've had the device running with WiFi turned on for 6 days now and it's just started telling me that the battery is beginning to run low. I'd say there's still about 10% left in it, judging by the little battery symbol. That's impressive, considering I've been using it a lot. I'll probably turn the WiFi off between book purchases in future, though. It's going to be great for holidays.

I've also tried sending a Microsoft Word document by email to the device. It was a fast transfer and the final result was startlingly decent. It was nice seeing it displayed so well on the device.

The pricing of the ebooks is a bit odd; always shifting, and sometimes books disappear from sale (not from the device, though, as far as I know). I've been lead to believe this is because the UK prices are sometimes tied to the US prices. As the exchange rate fluxuates it affects the pricing. There's also some kind of dynamic pricing where Amazon will beat competitors' prices while they're having a sale. I don't know if this is true, but it seems to go some way to explaining why a Stephen King book will be £5 one day and £9 the next. It seems at the moment that there's a lot of significantly discounted bestsellers - which is a Good Thing. :) Hopefully prices will continue to drop as Kindle uptake increases. It certainly seems to be common sense that the saving made by publishers not having to print and distribute books should be passed on to the reader.

Overall, I'm so pleased that the device is as good as the advertising made it out to be. I'm going to start ditching the hundreds of paperbacks that I have in the house as I feel confident that e-readers - and in particular the Kindle - are the way forward.

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KINDLE FIRE

This item will be reviewed when it is released in the UK

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KINDLE E READER

This is my first time using a kindle. I wasn't sure about them at first, but now I have one (came today) I love it! The reading experience on the Kindle is unique and very enjoyable. It is light weight and small. When i took it out the box my initial thought was "is that it?" but as soon as I turned it on and saw the books I downloaded were there waiting for me and i started to read away, it became apparent that this was going to change the way I read from now on.