A Kindle 3 Review

echo4818echo4818 Acolyte
edited December 2010 in Spurious Generalities
So, I decided to buy a Kindle 3 wifi only off of amazon.com. I had never seen a kindle before, but nevertheless I decided to take the plunge.

When I was looking at the reviews on amazon all of the front page reviews seemed awfully cookie-cutter looking. Like someone working for amazon had decided to put up fake reviews that were making the kindle out to be the end all device. I thought I would then write this review so everyone could know what a average everyday real person thought of the kindle.

The reason that I bought a wifi only Kindle is because I couldn't justify the extra $40 for the 3g kindle, and I wanted a small ebook reader not the DX. I actually prefer reading mass market paperback books because I can tote them all over easily. I have wifi almost everywhere I go. At most relatives houses and at home. Now even a lot of restaurants have wifi. I just couldn't justify the extra cost.

For awhile I was debating on whether or not to get the kindle or get a nook. What sold me on the kindle was the long battery life. The Kindle's battery lasts a very long time. For me the battery probably lasts around 2-3 weeks depending on how much I use it. i typically read an hour to two hours daily right before I fall asleep every night. The reason the battery lasts so long is because of the e ink. From what I understand the e ink screen uses actual ink for the words. The kindle somehow electronically moves the ink around the screen to show words and pictures. The screen only uses power to create the images on the screen. It does not use power to keep the images there. when you put the kindle to sleep it will bring up a random image and keep that image there until you power the kindle up. Also with this understand that if you play one of the few games that the amazon has for the kindle, such as minesweeper or solitaire this will greatly reduce the battery life because the screen will keep having to change.

The kindle 3 screen is very clear and easy on the eyes. I suspect this is because it mimics paper and ink extremely well. The screen does a good job of removing glare. The only time i notice glare is when I use a clip on reading light. The reading light is a very powerful LED light, so i just angle it to the side and get indirect light. The Kindle 3 display is black and white only, unlike the nook's color display. I only use my Kindle for reading, so is all I really need is black and white.

The kindle 3 can hold a lot of books the amazon website says around 3,500. If you want actual numbers this is 3.05 GB. you can plug it into your computer with the included usb cable to either charge the kindle or put books, music or any other documents into the kindle. Speaking of which the kindle can play music. I have not tried this feature, as I have a Zune MP3 player which takes care of my music / video needs with a LOT more storage space.

As for charging the kindle you can charge it on a computer or a wall outlet. A outlet plug attaches to the USB Cable and allows you to charge it via a wall outlet. The Kindle 3 takes about 3.5 hours to charge. Normally I leave it charging overnight.

The Kindle 3 comes with an "experimental" web browser. This web browser is about the equivalent as that on a Smart Phone. It can load mobile pages, but struggles with regular web pages. I have had the kindle completely freeze up on some web pages with a lot of data.

As far as the kindle 3 weight. It weighs 8.5 ounces. From what i can tell this is about the same weight as your average Mass Market Paperback book. Lighter than regular paperbacks and hard covered books, but still difficult to hold with one hand for extended periods of time.

One of the best features of the Kindle 3 is the included two dictionaries, The New Oxford American Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English. While you read you can at any point look up words in either of these dictionaries. You can also open up these dictionaries just like your other books on the device. You can also look up words in Wikipedia when you are connected to wifi. One last feature related to this is that you can find phrases in books and highlight them for later, or put them on facebook or twitter. I personally do not use facebook or twitter so i have no idea how well this works.

The navigation is simple. You use a directional pad to navigate up and down to select books and press the select button in the middle of the pad to choose what book to read. You can arrange the books in the main menu by author name or book name. There is also a option to create custom collections for multiple books. This is by far the worst part of the Kindle. If you put lots of books on the Kindle it is very hard and time consuming to get to the one you want. The kindle only allows so many books per page and there is no search. I have found that if you have more than about 40-50 books on the kindle it starts to take a ridiculous amount of time to navigate to the one you want. With so many free books to be had on the internet the amount of books that you collect can become quite large. The page forward and page backward are on the sides of the display. The forward is about twice the size of the backward. They are located on both sides of the display so you can turn pages with either hand if you are holding the kindle with only one hand.

I think that the best part of the kindle is the ability to download books off of torrent sites for free. Most any book you want can be found through these sites for no cost. Yes, the $140 price point is steep, but you can download any book you want for free off of the internet. So eventually you are going to start saving money, and you will have an awesome reading device.

Basically to sum up the review if you are looking for a eReader then get the Kindle. If you are looking for some sort of multimedia device then get an IPad or Nook.

[Posted on CMS by Mayberry http://totse.info/cms/kindle-3-review ]

Comments

  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited December 2010
    Wow, thanks for the review. I am not a fan of ebook readers myself [mostly i can't buy one :p] but I do agree Kindle like other readers is overhyped.

    Again, thanks for contributing.

    EDIT: Heheh

    Anyway, Since your added the review prefix this will get published on the main page. [cms]
  • SlartibartfastSlartibartfast Global Moderator -__-
    edited December 2010
    The e-ink isn't actually ink.

    my rudimentary understanding is that that each pixel has a sphere of oil with one side black coloured and the other side white coloured (taking advantage of the viscous properties of oil) . Each 'sphere' is magnetised and can be black or white facing depending on the magnetic polarity. It stays in the same state until a magnetic pulse flips it over.

    The browser is slow because the screen has a 0 refresh rate (explaining it's ability to last for weeks on one charge). To view a webpage, the browser has to go through a intermediate layer that determines which pixel is "on" or "off".
  • echo4818echo4818 Acolyte
    edited December 2010
    The e-ink isn't actually ink.

    my rudimentary understanding is that that each pixel has a sphere of oil with one side black coloured and the other side white coloured (taking advantage of the viscous properties of oil) . Each 'sphere' is magnetised and can be black or white facing depending on the magnetic polarity. It stays in the same state until a magnetic pulse flips it over.

    The Kindle manual describes the e-ink as being actual ink that is electronically moved around.

    Me thinks that your your description is far more accurate.
  • edited December 2010
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  • MayberryMayberry Regular
    edited December 2010
    I shall read this review on my Kindle :o
  • edited December 2010
    Fantastic guide! This actually made me want to buy a kindle, hahaha.
  • KatzenklavierKatzenklavier Regular
    edited December 2010
    My rudimentary understanding is that that each pixel has a sphere of oil with one side black coloured and the other side white coloured (taking advantage of the viscous properties of oil) . Each 'sphere' is magnetised and can be black or white facing depending on the magnetic polarity. It stays in the same state until a magnetic pulse flips it over.

    Pretty good, but it relies on electrostatics, not magnetics.

    250px-Electronic_paper_%28Side_view_of_Electrophoretic_display%29.PNG

    Legend:
    1 upper layer.
    2 transparent electrode layer.
    3 transparent micro-capsules.
    4 positively charged white pigments.
    5 negatively charged black pigments.
    6 transparent oil.
    7 electrode pixel layer.
    8 bottom supporting layer.
    9 light.
    10 white.
    11 black.
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