Thursday, April 5, 2012

Kindle Review - Is It Really the Best Ebook Reader Out There?


Even though I'm really fond of classic paper books, I decided that it's time to purchase an e-reader. I have to read lots of books for college and it's really inconvenient to carry all those big books with me at all times. I have to admit I was a bit sceptical at first, but Kindle really surprised me in a good way.

The first thing that I absolutely adore is portability. I can literally have a couple of thousands books with me no matter where I am or where I go. And you can store your books in any order or categories you like. Kindle comes with 4GB of internal memory, but there's no way to expand that. Kindle doesn't accept memory cards of any type. If you use Kindle only for ebooks and newspapers this really shouldn't be an issue. But if your Kindle's memory fills up, just delete books and you can always restore them later, in seconds, for free. I can order any book whenever wherever and can start reading it minute after I ordered it. It's really lightweight therefor easy to carry with you and the recharge time is fast. There is no power consumption until the display is turned on. Kindle has a great battery life and it's also very quick and responsive. The time it takes a new page to appear after you push the page-turn button is very short. Buttons are quiet and well placed, and the e-ink display is absolutely brilliant. Kindle screen really makes it look like real paper and ink! Using the 5-way controller is simple and effective. Screen contrast is very good. It really doesn't matter where you read - it works great in well-lit or poorly lit room. I think that's an important fact, so you're eyes don't suffer.

There was one thing that I personally didn't have a problem with but I can imagine some people will struggle a bit with. Those are the kindle buttons - a lot of people think they're way too close together and the lack of individual number buttons is frustrating. The buttons are also laid out a bit oddly. When you decide to buy Kindle you have to be aware that this is a e-reader. It's purpose is reading texts. Not browsing the web. The browser on Kindle is experimental and you shouldn't have high expectations (that also goes for mp3 player). I've heard and read some complaints about this, and I can only say - if you want to browse the web, buy a computer, not an e-reader. Kindle also doesn't have a color display.

Over all, Kindle is easy to use and the Kindle store is great and has many thousands of free e-books. If the book you want isn't free it's sold at a very good price, and the store has loads of great deals. Once you buy the Kindle book you like and chose, you can read it on nearly any device you own (computer, phone...). And there are tons of great cases and other accessories for the Kindle that you can choose from.




If you are interested in buying an e-book reader, then check out my blog: Kindle vs iPad, where I compare kindle and iPad - which one is better for reading e-books. Here is an article of Kindle 3 vs iPad 2.




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