Amazon Kindle: My Review

Cover via Amazon

After tinkering with my new Amazon Kindle 3 for a few days, I felt an urge to write a review. You know, there are millions of reviews all over the web regarding the Kindle, why not join the herd? And to add to that feeble excuse, I needed to blog again after a long-ish interval. So yeah here I am bragging about my new Kindle and trying to present an unbiased (yeah, as if thats possible) review of this truly amazing device from the jungles of Amazon basin. Oh wait, its Amazon.com! (Applause please at this insanely juvenile attempt of eliciting a laugh out of the reader)

Okay let me get serious now (frankly if you're still reading this, I'd better present to you a decent unbiased review of the product, you deserve it).

So it will the standard Pros and Cons format. Makes things simpler to read that way.

PROS:

1. Its the Kindle! Okay apart from that, this really is a device which has been built well. Every single inch of the device (there arent too many inches of it though, incase you're indeed counting) shows signs of a well thought out, well constructed device. Its ultra thin, ultra lightweight and more importantly, portable. The read aloud feature is quite handy too.

2. E-ink is great. Yeah it really is, reading books on this device is an absolute pleasure. It really is. The contrast (which has been substantially increased since the last Kindle) does make a significant contribution to the reading experience.

3. Buying books was never easier. If you sign up for Amazon's one click buying, you will be able to do just that from the Kindle or from the Amazon.com Kindle Store. Its as simple as a one click "Buy", and bam, the next thing you know, the book/magazine/other stuff is neatly waiting in the home screem of your device.

4. 3 GB of memory is massive. Lets face it, no one's gonna read 3 GB of stuff at one go. Considering the fact that this is a reading device, 3 GB is more than sufficient for e-books.

5. The Amazon Kindle Store. With its ever increasing collection of books, newspapers, magazines and singles, the Kindle Store is quite literally the ultimate place to go on a shopping spree.

6. Its more than an e-book reader. Kindle 3 has a web browser and a music player to boast of. So thats a welcome addition. It also has an integrated PDF reader, so that will come in handy for reading personal documents.

7. Extraordinary battery life. Although I'm yet to put Amazon's claim of 30 days of charge-less backup to test, its pretty evident from my heavy use that the Kindle might live up to that expectation.

CONS:

1. The 3 GB limit isnt really enough, especially since one's expected to have MP3s as well as PDFs on the device. The fact that you cant expand this memory is a bit of a letdown.

2. The browser is very, very basic. Its pretty much unusable to be honest. Although the "Article Mode" which sort of lets Kindle do its own processing, is quite handy.

3. The page turning buttons are very smartly constructed but badly placed. You will very easily end up turning the page while picking up the device.

4. The audio output is very basic. Dont expect Kindle to replace your iPod.

5. Page turning is a bit slow. Although its fast by e-ink standards, oh well, it still is far from satisfactory.

6. Not many accessories available right now. (Thats mainly because its a new device. Expect loads of additions in the coming months though)

My E-book Reader Dilemma

With the multitude of tablets being released almost everyday, one would have been excused for thinking that the days of e-book readers were numbered. And I was among the many who thought so. But as one delves deeper into the tablet-world, one is bound to realise something, that tablets arent really a replacement of the good old Kindle-esque devices.

The very fact that most tablets become virtually useless out in the sun, is a huge minus in the tablet category. None of the tablets, expect the Notion Ink Adam has the capacity to make itself readable under the sun.

So what do I go for, a tablet or an E-book reader? Check out the flowchart below:

Okay so now I hope you have decided what you need. If its a tablet, there are a million of them, and basically it depends so much on individual tastes and needs, that its impossible to recommend something for everyone. But generally speaking, iPad and the Galaxy tab are safe bets. Notion Ink Adam is a great choice but it will not have access to the Android Market. Or if you want a more customised tablet friendly OS, then I think its better to wait for the release of Motorola Xoom.

If however your choice is an e-book reader, read on...

There are primarily 2 major e-book readers in the market right now. The Amazon Kindle and The Nook (the Nook Color being the latest). Amazon Kindle has released a newer version a few months back and quite confusingly its called...the Amazon Kindle, again. It has a better contrast and a better battery life (almost a month of usage after charging once) than older Kindles, not to mention the faster speeds.

The Nook Color though is a different product altogether, its more of a tablet than an e-book reader. It has the capability to display "coloured images", has a touchscreen interface and the glare-free screen. (The Nook has been quite famously the target of various developers, aka hackers, who have hacked the device to run Ubuntu on it!) However these features does take its toll on the battery life of the device and its battery life is substantially shorter than the Kindle (many users report the battery life to be around a day at the most, which is quite unsatisfactory for an e-book reader).

Hence, Nook is more of a wannabe tablet and less of an e-book reader. But then again, if you want a really cheap tablet, maybe the Nook is your bet. Beware though, there arent many apps around, so forget about playing Angry Birds on this device (although I hear someone has infact rooted the Nook to run Angry Birds! But its not officially supported, so basically if you manage to brick your device, be ready to pay some hefty bills to get it back in running condition).

And finally, the Indian market has a few e-book readers as well. Most famously, the Infibeam Pi and the Wink. (Pi being the one immediately below this text)

But these e-book readers have their faults and that is pretty evident with a little bit of googling. The Pi lacks 3G and Wifi. Wink has the Wifi but I believe their 3G version will be releasing later this year. However one of the biggest positives of these devices is their ability to read Indian fonts/languages. Infibeam and  Wink both have amassed a vast collection and wide range of e-books.

Finally I guess after going through everything, it all boils down to personal preference. If one is more into reading Indian texts, it makes little sense to go for the Kindles and Nooks. Again, if one is in pursuit of a quality product which will be your "gadget of the year", Kindle and Nook are irreplaceable.

(As for me, I have decided to go for the Kindle)

Bad Time to Buy an E-book Reader

Image via Wikipedia

This really is a bad time to buy an e-book reader, especially if you happen to live in India. I'll tell you why. The two of the most popular conventional (read eInk) e-book readers are the Amazon Kindle and the Infibeam Pi. They are slow, colourless and lacked intense multimedia capabilities. But then, after iPad release a host of companies came up with their tablet offerings. The netbook, once a hot product, seemed to dying a painful rather sooner than expected.

The problem with the tablets is that since they have an LCD display, there is a considerable amount of strain on the eyes on prolonged usage. The eInk on the other hand doesnt do colour, so thats a potential let down.

Enter Notion Ink. A revolutionary product in the making which seems to have solved the problems of netbooks and tablets all at the same time. Its powered by android and has a pixel qi display. Pixel qi is something quite revolutionary which inspite of having a brightness comparable to LCDs, has the ability to reflect direct sunlight and also reduces strain on the eyes. Seems too good to be true doesnt it? Even I didnt believe it until my friend Abhirup convinced me about this truly amazing development going on in this country. A lot is being promised and lot of interest has been generated thanks to this cutting edge device and thanks to its really attractive price tag of $498 for the 3G with wifi version. However, no release date for this device has been announced as yet although its expected that it might release by the end of this year or early next.

Incidentally even Infibeam is ready with its tablet offering. They call it the Infibeam Phi (the eInk edition is the 'Pi'). The Phi has Android as well as Windows versions and is decently powered. However since it has an LCD display, its difficult to call it as an ebook reader. The dual screen technology of pixel qi is far superior than the traditional eInk and almost as good if not at par with LCD brightness, this is where I think the Notion Ink tablet scores over the Phi. But even the Phi hasnt been released yet, although Infibeam is taking preorders.

Hence my conclusion that this is indeed the worst time to buy an ebook reader. The suggestion would be to stay put and abstain from investing in any such devices until both the Infibeam Phi and Notion Ink hit the mainstream market.