Kindle questions

[Ceefer]

I'm thinking of buying a Kindle, but would like to get some opinions first. Hopefully some folk here have by now been using their Kindles for quite a while. What are your long-term impressions? Do you actually use your Kindle as a total replacement for buying and reading books? Is it worth paying extra for 3G? Is that 6" screen big enough? How robust are they? Would you take your Kindle to the beach or pool-side? Is the lack of colour a drawback and should I wait until the version with a colour screen is on sale?

[circuitmonkey]

I'm thinking of buying a Kindle, but would like to get some opinions first. Hopefully some folk here have by now been using their Kindles for quite a while. What are your long-term impressions? Do you actually use your Kindle as a total replacement for buying and reading books? Is it worth paying extra for 3G? Is that 6" screen big enough? How robust are they? Would you take your Kindle to the beach or pool-side? Is the lack of colour a drawback and should I wait until the version with a colour screen is on sale?

Hello Ceefer,

I've had a kindle going on for 4 months now, and love it. So far it has replaced buying and reading regular books, in fact the only time that I will now read a regular book is when I leave my kindle at work.
I've got a wifi only model, and honestly haven't found myself in the situation when I need to download a book and find myself within the range of a wifi network I can use. If I do ever find myself in this situation, my HTC Desire Z will create a wifi hotspot sharing my 3G connection, problem sorted!
The 6" Screen is just fine for me, I tend to use the font on its smallest size setting and it is perfectly clear even in low light levels.
I can't speak much of the robustness of Kindle, I keep mine in a case and the few drops it's been through it's come out just fine. I have no problems reading poolside, and by poolside I of course mean in the bath, it seems to handle humid environments just fine. I will put it though beach and poolside testing next month in Malta!
As for your final question, I don't find the lack of a colour screen a drawback, I stopped reading picture books quite some time ago , but on a more serious note; I would only consider a colour screen on a device of this format if it could do video and touch screen, as it stands the black and white e-ink display is perfectly suited for the purpose.

[Flibb]

Anotehr happy kindle owner. The only non kindle books I have purcahsed recently have been from charity shops. I have the wifi version, and sort of regreat not getting the 3G. Main reason is for getting email on the move and possibly getting the news when camping. Ipicked up a cheapish case on ebay, works well and has good protection from bumps and drops. When camping it will be living in a pastic bag until I want to use it.

[Ceefer]

Thank you, circuitmonkey and Flibb, for your replies. That is a brilliant idea about using your smartphone as a wifi hotspot. I never would have thought of that. I can set up my HTC Desire the same way. You've just saved me £41 that I can put towards a lighted cover. Cheers!

[Ceefer]

And now for another question (I'm being lazy here, could have done a google search, oh well). With dead tree books you can share them with whoever you like. I'm specifically thinking of the wife here. When we go on holiday we swap paperbacks all the time. If we have a Kindle each can we swap ebooks? Do both Kindles have to be registered to the same account?

[BobF64]

In all honesty, the only time you might need or want the 3G version is where youre in another country and dont want to pay horrific roaming data rates.

But, check that the Kindle is supported in countries you may visit first.

As for swapping, yes, currently the 2 Kindles would have to be on the same account. The US currently has an updated firmware that allows you to loan books, but theres no indication of when, or even if, its going to be introduced to other regions.

Of course, you could just swap over the kindles for the duration, assuming you read at much the same rate.

[g8ina]

Ive had mine since Xmas last year and have only kept the odd paper book for reading in the bath

I convert all mine to text, that way they dont keep any identity and can be shared.

I never have found the need for the 3G either, and my wireless stays off 99% of the time to save batteries.

[BobF64]

I personally got a 3G one because I sometimes go to the US, and figured it might come in handy for books or possibly the browser in the airport.

[circuitmonkey]

I've tried browsing on my Wifi connection, it was a nice novelty (and works in a push) but it doesn't compare to a smart phone. it's just to slow, and web pages haven't been static text since 1990ish

[fuddam]

good friend of mine travels a lot as a professional photog. He does a lot of stuff in Asia, and recently was in the wilds of India. Decided he needed a travel guide. Downloaded a Lonely Planet guide there and then, and was mighty pleased he had the 3G version.

In sum: if you travel a lot, the 3G definitely seems the way to go.

[Saracen]

Is the screen big enough?

It depends what you want to read. It's a bit limiting for full-size magazines, and can be a pain for PDF documents, if it's an A4 (for example) original.

But, in my opinion, it's perfect for books.

Two reasons. First, the bigger the screen, the heavier it will be and I'd prefer the Kindle to keep weight down over screen size. And the size of the screen is about the same as the average, mass-market paperback page, so if you set font size on the kindle accordingly, you'll get about the same words per line as you would with a paperback. And personally, I find that about perfect. Remember, reading involves scanning a line of works, and then going back to the beginning of the line and scanning again. If the line is too long, it increases the amount of eye movement and that become wearing on the eyes. The kindle, like the average paperback book, gets it about perfect.

Do you want colour screen?

Depends what you read. You can get magazines and newspaper subscriptions, etc, on the Kindle and if you will be doing that a lot, and want colour photographs, buy an Android tabloid with a colour screen.

The real beauty of the Kindle (and others, like the Sony) is that the screen technology is so good for reading words. It doesn't wear or strain the eyes, any more than a paper book does, but a conventional colour screen, being backlit, does. For me, that makes the difference between being able to read for hours, as I can with a book or Kindle, and not being able to. I could not use a tablet e-reader with a colour screen the way I use the Kindle, which might make it better for browning the net, etc, but nowhere near as useful for actually reading books.

And, the real drawback to conventional screens is the power drain, which in the Kindle screen is minuscule. I go for couple of weeks at a time between charges, and that's with a LOT of use.

3G or just Wifi?

Depends on how you'll use it. If you travel a lot and want to be able to download while travelling, get the 3G. If you are abroad a lot and want to be able to access newspapers or magazines, etc, without a handy internet connect, get the 3G.

If, on the other hand, you're like me and are quite happy to load up collection of books and just use that, don't bother with 3G. I rarely even use the WiFi. I just connect it up via cable, transfer a load of books, and disconnect again. Even Wifi is almost permanently turn off.

Long term impressions

Very, very good at doing what it's intended to do, but it's not a general purpose machine. You can, for instance, browse the net, read forum posts and reply, and as a test, I did. But it's clunky and awkward, and I wouldn't want to do it very often.

As a do-it-all machine, an Android tablet with e-reader software is a better bet. Much better. But you won't get the battery life, and won't get the advantages of e-ink screen. As an e-reader simply for reading books, the Kindle is superb.

Replace books, etc long-term?

Depends what you want. For me, no. I still love books. And I've got a LOT of them. So it doesn't replace them for me. But then, I like to be able to scan along the shelves of books, pick one I haven't read in ages and re-read it. Not everybody does that. Some people read a book once and never want to read it again. Horses for courses.

So whether a Kindle is a replacement for books depends very much what you want. It is not for me. But nonetheless, the Kindle is a VERY good solution for having a load of books in a simple, easy-to-use and convenient device that is both light, requires very infrequent charging and has a truly superb screen with a second-to-none reading experience.



You'll notice every one of my answers has an element of "It depends what ...." to it. That sums it up for me. The Kindle is superb at what it does, but whether it's the right device for you very much depends on what you'll use it for, exactly what you want out of it. And that, only you can decide.

[BobF64]

I've tried browsing on my Wifi connection, it was a nice novelty (and works in a push) but it doesn't compare to a smart phone. it's just to slow, and web pages haven't been static text since 1990ish

True, but in a pinch, theres a few things you could do successfully, check webmail, find hotel phone numbers, check weather reports etc.

[Ceefer]

Saracen,
Thanks for your detailed and comprehensive reply. I've decided, after reading the posts here, that a wi-fi Kindle is a device that would suit me very well. I'm tempted to wait for a colour version, mainly because I love cookbooks and probably won't find that they look so good in B&W. But as I can access them via Kindle for Android on my smartphone I'm going to just go for the current Kindle.

[Saracen]

Saracen,
Thanks for your detailed and comprehensive reply. I've decided, after reading the posts here, that a wi-fi Kindle is a device that would suit me very well. I'm tempted to wait for a colour version, mainly because I love cookbooks and probably won't find that they look so good in B&W. But as I can access them via Kindle for Android on my smartphone I'm going to just go for the current Kindle.

I considered the colour version too, but I have a couple of thoughts on that.

First, how long will you wait? 6 months? 3 years? Who knows! But if it's three years, you'll have had 3 years of use of a mono one by the time it even comes out.

Second, initially after release at least ..... at what price? A mono Kindle at £111 is, for me at least, a far more attractive proposition that a colour one if (as seems likely) the price differential was large.

However, if colour is really important (and for cookbooks, maybe it is, though personally, I don't find the photos that much help in following a recipe) then maybe a better bet would be an Android tablet with e-reader software.


I had this discussion with a friend. He wanted a colour tablet, and I wanted a Kindle, and it all came down to what we each wanted it for.

I see it like this. As an e-reader, for reading books, and I mean primarily novels, the Kindle is superb, and (perhaps short of the Sony, though I still prefer the Kindle) damn hard to beat. But it is designed, functionally, to be damn good at a specialised task and is therefore pretty mediocre as a general purpose machine.

But, for reading books, which to me implies protracted periods of just reading and "turning" pages, the Kindle excels. The screen is superb, and offers about the same reading experience as paper, and it's just about perfectly-sized, light, and well-designed ergonomically, so you find you thumb right where it needs to be to page-forward, and you can get to page-back with minimal effort.

And those page-buttons are on both left and right sides, so it not only suits left and right handed people, but means you can change hands if one gets tired, without sacrificing ease of use.

You can, if you wish, also rotate the image through 360 degrees, in 90 degree increments, so if you find the keyboard awkward at the bottom of the device, you can use it the other way up, and for wider material (perhaps like a cookbook) you can use it landscape as well as portrait.

Add to that the superb battery life and you have a device that's close to perfect for simply settling in for several hours and reading a book.

But the very things that make it so good at doing that narrow function really well also make it clunky at doing things it can do, just about, but isn't really intended for, like web-browsing. So, anyone wanting to go beyond the core uses for which it's designed might, like my friend, want to evaluate other options rather carefully.

Oh, and I'm not saying the Kindle is perfect, either. There are weakness. One is displaying a "location" number rather than a page number, though I understand that's been addressed in the recent firmware update, but not having yet applied it, I can't comment on it.

Another limitation is very limited ability to categorise material. You can create "collections", but only one level deep. So, for instance, you can have multiple books by a given author in a "collection" using the author's name, but it'd be nice to, perhaps, have a collection for Sci-Fi, Thriller, History, Biography, Reference, and so on, and within Sci-Fi, have collections for Author, and within that, have the individual books. But you can't.

In other words, the ergonomics of the device are, in my view, superb, but the operating system could do with a few tweaks. And over time, it may well get some of them.

As a reading device for simply reading books, the Kindle is very hard to beat. But if your needs or wants go beyond that, it might be worth carefully looking at other options.

[snootyjim]

You own a Kindle, Saracen?

I'm about to dial 666 and check out the snow situation...

[Ceefer]

One more question about the Kindle. Does it have any built-in security system? If someone nicks my Kindle (which I am ordering today, probably) can they use it? Can they access my Amazon account details?