Amazon Kindle Reader — Kindle Reader Review
For all you avid readers out there for whom a book is a need rather than a want and is the companion, you’d rather spend your every free moment with, Amazon’s Kindle is the answer to your prayers! Kindle is a great reading device that ensures that you are never without a book at hand, or rather in your pocket as Kindle is compact enough to fit into your pocket. Amazon has made Kindle available in a few variants in order to cater to the diverse needs of bookworms world over. However, a few standout features are common to all Kindle e-readers. These are,
Reads like a Book:
Reading a book on the Kindle reader is a joy as the pages look and read like actual printed pages. In order to ensure maximum comfort when reading, especially to the eyes, all the fonts on the reader have been tweaked and fine-tuned.
All readers support a notes feature in the margins. You can edit or delete these notes, or even export them to your computer. Besides, you can also highlight sections of text, share them as quotes on Twitter, Facebook, etc., and even see what other readers have highlighted on their readers.
Page flip is a new additional feature available on the Kindle readers that enables flipping through a book much like you would an actual book. You could skim through the book, scan it chapter wise or even have a peek at the end, all without losing your pace in the book.
All Kindle readers are lighter than most paperbacks and are comfortable even when held in one hand for extra-long reading sessions.
Being a dedicated e-reader Kindle ensures that you read without distractions in the form of e-mail alerts and push notifications, which would keep popping up on your screen in the case of tablets and smartphones.
Does More Than a Book:
All Kindle e-readers possess additional features that let you do more than you would with a book. Every reader helps you multi-task while staying with the book that you are reading. Hence, you could look up definitions, different characters, the settings in a story etc. all without leaving the page you were reading. Besides, Kindle also gives you a personalised estimate of how long you would take to complete reading a book or a chapter with its Time to Read feature. With Kindle’s Vocabulary Builder, you can expand your vocabulary based on the words you look up in the dictionary. The Word Wise feature even provides definitions for difficult words within the book itself as pop-up cards that appear when you tap on a difficult word. The X-Ray feature enables exploring the ‘bones of a book’ including passages with important ideas, characters, historical references etc. In addition, an About the Book section helps you learn more about the book you are currently reading and its author. Kindle’s bookmarking feature using Whispersync technology, notes, highlight, sharing parts of a text, search feature including a search from Goodreads and the Kindle store, adjustable font size, type, adjustable brightness, etc are features that are available on all Kindle e-readers.
Holds Thousands of Books:
Each Kindle, irrespective of the variant is capable of holding thousands of books, magazines, journals, newspapers, etc., much like your own personal library. Books are available in audiobook form as well.
Long Battery Life:
The Kindle reader, unlike tablets and smartphones, comes with a long battery life lasting weeks and not just a few hours on a single charge. That, therefore, means that you have unimpeded reading for weeks, especially when travelling in remote areas where access to electricity is restricted.
Glare-free Reading:
The Kindle e-reader comes with an anti-glare touch screen making it a comfortable reading device even in bright sunlight.
Reading Without Distractions:
With Kindle, your reading sessions remain focused on the book with no disturbance from incoming messages, notifications, or calls.
Below, we discuss the Kindle variants currently available on Amazon.
Kindle E-Reader
This Kindle e-reader is the basic version of the device and the most affordable of the lot with a price tag of approximately $79.99. Like every Kindle variant, this one too possesses the features described above that are common to all Kindle readers. This variant is available in black or white and is supposedly a thinner lighter version making it comfortable enough for one hand read. It weighs 161g with dimensions of 160×115×9.1mm. The All-New Kindle comes with a 6” glare-free display with a screen resolution of 167ppi, ensuring that your eyes are not strained and that your reading experience is the same as when you read from an actual paper and print book. Unlike smartphone and tablet displays that are backlit and emit a blue light that is believed to disrupt sleep patterns, the All-New Kindle display has no such backlight and can be read only in well-lit surroundings just like with an actual book. You would need a Wi-Fi connection to connect to the internet and download your books on to the device. The device comes with 4GB storage and is not waterproof so be careful with it around water.
Kindle Paperwhite E-Reader
Although the Kindle Paperwhite comes with the same 6” sized screen as the Kindle e-reader, it does possess an improved higher screen resolution of 300ppi ensuring crisp, clear text. The new version of Kindle Paperwhite introduces a new font Bookerly, which is the closest in appearance to actual print and enhances reading comfort, especially over a longer duration. Besides, Kindle’s typography comes with improvements in character spacing, hyphenation, kerning, justification, support for drop-caps, and ligatures, all of this ensuring a smoother, quicker read with fewer page turns. The Kindle Paperwhite display has a built-in front light that enables you to read in the dark without any strain on your eyes. The Kindle Paperwhite is slimmer than a pencil and lighter than a paperback making it easy to hold up when you read even over longer reading sessions. Kindle Paperwhite is available in black or white and with connectivity options of Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi plus Free 3G. With the Free 3G option, Amazon pays for the 3G wireless connectivity for downloading your books, and you would only need to pay for the Wi-Fi services that you use. The Kindle Paperwhite is not waterproof, comes with 4GB storage capacity, and is priced from $119.99 upward.
Kindle Voyage E-Reader
The Kindle Voyage comes with a 6” screen just like the basic reader and the Paperwhite version. However, it has a few additional features that justify the enhanced pricing, which starts at $199.99. It comes with a glass screen that is micro-etched giving it the feel of paper and a high screen resolution display of 300ppi. It comes with a front-lit screen like the Paperwhite making it readable in the dark. However, its most prominent feature is the Adaptive light sensor, which enables it to adjust the light on the screen based on the light in your surroundings, so that you are provided with an ideal level of brightness on your screen at all times. It also comes with the PagePress feature that ensures you do not have to lift a finger to turn a page. Just apply pressure on the bezel of the screen to turn the page. The Kindle Voyage is just 7.6mm thick making it even more lightweight in hand. Like the Paperwhite, it comes with either Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi plus 3G connectivity and is not waterproof. It has an inbuilt storage capacity of 4GB.
All-New Kindle Oasis E-Reader
Kindle Oasis is the most expensive of the Kindle e-readers currently available in the market with prices beginning from $249.99. While the Paperwhite and Voyage come with a 6” display this variant comes with a 7″ high-resolution 300ppi display. This means that a single page will hold over 30% more words thus ensuring fewer page turns. Its ergonomic design that tapers to a mere 3.4mm in width makes it extremely lightweight. It comes with a sturdy, and sleek anodized aluminium back casing. This is the only waterproof Kindle available so far. The Kindle Oasis has dedicated page turn buttons in addition to the touch display. The page orientation too automatically rotates to match the hand that you use to hold the device. The Kindle Oasis is available with a higher storage capacity in an 8GB version with Wi-Fi connectivity and a 32 GB version with Wi-Fi plus free 3G connectivity. The Oasis also comes with an adaptive front light. It also comes with additional personalization settings such as font sizes, alignment of text, adjustable boldness levels, and so on.
Conclusion:
Kindle has become more of a necessity rather than a luxury for all book lovers. With the various models of Kindle available on Amazon today, all of them priced differently, there is a Kindle available to suit every pocket. One does tend to be spoilt for choice and a bit confused about which one to opt for. However, after going through the specs detailed above and based on your own reading needs it would not be hard for you to identify your very own Kindle. Happy reading!
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Originally published at geekyalien.com on April 19, 2018.
