Thursday, January 27, 2011

Amazon Kindle - Review

First things first, the Kindle is a reading device. So, if you're in the habit of reading - books, journals, magazines or anything for that matter, or if you like to read but cannot read as much as you would like to, only then should you think of buying one, or of reading this review for that matter. And if you belong to the category described above, I can assure you the Kindle will become one of your most trusted friends for years to come. I can safely say that even for a gadget freak like me it is one of my favourite devices of all time. Thank you Veni for the early birthday gift!

The Amazon site itself does a fantastic job of highlighting the key features of the device, posting a screenshot from there (click the image to enlarge)



Now for a more personalised review, I would like to highlight what I love the most about this gadget.

1. The paper like feel of the screen. It really does make you do a double take. I will go so far to say that it was love at first sight for me when I saw my friend Aniruddha's Kindle a few months back. It's e-Ink technology is very different from any electronic gadget you would have come across. The paper feel is also very comfortable on the eyes, and you can read for hours without endangering your sight. To top it all, you can read on your Kindle in direct sunlight which perhaps is it's biggest selling point. Unlike most electronic screens there's no glare. There is a flip side though, the Kindle doesn't come with backlight, so if you're planning to read in the dark you require an external light source, like a clip on light or something similar.

2. The lightness of the device is to be experienced to be believed. At 8.5 ounces or 240 grams it's lighter than most paperbacks. Also, the 6 inch screen makes for a seamless reading experience. And unlike with 'real books' here you can change the size of the font to your liking.

3. The virtually unlimited number of free ebooks you can download and read (legally!). While the Amazon store itself has a lot of books at $0.00 value, there are many other websites (notably Project Gutenberg) that distribute free e-books in Kindle ready format (.mobi). These are completely legal, as the copyrights for most of them have expired. And of course, nowadays almost all the books that are launched have a Kindle version launch as well, so you can buy the latest books right from Amazon store. It takes less than a minute for the book to be in your device. Here's a helpful post about downloading free ebooks for your Kindle

4. Battery life! This has to take the cake. Take a wild guess about how long does a fully charged Kindle last with 4-6 hours of usage per day? E.g. a laptop lasts 3-5 hours, iPad 8-10 hours, Smart Phones 18-36 hours, normal phones 36-72 hours. Correct? A Kindle battery actually goes on for more than 20 days! Some claim a month as well! Just think about it, add a bunch of books to your Kindle, by bunch I mean a few hundreds. Or thousands. And go off for a hike, trail what have you. After a month you may not have much to eat, or enough sleep but your Kindle battery still has life in it!

Coming to the most important question, what's the damage? If you buy the Kindle from the official Amazon Store you will get the Wi-Fi only version for $139 (Rs. 6500) and the WiFi+3G one for $189 (Rs. 8700). Important: These are US rates. You need to pay a heavy delivery fees + taxes to ship it to your address to India, this brings the total cost up by ~$70 (Rs. 3100). So, if you have a helpful friend in the US who is planning to come to India sometime soon, you may want to request him/her to get your shipment. A huge thanks to my friend Debarati who brought the package along with her already overstuffed bags!

Oh, yes before I end, some other points that come to mind. The Kindle can be charged through your computer using a normal micro USB cable that comes along with the package. They also send you a wall charger, however if you're in India you need to get a converter for the Indian electric plugs. Finally, it's highly recommended you get a cover for your Kindle. This is not a part of the standard package. You may want to order it directly from the Amazon store along with your device. And it's a good idea to get a clip on light along with it.

Thank you to my Kindle savvy friends - Kalpana, Juhi, Pavan & Sid for convincing me to get this magnificent piece of art and technology.

If you have any further questions about the Kindle please feel free to leave them as comments or write to me at suhel.banerjee@gmail.com

Here are some photos of my Kindle.

The Kindle with the charger and manual


Side shot of the Kindle

The paper like feel of the screen

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Suhel, for this wonderful review. I was looking forward to get one myself, and your review makes me want to grab hold of one right now. I hope my reading habit gets a lot better after that.

Thanks,
Joydeep

P.S.- Didn't know Aniruddha had bought one. Good for him.

Unknown said...

Hi Suhel,

Have you loaded any PDFs from the computer onto this device. I have lots of tech journals on my computer that I would like to load and read on the device.

Is that possible? How does Kindle render PDFs? Does it distort the layout?

Suhel Banerjee said...

@Joydeep - Please go ahead and get yourself one, you won't regret it.

@Swapnonil - Yes, have transferred a lot of PDFs, both from the computer and also by mailing it to my Kindle account. Amazing reading experience, automatically formatted for the Kindle.