Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Evaluation: Learn Books, At Night time

The Kindle has, since its second technology or so, been just about the simplest advice in tech. The brand new one, referred to as the Kindle Paperwhite, is predictably nice–although not good.

WHAT’S NEW

The Paperwhite is fairly much like the Kindle Contact, with a couple of main and a number of other minor adjustments. First, it’s obtained a brand new pores and skin: a matte black physique to interchange the Contact’s gray. (It seems to be significantly better.) The semi-confusing residence button on the Contact (a bunch of horizontal traces) has been eradicated, and instead is simply the phrase “Kindle”–it’s now not a button in any respect. The Kindle’s OS has additionally been revamped–although it’s nonetheless greyscale by necessity (electrophoretic screens don’t do properly with colour), navigation is far more tablet-like, with swiping gestures and enormous thumbnail icons of your books. The audio operate is gone; no extra audio system, no extra headphone jack. And it has, oddly, half the storage of the Contact, at solely 2GB. (To be truthful, that’ll nonetheless maintain over a thousand books.)

However the huge change? Mild. Like Barnes & Noble’s earlier and in some way much more awkwardly-named Nook Easy Contact With Glowlight, the brand new Kindle has a front-lit panel that illuminates with a mushy, pleasantly greyish glow.

WHAT’S GOOD

Virtually every part! The Kindle remains to be nearly one of the best studying expertise you possibly can have; it’s simple (nearly too simple) to purchase books, the E Ink display screen is best on the eyes than any pill, the {hardware} is small and simply operational with one hand (nice for subway riders). The battery life remains to be absurd; I don’t assume I’ve ever managed to empty a Kindle quick sufficient to really comment on it in a evaluation, because the battery life can final a month or longer. I particularly just like the touchscreen for navigation–it’s simpler to pick out books, change settings, and store with the touchscreen, in contrast with the directional pad within the non-touch variations.

The glowing front-light is superior. It robotically detects when it ought to come on, and has 24 ranges for adjustable brightness. The glow is far simpler on the eyes than even the dimmest setting on a pill just like the Kindle Fireplace, and the truth that it’s built-in means you by no means have to fret about having sufficient mild (or carrying a cumbersome/costly case with a lightweight in it).

I actually like the brand new OS, too–it’s nice to have your books organized by cowl, reasonably than only a listing. Plus there’s a brand new “X-Ray” function that’s actually cool–faucet it whereas studying and it offers you a breakdown of characters and phrases on the web page, within the chapter, and in the entire guide. Faucet any of the phrases (within the John Jeremiah Sullivan story I’m studying, phrases embody “Indiana,” “MTV,” and “Bon Jovi”) and it’ll offer you a definition from Wikipedia and the place within the guide the time period seems.

WHAT’S BAD

I miss the previous page-turn buttons. For lots extra on why that issues, learn this, however suffice to say, I believe page-turn buttons supply a significantly better studying expertise than turning pages with a touchscreen.

The Kindle Paperwhite’s electrophoretic display screen is usually excellent, however I’m nonetheless not thrilled with the sporadic refresh of the display screen. See, the electrophoretic display screen isn’t like a traditional LCD, the place you possibly can have particular person pixels show any colour you need–it’s extra like an Othello board, the place every pixel is a bodily factor (dye suspended in oil, principally) that flips when electrically triggered. To do a full refresh, which takes possibly a full second, it’s a must to make the whole display screen go black earlier than displaying no matter you need it to do–it seems to be just like the display screen blinks at you, after which the background is completely off-white and the textual content completely off-black, like a just-shaken Etch-a-Sketch. The previous Kindles used to do this each time you turned a web page, however to avoid wasting a split-second of time, the newer ones simply flip the little Othello-like pixels as wanted, and solely absolutely refresh about each 5 page-turns. That leaves a little bit little bit of an echo of the earlier web page’s textual content within the background of the display screen–form of like holding a sheet of paper printed on either side as much as the sunshine. It’s not that unhealthy, actually–the Kindle is at all times completely readable, and certainly the textual content is crisper than on every other book reader, together with previous Kindles–however it might typically be a little bit distracting.

The brand new Kindle additionally doesn’t ship with a USB-AC adapter. You may cost the Kindle by means of your pc, or purchase one from Amazon for $10, or use any of the opposite USB-AC adapters you in all probability have mendacity round your home.

THE PRICE

There’s a Wi-Fi-only mannequin and a 3G mannequin, and each can be found both with or with out adverts. The Wi-Fi-only is both $119 or $139, whereas the 3G mannequin is $179 or $199. I actually like having 3G, nevertheless it has restricted use and is so much pricier, so I’d suggest the most cost effective mannequin. It’s very low-cost.

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THE VERDICT

Love Kindle. Love Amazon’s Kindle retailer, love the studying expertise, love the Paperlight front-lit show. Love the {hardware}. Don’t love being pressured to make use of a touchscreen. In case you don’t have a Kindle, purchase this one. I’m undecided it’s price upgrading from an older Kindle, however hey, it’s your cash, I’m not going to inform you methods to spend it. It’s an actual good gadget, you’ll prefer it.