Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2013 first impression review

I’ve seen a few reviews comparing the original Kindle e-ink with this brand new $120 e-ink kindle. In a nutshell; the new kid is much the same, but has whiter whites, blacker blacks, far better lighting around the corners, faster and more responsive to the touch, and is just a wee bit lighter in weight. Is it $50 better? Not if you are on a budget or need many of these, for school or other educational purposes. If a few extra $’s doesn’t hurt, read on and you might just go for it.

For a long time, my favorite e-Reader was the Sony eReader. I still like and use it. It “had” the best e-ink implementation and I liked the fact that they removed the backlit by the time I upgraded mine.  The Sony unit that retailed for a similar price as this Kindle Paperwhite had a lot going for it that left the Kindle more or less on the starting line. It has a music player with a headphone jack and not too shabby of a performance for that matter. It has an SD card slot to put your own media, from eBooks, music, to photographs and pdf’s. Being e-ink and no backlight, it still has incredible battery life too. Of course, the lack of light is a double-edged sword. You can use and read it for hours with little eyestrain – no more than you’d have with a paperback book, but you need an external light source in the dark, just like a real book.

 

What killed Sony’s eReader is their poor and pricy bookstore, not the unit. There are many stories about how Amazon has priced everyone out of the market unfairly etc. But, at the end of the day, we’ll all go to where the books are plenty, cheapest, and available. Right now, that is Amazon, whether we like it or not.

So, the new Amazon Kindle Papaerwhite has no SD card slot, no headphone jack or music capabilities, hasn’t got a pen like the Sony, but it does what it says it would on the box, and it does it extremely well.  The lack of bells & whistles, means, schools will be happy to recommend it to their pupil. I cannot tell you what great welcome that is to me as a parent – not just for the cost of the books, but for the sheer weight and size of the multiple books I see my kid has to pack in the bag every day and log it along, back and forth to and from school, deforming her growing skeleton.

 

I like the form-factor of the Sony better. It’s the same height as a standard paperback book. Just large enough so you don’t have to flick pages constantly, and just small enough not to strain the eyes left and right and up and down. The new Kindle, while much the same size as its predecessor, is a tad too small for my liking. Nevertheless, I would happily recommend the new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. The lighting alone is wonderful engineering. It is not backlit, it is guided light from above that shines on the paperwhite display.  You can always turn the light off, especially in very bright spaces or in direct sun. Interestingly, there is less glare on e-ink and this Kindle in direct sun than there is on real paper! The Touch screen is no iPad, but is perhaps the best e-ink touch I’ve seen.  It even weighs less than its predecessor, as if that was possible. I thought Amazon couldn’t better the Sony’s e-ink. Wrong! Kindle Paperwhite is visibly whiter on the background and black ink is certainly no less black! I will not ramble any more about the lack of glare and reading in direct sunlight etc. You know e-ink rocks for that and the Kindle excels even more.

 

There is no point going on about the visible angle of the screen at a technical level either, since most folks would look straight at the tiny reader anyway. Suffice to say, it is good!

The “experimental Browser” is pretty good and quite fast with WiFi. Overall, purchasing, downloading eBooks, and your kindle-email attachments, are damn fast and the browser is a nice to have.

Dear Amazon, please add landscape browsing ASAP! Most people who browse for any length of time on a tablet or even the phone, end up rotating to landscape. Right now, it is a handicap on the “experimental browser”. Oh, and no, it does not do flash. Dear Amazon, I hate flash and everything it stands for. Thank you!

 

By the way, the $40 Kindle Leather covers with a ranges of colors are very good and well made. They are protective and I got one for my daughter for school. But, it is just a little cheaper than a $69, Kindle, so .. you know. I’m not sure about the 3G either. If you hope to use it abroad, forget it, it won’t work. With the ubiquitous WiFi service from home to coffee shops; I wonder how often you’d really need the 3G. I never used mine on the Sony.

 

Bottom line; a great little eBook that is definitely a step forward and betters its predecessor. There is no excuse for you not having one of these if you are an avid reader. If you are an occasional reader only, any other tablet, Apple or Android, including the upcoming new Amazon Kindle fire HDX, will do.

Yes – it is good!

Here is Amazon’s link to buy or read more about it
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Paperwhite-Touch-light/dp/B007OZNZG0

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