Amazon Kindle 2 Reviews

As a family of avid readers I bought the family our first Kindle as soon as the Kindle II was released. We have each read a few books on it and really enjoy it. Initially it was because of the novelty however we have all come to depend on it and look forward to when it is each of our turns to read our next book.

The Kindle II works and functions as advertised. The wireless component makes it easy to find new reading material and the archiving function means once downloaded the reader will always have access to that particular book.

My only complaint (if I have one) is that the cost of the Kindle books is not that much less than the printed version. I thought there would be a greater price difference.

The battery life does last substantually longer if the wireless function is turned off an only turned on when needed. However, this is not a big deal and very easy to turn on and off.

Overall we love it!

Kindle 2- what can I say? It’s got some goods, like the free wifi and being able to drop a book into the system without even thinking. But the bads are there as well. Like- why can’t I just view PDF’s without converting them? Why can’t I buy from some other store other than Amazon? That said, I’m really happy with the purchase. And am looking forward to grabbing the DX later on. I just wish I had more options for book buying. Although, Amazon seems to be the cheapest and has all the ebooks I want.

I’m enjoying my Kindle 2 quite a lot I’m not a huge fan of the note interface (the keyboard is too small for my fingers), but other than that it rocks. It fits right into my backpack and I can take it anywhere, and I can grab books any time I damn well please. My only complaint is that in order to read a PDF, I have to pay ten cents for conversion. Also- paying to read blogs? That’s crazy talk.

But for reading books on the go, this is awesome. I can take fifty books on my next plane trip and not have to lug a heavy book bag. Nice.

Okay, let me say I had a Kindle 1 first, and I liked it enough to buy a Kindle 2. And let me say, this is a huge improvement. First- the navigation. The Kindle 1 had clunky chunky buttons that felt weird and kept turning pages and stuff when I had it in my pocket. This new design gets rid of all that and it’s and intuitive. Nice touch.

The refresh rate is soooo much faster. I turn a page, it flips. That’s it. It’s insanely fast! I’m really glad I upgraded, and can’t wait for the Kindle 3. The DX looks cool, but I don’t need the extra screen space so I’ll wait for the generation after that.

I’ve been looking into buying an ereader, and I got this one for christmass from my mom because she saw it on Oprah. It’s very nice- much easier than reading on a computer screen. And I really like being able to buy a book whenever I feel like it and then get it right away. That’s really cool! The interface is kinda hard- I wish it had a mouse or something. Maybe the Kindle 3 will have one?

I’m a huge gadget hound, and when the ereaders all came out I had to have one. I’ve gone through quite a few, had a Sony PRS 505 and an Iliad…but none of them really gave me that super WOW factor. This one does it, and does it really well. Sure it looks kinda bleah when you compare it to your iPhone and iPod, but it works like a charm. It’s sharper than the first generation of e-readers I had and moves faster, too. I don’t like the button interface, it feels too clicky for me. But the slim size is perfect and light weight, and it feels like it can hold up to a lot.

And the wireless book buying is the king! I just wish it wouldn’t try and charge me for reading blogs, when my PRS-505 had a built in Feed Reader for RSS Feeds. Oh well, can’t have everything.

I received it as a gift but I missed the actual experience of holding onto a real book. It functions as advertised but I have a real aversion to any product that tries to lock you in to a specific company or product line. It should have been more generic.

It is grossly overpriced and I wound up returning it for a full refund.

I’ve had my kindle 2 pretty much since it was first put on sale.

Short review version: The kindle 2 is a solid device that has served me well and I have not once regretted purchasing.

Long review version:

A bit about me: I hate paper and bulk so the kindle 2 was made for me. The kindle 2 means I don’t have two or three meter tall stacks of newspapers to cart of every couple of months. I can also use it to search my newspapers. A downside is I have to manually save the newspapers so they don’t automatically get deleted after two weeks.

Response time:

I’ve also purchase a few books and found the reading experience enjoyable. The pause between turning pages is barely noticeable when reading a book. It becomes more noticeable when flipping through newspapers.

A study said it takes longer to go through a newspaper on e-readers and my experience backs that up. I think the page flipping time is more important for reading newspapers as I skim a newspaper in a similar manner to skimming a web page. This benefits from a faster response. The kindle 2 is better than the competition according to what I’ve read. In any case, I don’t have the hassle of page flipping a physical newspaper.

It takes several seconds for the kindle 2 to return results while searching my several hundred items.

In all, the response time is entirely adequate and (almost) unnoticeable when reading a book (enjoyable).

When reading with the intent to focus on what is most important to me, or for business purposes (scanning documents), the kindle 2 has room for improvement. The response time is professionally adequate but sometimes annoying.

Bulk (mass + dimensions):

The kindle 2 is decently sized and decently weighted. I have strong hands and find myself able to read one handed, barring the occasional page turn. After a time of reading (30-45 minutes) I find the weight heavier than I would otherwise desire and prefer to use two hands.

I would call the kindle 2’s weight adequately light and its size adequately small. There is room for improvement but it’s not a brick. Carrying it with me is not an issue.

Navigation and software:

Navigating through the kindle 2 is very intuitive and doesn’t really require thought.

I would call the software spartan. More options would be helpful if more features are added. For the limited purpose of reading, I have no issues.

The search function could be improved on the kindle 2. I currently have 500+ newspapers on it and it takes several seconds to carry out a search.

Being able to tag various items and locations in reading material in a similar way to Gmail would be advantageous but is not yet available.

Text to audio:

The speaker is very decent and the text to audio is amazing compared to other products I’ve tried. It only works for English right now.

Dictionary function:

There is a built in English dictionary included with every kindle. You can replace this with another of a few dictionaries. I would like to be able to reference multiple dictionaries and also be able to reference foreign language dictionaries (Chinese for instance). This is not yet possible.

graphics:

Black and white but crisp on the expandable graphics.

I have a nitpick with Amazon’s treatment of mathematical symbols and formulas. In addition to not rendering all alphabets (Chinese for instance, is absent), the kindle book software renders formulas and mathematical symbols as low grade graphics which one cannot expand. This is horrible when reading a scientifically or mathematically inclined text.

Sometimes these character graphics are fine (although not zoomable) but sometimes they are not.

Reading PDFs:

Not good last time I checked. I hear there’s been a software update but haven’t tried it again yet.

Screen contrast:

Decent. Sometimes I need a brighter light but regular lighting is usually sufficient.

Battery Life:

Lasts through a full day or two of heavy reading with the 3G on. Lasts a few days of readying with the 3G off. Lasts a couple weeks when sleeping with the 3G off.

Bottom line:

I love my kindle 2 despite its shortcomings.

Pros: It keeps me from throwing out a tree every few months. It allows me to easily obtain materials (almost effortless). It lets me carry as many of my books available on the kindle as I wish. It is an easy to use device. Very intuitive. It’s better than the competition.

Cons: There is room for improvement, particularly in search, page turning speed, and display of mathematical symbols and foreign alphabetical characters. Sometimes I need to turn a brighter light on. The keyboard is irritating to use (although you don’t really need it if not searching for something or taking a note). The buttons make a clicking sound (I hear it is better on the kindle 2 than on the kindle 1 and that the kindle 3 is even better). Amazon seems to have been forced by publishers to raise the price of books after Apple’s deal went public. The worst con I can think of is the LACK OF A SECONDHAND KINDLE-BOOK STORE. Come on Amazon! Help a kindle fan out.

The kindle 3 addresses some of my issues with the kindle 2, notably page turning speed, weight, size, and contrast have all been improved.