The New Kindle - First Impressions

So my last blog post was about a present I got for my 21st birthday (Sonic Generations). In keeping with birthday-related items and how awesome they are, today I will be taking a look at Amazon's new Kindle e-Reader, which was also bought for me as a 21st birthday gift by my aunt and uncle.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a Kindle- I put it on my Amazon wishlist, but wasn't expecting anyone to but it- and yet low and behold, I now have one. 

 

The new Kindle features a 6" display and Wi-Fi, but has no 3G- which I don't really see as a problem- It's not like I'll be sitting on the bus on the way home from work and suddenly remember that I want to buy a book right now- I can either wait until I have Wi-Fi access to sign onto the Kindle Store with my Kindle, or just do it from any old computer via Amazon, and the next time I connect my Kindle up to Wi-Fi it'll download it for me. It weighs in at a paultry 170 grams, which is nothing. It's like carrying around one of your smallest paperback books- except this thing can hold up to 1,500 of them.

I love the display on the Kindle. The witchcraft that is it's E Ink electronic paper display still amazes and baffles me, and it is pretty much like reading a book. As it's not an LCD display, for example it doesn't hurt your eyes because there is no electricity actively passing through it, which is great for me and my light-sensitive peepers. It doesn't suffer from glare either- the only time I've had anything like glare with it so far is when reading it in the dark with a torch pointed straight at it.

I didn't really know much about the Kindle until I got it, so I have been impressed so far with its features. I'd heard about Twitter and Facebook integration- and all that does it just allow you to tweet or post as a status update snippets of a book you are reading. However, what I was unaware of was that it actually has a full web browser. Granted it's not the most intuitive to use without a keyboard on the 6" Kindle, but it's great for checking Facebook, Twitter, the news or your e-mails.

I had previously been a skeptic of the Kindle, and had held a similar stance on how paper books are irreplaceable and superior to the Kindle that other skeptics have held before me. I'm not going to suddenly go out and burn all of my books, heck, I'm probably not even going to donate all of them to a charity shop or give them to my nan just yet either- plus I don't think I'll be re-buying books I own on paper in digital form. However, it's a game changer for me in terms of how I am going to be doing my reading in the years to come- it's quick, it's easy, it saves space, and it's a bit cheaper too.

So far so good with the Kindle- I'm loving it, and I would certainly suggest not knocking it until you've tried it.