Final Thoughts
I have to say that I was really impressed with the Amazon Kindle. Previously I had a Sony PRS-505 reader, which was good, but there wasn’t a huge amount of books for it, and those that were available were very expensive, so I rarely used it!
The Kindle was a pleasure to use – it was simple to navigate the options, select what I either wanted to read or buy, and then actually read it. The text was very clear and I found it easy to read, and the battery life is amazing.
The software update to finally bring page numbers to books only works with certain books, but over time all books should have it I believe.
Amazon are clearly pushing the Kindle, with the low price of the device, the many many free books and also that a number of the books for the Kindle are significantly cheaper on the Kindle that actually buying the real book (Apple please take note!)
This is really good because previously it was very hard to justify spending more for an electronic copy of a book than it was for the real thing. So well done Amazon again!
There are other features of the Kindle I haven’t gone into in this review – such as voice control, the Kindle reading to you and web surfing! For my Dad, those features are something he isn’t really interested in, although I am sure others are!
There are two versions of the Kindle, the Wi-Fi version and the Wi-Fi/3G version. Personally I don’t see the point of paying extra for the 3G version as the Wi-Fi version is great and with Wi-Fi available most places now, often for free, it should be more than sufficient.
Some of my books are even available on the Kindle!
Right, I’m off to give the Kindle to my Dad.
Have you got a Kindle? What do you think of it?
Hi Andrew,
Great review of the Kindle. I bought one for my Mom for xmas last year (’bout 3 months ago). She loves it.
I had to get the 3G version for her. She’s in a nursing facility and while they have wifi in certain areas, it’s not available in her room. So 3G it is! It works great for her. She loves to read and instead of stacks and stacks of books, she has just the tiny Kindle. She buys stuff all the time. And she finds the e-ink display very easy to read.
And about that recent update: it does not get pushed to the Kindle via 3G – only wifi. So, I prepared my laptop with the update and when I last visited, applied it thru the USB connection. Went without a hitch. Amazon did a great job with the self-applied instructions.
All in all, I agree (or at least my Mom does) with you, it’s a great e-reader.
thanks, thats useful to know about the update.
My Dad has already been buying books for it and the Kindle is still here with me until next week!
Glad your Mum likes it as well.
I’ve just got a Kindle Wifi for about two weeks. I’ve loaded it up with a number of free books for now.
It is very easy to read and light. Navigation is pretty intuitive.
The only two things I’m dubious about is the lack of color – some of my favorite books have either detailed drawings or photos, and very odd formatting on some Kindle edition books.
I love the fact that most of the Kindle editions are significantly cheaper than physical copies (as they should be).
If I get something with color later (such as the Barnes and Noble Nook Color) I will give this to my mom (as my dad already uses one).
thanks Gordon, I was surprised just how many really good free books there were! It should keep my Dad happy for months 🙂