I read a lot of books, particularly fantasy books, which tend to be quite
large. It seemed pretty natural that I would want to get a Kindle as it is
smaller than even one book and can hold thousands of books. I bought one while
I was a student ($200 including a lighted case) and tried to justify the cost
by telling myself that I would try to get textbooks on it and that I would
read the textbooks more if I had them on me all the time. Despite that, my
3rd generation Kindle Keyboard has been one of the best gadget purchases that
I have ever made. I probably have used it more than I use my smartphone. It is
one of the devices that I carry around every day.
Yesterday, Amazon had a press conference to announce quite a number of things
including a new Kindle Fire and most importantly, a new Kindle called the
Kindle Paperwhite. This new generation of Kindle has a new screen technology
called paperwhite that has a huge amount of increased contrast while also
having a frontlight a la the Nook.
Features
Based on the current information about it, I will almost certainly be purchasing one. Here is a breakdown of its new features.
The Good
- Increased screen contrast
- Improved Font Support and Rendering (More Fonts!)
- Huge amounts of battery (3 weeks with frontlight on)
- Smaller form factor than Kindle 3
- Case is much more form fitting and has a magnetic clasp
- Frontlight that covers the whole screen evenly and whose brightness is adjustable
The Bad
- Lack of physical page turn buttons
I honestly cannot think of anything else that I don't like from what I have seen so far.
It looks to me like Amazon is doing an excellent job with eReaders here. I am very excited to get more details on the Paperwhite when it becomes available for sale and review. I will definitely be buying one once I hear reviews for it. I will put up a review of one once I have used it for some time.