Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Review: The Best E-Book Reader?

[acku]

Although Amazon's Kindle Fire HD gets all of the glory, the company's hardware business is rooted in e-books. The Kindle Paperwhite's front-light promises something different. But with the recent proliferation of cheap tablets, is it still worth buying?

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Review: The Best E-Book Reader? : Read more

 

[Stimpack]

I've been contemplating whether I should buy the Kindle Fire or the Paperwhite for a couple of weeks now. While this summation of the Paperwhite and its features helped shed some light (heheh.) on its selling points, I still feel no closer to a decision.

Nevertheless, it was an entertaining read! In fact, it's made me register an account here. I can't wait to read more articles like this. Fun stuff!

 

[slomo4sho]

I am still waiting for a Kindle with SD or mSD expandability.

 

[kartu]

[citation][nom]slomo4sho[/nom]I am still waiting for a Kindle with SD or mSD expandability.[/citation]
It's called "Sony Reader T2". It runs Android. And it's rooted.

And you are not bound to Amazon's store with it, even non rooted you can burrow books from electronic libraries and read common formats like EPUB.

 

[Mark Matthews]

Typo on the top of page "results" page...
worth should be worse

 

[Mark Matthews]

[citation][nom]dirtyferret[/nom]
ive read several books on my kindle fire HD, often for hours at a time, and never had an issue with eye strain or battery life. In fact i prefer reading on the kindle HD then a regular book.
[/citation]

The one advantage of e-ink readers like the traditional kindle, is you can read it in daylight. I have an iPad and spend a lot of time chilling on the back deck during the summer, and I have to go through a lot of seating arrangements to minimize the glare so that I can see the iPad. Ordering a new Kindle just for this purpose.

 

[ubercake]

I like my Paperwhite. It's really easy on the eyes and does not have all the distractions of a tablet. When I want to read, I use this. It's great under sunlight, but does in fact have a sort of mild glare under artificial overhead lighting conditions. Nothing bad, though. You can just tilt it a little one way or another to elimnate the glare. What is especially great is when it's dark and you're a passenger on a car ride. You can continue to read. The lighting is great and doesn't fatigue your eyes like an LED or LCD screen.

Cloud sync is great too for those times when I don't have my Kindle with me. I can pick up my phone with my Kindle app and start reading right where I left off on my Kindle and vice versa.

Also, the battery lasts significantly longer (we're talking months of daily reading) if you just shut off the wireless connection when you're not downloading any books or sync-ing to the cloud. If you leave the wireless connection on full-time, you need to recharge after about 4 weeks.

 

[tridon]

I really fell in love with the graphs over Display Performance that showed the differences between the Kindles. Please use this the next time you review a Kindle as well. It would be valuable extra information when deciding whether or not to buy a new version a year or two It will be very interesting to see if the Paperwhite has improved the clearness in a year.

Great article! *thumbs up the article*

 

[tridon]

[citation][nom]Stimpack[/nom]I've been contemplating whether I should buy the Kindle Fire or the Paperwhite for a couple of weeks now. While this summation of the Paperwhite and its features helped shed some light (heheh.) on its selling points, I still feel no closer to a decision. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining read! In fact, it's made me register an account here. I can't wait to read more articles like this. Fun stuff![/citation]

If you plan to read a lot where there is natural light (in the sun or shadow outside or near windows, etc) I would really recommend the Paperwhite. Just my personal preference. My eyes are really having a hard time reading on a tablet under such conditions. If you mostly read where you can control the lightning condition the Paperwhite would still be easier on the eyes, but there is no longer a real problem reading on the tablet =)

 

[Guest]

I've being using 3 models of kindle. The back light on the latest one is great but the touch screen... ARG, my god, a pain in the but. Get me simple buttons, I miss my buttons SO MUCH.
If you are using your tablet to read, not comment, not surfing the web, not playing, reading, all you need is a previous/next page. The touch screen is not flawless, it will not work then you will skip 3 pages. Then you'll put your kindle on the coach and something will touch the screen and...

Bring back the button please!

 

[shadowfamicom]

[citation][nom]hadigny[/nom]I've being using 3 models of kindle. The back light on the latest one is great but the touch screen... ARG, my god, a pain in the but. Get me simple buttons, I miss my buttons SO MUCH.If you are using your tablet to read, not comment, not surfing the web, not playing, reading, all you need is a previous/next page. The touch screen is not flawless, it will not work then you will skip 3 pages. Then you'll put your kindle on the coach and something will touch the screen and...Bring back the button please![/citation]

Yes I am really pretty sick of the lack of buttons in favor of touch screens. Part of the reason I never really used a first gen iPod touch that someone gave me. If I am walking and have my MP3 player in my pocket... I want it to have buttons, for switching songs and volume up and down. Don't even get me started on phones without physical keyboards.

 

[ubercake]

I've being using 3 models of kindle. The back light on the latest one is great but the touch screen... ARG, my god, a pain in the but. Get me simple buttons, I miss my buttons SO MUCH.
If you are using your tablet to read, not comment, not surfing the web, not playing, reading, all you need is a previous/next page. The touch screen is not flawless, it will not work then you will skip 3 pages. Then you'll put your kindle on the coach and something will touch the screen and...

Bring back the button please!

This is one thing I noticed too going from the keyboard Kindle to the paperwhite. I liked the buttons a lot better on the keyboard Kindle as the touchscreen is a bit laggy. All things considered, though, you can't beat the ability to read in any lighting conditions (no light all the way to direct sun light) with the Paperwhite. The lack of the keyboard is a little annoying, but if you think about how infrequently you use it, it's not so bad.

 

[sumludus]

Wow. This entire aritcle is a gigantic advertizement for the Kindle Paperwhite. while I agree that it's the best e-reader on the market, I came to that conclusion after comparing it to the Nook and Kobo, not simply previous generations of the Kindle. Of course Amazon's latest incarnation of the device is the greatest; doing otherwise would not make good business sense. But to call ti the best without the mention of any other brand of e-reader anywhere in the article is worse then simple bad journalism; it's becoming an Amazon shill. Shame on Andrew Ku for his poor reporting, and shame on Tom's Hardware for publishing this disgraceful article.

 

[Mickeyblueyes]

I have had 3 Kindles as well as a to be unnamed competitor. I used to swear that I would never give up the "book" for an electronic reader. Now I have a hard time not making that same claim for the Paperwhite.
What I like. E-ink. This was the whole idea behind the Kindle revolution. Paper quality, no eye strain, read in the sun. Granted I use my iPad for surfing the net, reading news and all around keeping up. However I do notice the eye strain after a while and I just can't get a handle around curling up with my iPad to read a book.
Adjustable fonts. Made for older eyes. I used to pass up books because the print was too small or the binding had a chance of doing damage if I dropped it on my head while dozing off.
I do like the touch screen. I guess it is what we get used to. I was forced to use a button Kindle after my Kindle Touch went down. Never really got the hang of it. Almost everything we encounter now is touch so it becomes intuitive.
The back lighting. Finally!!! I really dont miss looking for a decent hotel room light to read by. I also don't miss my little external light batteries running out at inconvenient times. I don't even have a reading light on my side of the bed anymore.
Amazon has copyright agreements in many more countries than other makes. In other words in many countries you cannot download a book. Don't take a minimum wage clerk's word on it. We spend a lot of time out of country and it became very clear to us that Amazon by far gave us the most flexibility. A disclaimer. I do not, have not and never will work for for Amazon.. Oh and the customer service is terrific as well.

 

[Mickeyblueyes]

Wow. This entire aritcle is a gigantic advertizement for the Kindle Paperwhite. while I agree that it's the best e-reader on the market, I came to that conclusion after comparing it to the Nook and Kobo, not simply previous generations of the Kindle. Of course Amazon's latest incarnation of the device is the greatest; doing otherwise would not make good business sense. But to call ti the best without the mention of any other brand of e-reader anywhere in the article is worse then simple bad journalism; it's becoming an Amazon shill. Shame on Andrew Ku for his poor reporting, and shame on Tom's Hardware for publishing this disgraceful article.

 

[Mickeyblueyes]

Um, correct me on this but the title of the article is " The Amazon Paperwhite Review: The best e-reader ever? The question mark allows for discussion.

 

[ubercake]

Wow. This entire aritcle is a gigantic advertizement for the Kindle Paperwhite. while I agree that it's the best e-reader on the market, I came to that conclusion after comparing it to the Nook and Kobo, not simply previous generations of the Kindle. Of course Amazon's latest incarnation of the device is the greatest; doing otherwise would not make good business sense. But to call ti the best without the mention of any other brand of e-reader anywhere in the article is worse then simple bad journalism; it's becoming an Amazon shill. Shame on Andrew Ku for his poor reporting, and shame on Tom's Hardware for publishing this disgraceful article.

I know what you're saying but the thing of it is, there's probably been very little market penetration for Kobo and Nook. It's like including the E-reader I run across at the counter at the drugstore checkout (I don't even know the brand).

 

[robj_30]

[citation][nom]ubercake[/nom]I know what you're saying but the thing of it is, there's probably been very little market penetration for Kobo and Nook. It's like including the E-reader I run across at the counter at the drugstore checkout (I don't even know the brand).[/citation]

Are you kidding? The Nook is a huge seller! Barnes and Noble has 600+ retail locations that are all pushing those devices plus a thriving web site and e-book business. Amazon may sell more, but that doesn't mean there isn't competition worth mentioning.

 

[gm0n3y]

I agree with sumludus. To have an e-reader review that doesn't even compare against other similar devices is silly. The Kobo Glo is generally considered to be a slightly better device than the Kindle Paperwhite (similar backlighting, faster processor, faster screen refresh, etc). Most people still opt for the Kindle due to Amazon's greater number of books and generally lower prices, but to not even compare the 2 (not to mention the Nook) makes this article largely useless.

This is basically like having an iPad comparison and only comparing it to the iPad Mini (and excluding the Surface RT, various Android tablets, etc).

 

[ubercake]

[citation][nom]robj_30[/nom]Are you kidding? The Nook is a huge seller! Barnes and Noble has 600+ retail locations that are all pushing those devices plus a thriving web site and e-book business. Amazon may sell more, but that doesn't mean there isn't competition worth mentioning.[/citation]
I'm all for the competition, but look it up. Barnes and Noble is basically with us still due to last year's cash investment of $300,000,000 by Microsoft (17% ownership in the Nook unit). As far as retail paper book stores, Barnes and Noble is going by way of those paper book stores we've seen precede it into the great beyond. Now that Microsoft has their own tablets, what value does the Nook provide them?

I wish it were different, but I wouldn't put any money on a company that's still thoroughly invested in old ways of doing things (paper book stores). We saw Borders go away pretty quickly.

Barnes and Noble is far from the thriving company you make it out to be.

 

[denny wheeler]

@ kartu:"It's called "Sony Reader T2". It runs Android. And it's rooted.

And you are not bound to Amazon's store with it, even non rooted you can burrow books from electronic libraries and read common formats like EPUB."

Um. Kindle isn't bound to their store. You can load plain text, mobi, some other formats, directly from your pc, and via the email portal, pdf, Word, etc. Not sure about ePub.

 

[hixbot]

E-ink is the way to go if you're reading outside in sunlight.
It also has a much better battery life.

Frankly, I've been waiting for a color E-ink reader (for comics).

I have no interest in a backlit LCD display for a reader. If I want to read from my tablet I will.

 

[robj_30]

[citation][nom]ubercake[/nom]I'm all for the competition, but look it up. Barnes and Noble is basically with us still due to last year's cash investment of $300,000,000 by Microsoft (17% ownership in the Nook unit). As far as retail paper book stores, Barnes and Noble is going by way of those paper book stores we've seen precede it into the great beyond. Now that Microsoft has their own tablets, what value does the Nook provide them?I wish it were different, but I wouldn't put any money on a company that's still thoroughly invested in old ways of doing things (paper book stores). We saw Borders go away pretty quickly.Barnes and Noble is far from the thriving company you make it out to be.[/citation]

We can argue about the long term prospects for Barnes and Noble-- I have my own doubts-- but the fact remains they have a huge retail footprint, TODAY, and are a presence in the e-reader sector. An e-reader review should mention the competition. Sony has some pretty good ones as well, and I'm fairly certain they're not going anywhere as a company.

 

[ubercake]

[citation][nom]ubercake[/nom]I'm all for the competition, but look it up. Barnes and Noble is basically with us still due to last year's cash investment of $300,000,000 by Microsoft (17% ownership in the Nook unit). As far as retail paper book stores, Barnes and Noble is going by way of those paper book stores we've seen precede it into the great beyond. Now that Microsoft has their own tablets, what value does the Nook provide them?I wish it were different, but I wouldn't put any money on a company that's still thoroughly invested in old ways of doing things (paper book stores). We saw Borders go away pretty quickly.Barnes and Noble is far from the thriving company you make it out to be.[/citation]


We can argue about the long term prospects for Barnes and Noble-- I have my own doubts-- but the fact remains they have a huge retail footprint, TODAY, and are a presence in the e-reader sector. An e-reader review should mention the competition. Sony has some pretty good ones as well, and I'm fairly certain they're not going anywhere as a company.

Tru dat!

 

[pjmelect]

In fact, the fourth-generation Kindle's display actually seemed worth than its predecessor's.

Bad English or a spelling mistake?

I bought the Kindle keyboard for its ability to display PDF files and found the PDF reader software to be very buggy. Have they fixed this in the latest version?