Review of Kindle Paperwhite

I received the kindle paperwhite as a gift a few months ago and I LOVE it. I am a very avid reader who was very picky about what I was looking for in an e-reader. Some things that I was looking for included a light, a low glare screen, and an easy interface. There are not very many e-readers on the market that offer a built in light, so that was the biggest hurdle. It came down to a few choices. Mainly it was between the Barnes & Noble NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight and the Kindle Paperwhite . The only other options were tablets such as the Apple iPad Mini or Kindle Fire HD . I eliminated the tablets due to the fact that I wanted a device that was solely for reading and that would serve me best in that capacity. The tablets are hard to read in sunlight due to a reflective screen and their back lights are not as customizable as I would have liked. This leads to eye fatigue while reading in the dark. That left me with the NOOK Touch with GlowLight and the Kindle Paperwhite . After doing extensive research on both devices, I opted for the Kindle . It was supposed to have more advanced features than the NOOK . Once I had decided on the Kindle , I told people that it was what I wanted and lo and behold I received it as a gift for my birthday.

The first thing I noticed when I received it is how small and lightweight it is. It weighs hardly anything and is very easy to hold. I could probably use a slightly larger screen but the small size makes it very portable. The next thing I noticed is its sleek black exterior which is very pleasing to the eye. In the box is the Kindle and a micro usb cable. It does not come with a charging cord. I can see this being a negative because you have to charge it somehow and a wall charger is much more convenient than charging it on the computer all the time. I happened to have a device that used the same micro usb, so I am able to charge it with that but it would be nice to have a designated charging cable just for it. The device I got is an ad-free device. This cost a little bit more (about $50) but I think it is definitely worth it. I would hate to have ads on it every time I use it, so for me this is a must. However, the ads don’t affect the performance, they are just irritating.

Turning on the device, I found the interface to be easy to use. It opens up to a screen that houses all your book titles. It also has some recommendations at the bottom from Amazon. It seemed clear and concise but the recommendations irritated me a little. I turned them off in the settings, which was really easy to do. The next thing I played with was the light. It tells you to use a higher light setting in bright light and a lower light setting in dark rooms. This seemed a little anti-intuitive to me because I thought you would want more light in a dark room. However, after using it I have found that there recommendations are accurate. In a well it room, I use a light setting of 10-15. In a dark room, I use a light setting of around 3. Now, at first 3 seems really dim but as your eyes adjust, it is plenty of light and doesn’t cause your eyes to fatigue as quickly as a bright light would. When reading the reviews, I found where people said that there are some faint black shadows on the bottom of the screen caused by the way it is lit. This is true. There are some black shadows on the bottom of the screen. They are fairly noticeable if you are looking for them but do not bother me at all. When reading, I do not even notice them and they do not bother me in the slightest.

I got the Kindle with wifi but no 3G. I went this route because I heard the 3G was very slow and unreliable. Plus, I wasn’t too worried about accessing the internet away from a wifi area. The Kindle Paperwhite does have an “experimental browser” for searching the web. I have used this a few times and found it to be a nice bonus feature. I can get on to websites like manybooks.net and download free e-books directly onto the Kindle . I can also check my email, which is handy. Obviously, this web browser is not capable of a lot. It will not search the web like a tablet pc but it can be a nice feature.

The battery life on the Kindle Paperwhite is said to be 8 weeks. In my experience, it doesn’t quite reach that. I think the 8 weeks is based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 10. I read more than a half hour per day (more like 1 to 2 hours) and vary my light settings depending on where I am. I also am not very good about turning my wireless off. I find that I have to charge it about every 2 weeks. This does not bother me at all and I am sure I could make the battery last longer if I took precautions but charging it every 2 weeks does not seem like a big deal to me. Also, it fully charges very quickly. I would say it can go from nearly empty to charged in 2 hours (this is just a guesstimate), which doesn’t seem bad. All in all, I love my Kindle and am very happy with it.