Kindle Touch

If you're purchasing a device primarily for reading, an important consideration is the screen technology. Unlike devices with LCD screens, Kindle e-readers use the latest generation of Electronic Ink ("E Ink") technology – E Ink Pearl – designed specifically to deliver clearer, sharper text that makes reading for extended periods of time more comfortable. Here are some of the advantages to reading on an E Ink device:

Reads Like Real Paper, Even in Bright Sunlight
E Ink screens look and read just like real paper. Kindle e-readers' matte screens reflect light like ordinary paper and use no backlighting, so you can read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room. Unlike LCD screens, E Ink screens have no glare.

Easy on the Eyes
E Ink uses actual ink particles to create crisp, print-like text similar to what you see in a physical book. And Kindle e-readers also use proprietary, hand-built fonts to take advantage of the special characteristics of the ink to make letters appear clear and sharp.

• Less eye fatigue: Every time your eye switches from a bright screen to a dimmer, ambient room, your eyes have to adjust, which may result in fatigue. With E Ink, the page is the same brightness as everything else in the room so there's no adjustment needed.

• Reduced glare: All E Ink surfaces are treated to be matte like a printed page, reducing glare and increasing legibility.

• Read in any position: E Ink screens have a uniform contrast ratio that does not change with your viewing angle, so you can read in any position.

• Sharp, clear text: E Ink screens have 100% aperture ratio, so there are no gaps between pixels. The blacks and whites on an E Ink screen are uniform, improving image quality.

Read with One Hand
Ranging from 170 grams to 247 grams, Kindle e-readers are lighter than most paperback books, and weigh half as much as many LCD tablet devices, making it easy and comfortable to hold in one hand for extended periods of time.

Longer Battery Life
Electronic ink screens also have the advantage of significantly lower power consumption than LCD screens. E Ink screens do not require power to maintain a page of text, allowing you to read for up to two months on a single charge.

Lose Yourself in Your Reading
The most elegant feature of a physical book is that it disappears while you're reading. Immersed in the author's world and ideas, you don't notice a book's glue, the stitching, or ink. Our top design objective is to make Kindle Touch disappear — just like a physical book — so you can get lost in your reading, not the technology.

Ergonomic Design
Kindle Touch is easy to hold and read. We designed it with long-form reading in mind. When reading for long periods of time, people naturally shift positions and often like to read with one hand. Kindle Touch has a new ergonomic design so it can be held comfortably however you choose to read.

Touch Controls and Virtual Keyboard
Kindle Touch features a full touchscreen display that puts page turns, navigation and note-taking at your fingertips. Tap unknown words to call up definitions in the dictionary, highlight sections of text to send to a friend, or search, shop and type with a virtual keyboard that appears on screen just when you need it.

New Touch Experience - EasyReach
Amazon invented a new type of touch experience that eliminates the fatigue caused by continuously swiping to turn the page, and that allows readers to hold Kindle with either hand while still turning pages comfortably. With EasyReach, Kindle Touch users can effortlessly page forward in a book or a newspaper while holding the device with either hand. Tapping on most of the screen area will turn the page forward, the most common action done when reading; tapping in a narrow area near the left edge of the device turns to the previous page; and tapping on the top part of the screen brings up the toolbars for further options. This is another way that Kindle helps readers get lost in the author's world.

Never Gets Hot
Unlike a laptop, Kindle Touch never gets hot so you can read comfortably as long as you like.

Built-in Wi-Fi
Kindle Touch automatically detects nearby Wi-Fi networks at school, home, or your favorite café. At a hotel or café that requires a password? Simply enter the password and connect to the network. Once you have added a Wi-Fi network, Kindle Touch will automatically connect to that network the next time you’re near the hotspot.

Adjustable Text Size
Kindle Touch has eight adjustable font sizes to suit your reading preference. You can increase the text size of your favourite book, newspaper or magazine with the push of a button. If your eyes tire, simply increase the font size and continue reading comfortably. Kindle Touch also has three font styles to choose from – all optimised and hand-tuned to provide the best reading experience.

Custom Fonts
Kindle Touch uses hand-built, custom fonts and font-hinting to make words and letters more crisp, clear, and natural-looking. Font hints are instructions, written as code, that control points on a font character's line, improving legibility at small font sizes where few pixels are available. Hinting is a mix of aesthetic judgments and complicated technical strategies. We've designed our proprietary font-hinting to optimise specifically for the special characteristics of electronic ink.

Fast Page Turns
Kindle Touch has fast page turns. We’ve done this by fine-tuning Kindle Touch’s proprietary waveform, the series of electronic pulses that move black and white electronic ink particles to achieve an optimal display of images and text.

Support for Non-Latin Characters
Kindle Touch supports the display of non-Latin characters, so you can read books and documents in the translation that’s right for you. Kindle displays Cyrillic (such as Russian), Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Korean characters, in addition to Latin and Greek scripts.

Full Image Zoom
Images and photos display crisply on Kindle Touch and can be zoomed to the full size of the screen.

Real Page Numbers
Easily reference and cite passages or read alongside others in a book club or class with real page numbers. Using the computing fabric of Amazon Web Services, we've created algorithms that match specific text in a Kindle book to the corresponding text in a print book, to identify the correct, "real" page number to display. Available on tens of thousands of our most popular Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions. Page numbers are displayed when you push the menu button.

Carry and Read Your Personal Documents
Kindle Touch makes it easy to take your personal documents with you, eliminating the need to print. You and your approved contacts can e-mail documents – including Word, PDF and more - directly to your Kindle and read them in Kindle format. Your personal documents will be stored in your Kindle library on Amazon and ready to download conveniently anywhere at any time. You can add notes, highlights and bookmarks, which are automatically synchronized across devices along with the last page you read using our Whispersync technology.

You can read your PDFs in their native format and convert them to the Kindle format so that it reflows like a regular Kindle book. Learn More

Built-In Dictionary with Instant Lookup
Come across a word you don't know? Kindle Touch includes The New Oxford English Dictionary with over 250,000 entries and definitions for free. Kindle Touch lets you instantly look up the definition without ever leaving the book – simply touch and hold the word you want to check and the definition will automatically display at the bottom of the screen.

Search Wikipedia and the Web
Kindle Touch makes it easy to find what you're looking for. Just enter a word or phrase and Kindle will search every instance across your Kindle library, in the Kindle Store, on Wikipedia, or the Web using Google search.

X-Ray
For Kindle Touch, Amazon invented X-Ray - a new feature that lets customers explore the “bones of the book.” With a single tap, readers can see all the passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics that interest them, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari, Amazon’s community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers.

Amazon built X-Ray using its expertise in language processing and machine learning, access to significant storage and computing resources with Amazon S3 and EC2, and a deep library of book and character information. The vision is to have every important phrase in every book.

Bookmarks and Annotations
Add annotations to text, just like you might write in the margins of a book, with a virtual keyboard that appears just when you need it. And because it is digital, you can edit, delete, and export your notes. You can highlight and clip key passages and bookmark pages for future use. You'll never need to bookmark your last place in the book, because Kindle remembers for you and always opens to the last page you read.

Popular Highlights
See what millions of Kindle readers think are the most interesting passages in your books. If several other readers have highlighted a particular passage, then that passage will be highlighted in your book along with the total number of people who have highlighted it. View Details

Share Meaningful Passages
Share your passion for books and reading with friends, family, and other readers around the world by posting meaningful passages to social networks like Facebook and Twitter directly from Kindle, without leaving the page. Want to post or tweet about a great new novel or newspaper article? When you highlight or create a note in your book or periodical, you can easily share it with your social network. Help your network of family and friends discover new authors and books.

Public Notes
Share your notes and see what others are saying about Kindle books. Any Kindle user – including authors, book reviewers, professors and passionate readers everywhere – can opt-in to share their thoughts on book passages and ideas with friends, family members, colleagues, and the greater Kindle community. Learn More

Choose Your Language
You can customise your Kindle with the language you prefer. You can set your default language on Kindle to English (U.S. and U.K.), German, French, Spanish, Italian, or Brazilian Portuguese.

Organise Your Library
Organise your Kindle library into customised collections, or categories, to easily access any book you are looking for. You can add an item to multiple collections to make organising and finding titles even easier. For example, you can add the same book to your "History" and "My Favourite Authors" collections.

Password Protection
With password protection functionality, you can choose to lock your Kindle automatically when not in use.

Access the Kindle Store wirelessly right from your Kindle Touch – search and shop the world’s largest selection of books that people want to read, plus magazines, newspapers and blogs. We auto-deliver all your purchases in seconds – simply search, buy, and you’re ready to read.

Personalised Recommendations
Kindle Touch makes it easy to discover new titles with recommendations personalised just for you. Kindle uses the same personalised customer experience you're used to across Amazon.co.uk, matching our best recommendations to your personal reading habits.

Huge Selection, Low Prices
With the biggest selection of any ebook store in the UK, you can shop more than 1 million books, including bestsellers and new releases, UK and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Over 1 million free books, such as Pride and Prejudice and Treasure Island, are also available.

Our vision for Kindle is to have every book ever written, in every language, available in 60 seconds from anywhere on earth.

Newspapers & Magazines
Shop and subscribe to your favourite magazines and newspapers such as The Times, The Guardian, and The Economist. New editions are auto-delivered wirelessly direct to your device the second they go on sale.

WebKit-Based Browser
Kindle's experimental web browser is based on WebKit. It's easy to find the information you're looking for right from your Kindle Touch. Experimental web browsing is free.

Read-to-Me
With the Text-to-Speech feature turned on, Kindle Touch can read English newspapers, magazines, blogs and books out loud to you, unless the book's rights holder made the feature unavailable. You can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and your spot is automatically saved. Pages automatically turn while the content is being read, so you can listen hands-free. You can choose from both male and female voices which can be sped up or slowed down to suit your preference. In the middle of a great story or article but have to jump in the car? Simply turn on Text-to-Speech and listen on the go.

Listen to Music and Podcasts
Transfer MP3 files to Kindle Touch to play as background music while you read. You can quickly and easily transfer MP3 files via USB by connecting Kindle Touch to your computer.

Kindle Touch is a great choice if you already have a high-speed internet connection and wireless router set up in your home and do not need the added convenience of a 3G connection. 3G enables you to download books anytime, anywhere, while on the go. If you do not have Wi-Fi set up in your home, Kindle Touch 3G may be a better option.

Kindle Touch 3G is the easiest option because there is no wireless setup—you are ready to shop, purchase, and read right out of the box. Built-in free 3G connectivity uses the same wireless signals that mobile phones use, but there are no monthly fees or commitments — Amazon pays for Kindle Touch's 3G wireless connectivity. The added convenience of 3G enables you to download books anytime, anywhere, while on the go—without having to find a Wi-Fi hotspot connection. With wireless coverage in over 100 countries and territories, Kindle Touch 3G is a great option for travelers. Check 3G coverage area