Kindle Paperwhite

Almost two weeks ago (at the time of writing this review; October 2012) I received an email from Amazon, showing off the Kindle Paperwhite. I recently purchased the Kindle Touch in August, and my initial reaction to seeing Amazon replace the UK market with this device so quickly was not positive. Being unaware of the US-exclusive existence of the PaperWhite, I took some time to read reviews about the new features, and immediately realised that this was what I wanted from my Kindle Touch. The additional features in this upgrade seemed sufficient to justify the purchase and soon after, I pre-ordered Amazon's latest offering.

*FIRST IMPRESSIONS*

-The Kindle Paperwhite ships in its original box and was highly nostalgic of the Kindle Touch. On opening the box, the Paperwhite is the first thing you see, wrapped in a plastic film cover. A usb cable and quick start guide are also included.

-The home button is gone, replaced by a Kindle logo. Also, the device is very slightly thinner than the Touch, but any difference is hardly noticeable.

-The bezel is noticeably smaller in width, with the screen now also sitting more flush.

-The device itself is very slick, and generally looks and feels more classy and elegant than the Touch. It has a slate-black finish, with a rubber-like material on the back to aid grip during long reading sessions (although I have housed my Kindle in a cover).

*LIGHT GUIDE AND SCREEN RESOLUTION*

-Arguably, the biggest selling point for this new Kindle is the amazing built-in light. I can imagine that most existing Kindle owners would upgrade for this alone. Light brightness is adjusted by a slider accessed at the top of the screen.

-Amazon have also increased the screen resolution/pixel density to 220 PPI. This works out to be 62% more pixels than the Touch. In actuality, I could not notice much of a difference, especially when the screen brightness was fully dimmed. However, there is a noticeable difference when screen brightness is maxed out, providing greater contrast.

-The native (unlit) screen background is essentially the same colour as previous models, with the `Paperwhite' only becoming apparent when brightness is increased. However, when screen brightness is on the highest setting, I have noticed some uneven light distribution along the bottom of the screen. This does not personally affect my reading experience, but some may find it distracting.

*IMPROVED TOUCH SCREEN*

-The Kindle Papwerwhite's 6" touch screen has been enhanced, and now uses 'capacitative touch', instead of previous generation Kindles that use 'Infra Red touch'. Simply put, this change translates to a more accurate touch sensor, resulting in smoother page turns and more specific touches in general. Although the touch response is not as effective as my iPad, I have found the difference to be much better than the kindle Touch.

-Typing is definitely easier than the Touch, due to the improved capabilities of the new touch screen. There is less delay from pressing characters to them appearing on screen and typing accuracy is also increased.

*OTHER NEW FEATURES*

-The biggest change is apparent once you turn the Kindle on, with a complete overhaul on the user interface. Books are now displayed with a book cover icon, as opposed to the text format of previous generations. A negative point I can raise here is that book 'recommendations' (ads) appear at the bottom of the screen. There is an option to revert to the old menu interface from the Kindle Touch; I prefer this option as it doesn't show these book suggestions from Amazon.

-There are now six different font styles to choose from, with eight adjustable sizes.

-Bookmarks, notes/annotations and the dictionary are all still present, and work as efficiently as before.

-One feature I really found to be welcome was the ability to see how much time is left until the next chapter. The time remaining is intuitively calculated by the Kindle, based on your previous reading speed.

-Although I have not yet had the device for long enough to comment on the battery life, Amazon claims 8 weeks, which is identical to the Touch. However, I have used the device for a few hours now, and not noticed any decline in the battery icon.

-Although certain features have been lost (see cons), the Kindle Paperwhite still retains wikipedia support and web browsing (which is very basic indeed).

-I would also highly recommend the official Amazon case, which I ordered with my Kindle PW. The Kindle fits in nicely and is very secure, allowing you to wake the Kindle from sleep mode when the cover is opened.

*NEGATIVE POINTS*

-I was a tad disappointed with the loss of the stereo speakers. This results in no text-to-audio feature and no audiobooks.

-Also gone are the headphone jack and mp3 payer.

-On board memory has been slashed from 4GB in the Touch to 2GB with the Paperwhite. Amazon provides justification for this by allowing readers to take advantage of Amazon's cloud based storage. With the removal of mp3 and audio playback, this reduction is not much of an issue, as 2GB is still plenty of space to store around 1000 e-Books.

*CONCLUSION*

With the tablet march on the rise, I am glad that there is still a huge market for dedicated e-readers. People often ask why I own both an iPad and Kindle, when I have the ability to read Kindle books on tablets. Yes, the Kindle is low tech when compared to tablets, but I feel that this is an unfair comparison. The Kindle is an excellent device for 'reading', with no distractions, an intuitive interface, paper-like visuals and a very small learning curve.

Although the new features of the Kindle are highly recommended, I will sorely miss audio books, mp3 playback and text to audio. If you did not fully utilise these features, I would strongly recommend the Kindle Paperwhite. However, if listening to audiobooks and mp3s on your Kindle is important, you may wish to weigh the pros and cons of this new device.

On a personal note, I am content with my new Kindle, and will just listen to mp3s on my phone during train journeys whilst enjoying the Paperwhite's gorgeous screen! If you have taken the time to read this review in its entirety, you must love reading. Do yourself (and the books you love!) justice and order the Kindle Paperwhite today; this nifty gadget will not fail you.

I was looking forward to the Kindle Paperwhite sooo much I originally pre-ordered one from the states until I read about the unexpected UK release. I love my current Kindle and originally the only reason I was looking to upgrade is because I read a lot in complete darkness (when my wife is asleep) or in very low light. I used a Mightybright clip on light with my old Kindle and this worked pretty well but it eats through a couple of batterys every few weeks and is not very convenient.

So I received my Kindle Paperwhite in the post this week, thank you for the quick delivery Amazon! I'm not a big fan of wordy Amazon reviews so I'll use points below so I don't bore you to death!

Things I love:

+ The build quality of the Kindle itself feels very good
+ The new Kindle menu system is nice
+ The touch screen is brilliant, very responsive (not sure how this compares to the old touch as my old Kindle is non touch)
+ The resolution of the text is noticeably improved
+ The new time to finish chapter and book feature (not needed but its fun)

Things I don't love:

- In complete darkness or low light I have a green'ish shadow\smudge from the top right of my Kindle to the middle left, I also have a brighter pinkish smudge below this green shadow
- The unevenness of the light under dark or very low light conditions in general

Things that could be improved:

- The shadows from the lights at the bottom, they don't really bother me as they don't cover too much text but I would imagine this could and should be improved on
- I don't mind the suggested books at the bottom of the main cover view page, but why don't you incorporate the 99p book of the day in to this? I'm actually interested in the book of the day and it would be great to have this as a shortcut on the Paperwhite somewhere.

So I am torn.. I read so much in darkness and low light that the green shadow and the uneven screen bothers me. If I turn the light right up the shadow doesn't look so bad but then the screen is so bright that it lights up the room and hurts my eyes after a while. To be honest the old Mightybright clip on light was much better.

If I only used the device in normal lighting conditions I would love it! As it stands I might send it back and buy try a Kobo Glo or maybe get a replacement.

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Update 1: Ok I have decided I like the new Paperwhite enough to try and get a replacement device. I called customer services today and have a replacement being sent out. I really hope that the screen on the replacement is better as I want to love it as much as my old one!

Update 2: Well the new Kindle arrived today, nice and fast replacement yay! Unfortunately the replacement is no better, doh! It's got a more of a yellow hue to the screen, it still has faint greeny shadows and uneven brighter areas just in different areas to my original. Oh and the shadows at the bottom are higher up than the original, oddly the brightness levels are different as well (the lowest brightness setting is darker). So it appears that each Paperwhite is a bit unique like a one off! I'm not going to bother getting a third sent out as I guess this is how they are.. maybe I'm just fussy!? So I'll either keep the original or buy a Kobo! Anyone know what the return policy is on Kobo's?

Update 3: Amazon offered to send out a third replacement, I declined and I'm going to stick with the original paperwhite device for now. I did look at a Kobo Glo and the light does seem really nice and even but the text looks slightly more washed out with a little less less contrast. If the green shadowing still annoys me after another week of reading I'll return it and buy a Kobo. I hope you all have better luck with your devices!

Final Update: I haven't been able to get used to the uneven screen so I'm returning it and I have purchased a Kobo Glo. I'm really gutted as I loved most of the Paperwhite, just hated the uneven lighted screen when reading in the dark! Just for info the Kobo Glo light 'is' much better but the text is slightly washed out by the light, the Kindle overall is a better device for many reasons but as the reading light is very important for me the Kobo is more suitable.

I have added a couple of images (sorry about the low quality) so that potential buyers can better see what I am talking about.. hope this helps! Link is http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-media/permalink/mo1PZC2T0FAF6RW/B007OZO03M/ref=cm_ciu_images_pl_link

I was introduced to Kindle by my friend back in June this year whilst we were on holiday - I bought a Touch. Two things let it down, 1. the lack of a decent light to read in the dark (I'm an insomniac so its handy!) and 2. its weird ability to jump several chapters whilst turning a page, and finding it hard to find where you last were.

So when the Kindle Paperwhite with its lighted screen was announced to become available in the UK, I was thrilled... but having being bitten regarding the second problem mentioned above on my Touch, I wanted to wait for a few reviews first to see if the annoying chapter jumping was still there. Once I was happy that it didn't seem to be a problem on the Paperwhite, I duly sat at my computer to order myself one from Amazon to find that the item was out of stock until 17th December - not impressed!

I hate proper shopping and probably do 98% of my shopping online, but off to Cambridge I went and straight into Waterstones, purchased my Paperwhite, and was back home again in 1.5 hours- happy face.

The Paperwhite has indeed lived up to my expectations, I can now read when I can't sleep without waking my husband and I have not had the same trouble with losing my place in the book.

Another thing I will mention, is once I had registered my Paperwhite to my Amazon account, I went to the Cloud and there were all of my books that I had purchased on my Touch - one touch later and there they were downloaded to my Paperwhite. I was worried that it may be more complicated than that but no, it really is simple.

Brilliant!

Sorry Amazon that you didn't get my money directly this time round - I just couldn't wait for 7 weeks!