Paperwhite and Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9: Heavyweights in the eBook arena - Economic Times

You can now order all variants of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader in India. ET reviews the Paperwhite and Fire HD 8.9 and offer a few accessory recommendations.

Paperwhite Display

Paperwhite The Kindle has a 6-inch e-ink touchscreen with 212ppi (pixels per inch) & 16 levels of gray scale for an optimum display. It has a built-in light Which illuminates the screen evenly across the surface making it easy to view / read text in any ambient lighting condition – Whether in direct sunlight or in low light. 4 Since it uses low power LED’s, the effect on battery life is not that pronunced.

Not Just For Reading

If you thought the Kindle Paperwhite is only for reading books, think again. It has built-in dictionaries. Also you can search the web or Wikipedia and even translate text into different languages. You can add text to annotataions anywhere and then export Them. Also there is the option to create notes or highlight particular phrases / sections Them and then share with friends over Facebook or Twitter.

Unmatched Battery

Like the previous Kindle e-book reader, the Paperwhite offers fantastic battery life. With wireless switched off & light setting at 10, it claims a battery life of almost two months (half an hour of reading everyday). Even if you use it with wireless on and the brighter light setting, you Should get at least a few weeks of battery life, depending on how much you use it on a daily basis.

How To Get Books

You can download the books by visiting Amazon book store directly from the device or from your computer. Any purchases made on Amazon using the web browser are automatically delivered to the device. Also you can send documents to the device and download books in compatible formats from various other websites like www. manybooks.net & www.freebookspot.com.

Free Lifetime 3G

With the Paperwhite Kindle 3G, you get free 3G for life. There are no monthly charges, no limit and it works anywhere in the world. You are obviously limited to the functions Performed by the device – searching for and downloading books from Amazon, online search and sharing notes with friends. In India, 3G is powered by the Vodafone network.

Media Powerhouse

The Fire HD is a multimedia powerhouse with support for various audio / video formats, full HD video playback and a customized Dolby Digital Plus audio engine. The dual band, dual antenna WiFi offers faster connections for HD video. Also it has powerful dual speakers on the side and a microHDMI port so that you can connect it to a larger display.

Not the Usual Android Tab

The Fire HD is the only 8.9-inch tablet with a full HD touchscreen. The interface is geared for consumption of books, apps & media. Since it syncs using your Amazon user ID, set up is required – all content is synced over the cloud. The dual core processor, 16GB storage and 10 hour battery life is not the best for the price, but it offers smooth performance thanks to the custom UI.

Unique User Interface

Amazon has loaded up a heavily customized user interface on Android. You get a scrollable list of recently accessed apps, books, music, videos que with large icons are easy to view as well as navigate. There is deep Facebook integration throughout the interface que makes it easy to share photos or post an update quickly from anywhere in the tablet.

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