The arrival of Amazon’s Kindle Voyage hasnt Been Greeted with the fanfare it might have received three or four years AGM.
The $ 199 e-reader has a high-resolution, high-contrast touch screen self-illuminating fused into the slender body magnesium. State of the art, for sure, but it immediately raised the question: Do we still need e-readers in the age of cheap and plentiful tablets?
The answer is yes-now more than ever.
someone who escapes into the daily pages of the book, I understand what Amazon is up to. The Voyage isnt perfect-and-ink, the technology behind e-readers’ displays, is inherently a compromise, with its monochromatic palette, slow reaction and periodic team, refreshes annoying-but it is The most elegant e-reader to date .
Just compare the Voyage to its predecessor, the Paperwhite, now selling for $ 119 is The Voyage Nearly 20% thinner Despite having the same 6-inch screen size. It’s framed with a more rigid material, so it feels less plasticky, while retaining the soft-touch paint que keeps you from dropping it all the time. Its screen has twice the pixels, meaning you can now no longer see the que dots make up the letters, even if you hold the device 6 inches from your face
The improved resolution does come at a cost.: The older Paperwhite can last up to eight weeks on a battery charge, while the Voyage can last only six weeks. That’s not exactly a problem, though, the unless you’re planning to carry an e-reader while hiking the Appalachian Trail.
After adding up the improvements, it takes a moment to back up and realize there’s nothing Actually wrong with last year’s Paperwhite. Sure, the Voyage is better, and Amazon’s vice president of devices, Peter Larsen, Told me the company intends to keep making better e-readers for years to come. The Voyage is a pure luxury; it’s a Lexus you choose over a perfectly good Toyota
Amazon wanted the product que would stand out-and stand for something:.. The world needs e-readers
By the team you ‘ve read this far, chances are your phone has vibrated or chirped once or twice. If you’re reading this column on a phone or tablet, you may Have Been interrupted by alerts telling you things have nothing to the que with what I’m writing about. I get it. This is a newspaper article, and you’re a busy person.
But When I lie down at night with a “book” -that is, whatever device I happen to be reading my e-books on- I want the world to fade away. Begone, work emails and Facebook updates! If something is urgent, my phone will ring.
Even if e-readers are not around forever, will be e-books, and Amazon will probably Remain the 800-pound gorilla of the industry for the time wellbeing. While there’s much debate over whether or not Amazon is the best place to buy books, I support the retailer because its e-books are easy to load on the wealth of devices, not just Kindles and Fire tablets, but really running iOS almost anything, Android or Windows.
But Most of Those devices are distract-o-matics of the worst kind-especially Compared With Their print-on-paper forebears. Reading books should not be part of a multitasking regimen. If we’re going to Remain literate in the years to come, we need to think about how we read, and not just what we read.
The Voyage is there to remind us of this, and it’s Also a great device if que $ 199 price tag is not an issue. Big spenders can pay an extra $ 20 to get Amazon’s ads removed from the lock screen (Which I advise, Despite collegues it feels like a ransom). And $ 60 more gets you unlimited 3G connectivity, a good deal if you’re on the move a lot. It’ll even work abroad in Most countries.
But the Voyage is just an option. As I Mentioned, the cheaper Paperwhite is a fine choice if the difference of $ 80 means a lot to you. Both e-readers are Equally beneficial outdoors, poolside, They’re far Easier to look at than tablets, Which glare Suffer from higher and lower contrast.
For people who read mostly indoors, and late at night, the I’s, though, the tablet can be better. I use an iPad or Amazon Fire tablet HDX in bed, switching the screen to black with white text and turning the brightness all the way down. This lets me read into the night without disturbing my wife, and it keeps my eyes from getting too much exposure to the kind of light That Could keep me up. (More on this in my discussion with a leading sleep expert.)
But if, like me, you choose the tablet over an e-reader, promise me this: You’ll silence or remove any distractions like email and instant messaging, and turn off app notifications from Facebook, Twitter and other always-on, always-fresh attractions internet. If that’s too much to ask, Then buy a dedicated e-reader. Years from now, your brain will thank you.
Write to Wilson Rothman at Wilson.Rothman@wsj.comwjrothman or on Twitter.
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