Still do not have an ereader? I can respect that. Physical books just feel better. Print is sacred. I’m with you -. Or at least I was, Until our reviews editor thrust the Kindle in my hand and made me use it
Amazon has just updated its bare-bones, entry-level Kindle to finally include touchscreen navigation like phones and tablets, and we figured it might just be cheap enough for ye holdouts to finally give a try ereaders. And so with a reluctant mix of analogue nostalgia and snobbery gadget, I turned on my first Kindle
Right away I noticed que the display’s dull lighting and grayish tint. – The Kindle’s Pearl e-ink display – is indeed very welcome break from the constant headache-y glow of laptop and smartphone screens. It mimics the traditional ink-on-paper look better than I’d expected.
The screen was easy to read in the (rare) of bright sun shine, but the Lack of built-in light Also means you will not be reading at night the unless you’re shining a lamp on the device. Even trying to make out the screen text in Gawker’s dark basement of an office was the strain -. I immediately found myself searching for how to adjust the brightness level, Which of course you can not
[ Ed:. Pricier ereaders come with built-in lights, like the Kindle Paperwhite, Which Also feels greater to this model in Most every other way]
That’s no love lost for bookworms already used to squinting at the printed page. Navigating around the Kindle’s features, However – even with a touchscreen – redbourn some getting used to. Granted, I was lazy and did not bother to read the beginner’s guide so handily the gadget comes loaded up with, and Actually got stuck in the book flipping through pages like a dope before figuring October you tap the top left corner to get back to the home screen. (Tip:. Read the guide)
Make fun, but the point is, navigation is not exactly intuitive – Especially if you’ve been locked in Apple’s ecosystem for the last decade. It Took me several hours to shake the instinct to scroll down for more text instead of tapping to turn the page.
The latency was Considerably more frustrating. The updated basic Kindle boasts 20% faster processing speeds than its predecessor, but it was suuuper slow Compared to my phone. I finally gave up searching for books on the device itself and opted to shop on Amazon’s much more user-friendly website from my computer. Then I just Transferred books to the reader over Wi-Fi.
The good news is the lightweight device is real easy to transport. Margaret Atwood Traveled with me to the bar, the concert, and the yoga class without a hitch. I shoved in my tiny bag without a care. Since the display is not glass, i could read it while walking down a busy sidewalk, balancing it precariously with my coffee and muffin, stress-free. And Unlike the five novels You Were ambitiously planning to finish next vacation, it’s easy to tuck into an overpacked suitcase or even a large pocket, plus it stays charged for weeks so the need to cart along the cord too.
If you’re a voracious reader, there are plenty of other benefits to taking your literary prowess into the 21st century. The built-in dictionary is handy for Those re-cher-che words you encounter, social media integration social if reading is your thing, annotations to scribble notes in the margins digital, instant gratification through one-click purchases and speedy downloads, and Thousands of books packed into 190g.
I did not use any of These bells and whistles beyond some basic experimentation. But THEN, I’m not a voracious reader. If I’m honest wellbeing, I have not read an entire book in months. The neverending stream of news stories, magazines and social media content yeah, but not a book. And For Those of us used to wellbeing glued to the latest, fastest, shiniest, app-packed gadget, this no-frills reader is going to feel like a time warp into the past. It’s worth considering que is just a little bit more You could get Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HD 6 and get a tablet que doubles to an ereader.
Kindle Fire HD 6 is on the left .
But that’s missing the point. You’re not going to buy the basic Kindle because it’s the best ereader out there. You’re not going to buy it instead of a tablet. You’re going to buy it because you love to read. If that’s the case, now’s a good time to take the plunge.
Would I get one? I really expected the answer to be in – I’ve got a backlog of Pocket reads doing a perfectly fine job of filling up my commute. But I realised the greatest value of the Kindle and its ilk is That It’s not possible to surf the web or really do anything at all except immerse yourself in the text. This perfectly decent if somewhat archaic ereader managed to force myself to stop multitasking and totally lose myself in a novel again, and that’s probably worth 80 bucks to me.
But not for everyone. Here’s my colleague Michael Hession’s perspective on why phones still make the best readers
Pictures:. Nick Stango
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