Mar 20, 2016 05:40 PM
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Albeit I am an avid book reader, having to purchase hard copies of books and waiting for them to get delivered was getting on my nerves, not to mention that they take up a lot of space and I have to shuttle them between hostel and home.
I had known about e-book readers since a long time but was skeptical about them for various reasons. First and foremost, was the quality. I didn't know whether the device would be sturdy enough, and also whether I would get a quality collection of books to read in the electronic format.
Despite my initial doubts, I decided to try one out.
And then another question arose- Which one to buy? There are plethora of e-book readers available in the market, each with some added feature, and deciding upon a particular one was no easy task.
I eventually settled upon 2 options: The Amazon Kindle 7th Generation and the Kindle Paperwhite, also by Amazon. I decided to opt for Amazon because of it's extensive collection of books. Almost every book sold on the site is also available as a Kindle version.
Both the e-book readers have 6" screens with only a few differences between the devices. The Paperwhite has a higher screen resolution of 300 ppi while the Basic Kindle has a resolution of 167 ppi. Albeit, the difference may seem huge on paper, it doesn't matter much as the e-reader display of the basic kindle is quite crisp in itself.
The main selling point of the Paperwhite over the Basic Kindle is the inclusion of a built-in-light. This means that the Basic Kindle cannot be read without a light source. I didn't expect myself to read in the dark anyway and spending 5000 bucks more for the Paperwhite didn't appeal too much. Also, the Paperwhite weighs in a bit heavier(20 g more) albeit it is a bit thinner than the Basic Kindle.
The Basic Kindle, as with the other versions, is available in 2 color versions of Black and White. I chose the Black version, as I always do. The device was delivered to me within 3 days.
The reader came in a neat small box, with the device, a USB cable and various documentation snugly fit in there, which Amazon claims to be a'frustration-free' packaging and it lives up to the tag.
The device, albeit slightly on the heavier side, seems comfortable to hold and use. Although it has a screen of 6" on paper, the screen doesn't appear to be as big. I think this is because of the squarish screen layout, as opposed to the rectangular ones we have gotten used to on our phones. One thing that did irk me was the size of the bezels. They are huge, and also one of the reasons why the screen appears smaller than it actually is. Amazon could have done a much better job by reducing the size of the bezels.
The back of the device is made of plastic, which albeit sturdy, has a cheap plasticky feel to it. It's not something you would notice if you snapped on a case on the device though. The device has a power/wake button at the bottom alongwith a micro-USB slot adjacent to it. The rest of the device is devoid of any buttons/ports whatsoever.
Next, let's move on to the most important part of the e-book reader, the screen. The screen of the Basic Kindle is an e-ink display, which makes it feel as if you are reading real paper. Of course, you won't be able to the the lovely smell of a new book, or the feel of a page on your hand as you turn it, but the display does an excellent job of reproducing a paper-like display. The screen is just amazing to read on, and as it is glare-free, it barely has any reflections or strain on my eyes.(Probably the main reason I purchased an e-book reader).
One can spend hours reading on the device without feeling tired.
The software is the same across all Kindle devices and saves where you had left off, every time you stop reading. You can also find the meaning of a word just by tapping on it, or even highlight it to look it up later. You can also search within a book and the table of contents makes it quite easy to navigate. The device also has a built-in browser which you can use to browse the internet.
You can purchase books online from the Amazon store, which are transferred to the reader over the air.(The device is WiFi enabled).
The device comes equipped with 4 GB internal storage, which can hold thousands of books. The device is stated to give weeks of battery life and I have had to charge it only once when I got it almost 20 days back and not thereafter.
The device is great for every bibliophile out there, and is definitely a'value for money' product.Highly recommended.
One thing I would have really liked was the option to get the books I have already purchased as hard-copies from Amazon as the kindle versions onto my Kindle.
Or at least Amazon should charge nominal rates for such books, considering I have already purchased the books once.
