Kindle Reader

Amazon Kindle - Overview

The new Kindle 3 has raised the bar when it comes to standards in the eBook Reader market. Faster and more portable than its predecessors, the Kindle comes with a wide range of features that are hard for competitors to match.

And when you consider that it interacts so easily with something as powerful as the Amazon website, it's hardly surprising that the Kindle is now the reader that all others are compared to and the one that they're all trying to beat.

Design:

Measuring in at a tiny 0.335 inches thick, the Kindle 3 is one of the thinnest readers currently available on the market. The overall size of the frame is 4.8 inches wide and 7.5 inches tall with the overall design weighing in at just 8.5 ounces.

This makes the Kindle feel more like a small notebook, while the carbon cover still offers the reader a certain reassurance regarding its durability should the device be dropped.

One thing that users will notice once they get their hands on a Kindle is how well it's been designed for navigation and user-friendliness. Even technophobes will delight in the ability to slide the Kindle out of its box and have it working in just a few minutes.

The power switch is located at the bottom of the reader and features a 'slide' function which turns the Kindle on or puts it to sleep. Incidentally, when the reader is in a dormant state, a number of different screensavers will appear on the screen. These tend to be pictures of well known authors or popular books, and while testing this device, we never saw the same image more than once.

At the bottom of the Kindle, you'll find a standard qwerty keyboard that allows users to search for book titles or authors. There is a also a four-way directional pad in the lower right hand corner as well as a standard 'home' button and 'previous' / 'next' buttons to easily allow readers to navigate through menus.

Each side of the screen handles two small buttons which are mounted perfectly to allow readers to flip pages in their book of choice.

Display

While the Kindle does not offer the touch screen functionality of some of its rivals, it does boast a 6" E-Ink screen which makes novels incredibly easy to read.

For those of you who haven't experienced an E-Ink screen before, it can be slightly difficult to describe just how clear the text is. The contrast of the text on the Kindle helps the reader feel as though they're reading from a standard page rather than an electronic device and is incredibly easy on the eyes.

This means that huge great chunks of a novel can be consumed at once without any fear of eye burn that is so often the problem when trying to read from laptops.

The screen has specifically designed to eliminate glare, so reading in direct sunlight will be no problem, although it should be pointed out that the Kindle is not backlit, so if you're planning on reading in the dark a lot, you will need some kind of light to be able to see what you're doing!

Additional Features

There are a number of nice features that have propelled the Kindle to the top of the ebook reader market.

First up, all Kindles come with built in Wi-Fi functionality which has been criticized slightly in the past for being a little slow. Obviously, the speed of the download will depend on how fast your internet connection is, but it has to be said that we didn't find any real signs of lethargy while we were testing our unit.

In fact, all of our tests seemed to back up Amazon's claim that you could find, download and start reading a book in under 60 seconds.

Those of you who purchase the slightly more expensive Kindle model will also be able to enjoy free internet connectivity via the product's 3G functionality. This will allow you to download books in more than 100 countries without the need for a Wi-Fi centre and without requiring you to pay for mobile connection charges.

This is an absolute joy for those of you who like traveling, as the ability to download a new novel while lying on the beach (without paying extortionate overseas connection charges) is practically worth the additional expense of the 3G Kindle alone.

Other useful features found on both Kindle's include Amazon's Experimental Menu which features all sorts of products that Amazon are working on. These products include a web browser, an MP3 player and an impressive Text-to-Speech function that will enable your Kindle to read your book to you.

We found all of these features very useful, but also found it very re-assuring that Amazon were reaching out to their customers in this way to improve what is already a very strong product.

Conclusion

If you're serious about buying an eBook Reader, then we thoroughly recommend the Amazon Kindle.

It really is second to none when it comes to the features that matter - the screen is sharper and easier to read than any other product out there, battery life and portability are excellent and content can be downloaded with such ease that users of all ages and technical abilities will feel right at home just a couple of minutes after turning the device on.

In short, the Kindle 3 is an excellent product and easily our choice for the best eBook Reader out there.