Pros
- Solid hardware and attractive design
- Excellent screen that allows you to read in all environments, from dim to bright
- Excellent battery life
Cons
- No MP3 playback or audio support, unlike previous models
- Only 2GB of memory on this model, though with Amazon cloud storage, that should be more than enough for just about anyone
Quick Take:
This backlit version of Amazon's popular eReader is perfect for newcomers, and even some existing Kindle owners may find it to be a worthy upgrade.
The Kindle Paperwhite is the latest-generation Kindle, featuring a 6-inch e-ink screen with a built-in light that promises eystrain-free reading in any lighting condition, from full sun on the beach to under the covers at night.
Prices start at $119 for the ad-supported WiFi version and go up to $199 for the ad-free 3G version.
Build & Design
If you've used or seen the Kindle Touch, the Paperwhite will be quite familliar to you. Measuring 6.5-inches tall and 4.5-inches wide, the Paperwhite is small, thin, and easily portable. It will slip into just about any purse, and can even fit into the back pocket of your jeans if you like -- though of course you have to remember not to sit on it!
The device is entirely black, and there's a soft touch rubberized finish on the back that makes it comfortable to hold for extended periods of time. It tapers a bit towards each edge, which is nice. The design is quite minimal, with no obvious buttons, for a clean look that does then to "disappear" when you're reading a book on the device.
The Paperwhite is solidly built, with no flexing or creaking. A case isn't strictly necessary, especially if you leave it at home, but most users will want a protective case for travel. The Paperwhite Leather Cover ($39.99) is exceptionally well made, fully covering all the sides and corners of the ereader, and features a magnetic flap closure that automatically turns on the Paperwhite when the cover is opened -- available in seven colors, and highly recommended.
Display
When it comes to the Paperwhite, the screen is the most important selling point. Not just because this is a device for readers, but because the lighted screen is what sets it apart from previous models. One of the biggest problems with previous Kindle devices is that they just weren't suitable for reading in bed. Various third party clip-on lights and lighted covers have attempted to remedy the problem, but they were often annoying, and not generally capable of evenly lighting the display.
By comparison, the Kindle Paperwhite is a revelation. When viewed in bright daylight, it looks better than any previous e-ink screen because it is whiter and clearer, with a higher resolution for incredibly sharp text. In a dim room or in the dark, it glows with a subtle light that illuminates the screen, instead of shining out into the room like an LCD screen. The lighting is almost perfectly even, with just a few small shadows at the bottom edge of the screen. Some have complained about those shadows, and if you really focus on them you can see them -- but if you just read you'll quickly find that they basically disappear from notice.
When compared to the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, the Kindle Paperwhite's display is noticeably superior. The light is more natural, without the bluish tinge of the Nook, and the lighting levels are more granular, offering the reader more control over how dim or bright the screen lighting is -- the Paperwhite offers 24 different brightness settings for the display, so you can find the perfect level for any environment.
The black "flash" of an e-ink screen refreshing is pretty rare, something that you see only about every three to four page turns as you're reading. After reading several books on the device you won't likely notice it at all.
Touch sensitivity on the screen is very good, which is important -- without any buttons, you'll be doing everything from selecting which book to read to turning the pages by touching the screen. It can be a little difficult at first to find the appropriate touch zones for going back to the previous page or accessing the menu, but it gets easier with just a little practice. Lefties who like to hold the device in their left hand and use their thumb to advance the pages will have to stretch just a bit to ensure that they go forward instead of back, as the touch zones are not customizable.
Keyboard
There is no physical keyboard on the Kindle Paperwhite; in order to enter text or search for something, you'll use the virtual onscreen keyboard. While you won't be able to touch type on it anywhere near as quickly as you could on a computer keyboard, it works surprisingly well.
It does require some training, however, as you need to slow yourself down just a bit to make sure that the device can keep up with you as you type. I don't know if that's a function of the relatively slow refresh rate of the e-ink screen or not, but you should get the hang of it in just a few minutes.
Other Buttons & Controls
Since the Paperwhite is equipped with a touchscreen, it should come as no surprise that it doesn't have a lot of buttons. In fact there aren't any, aside from the power button on the middle bottom edge of the device, right next to the microUSB charge/sync port. Aside from a small charging indicator light, that's it -- there are no physical page turn buttons, no headphone jack or volume control (the Paperwhite has no audio features), or any other physical controls.
It is worth noting that the Paperwhite comes with a USB cable, but not a wall charger. You can buy one from Amazon for $10, but it's quite likely that you already have one (or more) compatible USB chargers laying around the house -- from an old Kindle, your Android smartphone, etc. Some folks are saying that's a cheapskate move on Amazon's part, and while it's a point that can be argued, I appreciate not having to figure out what to do with another charger that I simply don't need.
Performance
The interface is a little different this go-around, and (by default) the home screen looks a lot like the one on Barnes & Noble's nook ereaders. When you first turn on the Paperwhite, you'll be presented with a screen full of large book covers; the ones on the top are the ones you own, and the ones on the bottom are recommendations from the Kindle online store.
You can change that home screen back to the more familiar List View, which allows you to see more of the title (important for those who read a lot of books in numbered series), along with the usual progress bar that gives you a visual representation of how far along you are in each book.
The top menu includes all of the basic controls -- home, back, brightness control, Kindle Store, search (by book or across all titles), and then a menu button. The menu button includes Shop Kindle Store, Cover View, Create New Collection, Sync and Check for Items, Settings, and Experimental Browser. When you're reading a book, the top menu adds a second row, for font control/text settings, go to (chapters), X-Ray, and Share.
Text Settings offers eight different font sizes, six different fonts, and three options each for line spacing and margins. The X-Ray, a feature introduced on the now-discontinued Kindle Touch, allows you to quickly find more information on characters, terms, and places in the book, and it's surprisingly useful.
One of the niftiest new features is the reading progress feature. As with past models, you can choose to have the book location displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen if you like, though most folks won't find that particularly helpful. But now the Paperwhite determines your average reading speed soon after you start a book, and can display either the time left before the end of the chapter or the end of the whole book, which helps you better manage your reading time.
If you can only read in short spurts, such as during your commute to work on public transit, or during your lunch hour, you'll know whether or not you have time to reach the end of the chapter before your time is up. It's handy when reading in bed at night too, since you don't have to force yourself to stay awake if there's still 15 minutes left in the chapter. It's a small feature to be sure, but definitely a handy one and one that I've used quite a bit during my first few weeks with the Kindle Paperwhite.
Communication
Aside from the fact that you are limited to WiFi if you get the less expensive model, or get access to both WiFi and 3G if you spring for the more expensive one, the Paperwhite is envisioned as an entirely wireless device. While it is possible to connect it to your computer in order to transfer books to it, most folks will likely shop and download new reads over the air.
I found both WiFi and 3G communication to work exactly as expected. While the 3G service won't win any awards for speed, it works perfectly well for shopping the Kindle store and receiving new content. The experimental web browser is still around, and though it certainly wouldn't be my first choice if I had a smartphone in my pocket or a larger tablet in my gear bag, it does get the job done. It works fine for email and news sites, though obviously since this is an e-ink screen you won't be browsing the web in color, or have access to any fancy Flash sites.
There's no real social networking on the Kindle Paperwhite either, though you can share quotes and passages from what you're reading on either Facebook or Twitter if you want to link your social accounts to the device. It's handy for bibliophiles, but no real substitute for the regular social networking experience available on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Productivity
The Kindle Paperwhite isn't strictly a productivity device, though that point is open for debate. If you read only business management and self improvement titles, I suppose the Kindle can make you more productive.
It can also serve as a personal or business reference library of sorts, with the right books purchased from Amazon as well as your own personal documents, which you can email to your Kindle and download via WiFi for free, or for a nominal charge if delivered via 3G. The Send to Kindle service is compatible with Word files and PDFs, and if you use Google Chrome on the desktop, an extension is available that expands the service to includ news articles and blog posts as well.
It can also help you improve your vocabulary and general knowledge level. With a built-in dictionary and access to Wikipedia and basic translations, there's no excuse not to tap and hold on unfamiliar terms and look them up so you'll know what they mean the next time you encounter that previously unknown word.
The X-Ray feature performs a similar role, whether for historical figures and locations to modern terms used in the book. A tap of the top portion of the screen to show the menu bar and then another quick tap to start the X Ray function shows you every place on the page, in a chapter, or in the book as a whole that a particular term appears. It's especially useful for epic fantasy and/or historical novels, where it can otherwise be difficult to remember a large cast of characters.
Entertainment
One could argue that the Kindle is all about entertainment, and the Paperwhite certainly doesn't disappoint. One of its greatest strengths is its simplicity: it's designed for one purpose, and removes a lot of the distractions inherent in reading on a tablet or computer. There aren't any pop-up notifications or email alerts to distract from the pure joy of reading.
If you're determined to find a distraction, however, it can be done -- a limited number of the active content apps available from the Kindle store are indeed compatible with the Paperwhite. Choices are relatively limited, since the device has an e-ink screen, but simple games such as Sudoku, word searches, and crosswords work well.
Battery Life
I'm quite pleased with the battery life so far. Amazon says that you can get two months of reading on a single charge, assuming that you keep the wireless function off and read for roughly half an hour a day.
I've had the device for three weeks now, have read six books, and the battery meter is just under a 50% charge. I kept wireless off most of the time, except when I was actively downloading a new book, and the light setting was generally on the lower 25% of the spectrum, because I prefer a dim screen over a dark one.
While I doubt I would be able to go a full 8 weeks without recharging the Paperwhite, I've also been using it for far more than the 30 minutes a day assumed in Amazon's testing. I generally read for an hour at lunch, and for at least an hour to 90 minutes before bed each evening. The Paperwhite more than lives up to my expectations in the battery life department.
Conclusion
If you've never gotten a Kindle, and have been curious about e-reading, this is definitely the one to get. You don't have to fiddle with book lights or locate yourself next to a lamp, because the Paperwhite is practically perfect in every way, to reference one of my favorite lines from Mary Poppins. No matter where you find yourself, the Kindle Paperwhite is ready to go. It may even make the Whispersync feature and the Kindle app on your smartphone obsolete, because you just might want to keep the Paperwhite a permanent occupant of your daily gear bag.
If you already have a Kindle, the choice of whether or not to upgrade is a little trickier, and is mainly concerned with when and where you read. If you find yourself in several different lighting situations on a regular basis, and you are simply sick of dealing with lighted cases and/or clip on reading lights, your frustrations are finally over. If you're happy with your current Kindle, you might not want to spring for the upgrade, because the minimum $119 upgrade price would buy quite a few Kindle books, after all. And of course if you rely on the text to speech and/or Audible support of previous models, or if you just like to listen to music while you read, the Kindle Paperwhite is most definitely not the device for you.
If you decide that you want though, or want to give one as a gift for Christmas, you had better hurry -- the Kindle Paperwhite has been so wildly popular that it is currently on backorder, with new orders not expected to ship for at least five to seven weeks.
Source: TabletPCReview
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