Amazon Kindle 2
Filed under 6-inch eReaders
It has to be said that when first looking at the Kindle 2, you can’t help but think Apple. Its unbelievably slim profile and sleek design are decidedly impressive and are very easy on the eyes. The Kindle 2 is a thing of beauty, not so much constructed as it is designed.
The Kindle 2 is the younger and sexier brother of the original and very clunky Amazon Kindle launched in 2007. But it is perhaps the improved design, boosted software and enhanced performance that sets this ebook reader apart from its predecessor.
Design
Abandoning the wedge-like shape of the original, the Kindle 2 is a pencil-thin 0.36 inch (90 mm) slab, which feels completely natural in hand. Weighing no more than 10.2 ounces (289.2g), and measuring 9 inches (22.9cm) from top to bottom, the Kindle 2 is portable and surprisingly lightweight despite its fairly large size.
The elongated shape of the Kindle 2 allows more room for the simplified and streamlined keyboard. With ample room between the keys and an intuitively placed spacebar, the keyboard comes in handy when entering notes and annotations while reading and for keying in texts for searches in the Kindle Store.
The ergonomic design of the Kindle 2 caters for the very natural tendency to shift weight and position while reading as the “next page” buttons are located on both sides of the device. The decent size and strategic placement of the “Home” button is a welcome change from the tiny, previously buried button of the original model. Additionally, the simple five-way controller that you tilt in the direction you want the cursor to move, enables precise on-screen navigation. Smart!
The on/off button and headphone jack have been placed at the top of the device, which makes both easier to access. There are two tiny speaker ports on the back of the Kindle 2 that give you external audio. Because the speakers don’t sound great, you probably wouldn’t want to listen to music this way, but they do just fine with the “experimental” read to me feature that transforms any book into an audiobook. You can also sync the Kindle 2 with your car radio and catch up with your reading while you commute.
When it comes to charging the Kindle 2, a micro-USB port at the bottom of the device connects to a USB port on your Mac or Windows PC. However, it’s not your standard Mini-USB port but rather it’s the smaller micro-USB variety you’ll find on some new cell phones and bluetooth headsets which is, rather annoyingly, incompatible with many third-party USB chargers.
Display
The Kindle 2 uses e-ink technology, which serves to make the letters and words on the screen look more print-like in their appearance. The screen is a legible 6 inch monochrome display that requires an external lightsource to view, much like a regular paperback. As a result of this, the screen has no glare so you will not need to contort yourself into an awkward position to see the text. It offers 16 shades of gray which does well to add more detail to images and for making standard text pop better. Visually challenged readers will be happy to know that the Kindle’s font size can be adjusted to six different levels. If all of this wasn’t enough, you can also manually rotate the screen from portrait to landscape to view maps, graphs, tables and web pages.
Battery life
One gripe worthy of mentioning is that the battery has been sealed into the back of the unit so you can’t replace it yourself. And of course it goes without saying that Amazon charges $60 for a replacement. That’s the bad news, the good news is that the battery will last up to 4-5 days with the wireless on and up to two weeks with it off. Amazon also says that after 500 charges, it will hold 80 percent of its original juice.
Software
Although there are not that many software changes in the Kindle 2, the changes that have been made are very noticeable. For starters, the search function is streamlined and more speedy as it gives you a select few options for how and where you want to look. It has 2GB of onboard memory which means that you can store up to 1500 books which is a substantial amount. However, unlike many of its competitors, this memory is not expandable at all.
Using the dictionary while in a document to look up words used to be a huge hassle as you had to select an entire line of text and see a definition for every word. Horrible! Luckily, that problem is fixed here as you can use the cursor to move through a document word by word, and your definition pops up along the bottom in real-time.
The Kindle 2 is pretty responsive and refreshes relatively quickly considering that e-ink technology generally tends to slow things down and make page turning sluggish.
A huge downfall of the Kindle 2 is the fact that it doesn’t support standard ePUB files which seems a bit silly in this ePUB focused world. Add to this the fact that Amazon charges 10 cents a pop to convert Word and PDF files to be compatible with the reader. This is a bit of a cheek if you ask me, especially when most other readers available on the market have built-in support for ePUB files.
Whispernet
One of the key differentiators of the Kindle 2 is its free, built-in, wireless connection, “Whispernet,” which allows you to tap into Amazon’s vast online Kindle Store from just about anywhere. That said, web-surfing is nothing to write home about but you are able to access websites and read articles, albeit slowly. Alternatively, you can shop for Kindle books from your computer and have them wirelessly sent to your Kindle 2 by simply hitting the one-click “purchase” button. But while the Kindle Store is vast and comprehensive, not being able to access third-party retailers is pretty limited and prevents you from shopping around.
Conclusion
Benefits
The Kindle 2 is a strong contender for the title of best e-reading system on the market. It is aesthetically pleasing and has a more functional design. It has a large library of tens of thousands of e-books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs via Amazon’s familiar online store. It has a built-in free wireless data network and a built-in keyboard for notes and navigation.
Downfalls
Files such as PDFs and Word documents aren’t natively supported and need to be converted by Amazon. No protective carrying case is included in the price and the battery is sealed into the device.
