I got this thing as a refurb and it's basically brand new. I can see nothing that would suggest much use for sure. No problems with the screen as of now and the touch mechanism to me is working perfectly. Updating the thing was a breeze. So let's get into detail on the device...
The normal Kindle I suppose is the poor man's e-reader at this point in Amazon's lineup. But I am waiting until the 16nm tablet revolution to get one of their high-end tablets. I didn't want to pay more than I needed for something that I just read text on, and the paperwhite seems to have its fair share of screen problems. This one was only 64 dollars base price. I got a used case to go along with it.
For that price the device is positively charming. It's my first Kindle and I really could not ask for more. Amazon's software if very mature at this point, so you have a variety of fonts, readability settings, and core attributes to modify to your liking. After a couple minor fixes for my own personal use I was off downloading my entire Kindle on PC library. Easy. Fast. I could not ask for anything easier. The experimental browser also gets the job done. Bookmarks and decent website compatibility as long as it doesn't use too much Flash or Java. The device works perfectly for a college accessory and textbook device when needed.
Not all textbooks are compatible with the lower end devices though. That was the only downside to the cheapest one in the lineup. My Glossary of Literary Terms was sadly not okay with this e-reader.
Navigating and using features like highlights, x-ray, dictionaries, and the page functions took about 20 minutes for me to get the hang of it all. Again, everything is set up to help the customer get up and running very easily. The various swipes are easy to remember and incredibly intuitive at this point. I can flip, preview, cancel, and just all around enjoy the book I am reading without hardly any hassle at all. I for one did not think the page turning was too sensitive on mine. Seems about right for such a device. Amazon clearly has some very mature software here that complements the Kindle hardware in synergistic fashion.
I don't use too many of the community features like Goodreads, but that is there for you too if you want to be involved in the gigantic Kindle community. Other great community functions that are less pervasive include notes on what people highlighted in the book, which I found to be a nice feature. And then you have other functions like about the book, which gives you some really nice info about what you are reading the first time.
The one thing some people are going to not like is probably the storage. 4GBs is not really what I call enough space for the future. Luckily, I do have a lot of Delphi collections and my books fit on here nicely at this point. I have about 2.3GBs left after DL'ing 70 or so products. Amazon itself has its own helpful user guide for you to DL right off the bat, so if you do ever get lost that thing should save you a lot of time.
The resolution of the display seems fine to me and very close to what you would get in a normal sized book. The somewhat dim display works very well for and is basically about the brightness of a normal literature page. I was comparing it to a bunch of my books and came away quite pleased with what they have here. Of course a bit more resolution would be nice, but for what is here you can still get fairly small fonts and good detail. This is not a reader for the dark, obviously.
Anyway, I don't think there is too much else to say. I'll update the review as I go along, and take a note on battery life, but for now this thing is a great little device. Cheap, fast, easy to use, and all around a nice product to own with good and simple build quality. It sync'd up with my Amazon account right away and there was absolutely zero trouble getting this thing to work correctly. Highly recommended to those on a budget or to those that do not have any need for the higher-end tablets and readers. Unlike some of the other products, this one doesn't have any inherent screen issues, either.
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I love it and you will too, if you don't mind that the screen is surprisingly dimmer than expected.
I wish I had bought a Kindle sooner. Let me preface this by mentioning that when a family member got a 4th Generation Kindle about 2 years ago, I could not figure out how to use it. The small buttons and no keyboard drove me crazy trying to type in what I wanted, trying to navigate on the Kindle screen to purchase or find books, and downloading books. I found the page turn buttons to be annoying and it was too easy to accidentally press them while reading. I couldn't figure out where to put my hand to hold the Kindle while avoiding the page turn buttons.The Kindle touch has changed all of that. It's easy to navigate and easy to type because it's all touch responsive. You don't have to worry about turning the page unless you touch your finger to the screen, and because of this, turning the page is really easy. Built into the Kindle interface, I can hold my finger on a word I don't know and it will give me a definition of that word in my choice of 2 dictionaries. The lack of buttons on the bottom gives you ample space to place your thumb to grasp the Kindle, and the same for the edges on the left and right of the screen, to rest your finger of the same hand for stabilization. To make things even easier, I purchased Popsockets to put on the back so I can hold it with a flat hand.My only caveat is that there is no light, which I knew before purchasing, but the screen is somewhat darker than expected. It's not as bright as a piece of paper in front of you, it's a shade or two dimmer. In daylight or indoors, this is not a problem, but if you read in bed at night with a low watt lamp next to you, you're going to want the screen to be brighter. If I could turn the light off completely on the Voyager, I would have opted for that one in retrospect.Things I like: Touch screen No buttons Easy to navigate and type because of the touch screen Space to grasp due to no buttons Small power button on the bottomThings I don't like: The screen is dimmer than expected and has no light to compensate. Only comes with a USB cord to charge off of your computer, no wall plug. I use the base from the iphone charger with the Kindle USB. The lack of a charging base is clearly a way for Amazon to earn extra money when you purchase the wall plug, but if you want to look at it from a positive perspective, for the many who refuse to pay extra money for the wall plug, providing only the USB cord is ecofriendly and minimizing technological waste being sent to Guiyu, China, the e-waste recycling hub of the world, to be recycled when we no longer want our used electronics. (Children and adults alike in the city of Guiyu are getting sick from lead poisoning and various other ailments from the toxicity of the air, water, and direct exposure to heavy metals from inside our electronics). The ads and having to pay $20 to remove them is cheap marketing, where Amazon is profiting off of you seeing the ads, and profiting off of you not wanting to see them. Clever, but not classy.Unknowns:How easily does the screen dent? Does it need a screen protector or a hard case to protect the screen?Update 7 months later: I still LOVE my kindle. I had no idea I would ever love it this much. I don't go anywhere without it.
