Amazon
has upgraded its Kindle Paperwhite front-lit reader with a higher
resolution 300ppi display, new typography and layout features and double
the RAM, keeping the price the same as its predecessor. We take a
detailed look at the new e-reader in our review to find out if it's
worth a buy...
Look and feel
The Kindle Paperwhite (2015) does not look very different from its predecessor. The device is more or less a light weight rectangular slab with a 6-inch display. The display is placed between the black bezel. The screen is slightly sunken like a photo frame but this doesn't really affect usage.
You'll find a micro-USB port, an LED indicator (for charging) and a physical Power button at the bottom edge. There are no other ports or buttons on the device. The back of the Kindle Paperwhite sports a soft-touch matte finish. It feels good to hold and the surface offers a good grip. At just 205 grams(the 3G version is 217grams), it's easy to hold the device for a longer period of time.
Display
The Kindle Paperwhite(2015) sports a 6-inch 300ppi (the 2013 Paperwhite had a 212ppi display) display with Carta e-paper technology. The display is free of glare, making it easy to read outdoors under sun light. The Paperwhite's display offers 16-level grey scale and offers great contrast. The high pixel density makes text look crisp and sharp, and close to a real paper book. It's even better than the previous-generation Paperwhite.
Unlike tablets, the Kindle Paperwhite's display is front-lit. Amazon claims that the new Paperwhite features an improved front light. We felt that the lighting was uniform across the display.
Amazon also claims the touch grid on the Paperwhite is 19% tighter. We found the touch panel to be very responsive though the implementation of touch in the user interface remains quite limited compared to tablets.
Overall, the Kindle Paperwhite's display is impressive and the display resolution is now at par with the top-end Kindle Voyage.
Software and UI
The Kindle Paperwhite third-generation more or less runs the same software found on its predecessor with a few new additions. Among the new improvements, the major one is the addition of Bookerly, a font designed from the ground up for reading on digital screens.The new Kindle Paperwhite also offers an all-new typesetting engine and includes hyphenation and improved spacing, better character spacing, and better layout control even with larger font sizes. The new typography and layout improvements help reduce eyestrain are available on over half a million books as per Amazon. It claims the new typesetting engine that lays out words 'just as the author intended.'
The home screen features three most recently read books though you can also re-arrange them by recency, title, author and collections(enabled if you have a collection of titles). The book covers also feature a bar that shows how far you've read. You can also see books that you've purchased and have not downloaded by tapping on the 'Cloud' option. It's very easy to download books that you've purchased. You just need to tap on the book cover icon and it will synchronise!
The other part of the home screen features four suggested book titles from Amazon that you can buy. Recommendations are an integral part of Amazon's ecosystem.
The top menu bar features the Home button, a back button, a toggle for the front-light intensity, a search button, a button to invoke Goodreads (an online network of book lovers), a shortcut key to the Kindle store and a drop-down menu that offers shortcuts to Kindle FreeTime, Vocabulary Builder, web browser (experimental) and Settings. The menu also allows you to create a new collection and switch to a list view of your library.
Opening a book is pretty simple. You just need to tap on the cover and it'll open the page you were reading, the last time.
You just need to lightly tap or swipe on the right edge of the screen to turn to the next page, tap on left to turn back a page and tap the top edge for the secondary and main menu. The secondary menu lets you change the fonts, font size, line spacing and margins; Go to a particular page, chapter or annotation, use the X-Ray feature, bookmark or share an annotation on social networks.
The bottom left corner features the page number and time left in the book and chapter while the right corner displays the percentage read. This makes it easy to track your reading progress and improve the reading speed.
The new Paperwhite also includes Dictionaries (Oxford English and New Oxford American Dictionary) and a Vocabulary Builder. The latter saves the words that you look up while reading and offers them as flashcards. Students and language enthusiasts would find this feature quite useful.
When you select a word by tapping and holding it, the Kindle brings up the Dictionary offering its definition. The same pop-up also offers tabs for X-Ray, Translation and Wikipedia. X-Ray is a reference tool that brings up the biography of a character, compiled by Amazon, while the Wikipedia tab brings up the Wikipedia page. Of course, you'll need an active internet connection for the Wikipedia feature. The UI for this feature has been slightly tweaked and is now based on a dropdown menu. It looks much more streamlined.
One can also highlight, add a note, share, translate and report an error through the menu. Those options pop to the front if you highlight more than one word.
The new Paperwhite also includes FreeTime, that allows parents to create profiles for their children and encourage reading with the help of gamification. FreeTime lets parents create personalized profiles for kids and give them access to titles from their collection of books. Children can be rewarded with achievement badges keeping track of their personal reading accomplishments. The utility creates a progress report that keeps parents updated on total time spent reading, number of words looked up, badges earned and books read.
It also offers access to the Goodreads social network where book lovers share their reviews and recommendations. It even offers integration with Facebook and Twitter for sharing quotes and annotations.
The Kindle Paperwhite offers an experimental WebKit based browser that lets you browse the web over WiFi. There's a reason why it's called 'experimental' - you'll not be able to open graphics-heavy, complex web pages.
It's worth pointing out that the 3G-enabled version of the Paperwhite comes with a crippled 3G connection though it comes with unlimited access without the user incurring extra monthly charges. Over 3G networks, it only allows access to the Kindle store. You won't be able to browse the web or access Goodreads without connecting to WiFi.
Battery life & storage
Amazon claims that a single charge lasts up to six weeks if used half an hour a day without connecting to the internet and light set to 10, but even with moderate to high usage, it'll last for more than a week or even two.
Paperwhite comes with 4GB internal storage. It's estimated that you can store thousands of books at a given time. We feel that is more than sufficient for most users. Also, with access to the cloud, you can remove or add titles easily from Amazon's servers.
Is it worth a buy?
At Rs 10,999 for the Wi-Fi only version and Rs 13,999 for the 3G+Wi-Fi variant, the Paperwhite continues to be the best e-book reader you can buy. The sharper display offers a richer reading experience compared to its predecessor and the added RAM reduces page turn time and e-ink ghosting cycles. The Kindle Voyage, which costs Rs 16,499 offers the additional benefit of adaptive lighting, page press sensors and is brighter and whiter, but you're also paying a lot more.
The previous-generation Kindle Paperwhite is also available at Rs 8,999 (Wi-Fi only) on the Indian store and will satisfy most e-book lovers. However, we'd recommend going for the latest version if you're buying your first front-lit e-book reader.
Look and feel
The Kindle Paperwhite (2015) does not look very different from its predecessor. The device is more or less a light weight rectangular slab with a 6-inch display. The display is placed between the black bezel. The screen is slightly sunken like a photo frame but this doesn't really affect usage.
You'll find a micro-USB port, an LED indicator (for charging) and a physical Power button at the bottom edge. There are no other ports or buttons on the device. The back of the Kindle Paperwhite sports a soft-touch matte finish. It feels good to hold and the surface offers a good grip. At just 205 grams(the 3G version is 217grams), it's easy to hold the device for a longer period of time.
Display
The Kindle Paperwhite(2015) sports a 6-inch 300ppi (the 2013 Paperwhite had a 212ppi display) display with Carta e-paper technology. The display is free of glare, making it easy to read outdoors under sun light. The Paperwhite's display offers 16-level grey scale and offers great contrast. The high pixel density makes text look crisp and sharp, and close to a real paper book. It's even better than the previous-generation Paperwhite.
Unlike tablets, the Kindle Paperwhite's display is front-lit. Amazon claims that the new Paperwhite features an improved front light. We felt that the lighting was uniform across the display.
Amazon also claims the touch grid on the Paperwhite is 19% tighter. We found the touch panel to be very responsive though the implementation of touch in the user interface remains quite limited compared to tablets.
Overall, the Kindle Paperwhite's display is impressive and the display resolution is now at par with the top-end Kindle Voyage.
Software and UI
The Kindle Paperwhite third-generation more or less runs the same software found on its predecessor with a few new additions. Among the new improvements, the major one is the addition of Bookerly, a font designed from the ground up for reading on digital screens.The new Kindle Paperwhite also offers an all-new typesetting engine and includes hyphenation and improved spacing, better character spacing, and better layout control even with larger font sizes. The new typography and layout improvements help reduce eyestrain are available on over half a million books as per Amazon. It claims the new typesetting engine that lays out words 'just as the author intended.'
The home screen features three most recently read books though you can also re-arrange them by recency, title, author and collections(enabled if you have a collection of titles). The book covers also feature a bar that shows how far you've read. You can also see books that you've purchased and have not downloaded by tapping on the 'Cloud' option. It's very easy to download books that you've purchased. You just need to tap on the book cover icon and it will synchronise!
The other part of the home screen features four suggested book titles from Amazon that you can buy. Recommendations are an integral part of Amazon's ecosystem.
The top menu bar features the Home button, a back button, a toggle for the front-light intensity, a search button, a button to invoke Goodreads (an online network of book lovers), a shortcut key to the Kindle store and a drop-down menu that offers shortcuts to Kindle FreeTime, Vocabulary Builder, web browser (experimental) and Settings. The menu also allows you to create a new collection and switch to a list view of your library.
Opening a book is pretty simple. You just need to tap on the cover and it'll open the page you were reading, the last time.
You just need to lightly tap or swipe on the right edge of the screen to turn to the next page, tap on left to turn back a page and tap the top edge for the secondary and main menu. The secondary menu lets you change the fonts, font size, line spacing and margins; Go to a particular page, chapter or annotation, use the X-Ray feature, bookmark or share an annotation on social networks.
The bottom left corner features the page number and time left in the book and chapter while the right corner displays the percentage read. This makes it easy to track your reading progress and improve the reading speed.
The new Paperwhite also includes Dictionaries (Oxford English and New Oxford American Dictionary) and a Vocabulary Builder. The latter saves the words that you look up while reading and offers them as flashcards. Students and language enthusiasts would find this feature quite useful.
When you select a word by tapping and holding it, the Kindle brings up the Dictionary offering its definition. The same pop-up also offers tabs for X-Ray, Translation and Wikipedia. X-Ray is a reference tool that brings up the biography of a character, compiled by Amazon, while the Wikipedia tab brings up the Wikipedia page. Of course, you'll need an active internet connection for the Wikipedia feature. The UI for this feature has been slightly tweaked and is now based on a dropdown menu. It looks much more streamlined.
One can also highlight, add a note, share, translate and report an error through the menu. Those options pop to the front if you highlight more than one word.
The new Paperwhite also includes FreeTime, that allows parents to create profiles for their children and encourage reading with the help of gamification. FreeTime lets parents create personalized profiles for kids and give them access to titles from their collection of books. Children can be rewarded with achievement badges keeping track of their personal reading accomplishments. The utility creates a progress report that keeps parents updated on total time spent reading, number of words looked up, badges earned and books read.
It also offers access to the Goodreads social network where book lovers share their reviews and recommendations. It even offers integration with Facebook and Twitter for sharing quotes and annotations.
The Kindle Paperwhite offers an experimental WebKit based browser that lets you browse the web over WiFi. There's a reason why it's called 'experimental' - you'll not be able to open graphics-heavy, complex web pages.
It's worth pointing out that the 3G-enabled version of the Paperwhite comes with a crippled 3G connection though it comes with unlimited access without the user incurring extra monthly charges. Over 3G networks, it only allows access to the Kindle store. You won't be able to browse the web or access Goodreads without connecting to WiFi.
Battery life & storage
Amazon claims that a single charge lasts up to six weeks if used half an hour a day without connecting to the internet and light set to 10, but even with moderate to high usage, it'll last for more than a week or even two.
Paperwhite comes with 4GB internal storage. It's estimated that you can store thousands of books at a given time. We feel that is more than sufficient for most users. Also, with access to the cloud, you can remove or add titles easily from Amazon's servers.
Is it worth a buy?
At Rs 10,999 for the Wi-Fi only version and Rs 13,999 for the 3G+Wi-Fi variant, the Paperwhite continues to be the best e-book reader you can buy. The sharper display offers a richer reading experience compared to its predecessor and the added RAM reduces page turn time and e-ink ghosting cycles. The Kindle Voyage, which costs Rs 16,499 offers the additional benefit of adaptive lighting, page press sensors and is brighter and whiter, but you're also paying a lot more.
The previous-generation Kindle Paperwhite is also available at Rs 8,999 (Wi-Fi only) on the Indian store and will satisfy most e-book lovers. However, we'd recommend going for the latest version if you're buying your first front-lit e-book reader.
No comments:
Post a Comment