Amazon Kindle - a contrary review

Let me first apologize to the many happy Kindle owners who might accidentally stumble across this review. I know you love your reader and it's even possible that some of you actually have good reason to be so enamored. This review is not for you.

This is for people who are considering a new or used Kindle and are comparing it to the Kindle Fire, an iPad or an Android tablet. If that's you, I'll go right to the punch line: you probably don't want a Kindle. You might want a Kindle Fire, but the less expensive versions are not really what all the glowing reviews make them out to be. The base Kindles do have one advantage: extended battery life. All other supposed features are actually compromises of dubious value.

You can read it in sunlight!

I have an iPad since they first came out and that has its compromises too. One of the things Kindle lovers are quick to point to is the difficulty of reading a backlit screen in bright sunlight.

As someone who has used my iPad in bright sunlight, I will agree that it is difficult. However, the word is "difficult", not "impossible". If you ramp the brightness up all the way and tip the screen away from direct sunlight, you can read.

Contrast that with the Kindle's opposite problem: E-Ink needs light, and lots of it. Bright sunlight or sitting under a reading lamp is required for a Kindle - you can't read in the dark at all.

Reading in dim light isn't pleasant, either. Although Kindle sales pitches compare this to reading a book, that's only true with bright light. In more dim situations, readability decreases quickly. A person considering one of these who does most of their reading at the beach might well be happy with an E-Ink Kindle; people who mostly read at home will like it best under a bright lamp. If you are traveling in a train or airplane, you are probably more likely to encounter dim light than glaring sunlight - which is why many Kindle owners end up purchasing LED lights to carry with them.

You don't need to carry an LED light with a Kindle Fire or an iPad/Android tablet. Your very worst condition is that you need to find a little shade and even that is only true under the brightest conditions. You'll be able to read comfortably in ordinary light, dim light, and complete darkness.

I can't stress this enough: E-Ink in dim light is very unpleasant. It's worse than reading a real book - there is less contrast and you will strain your eyes.

Speed readers beware

Here is an older Kindle sitting beside my iPad. By the way, this picture was taken in fairly bright interior light and it does show the readability issues I mentioned in the previous paragraphs.

What I want you to notice here is the size. Yes, the Kindle will tuck away in a bag more easily; I'll give it that. But look at the words on the page: in spite of having no white space either outside of the text or between paragraphs, the Kindle is only displaying about half the word count of the iPad.

I read quickly. I find the iPad, with its 200-250 word count per page, slightly annoying because I have to turn the pages too frequently. The Kindle, barely exceeding 100 words, requires constant page flipping.

The lack of white space is also something that makes me grumpy. Books have white space; the Kindle often does not. I can adjust to the lack of white space at the edges, but I find no white space between paragraphs to be very difficult for me. That's more than just being accustomed to it; speed readers need white space to help control our "gulps" of text - without paragraph breaks, we tend to over-run.

I think this is the fault of the e-book creators. I noticed that problem with my own e-books but was able to reformat them to add space. Of course this just means less reading before page flipping on the small Kindles. However, even if a book has been formatted to force these breaks, the low word count means that a paragraph of decent length may fill the screen anyway, leaving you with that solid block of text once again.

The Kindle DX has a 9.7 inch screen, but it's price is perilously close to an iPad and matches or exceeds many Android tablets. I can't see the point of paying that much money for such a limited device.

Color and resolution

If all you read is novels, color isn't important to you. For those of us who read manuals with diagrams or even books that contain photographs, color and resolution are very important.

I should note that some people find reading text on an E-Ink Kindle easier. Complaints of eyestrain with iPads and Android tablets are not uncommon. If you have found that reading on your computer screen troubles your eyes, you might be happier with a Kindle, but do note that this is not an absolute: only some people have this problem. If you've never noticed it at your computer, you won't notice it with a tablet.

You might not notice it at all. There is a lot more light assaulting you from a computer screen; a tablet's smaller size does not have the same impact. My eyes sometimes bother me when I sit at my large computer screen for hours; being bothered by my iPad is more unusual.

Also note that older computer screens have a slower refresh rate than more modern displays. If you are convinced that a backlit display will give you headaches because some ancient screen you use at work or home always has that affect, you may not be bothered at all by a modern tablet (or a modern computer display).

As noted above, an E-Ink reader in dim light is cause for eyestrain itself. Don't assume that a backlit screen is "bad" until you have actually used one. Alan Hedge, a professor of Ergonomics, is quoted in this article as saying "reducing eye fatigue is less a matter of choosing a specific display than of taking short breaks from looking at the screen", which means that much of this controversy isn't important anyway.

Beg or borrow

Ideally, you'll want to test drive anything you might be considering. Arranging that can be difficult - I'm not going to give up my iPad for any extended period and Kindle users surely will pull their devices close also. The only reason I was able to play with the Kindle pictured above is because my sister was given a new Kindle Fire for Xmas and was therefore willing to give up her old companion for a few weeks.

If you can arrange a visit with the device of a friend or relative, be sure to try it out under the conditions you are most likely to be using it. For example, I am more likely to be reading while my wife watches TV than to be sitting at the beach. If I have a print book, I'd need to turn on a light and that would also be true for an E-Ink Kindle. A tablet or Kindle Fire won't need that auxiliary lighting.

You will note that I have not mentioned any of the extended features available with tablets or the Kindle Fire. If apps and web browsing are important to you, you won't be looking at base E-Ink Kindles anyway. I'm also assuming that low price is not your primary concern.

The low price of the small Kindles does mean that many buyers can afford both one of these and a higher end unit. As your Kindle book purchases are available across all your devices, you could own both and choose the one that is most suitable for where you are at a specific moment in time. Eventually higher end units may be able to provide the best of both worlds, but that still seems to be far way from reality.

Many E-Ink Kindle owners may be upgrading to Kindle Fire; I'd expect to see some really good bargains on used Kindles at eBay. At some price point, even a slightly inferior device starts to make sense.

Recommendation

I strongly suggest thinking very carefully before buying any E-Ink Kindle. It may be the right choice for you, but I don't think it is a particularly good choice for most of us. Consider the things I mentioned above carefully, especially if your expected usage is more than occasional.