October 8, 2013
Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback! I gave in to the allure of the Kindle when the second generation came out, with the improved sides and keyboard. I loved it; I read so much more than I did before, and I read in more places. It never hurt my eyes, and the device itself never got in the way of my reading.Then the iPad came out, and I gave in to the allure of that as well. I couldn't justify to myself having two reading devices like that, so I sold my Kindle and lived with the compromises in the reading experience on a glass tablet. Come several iterations of the iPad later, and a Nexus 7, and I've finally been able to admit it. Reading books on a tablet isn't enjoyable. For one thing, the glare is... glaring. It's not helpful. Second, the backlight shining in my eyes all the time makes them tired. This is less of a big deal on the Nexus 7, because the black background with white text (Nighttime) mode isn't so bad, but between books and magazines and all the reading on the web I do, it doesn't help. Also, for most people, distractions from email or the temptation of games and other things to read is undeniable.If you're unfamiliar with e-ink, you won't get a detailed description here, but the gist is that you're looking at real ink on a paper-like material. You're looking at something real, in other words. The light reflected off the surface is what brings the words to your screen, not the light from behind the "screen," so it's like reading off paper. It's easier on your eyes, it works in sunlight, and doesn't have the glare and reflectivity issues of glass tablet displays.So, as I said, I finally admitted I missed that, and right then, the Paperwhite second-gen came out. So I headed over to the store, picked it up, and went with it to Starbucks to set it up. Within minutes, it was ready to download books from my Amazon cloud account, and I even grabbed a couple from the local library. It's as easy to use as I remember, but has a nicer, cleaner presentation on the home screen. Because it uses a higher ppi e-ink display than before, book covers only make sense to display on the home page. You can get magazines and newspapers delivered to the device as well. The Paperwhite comes with a built-in light, and the way that works is by shining a light sideways into the upper level of the display. That spreads the light evenly over the surface and down on to the actual e-ink part of the screen, so there's no light blasting in your retinas. The result is a very comfortable reading experience. In bright sunlight or very bright rooms, unless there's an overhead light creating a glare spot, you don't need the light. The refresh rate is greatly improved, only fully refreshing the screen every few page turns. (There's an option to make it every page turn, but it impacts battery life.)The battery is rated for 8 weeks, but that's with reading half an hour a day, the light set to 10, and the wireless off. That's just not real-world usage, I think, for most readers. You don't get the benefits of Wikipedia and some other features if the wireless is off. And half an hour a day? I spend that much time (or more) on the New York Times alone. My usage is about a week, and yours will vary, but if you're getting this as a dedicated reading device because you love reading, it will not last two months. Not even close. Still, a week between charges is fine with me, and if I knew I was going somewhere without power for a couple of weeks, well, no power means no wifi, and then I could probably stretch it out to a few weeks. X-Ray is a new feature for the e-ink Kindle, which is helpful for just about everyone. Tap on a name or place in your book, and if it's X-Ray enabled (most books are), you'll get a synopsis of the character and places they appear in the book, or if it's a place, relevant information to the place. This is especially useful if you're making your way through Game of Thrones for the first time.If you're a heavy reader, you should have a dedicated e-book reader. It's that simple. It'll save your eyes, and you'll read more with no distractions from app alerts or even the idea of "just checking Facebook for a few minutes." The only question for you should be which e-book reader to get. I'm not going to tell you which one to buy because I've only ever had a Kindle. But considering how poorly the others are selling (and thus, inching closer to obsolescence), I would consider this one. The light is excellent, the display is easy to read, and the ecosystem is definitely there. Even with ads on the lock screen and the bottom of the home screen (which actually show me quite a few book sales I've bought stuff from), it seems to me to be the superior device. Even if - or even especially if - you're already reading on your iPad.(Edited to correct that X-Ray does work with wireless off.)