Amazon Kindle

Amazon Kindle  £89
★★★★★
www.amazon.co.uk

FEATURES ★★★★  PERFORMANCE ★★★★★  EASE OF USE ★★★★★  VALUE FOR MONEY ★★★★★ 

When technology companies bring out new versions of their products, they’re usually upgrades. Take a look at the specifications of the latest Amazon Kindle, however, and you’ll notice that it’s actually a downgrade from the previous model. The keyboard has gone, the 3G has been removed so it’s Wi-Fi only, the internal storage has been halved to 2GB, and there’s no audio capability. There isn’t even any improvement on the screen quality. So what’s the attraction?

For a start, it’s £60 cheaper than the Kindle Keyboard 3G. It’s also lighter, slimmer and more portable. The design is more sophisticated and its two-tone finish gives it a smart, slick look. Other than these cosmetic embellishments, its main improvement is speed. A new page takes just 0.7 seconds to load. That’s 30 per cent faster than the Kindle Keyboard 3G which, along with the Sony Reader Wi-Fi, is the next fastest with a page-change speed of one second. Successive page turns are even quicker, and you can flick 10 pages back through a book you’ve already read in just a couple of seconds. It doesn’t flicker as much either, and only refreshes itself with a full flash of black every sixth page or so.

One of the key benefits of Amazon’s devices is the connection to the Amazon store. You can buy a huge range of content, from bestsellers to newspapers, directly from the device. If you buy the Kindle from Amazon, your account comes preloaded, so you don’t even need to set it up. We missed having a keyboard, because using the left, right, up and down cursor to choose letters on a virtual keyboard was frustratingly slow. But if you’re only typing the occasional search term, it’s fine. The automatic search suggestions, which appear as you type, are also a help. However, readers who want to take notes as they go would be better off with a device that makes typing easier. 

Verdict:
The new Kindle is an ebook reader for voracious readers. It may not have the best specifications, but it’s got an extremely attractive price. It’s fast, well integrated with Amazon’s fantastic bookshop, and very simple to use. The only downside is that it doesn’t have the keyboard you get on other Kindles, but if you’re not a note-taker, you’ll barely notice. It’s a fantastic Christmas gift at a great price.