If you are a heavy user of eBooks, you know LCD, LED, IPS or AMOLED displays are definitely not the way to do it. The glare in display and sometimes lower refresh rate is giving you headache within few pages of reading.
Down the time Amazon, the biggest online book shop came up with a cool way to read eBooks called Amazon Kindle. It’s having electronic paper display also known as eInk display. This became a blast and they sold many devices within a short time.
eInk display is not having any backlit and not getting refreshed unless you flip a page. It’s capable of displaying only black and white content. Simply it’s a paper which can change its ink electronically. You will always need external light source to read it since it’s not backlit, a book light would be a great idea for late night reading.
Early Kindle was having 6 inch display and physical QWERTY keyboard and there was another version without keyboard as well. It was capable of web browsing and had Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity in some versions. 4th generation of Kindle came out with touch sensitive eInk display called as Kindle touch and it became a very interesting device among eBook junkies. Today I’m going to take a closer look in to this.
Device Configuration
Design
The design is simple as any other Kindle and it’s even smaller since there is no keyboard. Instead there is one home key. Other than that there are no physical keys. In the back panel at the bottom you can find stereo speakers. There is microUSB, 3.5 mm audio out and power button in bottom edge.
Processor and Storage
Processer in this device is 800 MHz Cortex A8 and having 4 GB internal storage, non expandable. For eBook reading practically this is like unlimited storage.
Display
This is the most interesting part here and its 6 inch eInk display with 600 x 800 pixels resolution which will give you 167 ppi pixel density. Its 16 level gray scale display optimized to display textual content.
Connectivity and Interfaces
USB connectivity is always there for you to transfer audio files. To download eBooks you can use Wi-Fi or built in 3G connectivity. You can always use 3G connectivity to access Wikipedia. However, web browsing is still an experimental feature in Kindle touch and you can use it only with Wi-Fi.
Battery Life
This is one great thing about all Kindle eBook readers, their battery last amazingly long. If you are reading eBooks for 30 minutes every day, your battery will last for nearly 1 month. This is like forever compared to other tablets and Smartphone.
Wrapping Up
Kindle Touch has taken the eInk display to its next level with entire on screen controller. However I’m missing physical keys to flip pages. You can access music player by tapping a page even while you are reading a book. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to some music while reading a book. The dictionary feature is also working great.
Since you are on a touch screen nothing stops you by using pinch to zoom. Its working great but eInk refresh rate is not the best for it, so I prefer old school double tap to zoom feature. Amazingly there is no more landscape which is a great minus point. Web browsing is also fine though it’s experimental.
If you are planning to buy Kindle Touch, there are few things to clear up. This is highly optimized for eBook reading and this is not a multipurpose tablet. It supports PDF, but to get the maximum experience you have to purchase Kindle friendly eBooks for Amazon. Finally there are two versions, with offers and without. If you hate to see Ads, go for without offers version and it will cost you some extra bucks.
Tags: #Amazon #eBook #Tablet