I was really unsure if I would like an e-book reader. I love books, especially the feel of them, and was unsure if the expense of an e-reader was worth it. It is, on several levels. (1) very comfortable to read in most lighting conditions. The default text size is perfect for me, and one size larger is great for low light conditions. I do find myself shifting it around in my hands after reading awhile, but that is due, I think, more to the size than the weight (I use the Amazon leather cover with it). (2) the Kindle store has a lot of older books I've never read or been able to find in hard copy, and most are free or very low priced. I've downloaded old science fiction and many old classics. Prices for more recent releases seem reasonable, and I will definitely buy new releases for my favorite authors instead of waiting for the paperback to come out. It would be nice to see more sub-categories in the book sections to make browsing easier. (3) When I travel, it's nice to have a large set of books to choose from, depending upon my mood.
The "experimental" web browsing is OK but slow. As the pages are generally text-based, it can take some time to get to where you want, and navigation back and forth doesn't always go where you thought you were. I haven't tried the newspaper or magazine subscriptions yet.
The book tagging features work well, and navigation within most books is easy. Most page turns take about 0.3 to 0.5 seconds; only very busy pages with heavy graphcs seem to take longer (up to a second). I don't see that as a problem with most books. I do find myself placing the Kindle in sleep mode often just to see what screensaver comes up next, many are quite interesting.
I have had this Kindle for a month and it is still working off the same initial battery charge (presently about 50%). I do not leave the whispernet connection on when done; I've been reading wkith this device for about an hour or so per day and have been on-line about 2 hours total. Hopefully the battery will keep up this performance for some time.
Overall, I would give the Kindle a 5-rating for hardware and a 4.5-rating for software/store. I suspect I will still reach for the hard copy book first, but this e-book reader will definitely be with me for some time.Get more detail about Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 9.7" Display, Graphite, 3G Works Globally – Latest Generation.
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