Mathew Packer

Amazon started shipping the International version of the Amazon Kindle last week, and mine arrived on Friday. After spending a couple of days playing with my new Kindle I figured I'd do a little write up of my impressions so far, so here goes...

Feels good in the hand

It weighs next to nothing and is so thin, the pictures really don't do it justice. The positioning of the next and previous page buttons makes it really easy to 'turn the page'.

Easy to read both indoors and outdoors

Being an e-Ink display, and not a backlit LCD, it's equally easy to read both indoor and outdoor. You don't get any harsh lighting or reflections back on the display that would stop you from being able to read books on your Kindle outside in your lunch break, under fluorescent lights in the office, or even in bed at night with a bedside lamp.

Easy to buy books

With the integration of Whispernet, Amazon's 3G download service, it's really easy to search the Kindle store for books to purchase. Once you've found and purchased your book, you only have to wait approximately 60 seconds (in Newcastle at least) and your book is downloaded and ready to read.

Books are generally cheaper

As you would expect, or at least hope, the books are quite a deal cheaper than buying them in your local Angus & Robertson, Collins, or even Borders. So far the books I've purchased have been between $10 and $15 dollars cheaper than their regular store bought counterparts. In most cases the cost of the book also includes the Whispernet delivery so that keeps greedy Australian telcos from trying to get in on the action.

Easy to transfer eBooks to your Kindle from other sources

If you're like me and you've bought a few eBooks from various websites you'll be wanting to transfer them to your Kindle asap, and it's actually quite easy. Amazon gives you a handy email address where you can email your eBooks, and other documents, too and they'll convert it for you for a small fee. If it's a non-commercial document there is a free email address, I think but am yet to confirm, where you can have book converted.

Battery life is awesome

After charging my Kindle on Friday when I arrived, I started downloading and reading straight away. Since then I've downloaded 2 more books, searched the Kindle store a few times, and of course done quite a bit of reading, and the battery is still close to full. That's quite amazing, specially considering that I've charged my iPhone twice in the same amount of time.

And now for the negatives....

Screen seems sluggish some times when moving page to page

Flicking from page to page quickly, the screen can sometimes take a second or two to completely render, particularly when you're going through the search screen. It's not a big deal, and certainly not a reason to not buy one, but it was just something I noticed.

Not all my favourite authors have Kindle books

At this point in time there are still a few publishing houses who are yet to jump on board and make their represented author's books available as Kindle books. I'm sure in time every publishing house will be sending their books the Kindle's way, so this isn't something that's likely to be an issue for long.

Too easy to buy books, ie. drunk kindling

Yep, you read right. It's 'too easy' to buy books.

I can see myself chatting to people over a beer or two, three, four, or five, and them saying "hey have you read such and such's biography?" and later that night when I get home I end up buying the book and maybe reading half a dozen pages before thinking, "hrmm maybe that wasn't a good decision"...meanwhile Amazon's already got my money.

And now for the verdict...

The Verdict

Well as you can read above, there are far more positives than negatives and really on the negative side of things they are only small criticisms. In my opinion the Kindle is a game changer, just like the iPod was back in 2001, because the Kindle makes it so easy to buy, read, and enjoy books.

I'm sure there will be better eBook readers in the future, but where the Kindle wins is the size of their library, ease of purchase, and the overall simple experience.

The Amazon Kindle is a great eBook reader, and you should definitely purchase one.