A Personal Amazon Kindle Review
My situation is probably not uncommon. This last Christmas I decided that I wanted to get a new geeky gadget and I decided after a couple of years of contemplation that I should get the new Amazon Kindle. I have heard great things about them but never had actually seen one in person. After watching a few videos on them and reading a few reviews from others, I decided I would go ahead and make the big leap and have this be my Christmas gift from my wife (who happens to read a lot more than I do). I will take you through some of the things I have noticed about the Amazon Kindle below. Hopefully you find this Amazon Kindle Review worthwhile and might make the jump yourself assuming my honest review hits on the points you are looking for from an ebook reader like a Kindle.
Check the Box if it's a Gift
Since I knew what I was getting it was not a big deal. However, if I really wanted it to be a surprise buying from Amazon and not checking the box would have been detrimental! The box arrived a couple of days later than I was hoping for, but still on time. It was a small box, slightly larger than the kindle itself and quite thin. It had a big Amazon Kindle logo on it however. Luckily this was a Christmas gift I got late so I wasn't planning on unwrapping it anyway and it was not going to be a surprise. It was just something I noticed when I received the package.
Sturdy but Light
My initial impression was that it was a sturdy little thing. When I initially read how many ounces it weighed, I pictured it extremely light. I consider it to be a little bit lighter than your average 200 page book. It might be a little bit heavier than a very small paperback that is less than 100 pages though. Still, it certainly is not heavy to hold and fits comfortably in your hand. The thing feels sturdy enough where you know you are not going to break it easily, which I like.
Phenomenal Screen
Honestly, even though I had watched some video reviews of the Kindle, for some reason I never pictured what the screen was going to look like. I assumed it would be a blank screen until I turned it on. As soon as I pulled the Kindle out of the box I started trying to peel what appeared to be a plastic covering on the screen with an Amazon Kindle logo on it. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not a clear protective screen, it was the screen itself! This is how clear and cool the screen is! It gives you random logos when you turn it off, and the screen continues top notch quality as you read! A great feature to have to make it a top quality ebook reader.
Another part I noticed about the screen is that it really does look like pages from a book. They have the light grayish tinted background as if it were the printed paper, the text appears clean and clear. You can customize the size of the font to what suites you best, but default settings were perfect for me.
Super-easy to Buy Books
Another thing that seems so easy it is almost scary is how quickly and easily you can get new books. My wife and I both being avid readers we can tear through the books pretty quickly. My wife is usually ordering a new book or two every week or two just to keep up with her reading addiction. Now online, it really is a two click process (I think it is called a one click process on the Kindle, but it's really two). You click on the book you want, then you click "Buy Book" and it automatically downloads to your Kindle. It is that easy. Most books on my WiFi connection will download within just about 15 seconds so it is almost instant. I can not imagine it ever getting much easier to access and buy books than what you have on the Amazon Kindle. There are even daily free ebooks available.
Text to Speech
One thing I wanted to bring up in this Amazon Kindle Review is the text-to-speech. You see, I like to read, but I am not a fast reader. Often times I find myself a long ways behind my wife even when we are reading the exact same content and she is often waiting on me to get done. After reading some of the reviews about text to speech on the Amazon Kindle I knew I wanted to try it out for myself. I listen to a lot of audio books and thought this might be a good substitute. The text to speech does work but it is not up to the quality I was hoping for. You can certainly still tell it is an automated system. I do not know if you will ever see it get to the point where it sounds like a real person talking with the complexity of the English language. They did make attempts for the automation to take into account punctuation which does help considerable. It is still easily listenable and reads the content at a fairly fast rate, but its certainly not perfect.
The biggest issue you will hear is the mispronounced words. It is sometimes pretty distracting. For example, the word live. The system pronounces the word "live" as you would if you said, "I live in California". However, in the content it was reading the word "live" should have been pronounced in the way you would say it if you were saying, "The system is now live". It is things like this that makes it still need a little bit of work.
Overall, I highly recommend this item to someone who enjoys reading and wants something they can carry around easily!
My situation is probably not uncommon. This last Christmas I decided that I wanted to get a new geeky gadget and I decided after a couple of years of contemplation that I should get the new Amazon Kindle. I have heard great things about them but never had actually seen one in person. After watching a few videos on them and reading a few reviews from others, I decided I would go ahead and make the big leap and have this be my Christmas gift from my wife (who happens to read a lot more than I do). I will take you through some of the things I have noticed about the Amazon Kindle below. Hopefully you find this Amazon Kindle Review worthwhile and might make the jump yourself assuming my honest review hits on the points you are looking for from an ebook reader like a Kindle.
Check the Box if it's a Gift
Since I knew what I was getting it was not a big deal. However, if I really wanted it to be a surprise buying from Amazon and not checking the box would have been detrimental! The box arrived a couple of days later than I was hoping for, but still on time. It was a small box, slightly larger than the kindle itself and quite thin. It had a big Amazon Kindle logo on it however. Luckily this was a Christmas gift I got late so I wasn't planning on unwrapping it anyway and it was not going to be a surprise. It was just something I noticed when I received the package.
Sturdy but Light
My initial impression was that it was a sturdy little thing. When I initially read how many ounces it weighed, I pictured it extremely light. I consider it to be a little bit lighter than your average 200 page book. It might be a little bit heavier than a very small paperback that is less than 100 pages though. Still, it certainly is not heavy to hold and fits comfortably in your hand. The thing feels sturdy enough where you know you are not going to break it easily, which I like.
Phenomenal Screen
Honestly, even though I had watched some video reviews of the Kindle, for some reason I never pictured what the screen was going to look like. I assumed it would be a blank screen until I turned it on. As soon as I pulled the Kindle out of the box I started trying to peel what appeared to be a plastic covering on the screen with an Amazon Kindle logo on it. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not a clear protective screen, it was the screen itself! This is how clear and cool the screen is! It gives you random logos when you turn it off, and the screen continues top notch quality as you read! A great feature to have to make it a top quality ebook reader.
Another part I noticed about the screen is that it really does look like pages from a book. They have the light grayish tinted background as if it were the printed paper, the text appears clean and clear. You can customize the size of the font to what suites you best, but default settings were perfect for me.
Super-easy to Buy Books
Another thing that seems so easy it is almost scary is how quickly and easily you can get new books. My wife and I both being avid readers we can tear through the books pretty quickly. My wife is usually ordering a new book or two every week or two just to keep up with her reading addiction. Now online, it really is a two click process (I think it is called a one click process on the Kindle, but it's really two). You click on the book you want, then you click "Buy Book" and it automatically downloads to your Kindle. It is that easy. Most books on my WiFi connection will download within just about 15 seconds so it is almost instant. I can not imagine it ever getting much easier to access and buy books than what you have on the Amazon Kindle. There are even daily free ebooks available.
Text to Speech
One thing I wanted to bring up in this Amazon Kindle Review is the text-to-speech. You see, I like to read, but I am not a fast reader. Often times I find myself a long ways behind my wife even when we are reading the exact same content and she is often waiting on me to get done. After reading some of the reviews about text to speech on the Amazon Kindle I knew I wanted to try it out for myself. I listen to a lot of audio books and thought this might be a good substitute. The text to speech does work but it is not up to the quality I was hoping for. You can certainly still tell it is an automated system. I do not know if you will ever see it get to the point where it sounds like a real person talking with the complexity of the English language. They did make attempts for the automation to take into account punctuation which does help considerable. It is still easily listenable and reads the content at a fairly fast rate, but its certainly not perfect.
The biggest issue you will hear is the mispronounced words. It is sometimes pretty distracting. For example, the word live. The system pronounces the word "live" as you would if you said, "I live in California". However, in the content it was reading the word "live" should have been pronounced in the way you would say it if you were saying, "The system is now live". It is things like this that makes it still need a little bit of work.
Still Needs a Case
Despite its durability we already had a run in with a need for the case. We are only a month into having the new Amazon Kindle and my young two year old daughter decided she was going to hit the screen with one of her toys. Luckily the toy hit the top left corner. However, it put a very small dot on the screen that exists even if I turn the Kindle off and does not go away. It is probably a few pixels in size and does not affect reading so I have not bothered with it, but it does drive the need home to go ahead and get a case for the Kindle. I still think it is a fairly durable item, but it needs proper care too as most electronics do.Overall, I highly recommend this item to someone who enjoys reading and wants something they can carry around easily!
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