Why My Family Moved To and Absolutely Loves the Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Front

I absolutely love and can’t live without books. So does my family.  So when there’s a good book that any of us wants, there are no arguments, we just get the book and read it whenever we want. After my son became a teen, the number of books at home started growing exponentially, so much that it quickly escalated into a space crunch at home. Then there was the problem of having to carry around all our books that are currently being read wherever we go. The effort in preserving and maintaining them. So when a friend suggested that we move to a Kindle, we were skeptic at first but gave it a go. And now we are all converts into E-Books, here’s why!

Front

The device itself is a silent and strong statement in design that does not scream at you, but is there to serve it’s purpose and serve it well. It looks like a paperback that you can hold in one hand. Not to big or too heavy. For those who are used to tablets and smartphones beaming text and pictures at your eyes with LED displays, the E-Ink display will be a welcome relief.  The have taken amazing care and crafted a very complicated display that aims to to do one thing, be gentle to your eyes and be easy to read like a book

kindle teardown

I will not go into the granular details of the display, but from a reader’s point of view, the display looks and feels just like reading a print book. The light is distributed very evenly. The idea is to illuminate the display and not shoot blue light directly into your eyes. That helps a lot, as people read under sunlight, at night, indoors and outdoors. One useful feature that I saw was the ability to change the way the screen looks and reads in one touch, shown below

Font Control

Getting back to the whole family moving to one device for reading, my son reads tons of thriller/crime genre stuff, my wife reads premium literary stuff and I read everything. So to try the experience out, we got a Kindle Unlimited account from Amazon and started reading.

Read at Night

I wake up very very early in the AM everyday, the idea is to use the morning to learn something new. Or I read very late at night when my work is done and I want to unwind. The problem with those times of the day is that the light around is pretty low and during winter it is very dark actually. With a conventional tablet of phablet, I would have to have harsh light hitting my cornea and when I turn the brightness up, the others around me are disturbed due to the light. With the Kindle Paperwhite, the display has a gentle ambient backlight that does not attack my eyes and at the same time, does not disturb others in the room. So that ticks a box there.

Read in sunlight

My wife reads sitting in the balcony in sunlight in the early evenings or late afternoons based on the time of the year, now with conventional LED displays, sunlight legibility is a big big issue. Surprisingly with the Paperwhite, ther was absolutely no issue. She told me that it was just like reading a print book. No straining or squinting the eye. And whatever angle you looked at it, the display was perfect. And the helpful indicator of how much time one would need to finish that particular section of the book and overall progress percentage adds value to the experience. Very nifty and thoughtful.

On The Table

My son reads a lot of thriller/crime type books and he actually makes a lot of notes and stuff from what he reads, for him the X-Ray feature where one can with a single tap, see all the passages across a book that mention relevant ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics of interest, was very useful. Parental Controls allow you to restrict access to the Kindle Store, Cloud, and Experimental Web Browser so you can give Kindle Paperwhite to a child worry-free. It was extremely tough to get the Kindle back from him once he took it. That struggle will make for another post another day!

Kindle Paperwhite makes it easy for you to search. Enter a word or phrase and Kindle will search every instance across your Kindle library, in the Kindle Store, on Wikipedia, or the Web using Google search. Kindle Paperwhite features an experimental WebKit-based browser to provide a better experience on your e-reader

Back

Kindle Paperwhite includes The New Oxford English Dictionary with over 250,000 entries and definitions for free. Instantly look up the definition without ever leaving the book. Lighter than a paperback, you can comfortably hold the device in either hand for long reading sessions without fatigue or discomfort. EasyReach tap zones on the responsive touchscreen let you tap lightly to turn pages. Kindle makes it easy to take your personal documents with you, eliminating the need to print. E-mail documents – including Word, PDF and more – directly to your Kindle and read them in Kindle format.

Coming back to the sharing aspect, the easy ability to have multiple bookmarks and highlights when the same book is being read or the same library is shared is very nifty and thoughtful.

All in all, what I am trying to tell you is that me and my family have moved firmly and permanently to the Paperwhite now. The big problem now is that it looks like we’ll need one for each of us. Try it and I assure you that your entire family will love it. Don’t take my word, try it!

 

Note: All Images in the post are Copyright Amazon 

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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