{"id":645766,"date":"2013-03-07T09:40:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T14:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betanews.com\/?p=134626"},"modified":"2013-03-07T09:40:38","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T14:40:38","slug":"kindle-paperwhite-is-my-new-favorite-gadget-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/645766","title":{"rendered":"Kindle Paperwhite is my new favorite gadget [Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When I wrote Why I Love Kindle<\/a> back in February I said I was intending to upgrade to a Kindle Paperwhite soon. Three weeks later, timed so I can buy a Kindle copy of my own book<\/a> (my publisher only supplies free paperbacks), and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n

The Kindle is one of those very rare devices that you don\u2019t really need to upgrade. New features, an improved screen, touch support \u2013 it\u2019s all well and good, but when you\u2019re reading something you\u2019re pretty oblivious to anything other than the words on the page. Or rather the screen. That said, moving to the Paperwhite from a second generation Kindle is a huge leap forward.<\/p>\n

The big difference of course is the Paperwhite comes with a frontlit, high-res capacitive touchscreen. A frontlit screen means exactly what it says. It\u2019s lit from the front. So instead of a light shining into your eyes, it shines on the screen. This means you can read the Kindle comfortably at night without the need for a torch or reading light. It also has another benefit. It brightens up the screen, so instead of a grey-ish display you get one that\u2019s white. Paperwhite in fact.<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s touchscreen, there are no actual buttons to worry about, except the on switch at the bottom of the device. Moving around is just a case of touching the left and right sides of the screen to turn pages, and tapping the top of the display to access the menu. If you want to look up a word you just press and hold it for a bit, then let go and the definition pops up. You can share and highlight text or add notes in the same way.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Paperwhite lets you access books stored on the device or, if you prefer, in the cloud, and the top menu lets you adjust the screen brightness (turn it up for brightly lit rooms, or dim it for darker locations), go shopping for new books on Amazon, and access the options. You can switch between list and cover view, sort your books by creating collections, sync and check for items and launch the experimental browser. The settings screen lets you turn Aeroplane Mode on or off, configure Wi-Fi, and access device and reading options.<\/p>\n

Compared with my second generation Kindle, the Paperwhite is tiny. It\u2019s smaller all round, thinner and lighter but with a slightly taller screen. Of course my old Kindle had a large keyboard on the bottom so that\u2019s part of the reason for the difference in size.<\/p>\n

The text is sharper (the PPI has risen to 212 from 169), which combined with the frontlight makes reading more pleasurable. Well depending on what you\u2019re reading of course. You still get the ghosting, as well as the E Ink flicker when the screen refreshes itself but it\u2019s faster and so less noticeable.<\/p>\n

A friend who owns a Paperwhite said she struggled a bit with the device because she found it a little awkward to hold one handed without accidentally touching the screen and calling up menus or flipping pages. I haven\u2019t experienced that problem, but that might be just how I hold it, or down to the fact I\u2019ve shelled out on a case that makes the device easier to grasp.<\/p>\n

Although Amazon was having a sale on third-party cases when I purchased my Paperwhite, I ignored those in favor of buying Amazon\u2019s official Leather Cover in Ink Blue. This only fits the Kindle Paperwhite and automatically turns the e-reader on when you open it (so you need never use the one physical button if you don\u2019t want to). A lot like the Smart Case on my Apple iPad.<\/p>\n

Just one more chapter…<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two features new to me that I quite like. Time to Read is very clever and analyses the speed you read at and gives you an estimate of how long it will take you to read the next chapter, or the entire book. If you\u2019re wondering if you have enough time to read the next chapter before turning in for the night, it can tell you with reasonable accuracy.<\/p>\n

The other feature is X-Ray. This shows you information about the important characters in the book or on the page. It requires the book you\u2019re reading to have this feature enabled, and a lot of books won\u2019t (my new novel doesn\u2019t for example). That said, although I\u2019ve tried X-Ray out and think it\u2019s quite clever, I don\u2019t imagine I\u2019ll be using it much, if at all.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only had my Paperwhite for a short while, but already I\u2019m loving it. I\u2019ll be keeping my second generation Kindle because I like the physical keyboard and will use it for making notes on my next novel, but for day-to-day reading, I\u2019ll be permanently attached to the new device, and as I do a lot of reading at night, the combination of the frontlight and Time to Read means I\u2019m already powering through my current choice of book.<\/p>\n

If you own a non-Paperwhite Kindle, or another eBook reader, do you have any plans to upgrade, or are you happy to stick with what you\u2019ve got? Comments below please.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to buy a copy of my novel — I Know What You Did Last Supper — I believe Amazon<\/a> might just have it in stock. You can also read an extract here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I wrote Why I Love Kindle back in February I said I was intending to upgrade to a Kindle Paperwhite soon. Three weeks later, timed so I can buy a Kindle copy of my own book (my publisher only supplies free paperbacks), and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019ve done. The Kindle is one of those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-645766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}