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I love it and you will too, if you don't mind that the screen is surprisingly dimmer than expected.
Top reviews from the United States
Good Value at $79 with a Few Nits
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 20145,025 people found this helpfulGood product. I have not tried other Kindles but am very happy with the function and display.
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2014One person found this helpfulGreat Product With One Rather Sad Marketing Error
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 20153 people found this helpfulNo comparison to older Kindle
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015
No comparison to older Kindle
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015Had I never owned another Kindle, this most likely would have received a higher rating. Unfortunately, in comparing it to my older Kindle, the "benefits" of the touch-screen technology can't compare to the features no longer there. For those of you unfamiliar with the older Kindles, nothing was touch-screen and, instead, was all keyboard/button-driven, with the keyboard built-in at the bottom of the Kindle and the page turning buttons on both sides of the device. Yes, it was a bit larger and heavier, but it was SO MUCH EASIER to use than this new one with more features that are only available with a built-in keyboard.
I bought this to replace my older, ailing Kindle, hoping the new one would fit into the old cover that I bought with a light in it and loved. Not only does it not fit, there is no lighted cover to go with this new Kindle even available. Considering how expensive that old cover was, I wonder if all these different sizes and non-compatibility issues are ploys (planned obsolescence) on Amazon's part to force customers to have to spend a lot more money than is necessary.
Pros: lighter weight; more secure in the separately sold cover; if it’s being used only for reading and nothing else (such as highlighting, games, etc.), it works well
Cons:
- Other than turning pages by tapping on the R or L side of the display, I haven’t found much about this new Kindle to be very intuitive (easy to figure out). Reading the 62-page “Kindle User’s Guide, 2nd Edition” is pretty much a requirement. Although this guide comes with the purchase, it would have been nice to be able to just start reading rather than spending hours figuring out the new features.
- The new highlighting feature is so unusable, it may as well have been removed: Instead of highlighting, it literally darkens the selected text, making it HARDER to read. In my old Kindle, highlighting underlined the selected text, which was nice - it stood out, without impairing legibility. In addition, have not found a way to highlight across pages. i.e., if a section to be highlighted spans more than one page, there doesn't appear to be a way to extend the highlight beyond the current screen. The only workarounds I’ve found is either to separately highlight each page or to decrease the font size small enough to get everything onto one page. The problem with the latter is it becomes MUCH more difficult to then accurately select the section desired. The fingertip is now proportionately so much bigger than the screen, it tends to select 2 or 3 lines above or below what's wanted. Time-consuming and frustrating.
- Certain games no longer work because they require a “keyboard.” The game and the virtual, touch-screen keyboard will no longer fit on this smaller Kindle. Amazon will refund you for what you paid for the game in these cases, but I’d rather have the games work.
- For all the features lost with this new Kindle, you’d expect the new screen to be larger than it is. Actually it’s the same width as the old one and a tiny, tiny fraction of an inch longer (almost indecipherable).
- For reading purposes, have not noticed much difference between this supposed "Glare-Free" display and my older Kindle. Even reading in the car on a sunny day, there's not much difference. You can see more of a glare in the photo I added, but who regularly has that amount of light shining on the screen?
I have another 2 months to decide whether or not to return it. Since it was bought for me as a gift, I’m disinclined to do this. And if I’m using it primarily to read, it works – except for the highlighting, which I used frequently on my old Kindle. I consider this an inferior facsimile. I hope this is not another case of Amazon sacrificing features for the sake of profit.
358 people found this helpful
