To an unknown observer, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite may look like a small, black ‘rectangle’ with round corners and may not seem very notable at first sight. However, it is the fun exclusiveness and great literary prowess of this device that very well sets it apart from conventional handheld e-reader devices in its own regard.
Display And Hardware
The Kindle Paperwhite feels quite good and comfortable in your hands. It is actually thinner than the previous models of the Amazon Kindle Touch and the display is just a bit less ‘sunken down’ in the plastic housing. This is a great modification because the Kindle Paperwhite has a touchscreen display with touch interface that is kind of reminiscent of holding a book in your hands.
Although a great tablet e-reader all in all, there may be a couple of small drawbacks in the Kindle Paperwhite as compared to some older models. In terms of hardware, the previous Kindle Touch has about 4 GB of storage capacity while the newer Kindle Paperwhite has only 2 GB of storage.
Software
The software on the Kindle Paperwhite is more like a tablet OS than the previous Kindles. It has a Home Screen which is somewhat reminiscent of Kindle Fire and the Kindle Fire HD Home Screens. Additionally, the software definitely has capabilities that older Kindles don’t, such as the ability to read comic books on the device. You can also zoom in and flip through the panels as would normally be able to do on the Kindle Fire HD. Cloud access to the Amazon Cloud is also there.
Performance
As a result of a good hardware layout and a very well-designed software, the Kindle Paperwhite is a very fast and intuitive device. Turning pages on books happens almost instantaneously on the tablet e-reader. Navigating around the device using the latest version of the Kindle software is also pretty snappy.
The previous version of the device – the Kindle Touch – had a headphone jack whereas the Kindle Paperwhite has no headphone jack or any audio output ports for that matter. As a result, the tablet e-reader lacks text-to-speech functionality.
Having said that – what the Kindle Paperwhite lacks in audio, it makes up for it in its impressive display. As you may have heard from Amazon, the device uses Amazon’s fairly new Paperwhite Technology – which can be adjusted using the onscreen controls – and which allows the display brightness to both get very high and very low, as per your liking. Due to this, the screen can be used under direct sunlight or normal household lighting without any problems, unlike almost all other tablets in the market today.
The battery life on the Amazon Kindle Fire versus older models is excellent. In fact, Amazon says that it gets the same battery life as a standard Kindle and that a single charge can last upwards of eight weeks. With moderate use, the device can certainly hang in there. However, the device does not come with a charger. It comes with a Micro-USB cable that you can plug into your computer for charging purposes.
Battery Life comparison of the Kindle Paperwhite, Courtesy Amazon
Verdict
The Kindle Paperwhite has precisely the right size and the right weight for an e-reader tablet, and this makes for a very comfortable reading experience for the user. If you are into books and especially e-books, then the Kindle Paperwhite is the best way to go. Its e-ink display won’t disappoint you, and the seemingly endless collection of available books will keep you interestingly well-occupied for a long time.
