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REVIEW: Should you buy an Amazon Kindle e-reader? The answer, in one easy formula
It doesn't matter if the Amazon Kindle e-book reader is the first e-book reader that makes sense. It's not a question of whether the unique un-backlit monochrome screen technology works, if the Sprint-powered wireless online bookstore and download of books and in less than a minute works, it doesn't matter if the unusual interface works.
The Kindle has a problem, and it's not the technology. It's the economics. But more on that in a bit. You dialed this review up to read about cool technology, and Kindle is definitely that. Kindle is not like any other piece of high tech you've ever used. Unlike music and video players designed to play back new media, Kindle is designed to improve the enjoyment of old media — sort of like a portable 35mm movie projector.
Hit "Continue" to read more.
Kindle Technology
Physically, the Kindle, named for the love of reading Amazon hopes it will arouse amongst tech geeks, is a Macintosh-white colored 8-inch-long wedge with a 6-inch grayscale display and a split QWERTY thumbpad. On the rear are on/off switches for power and wireless, and most of the back is rubberized to improve the grip. Inside Kindle is 200MB, roomy enough to store around 200 e-books. You can add memory via an SD card slot buried beneath the rear cover. Books you buy are also stored on Amazon's servers, so you can download them again in case your Kindle crashes.
The Kindle's screen is reminiscent of an Etch-A-Sketch, black lettering on a light gray background. Because it's not backlit like an LCD, the dull screen is eminently readable in all lighting conditions including direct sunlight but, like a real book, not in the dark. If you want to read in a darkened airplane interior or bedroom, you will need a light.
The Kindle Concept
At Kindle's heart is the wireless connection to Amazon's Whispernet, powered by Sprint's EV-DO network. There's no subscription fee. From the device, you access and shop the Amazon Kindle store and download Kindle books, usually priced at $10 each. At launch there were 90,000 books available, including most of the New York Times Best Sellers list. While that sounds impressive, I couldn't find any of the first half dozen titles I searched for, mainly hefty books that I'd rather not schlep around, including the new biography of Charles Schulz, the coffee-table-sized Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi and several current American history titles. Perhaps Amazon should prioritize what Kindle titles it offers first by size then by popularity.
You can also subscribe to dozens of newspapers, magazines and blogs via RSS feeds and surf the Web, although the experience without color is poor.
Navigation is up/down only via an exclamation point-shaped array. Not having an onscreen cursor is sometimes awkward. For instance, finding a definition of a word using Kindle's built-in dictionary becomes a two-step process: you have to choose the line that contains the word you want defined, which results in short definitions of all the words in that line. You now have to scroll up/down to select the specific word you're looking for. Filling in an onscreen Web field is similarly awkward.
Book 'Em, Danno
Once you grok the Kindle concept, using it is intuitive and fun — but it's not a book, which presents both pros and cons. Unlike a book, you can pick one of six different font sizes (but not different typefaces), but it takes a full second for the next or previous page to materialize onscreen, far slower than a physical page flip. You can easily add (and then edit or delete) bookmarks and notes or "highlight" text by putting a box around lines. When you power on, Kindle returns to the page you left when you turned it off. Pictures look more like Wall Street Journal woodcuts, and it's tough to leaf through a Kindle book to seek out previous references, maps or illustrations.
Kindle's text input and features navigation is archaic. Characters are annoyingly slow to appear once typed. Web and music playback controls are hidden in an oddly-named "Experimental" menu choice. You have to drill down through the Experimental menus just to stop the music from playing.
With the wireless turned on, Amazon says you'll get "a couple of days" of battery life; turn off the wireless and Kindle will operate for a week. Books, of course, never run out of power, never break and are relatively cheap to replace. Which leads us to…
Kindleconomics
Given the price of the Kindle, none of this really matters. The Kindle retails for $400. Each book you download costs $10. Figure that between paperback and hardcovers that you'd spend an average of $20 per real-world book. Let the number of books you read during the lifespan of the Kindle be x.
But with the Kindle, you have to factor in the initial cost.
So, equating the two:
$10x = $400
x = 40
In order for the Kindle to just pay for itself you'd have to buy 40 real books.
I'm a voracious reader. But I don't buy 40 books in a year. Do you? Even if the price drops in half, we're still talking about 20 books a year for a device that you could lose or break and need to replace.
The Kindle is clever but will have only limited usefulness in the real world until the price drops to around $50.
THE ESSENTIALS: AMAZON KINDLEWHO WANTS THIS
Rich frequent travelers who don't have assistants to carry piles of onboard reading material.WHY
All your reading material is centralized in one light and thin package.WHAT'S COOL
An e-book that makes technological sense with intelligent ergonomics and a brilliant book-acquisition system.WHAT'S LAME
It's a book that can run out of power. It's slow to react to typing. Even with 90,000 books available, the online Kindle store selection is thin. And it's waaaaaaay too expensive.FINAL MARK: B–
Kindle represents a huge leap forward in e-book design, but it makes no economic sense, even at a quarter the price.PRICE: $400
By TheAdlerian at 10:16 PM ON 11/30/07
Is the device only going to last for a year? No, it'll last at least for several, so divide your 40 by some larger number.
To back you up though, the question is: can I buy enough books to make it worth the cost. The trouble with the device, and all such devices, is the extremely limited number of books available.
I've been reading books written by Matthew Hughes, because I saw one reviewed on Scifi.com, and greatly enjoying them. I looked for his books on the Kindle site, and nothing (edit: one has been added). I looked for Michael Moorcock, very famous, and there was one from years ago. This isn't a system for people who love to read and follow the latest publications.
If this changes, and I can expect to enjoy the thing for several years, then it will be worth it. I hope they're getting on top of the situation because I believe that device is perfect for avid readers.
Note: I'm glad that you mentioned the interface for the dictionary, as that sounds odd.
By KnoBrainEr at 11:07 PM ON 11/30/07
What I'd like to see for the Kindle is an ability to import pdfs and text files from sources other than the Kindle store. With sources like Project Gutenburg and other similar sites offering free public domain and classic literature, there is no shortage of great things to read. Many first-time and little known authors would love to contribute to the Kindle-verse , just to get their names out there. There may be an extra hurdle to jump to get this material on the Kindle; actually having to hook it to a home computer to synch it. OR!Amazon copuld be smart and charge a small fee to store, convert and wirelessly transmit non-Kindle store bought material to a reduced-in-price Kindle! Just a thought!
By 9toes at 12:41 PM ON 12/01/07
Why would one wish to buy a dedicated e-book reader at all when PDAs can do the same job and so much more? Reader software is available free, you are not limited to just one file type, and most are small enough to fit in a pocket.
By KFrye at 11:36 PM ON 12/01/07
When I first saw this product, I was a bit iffy. I mean, $400? As a college student working in retail, that hardly seems affordable to me. But then I got to the break down of economics that the author so kindly submitted, and honestly, it would pay for itself! I do read over 40 books a year, and knowing how OCD I am about electronic product care, that thing would last me at least 5 years, at which time newer and better technogology will already be out. Now my only conundrum is, buy now or wait until the price drops (if it ever will)?
By cdwf at 6:53 PM ON 12/02/07
Big error - only the latest releases are $9.99. There are thousands of books for quite a bit less than that...did you even check the prices in the Kindle bookstore?
By Mike Caprio at 5:55 PM ON 12/06/07
Why couldn't Amazon have put a little solar panel on the bloody thing? Or made a generic input that a solar panel could have plugged into? We've got them on monochrome display calculators, and even if it couldn't replace a battery system, it could have at least supplemented the power and reduced consumption.
I also agree with the import ability. While one can surf to Gutenberg and Google books, it would be better to have those local to the device when possible.
By ShannonA at 6:09 PM ON 12/06/07
$20 seems like a pretty crazy average price for books unless you buy pretty much all hardcovers and TPBs. I buy mostly mass-markets paperbacks and many of them used. When I buy trade paperbacks and hardcovers, I almost always wait until the price has come down.
I'd say my average price for a book is $7.50.
7.5X = 400 + 10X
-2.5X = 400
X = -160
Apparently, I need to not read 160 books before the Kindle becomes cost efficient.
By Hudspethtb at 7:14 PM ON 12/06/07
Get serious, $20 for a book? You have to buy it for their store too. Any good PDA will run Microsoft Reader or Adobe, with multiple formats and thousands of FREE ebooks. (Note: FREE!) Many new cell phones will also run these programs. I use a Pocket PC, it has color and a touch screen. It will run both MS reader and Adobe, as well as MS Word for pure text files.
This is a no brainer, Best Buy used to carry a E-book reader made by RCA many years ago. It had these same features. This product is like carving on stone compared to what SHOULD be on the market by now.
By Techtao at 9:32 PM ON 12/06/07
I've had my Kindle for a week and I want you to know my Kindle is working for me. Here are the reasons I like it:
I find I'm taking time to read the entire article instead of skimming it.
I like being able to book mark an article and then going back to the section.
I have read a novel and I've read some poetry, these are two things I have not done in a while.
I like being to able to carry the Sunday NYT in a small form factor.
It is easy on the eyes and easy to hold once you figure out the different ways to hold it.
It is really green with all the trees I'm not using up.
By JOe... at 4:00 PM ON 12/07/07
Just a point to the argument that there exists all kinds of free books for reading on PDAs, Cellphones, etc. I don't know about you - but those small screens are tough to handle. Especially if you're reading a large PDF! Also, with PDFs, turn them off and they normally reset to the beginning and you can't change the font size, etc. Thus, like on my iPhone, I have to constantly move the document back and forth as i read lines since a whole line can't be shown (or wrapped). Really annoying...
So, the Kindle to me is a blessing and I'm hoping the number of books being offered expands.
Another dislike - why would I pay a fee to the online newspapers, etc when all those items are already free from a normal browser? I believe Amazon should allow us to download sites to read.
Finally, You can download PDFs to read on it - along with many other formats include Word, JPG, etc. So, you're not fixed to only Kindle based formats.
By kirkdwebber at 11:41 PM ON 12/07/07
I don't understand why everyone's excited about this latest "must-have" technology. A couple years ago, I "discovered" reading books on my Palm, which I always carry with me. There are numerous websites that offer books, including some free (like the Goethe website). The only downside of this is that many of the books cost about the same as they do for the hardback. However, with the Palm, there are numerous readers (free), a lit screen that you can use in the dark, and I can carry dozens of books in highly readable text in my pocket. Why the heck would I want to spend $400 for something that's as big as a regular book? I don't get it.
By Sage at 2:18 AM ON 12/22/07
What I don't understand is why should I pay the same price for this gizmo as I would for a really incredible Gaming System like the PS3 or Xbox360???
Comparing the technology of the two it seems that much more time, work, creativity, manpower and money went into creating those entertainment systems than this little ebook reader. Yet they cost the same? To me that's not really fair to the consumer. And I'll bet the gaming systems would physically last longer as well. And Sony and MS have to constantly break new ground with the technology and keep coming up with new games and making people happy. Amazon just has to convert books into this one format!
It just seems like Amazon has over-valued this thing. So that's my complaint with this, am I wrong?
By lmas at 1:15 AM ON 12/31/07
I think the Kindle would be perfect for the college student if amazon would carry all the required reading material. this would save time, backs and lots of trees.
By Bluemirage at 4:20 AM ON 12/31/07
Well lets put it this way, if you love to read then this is the device for you. This one device can access over 90,000 books as well as access to the kindle store at amazon. This device is perfect for college students not only dose it have the encyclopedia but you can go to wikipedia.org. I really love this device and it would help me alot through school, the only issue is that the price is pretty high.
By NightShade_PA at 8:50 PM ON 02/07/08
Someone might want to check the math on "equating the two"
By bluesky at 4:27 PM ON 02/26/08
A "plastic book"--blah! There is nothing like the experience of a real book.
Besides, in general consumers are being taken advantage of by recording/publishing companies selling pure content (no medium) for extreme profit that cannot even be legally shared/loaned/given to others. No thanks.
By moppysu at 6:37 PM ON 04/29/08
I know I will drop it dozing in a lounge chair, rollover it after reading myself to sleep, maybe even drop it in the tub! I will buy it as soon as a insurance plan is available similar to what my cell phone company offers. An extender warranty that will allow upgrades for future models would be great too!
By doctorwinters at 10:26 AM ON 06/12/08
I decided yes, but I had another variable in the formula....I have hundreds of PDFs and DRM free Mobipocket books that I can put on the kindle and read much easier with it than on my computer. Given that it increases access to the library I already have, it makes it more economical. Though I still think a $200.00 price point would be much more reasonable......
By EnOne at 3:26 PM ON 09/08/08
If I could upload my own pdf, doc, txt or odf files I'd pick one up. As it is the DRM that is required to use this I'll wait for a eInk reader that is more open.
By lindapat at 9:15 AM ON 10/09/08
To ENONE - you can upload your own txt files. Use the USB cable (included) and transfer the files from your computer for free. There are others who use the free mobi converter for pdf files. Once you do that, you can copy those for free too. The Kindle shows up as another drive when you connect it via USB.
By Anonymous at 3:27 PM ON 04/27/09
I have an Apple computer, Mac 0s10. Can I use the Kindle reader and download the books I want? Thanks Ann
By mei at 2:06 AM ON 11/16/09
you can email and import like PDFs and texts and documents I think. check on the website it tells you everything. you can use the usb to put all your kindle stuff onto your phone, computer and iphone and stuff. please research a little harder before you write such article
By burnett66 at 12:48 AM ON 11/20/09
Can the font size be increased for those with poor vision?
on your cellphone!
Text DVICE to 72434
editor@dvice.com
burnett66:
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