Amazon Kindle Touch Review
I have long wanted to buy an e-book. There are several reasons and it makes no sense to list them now, they are known to all owners of electronic books. It should have been just an e-book (and not a tablet, for example) - with an e-ink display. Eye care and all that.
I compared several models, I liked the image quality on the Amazon Kindle 3 screen the most, but I was embarrassed by the presence of an almost useless physical QWERTY keyboard that increased the size of the device. So when Amazon released the Kindle Touch, I decided that, as they say, “must be taken.”
I will also omit the details of the order on the Amazon website in the USA - the order was not made by me. Why in the States, and not to buy immediately here in Ukraine? If only because the new Kindle Touch With Special Offers , the backlit cover for it and the network charger cost me 1550 hryvnias (about $ 190) - while in Ukrainian online stores the price is ONLY for this model, without accessories, starts from 1200 hryvnia (about 150 dollars). Saving, maybe, and not God knows what, but in any case, this cover in Ukraine is not for sale, so ordered from the States.
The order was made on November 29th. Amazon set the date for sending the book on December 5, but then (as usual) something changed, the package was sent earlier, and already on December 11 the box was on my desk.
')
The box is made of brown packaging board, quite thick. The box is strong, it is clear that the main goal with which it is made is to deliver the goods to the buyer, and not to impress him.
The box is opened by tearing off the perforated strip in the upper (beveled) part. The bundle is very “Spartan” - the book itself, a USB-cord for recharging and transferring books from a computer and a piece of cardboard that the language doesn’t turn to be called an “instruction”. On this piece of cardboard, individual copyrights are indicated, as well as url, by which the user can find all the information of interest to him, instructions, consultations on problems, etc.
By the way, the book inside the box is secured with a secure plastic retainer so that even with not very neat transportation nothing happens to it.
The book has a 6 "display E Ink Pearl, which the company itself describes on the site as" Most advanced E-multi-touch display, optimized with proprietary waveform and font technology, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level grayscale ", which loosely translated means “very, very good.” The quality of the image is really high:
In his hand, the book is good, does not slip. And the build quality itself is at a very high level - no creaking of body parts, no gap curves, all parts fit tightly, reliably and evenly to each other.
The controls in this model, in fact, boil down to three - the actual touch screen, the screen lock button (also the on / off button) located on the bottom of the case and the Home button at the bottom of the screen:
Next to the lock button is a headphone jack and a USB connector (a specific form, a regular mini-USB connector will not work). Also on the rear panel are the speaker slots. As for the speakers, headphone jack, and generally sound reproduction, I will not say anything, because I consider the function of sound reproduction, if not superfluous, then at least strange for a book. But this is my personal opinion, I will leave it with me.
In standby mode, screensaver images are displayed (in random order). Detailing is very good, they allow you to fully appreciate the quality of the display:
Immediately after unlocking the screen, we get to the list of books, which you can scroll through and select the desired book. The Menu button in the upper right corner of the screen provides access to the main options:
You can turn on / off Wi-Fi, buy something in the Amazon store, view the books you read, create a new collection of books (in fact, group similar books), climb into the settings, or access experimental features.
The settings menu offers to register the device (to be able to buy from the online store Amazon, get 5 GB of cloud storage for your books, activate the Sent-to-Kindle option, online conversion and some other “buns”), choose a Wi-Fi network, configure additional parameters (time, password setting), management of reading options (screen refresh rate, etc.), and also provides access to experimental functions.
Experimental functions Amazon understands a web browser, mp-3 player and the text-to-speech function. The latter is useless in the case of Russian-language texts, the mp-3 player in the book is not interesting for me personally, but they managed to make the browser very, very entertaining. It is called Amazon Silk and the low clock speeds of the embedded processor are compensated for by the Amazon servers optimizing the content sites for this device. In fact, Opera used to use a similar technology, only it served to optimize sites for slow Internet connections.
So, the browser:
The first page has bookmarks with links to the most popular resources. Any of them opens really quickly and without visible difficulties.
Google:
Gmail Inbox:
Can even go on Facebook:
The video, of course, does not reproduce, but check the mail or bored to read the tape of friends is quite possible.
Well, about the direct, immediate duties of the e-book - to be a book. The text, as I wrote above, is displayed very clearly, efficiently, the pages are scrolling quickly and without artifacts.
When displaying text on the screen by touching the top of the screen, a menu appears in which you can adjust the font size, format and text display:
Although the font size can be changed and the two-finger zoom, this method seems to me personally more vivid and convenient. PDF is also displayed quite decently (although on the website the manufacturer also stipulates that PDF support is an experimental feature so far).
Very cool feature - Send-to-Kindle. It means that you have the opportunity to send books, articles and any other documents to your device without wires and without any manipulations on the device itself. When registering a device on Amazon, you receive an a-mail address like your_name@kindle.com - this is the address to which you want to send everything you want with your book. Any book or text in any format that can be used for online conversion (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .htm, .html, .txt, including those packaged in zip, x-zip archives), .jpg images, .gif, .bmp, .png. Well, PDF, of course. Just send an empty letter to this address, in which you attach these files, turn on Wi-Fi on your device - and that's it, in a few minutes your books are automatically downloaded to Kindle.
From my point of view, this book has only two minuses. The first is still the screen lock button. In this model, it is at the bottom and made quite tight, while it has a very small move. That is, physically, by tactile sensations, it is impossible to understand whether you pressed the button or not. It is necessary either to look at the special LED located next to the mentioned button, or to look at the screen for a couple of seconds waiting for themiracle of the screensaver. But this minus is completely insignificant and does not affect the overall usability. And the second minus is the absence of a Cyrillic on-screen keyboard, which makes it impossible to search for Russian-language text, notes in Russian, etc. However, I think the last flaw will soon be fixed by enthusiasts.
Well, yes, my book was called "With Special Offers", which meant advertising. The advertisements did appear on the second day of use, but the elementary googling and 5 minutes of business made it impossible to get rid of it without any difficulties.
Characteristics from the official site:
Display : Amazon's 6 "multi-touch display, optimized with proprietary waveform and 600x800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level grayscale.
Size (in inches): 6.8 "x 4.7" x 0.40 "(172 mm x 120 mm x 10.1 mm)
Weight : 7.5 ounces (213 grams)
System Requirements : None, because it’s wireless.
On-device Storage : Up to 3,000 books or 4 GB internal (approximately 3 GB available for user content).
Cloud Storage : Free Amazon Storage
Battery life time of daily reading time. Keep it up for 6 weeks. Battery life, online shopping, web browsing, and downloading content.
Charge Time : USB 2.0 cable. US power adapter sold separately.
Wi-Fi Connectivity : Wi-Fi Connectivity : Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi networks; doesn’t connect to secured networks using 802.1X authentication methods; Wi-Fi networks does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer).
USB Port : USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
Audio : 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, rear mounted speakers
Content Formats Supported : Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.
Documentation : Quick Start Guide (included in box); Kindle User's Guide (pre-installed on device). Additional information available online.
Warranty and Service 1-year limited warranty and service included. Optional 2-year Protection Plan available for US customers sold separately. Use of Kindle is subject to the terms found here.
Kindle wireless e-reader, USB 2.0 cable, Quick Start Guide. Power adapter sold separately.
UPD :
Here is described the technology of jailbreaking the device, made by a Chinesebrother according to the mind of a friend. It must be assumed that in the near future we should expect support for additional formats, and new languages ​​in the menu, and many custom firmware. Cheers-cheers-cheers!
UPD 2 :
I made a jailbreak, added screen rotation to landscape mode (it is much more convenient to view large pdf-files). Also added the ability to select a keyboard (there is no Cyrillic yet, unfortunately) and a change of language in the menu (but the menu in Russian already exists). To be honest, I added the Russian language to the menu exclusively as an experiment - I used a couple of days and switched back to English. But solely because of the habit, there are no complaints to the most Russian-language menu - everything is clear, competently, carefully, no traces of machine translation, incomprehensible abbreviations creeping out of the text buttons, “half-translated” items in the menu and other attributes of curved translations. So if someone vital Russian language in the menu - contact, share the experience. Well, or after the appearance of the Cyrillic keyboard, I will do a separate topic about jailbreak and translation.
I compared several models, I liked the image quality on the Amazon Kindle 3 screen the most, but I was embarrassed by the presence of an almost useless physical QWERTY keyboard that increased the size of the device. So when Amazon released the Kindle Touch, I decided that, as they say, “must be taken.”
I will also omit the details of the order on the Amazon website in the USA - the order was not made by me. Why in the States, and not to buy immediately here in Ukraine? If only because the new Kindle Touch With Special Offers , the backlit cover for it and the network charger cost me 1550 hryvnias (about $ 190) - while in Ukrainian online stores the price is ONLY for this model, without accessories, starts from 1200 hryvnia (about 150 dollars). Saving, maybe, and not God knows what, but in any case, this cover in Ukraine is not for sale, so ordered from the States.
The order was made on November 29th. Amazon set the date for sending the book on December 5, but then (as usual) something changed, the package was sent earlier, and already on December 11 the box was on my desk.
')
The box is made of brown packaging board, quite thick. The box is strong, it is clear that the main goal with which it is made is to deliver the goods to the buyer, and not to impress him.
The box is opened by tearing off the perforated strip in the upper (beveled) part. The bundle is very “Spartan” - the book itself, a USB-cord for recharging and transferring books from a computer and a piece of cardboard that the language doesn’t turn to be called an “instruction”. On this piece of cardboard, individual copyrights are indicated, as well as url, by which the user can find all the information of interest to him, instructions, consultations on problems, etc.
By the way, the book inside the box is secured with a secure plastic retainer so that even with not very neat transportation nothing happens to it.
The book has a 6 "display E Ink Pearl, which the company itself describes on the site as" Most advanced E-multi-touch display, optimized with proprietary waveform and font technology, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level grayscale ", which loosely translated means “very, very good.” The quality of the image is really high:
In his hand, the book is good, does not slip. And the build quality itself is at a very high level - no creaking of body parts, no gap curves, all parts fit tightly, reliably and evenly to each other.
The controls in this model, in fact, boil down to three - the actual touch screen, the screen lock button (also the on / off button) located on the bottom of the case and the Home button at the bottom of the screen:
Next to the lock button is a headphone jack and a USB connector (a specific form, a regular mini-USB connector will not work). Also on the rear panel are the speaker slots. As for the speakers, headphone jack, and generally sound reproduction, I will not say anything, because I consider the function of sound reproduction, if not superfluous, then at least strange for a book. But this is my personal opinion, I will leave it with me.
In standby mode, screensaver images are displayed (in random order). Detailing is very good, they allow you to fully appreciate the quality of the display:
Immediately after unlocking the screen, we get to the list of books, which you can scroll through and select the desired book. The Menu button in the upper right corner of the screen provides access to the main options:
You can turn on / off Wi-Fi, buy something in the Amazon store, view the books you read, create a new collection of books (in fact, group similar books), climb into the settings, or access experimental features.
The settings menu offers to register the device (to be able to buy from the online store Amazon, get 5 GB of cloud storage for your books, activate the Sent-to-Kindle option, online conversion and some other “buns”), choose a Wi-Fi network, configure additional parameters (time, password setting), management of reading options (screen refresh rate, etc.), and also provides access to experimental functions.
Experimental functions Amazon understands a web browser, mp-3 player and the text-to-speech function. The latter is useless in the case of Russian-language texts, the mp-3 player in the book is not interesting for me personally, but they managed to make the browser very, very entertaining. It is called Amazon Silk and the low clock speeds of the embedded processor are compensated for by the Amazon servers optimizing the content sites for this device. In fact, Opera used to use a similar technology, only it served to optimize sites for slow Internet connections.
So, the browser:
The first page has bookmarks with links to the most popular resources. Any of them opens really quickly and without visible difficulties.
Google:
Gmail Inbox:
Can even go on Facebook:
The video, of course, does not reproduce, but check the mail or bored to read the tape of friends is quite possible.
Well, about the direct, immediate duties of the e-book - to be a book. The text, as I wrote above, is displayed very clearly, efficiently, the pages are scrolling quickly and without artifacts.
When displaying text on the screen by touching the top of the screen, a menu appears in which you can adjust the font size, format and text display:
Although the font size can be changed and the two-finger zoom, this method seems to me personally more vivid and convenient. PDF is also displayed quite decently (although on the website the manufacturer also stipulates that PDF support is an experimental feature so far).
Very cool feature - Send-to-Kindle. It means that you have the opportunity to send books, articles and any other documents to your device without wires and without any manipulations on the device itself. When registering a device on Amazon, you receive an a-mail address like your_name@kindle.com - this is the address to which you want to send everything you want with your book. Any book or text in any format that can be used for online conversion (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .htm, .html, .txt, including those packaged in zip, x-zip archives), .jpg images, .gif, .bmp, .png. Well, PDF, of course. Just send an empty letter to this address, in which you attach these files, turn on Wi-Fi on your device - and that's it, in a few minutes your books are automatically downloaded to Kindle.
From my point of view, this book has only two minuses. The first is still the screen lock button. In this model, it is at the bottom and made quite tight, while it has a very small move. That is, physically, by tactile sensations, it is impossible to understand whether you pressed the button or not. It is necessary either to look at the special LED located next to the mentioned button, or to look at the screen for a couple of seconds waiting for the
Well, yes, my book was called "With Special Offers", which meant advertising. The advertisements did appear on the second day of use, but the elementary googling and 5 minutes of business made it impossible to get rid of it without any difficulties.
Characteristics from the official site:
Display : Amazon's 6 "multi-touch display, optimized with proprietary waveform and 600x800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level grayscale.
Size (in inches): 6.8 "x 4.7" x 0.40 "(172 mm x 120 mm x 10.1 mm)
Weight : 7.5 ounces (213 grams)
System Requirements : None, because it’s wireless.
On-device Storage : Up to 3,000 books or 4 GB internal (approximately 3 GB available for user content).
Cloud Storage : Free Amazon Storage
Battery life time of daily reading time. Keep it up for 6 weeks. Battery life, online shopping, web browsing, and downloading content.
Charge Time : USB 2.0 cable. US power adapter sold separately.
Wi-Fi Connectivity : Wi-Fi Connectivity : Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi networks; doesn’t connect to secured networks using 802.1X authentication methods; Wi-Fi networks does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer).
USB Port : USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
Audio : 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, rear mounted speakers
Content Formats Supported : Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion.
Documentation : Quick Start Guide (included in box); Kindle User's Guide (pre-installed on device). Additional information available online.
Warranty and Service 1-year limited warranty and service included. Optional 2-year Protection Plan available for US customers sold separately. Use of Kindle is subject to the terms found here.
Kindle wireless e-reader, USB 2.0 cable, Quick Start Guide. Power adapter sold separately.
UPD :
Here is described the technology of jailbreaking the device, made by a Chinese
UPD 2 :
I made a jailbreak, added screen rotation to landscape mode (it is much more convenient to view large pdf-files). Also added the ability to select a keyboard (there is no Cyrillic yet, unfortunately) and a change of language in the menu (but the menu in Russian already exists). To be honest, I added the Russian language to the menu exclusively as an experiment - I used a couple of days and switched back to English. But solely because of the habit, there are no complaints to the most Russian-language menu - everything is clear, competently, carefully, no traces of machine translation, incomprehensible abbreviations creeping out of the text buttons, “half-translated” items in the menu and other attributes of curved translations. So if someone vital Russian language in the menu - contact, share the experience. Well, or after the appearance of the Cyrillic keyboard, I will do a separate topic about jailbreak and translation.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/134938/
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