Anyone have a Kindle? Need some opinions

[HardcoreZ28]

I'm going to buy my wife a Kindle for Christmas this year and have no clue which one to get her. She will most likely only use it for reading books. She commutes almost 4 hours a day and blows through books like crazy....costing us a pretty penny and taking up lots of space in our house haha.

I see they have the original Kindle, a Kindle Touch, the new Kindle Fire, and Kindles with keyboards. What are the pro's and con's? Like I said she'll mostly be reading books so probably doesn't need one that allows you to download apps or anything like that. Do any or all of them allow you to get things like magazines and the newspaper?? Which ones are the most compact or durable?

[qwikz28]

I have the Kindle Keyboard which I got before the Fire, touch, or the new regular kindle came out: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1323306722&sr=8-5

They make a dizzying amount of Kindles so I'll do my best to break it down. The Keyboards are essentially a redesign of the original. They come in wifi or 3g (3G being useful if she likes to download on the go, but at a premium) and with or without advertisements (the ads cut down on price, and only show up on the main menu if I'm not mistaken. The keyboard model is good if she likes to annotate her books and from what I've read has a marginally better screen than the touch.

Before I continue, I should note that the advantage of a non-color Kindle is that it it is like paper in that it is not backlit and doesn't hurt the eyes for prolongued use. I would never read a book on an ipad or a computer screen or a kindle fire. It simply hurts; but it is the only option if her commute involves low-light situations.

The newer kindles are more compact than the keyboard one, so that is definitely a huge advantage. If she is the type that hates touchscreens, then the touch will likely be out of the question as she will be needing to swipe to change pages and stuff like that. But it definitely makes life easier than navigating around with arrow keys, a menu button, and a select button. It can get frustrating but you really don't have to use the menu screen often once the book is open.

The Fire is nice, my buddy got one for his mother and says it isn't what you expect it to be. I actually just got back from Staples and started playing with it. It's heavy, way heavier than my kindle. Screen is too small to use as an iPad type of device, and the backlight makes it not a good dedicated e-reader. Useless if you ask me.

If I'm not mistaken, all Kindles can read books, and newspapers. As for magazines, I know the Fire can, but I'm not sure about the regular ones. The e-ink screen will likely be less than ideal anyway.

All in all, I love my E-ink reader. I will likely replace mine if it ever breaks with a non-touch regular Kindle. I have only used the kindle's keyboard once for buying a book straight from teh Kindle, but I could have easily just hopped on my computer and it would have been delivered wirelessly to my device in less than a minute. I wouldn't get the touch screen though because I like the dedicated page turn buttons.

Another thing to consider: if you get the Kindle, you have to buy kindle format books, or PDFs. Nooks can utilize the standard e-book format I believe which would allow her to rent ebooks from a library. I know my library in my town now offers that option.

Let me know if I missed anything or if you have other questions.

[qwikz28]

Oh I forgot some stuff.

My kindle battery is amazing. I think I charge it once a month when I use it regularly (less during the school year). I'm sure the Fire will have less battery life.

Also, a cool feature is that my kindle came pre-loaded with a dictionary that she can highlight a word and the definition will pop up in a bubble. Very clever.

Also, old books are out of copyright, which is great if she reads old literature.

[JW]

I got the gf a Fire for her Bday. She loves it and reads books on it all the time. I have snagged it a few times to play with surfing the web too. Its pretty cool little gadget, I plan on downloading some movies and trying them out.

JW :D

[BrandonDrecksage]

I have the kindle with keyboard before they came out with the new 3 models. best purchase ever for reading books. I got the 3g one with ads, i think it cost 140 at the time, ads only come on when you turn the kindle off or when your in the main menu at the very bottom. very unobtrusive and worth the 50 dollar savings.

If your wife is just reading, i'd go with the cheapest one cause she probably wont need the keyboard, on the flip side, without the key board i dont know how annoying it would be to search the kindle store...food for thought. battery life is really good too, i read every night for 30 to 60 minutes and i charge mine every 2 or 3 weeks.

[Blackbirdws6]

My wife has the regular kindle and loves it. Books can cost a little more but many are cheaper or sometimes free. Battery life is awesome and she takes it everywhere.

[qwikz28]

I have the kindle with keyboard before they came out with the new 3 models. best purchase ever for reading books. I got the 3g one with ads, i think it cost 140 at the time, ads only come on when you turn the kindle off or when your in the main menu at the very bottom. very unobtrusive and worth the 50 dollar savings.

If your wife is just reading, i'd go with the cheapest one cause she probably wont need the keyboard, on the flip side, without the key board i dont know how annoying it would be to search the kindle store...food for thought. battery life is really good too, i read every night for 30 to 60 minutes and i charge mine every 2 or 3 weeks.

Is the 3G a one time fee, or is there a monthly charge associated with it?

[Tru2Chevy]

Just to throw in a twist, I'll add that my siblings and I bought my mom a Nook color for her birthday last spring, and she reads with it for a few hours at a time with no issues. As Jake pointed out, it is nice that the nook supports nook books, pdfs, and standard ebook format. She often rents books from the county library.

If you don't think she would be interested in any of the "tablet" features, then I would suggest the basic nook.

- Justin

[Jersey Mike]

Girlfriend's mother just got one & is in love with it; Won't let the damn thing go. Only "gripe" she mentioned was the lack of backlight, but it hasn't slowed her down one bit :lol:

She calls it the greatest gift she's ever received.

[qwikz28]

Girlfriend's mother just got one & is in love with it; Won't let the damn thing go. Only "gripe" she mentioned was the lack of backlight, but it hasn't slowed her down one bit :lol:

She calls it the greatest gift she's ever received.

Funny, I got my dad the DX and he said the same thing on both accounts.

Paul- if you head over to a Staples, you can see all teh Kindles and play with them to see which one you like best.

[JW]

3G is free no monthly fee.

JW :D

[BrandonDrecksage]

Is the 3G a one time fee, or is there a monthly charge associated with it?

no fee, its built into the cost of buying the kindle i would guess. only thing i have to spend money on is buying the books.

[HardcoreZ28]

Funny, I got my dad the DX and he said the same thing on both accounts.

Paul- if you head over to a Staples, you can see all teh Kindles and play with them to see which one you like best.


Nice....I have a Staples 5 minutes away so I'll sneak over there one day next week while she's at work.