Kindle Paperwhite Review + Vlog

In the vlog, I compare the Kindle Keyboard and Kindle Touch to the Kindle Paperwhite.

Here are some more detailed thoughts on what I like and don’t like about the Kindle Paperwhite.

Light – When I first got the Paperwhite, I felt like the light kind of glared at me.  I was squinting while reading and my eyes were getting tired easily.  I realized after a few days it was because I was holding it inches from my face.  I’m so used to having a dim light on my Kindle Keyboard from my stupid clip-on light that I didn’t realize I was doing that.  I’ve gotten more comfortable reading at night by holding it further away and increasing the font a little if I need to.

That being said, I’m not the biggest fan of the way the screen is lit.  I don’t like the “blue” tint to it.  It’s like those car headlights that are blue instead of yellow.  They aren’t brighter than other headlights, but they are really annoying to the eyes for some reason.  And even if they say on Amazon that it’s “front-lit,” it still feels like a back-lit screen that isn’t much different from the 10 other screens I look at every day.  I love the e-ink technology, and the built-in light makes it not look like e-ink.  However, when I turn the light completely off, it looks just like my other Kindle screens.

I do love that you can change the light brightness.  The Kindle says to use the highest light setting in bright light, but I actually turn the light off during the day and use a low setting at night.  I think the light turned off during the day makes it look more like a book.

Navigation – I like the navigation much better than the Kindle Touch. Now, all the menus and options are at the top.  I usually hate touch screens, but I like the one on the Paperwhite.  It’s not as sensitive as the Kindle Touch and it actually does what I want it to.  The only thing that bugs me about the navigation is that turning the Wi-Fi off is no longer easy – it’s buried in a bunch of navigation and a little hard to find.  I tend to leave it on all the time now, which I didn’t do on my other Kindles, but the battery life doesn’t seem to be as affected as much as it would have been on say my Kindle Keyboard.  The covers on the home page instead of a long list is very nice to look at and easier to use.

Navigation Tip – I read the whole user’s guide and here’s the only tip I learned: Press the 1/15 number on the bottom of the homescreen to go to a specific page.   That way if you want to go to the last page of books on your Kindle, you don’t have to swipe 15 times.

Ads – The first thing I did when I set up my Paperwhite was to turn off the recommendations *cough* ads *cough* that were taking up half the homescreen. (In case you want to know how – Menu>Settings>Device Options>Personalize Your Kindle>Recommended Content>Off.) At first I got the ad version that is $20 cheaper.  I was highly annoyed by it after one day and ended up returning it.  With the cool cover waking feature, I found it completely stupid that you still had to slide your finger across the screen to remove the wallpaper ad.  Uh, what is the point of the cover wake feature if I can’t go straight back to my book?   If you aren’t going to get the cover, then the ad version is probably fine (if you won’t get annoyed that you have to push power and then swipe the screen just to get to your book.)  My favorite thing by far about the Paperwhite is the cover.  I adore being able to just close my Kindle cover at night and not have to remember when I’m half asleep to push the power button.  Same thing with just opening the cover and going right back to where I was in my book.

Cover –  The Paperwhite is light and compact even with the cover.  It’s not easy to get it into the cover, so once it goes in, I’m not going to bother taking it out unless I really need to.  The leather is textured, pretty and feels nice to hold.  The cover makes it so I can just toss it in my purse and take it everywhere with me without worrying it will get scratched.

New Features I Like – There are some new features I like and some that I don’t.  I like that you can now choose the publisher’s font if you want (and if the book makes it available).  I also like that it tells you how fast you read.  This information is stored on the individual Kindle and not on a server of any kind (when I repurchased the non-ad Kindle Paperwhite, it had to start over figuring out my reading speed). Gosh I read slow.  I find myself checking how long I have until the end of a chapter before closing my Kindle where before I used to just stop anywhere.  I think it will help me read a little more and a little faster.

New Features I Don’t Like – I wish there was a home button.  It took some getting used to that there are no buttons on this thing. I don’t like shopping in the store on the Kindle.  It doesn’t show prices on any navigation page – you have to select the book first.  Because of that, I almost always buy ebooks from my laptop.  I prefer buttons to turn the pages rather than tapping the screen. I find myself accidentally going a page forward or back sometimes (especially if I fall asleep while reading and leave my thumb on the screen by accident…yeah, I’ve done that a few times).  That being said, the touch screen is a lot easier to use for everything else like highlighting, word prediction when typing notes, and using the dictionary.  Maybe the next Kindle will have some way to combine the button page turns and the touch screens….I’m probably the only person that would want that, but hey I can dream. :)

Overall, the built-in light is not my favorite but I’ve gotten used to it, the navigation is easy to use, and the cover wake feature is my favorite thing about the new Kindle. I definitely think it’s worth getting.