We are book lovers and although there is nothing like sitting down with an actual book, the convenience of carrying your entire collection and also having access to the largest bookstore at a click – no matter where you are makes a e-book reader a must have for any book-lover.
The Best E-book Reader
1. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite
The all new 10th Gen Kindle Paperwhite is the best reader for those looking to read ebooks. It’s e-ink display is miles ahead of any tablet for long hours of reading. It improves upon the previous generation Kindly and makes it and even better pick.
The Kindle Paperwhite is light and small, with a lit screen that allows you to read in very less lighting. Amazon also offers the widest selection of books at good prices. The Kindle Paperwhite is light, measuring 6.6 inches tall, 4.6 inches wide, and 0.36 inch deep, weighing only 205 grams. The Kindle paper white comes with a High-resolution display with 300 ppi that almost reads like real paper. It is superior to reading on real paper – but only in dim light where the device really shines in providing a strain free reading experience.
The new Kindle is now IPX8 rated waterproof, so you’re free to read and relax at the beach, by the pool, or in the bath. We see this as more of an functional upgrade and it makes the Kindle more durable and protected from accidental spills.
Amazon has created its own typeface, called Bookerly which is pleasant and provides a good reading experience. The touch screen interface is different from that of a smart phone mainly due to the e-ink display. There is a perceivable lag while turning pages, but its something that one gets used to easily. A tap on the centre or right of the screen will turn to the next page, , while a tap to the far left edge will turn it back one. A tap near the top will let you to quickly change the brightness, search for something in the book, jump to a specific chapter, or change the font, text size, margins and line spacing.
The use of e-ink gives another benefit of a large battery life and you’ll find yourself charging the device once a week for an average of an hour of reading daily.
The new and updated Kindle comes with 8GB of storage for your digital library . The Formats supported : mobi, pdf, doc and files can be transferred on to the kindly by mailing it to your kindle account or by connecting it with a USB cable and transferring from your PC or Mac. Here is a guide on how to do this https://www.amazon.in/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201733700
Kindles don’t support EPUB, an open-standard format for unprotected ebooks that’s common for public-domain and other freely available books, but this is a pretty easy limitation to get around. Calibre is free software for Windows, OS X, and Linux that allows you to reformat EPUB files into the proprietary format that Kindles can read. Here is an article by Digital Trends on how to do that.
Other benefits :
Built in dictionary – Probably the most useful of all features is the built-in dictionary .you can just long press it to lookup definitions, characters, settings from a built in dictionary or if you are online, check wikipedia or get a translation of the highlighted word.
X-ray and Goodreads integration help you build your vocabulary, learn about characters and connect with like-minded readers on Goodreads without leaving the page
Read across devices – Purchased Kindle books can be read on Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, BlackBerry, Mac or PC using the Kindle reading apps. This also synchronises your last page location, bookmarks and annotations across all your devices so you can pick up exactly where you left off reading.
Should I Get the wifi or 3g version of the Kindle ?
The Kindle 3g version costs Rs.3000 more than the wifi version. Kindle Paperwhite is a great choice if you already have a high-speed internet connection and wireless router set up in your home. If you do not have Wi-Fi set up at home, Kindle Paperwhite 3G may be a better option – 3G connectivity lets you download books anytime, anywhere. Mind you that you do not have to pay for the 3g service and its free worldwide wherever there is connectivity.
We think since most people have smartphones, you can just create a hotspot and tether the Kindle to the phones wifi and use it. Hence we recommend the Wifi version over the 3g version.
The best Kindle case in India ?
1. Kindle Paperwhite Premium Leather Amazon Cover (10th Gen), Rustic Tan
A magnetic cover closes the Kindle Paperwhite without any hinges or straps.The cover also automatically puts your Kindle Paperwhite to sleep when it is closed and wakes your device upon opening making it so easy to jump back into your latest book. All the buttons and USB charging port are accessible with the cover on.
Its strong , made with high-quality leather that is luxurious to the touch, looks and feels premium and provides good protection. The perfect accessory for the Paperwhite.
2. All-New Kindle Paperwhite Water-Safe Fabric Amazon Cover (10th Gen), Black
Its strong , fits like a glove, looks and feels premium and provides good protection.
3. A budget but reliable purchase
Origami Cover for All New Kindle Paperwhite (10th gen)
Should I get the basic Kindle ?
The basic Kindle has now been upgraded to the All-New Kindle (10th Gen), 6″ Display which now has a Built-in Light. It is available at little more than half the price of the Paperwhite. The built-in light makes this a temptation. However the biggest problem with the basic Kinlde is its 167 ppi resolution, that makes the text less crisper than on the 300 ppi Paperwhite.
What about the Kindle OASIS?
Kindle Oasis
The latest and most premium Kindle ever made is the Kindle Oasis. It has the same functionality as the other models but in an exquisite design. It has a asymmetric metallic wedge design for comfortable one-handed use – the thicker part is weighted so you barely feel the weight of the device when you use it.
Th oasis has larger 7 inch touch screen which makes it a little bigger than the Paperwhite. It is an incredible 3.4mm at its lowest point, with the page turn buttons on the handgrip. The Kindle Oasis features a high-resolution 300 ppi display for crisp text, which reads similar to the Kindle Paperwhite. It’s the same resolution as the Paperwhite, but it features a redesigned front light with 60 percent more LEDs, making it the brightest Kindle display yet.
All in all, there isn’t much difference to warrant the higher price and hence we don’t recommend the Kinlde Oasis.
The alternatives – None
1. Kobo – Kobo Glo is the only model we could find online in India. This is a very old model from 2013. One of the newer Kobo models, the Aura, Aura One or Glo HD were available when we last checked.
2. Nook – from Barnes & Noble is not officially available in India. It also doesn’t have the kind of library available to Kindles.
Why should I buy a ebook- reader?
A E-book reader is a device that lets you read books bought on the ebook store and also some formats of downloaded files. Its gives you the ease of buying books at a click. It also lets you store thousands of books with you and thus saves you space from storing all the books (and losing them :)) Kindle Paperwhite is purposely designed as a dedicated E-reader and lets you reading without interruptions such as e-mail alerts or push notifications from social networks or messages.
Downsides.
1. DRM – Ebooks are typically DRM protected – which means a kindle book can only be read on a Amazon device. You cannot export them and read on any other device. This means you are locked into this system and you will have to keep buying new kindles in the future to access and read your purchased books.
DRM for ebooks also raises questions of ownership. Even if you buy a book, you do not technically own it. As compared to a regular book, which you can share with your friends you cannot do the same with an ebook that you have purchased. Also, in the event of Kindle discontinuing their services in the future, all your purchased books may become unavailable. Further many have raised questions as to what happens to your kindle books incase you pass away. Unlike regular books which many families have inherited, you will just lose access to all you Kindle Books unless maybe your inherited uses your user account and password Its all very unclear and a grey area.. Amazon states that digital content for the Kindle is “licensed, not sold, to you by the Content Provider.” The agreement further stipulates that “you may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense, or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party.”
Note – you can get DRM free books from Project Gutenberg , ORbooks, Smashwords, Open Library
2. Not suitable for Magazines and Comics – The e-ink display as you may have noticed is Black and White and not at all suitable for consuming color editions like magazines or comics or even websites.
Why shouldn’t I read on a Mobile or a Tablet ?
Amazon does give you apps to access kindle on mobiles, tablets and laptops. This is great to read a book if and when you are without your kindle. A purchased book is synchronised and you ca continue reading where you left off on another device. For regular reading, however, we think the Paperwhite is a better option because of the e-ink display that is more paperlike and causes less eyestrain . It also gives you significantly longer battery life. Unlike reflective tablet and smartphone screens, tablets, there is no screen glare, even in bright sunlight. More importantly the Kindle lets you reading without interruptions such as e-mail alerts or push notifications from social networks or messages.
Team BeforeIbuy is a team of writers and editors who are passionate about their work. We are a bunch of geeks, nerds and modern day detectives who love getting to the root of things. We also work with experienced writers, researchers and engineers who give us the technical guidance on products before we come up with our recommendations. Beforeibuy is a list of the best things to buy for those who do not wish to spend hours and days figuring out what to buy. Our mission is to make buying easy. We have one expert article with links to the best products for each category that you can readily refer before you buy anything. We are unbiased, ethical and open in our decision process. We are open to feedback from all of you since we do see it as community effort.
