Amazon Kindle Hands-on Review – TShirt Giveaway

I attended the “Digital Conference” from Amazon India or rather as they liked to call themselves as  “Amazon Chennai” in Taj Residency in Bangalore. Yes, I had the same question as you would be asking now. Why is Amazon Chennai doing a Conference in Bangalore, When Amazon already has a presence in Bangalore? I asked the same question to one of the guys from Amazon there, the answer I got was…..”This is a Amazon Kindle Conference. Amazon Seattle and  Amazon Chennai are the only folks working on the Kindle.  Therefore, we (Chennai folks) are doing this conference to promote the Kindle device”.

Well anyways, I wanted to attend this conference to get my hands on the device, see how it looks and feels like to have one.

If you did not know already, there are two versions of the Kindle.  Kindle with 6 inch display, wireless works globally and the Kindle DX (DX stands for Deluxe) which has a 9.7 inch display, works on wireless in US.

I got to play with it for about 10 minutes and here is my opinion about the Kindle especially if you are going to use it in India.

I clicked a few snaps of the Kindle through my phone. It can be viewed on my flickr photostream here

First, the good part:

No Glare: Kindle uses the E-ink technology that does not strain the eyes and works quite differently from,  say a LCD screen.  I never got to test it but I believe one can read it with full sunshine on the device.

Free Wireless: It supports 3G where available or switches to 2.5G. Basically, wherever you have EDGE available you can use the kindle to download the books through wireless from the Amazon store. The wireless connectivity is completely free. The end-user will have no interaction with the wireless service provider. It is all taken care by Amazon. India, I believe Amazon has tied up with Vodafone.

Takes a minute to get a book: Ordering a book and getting it all happens within 60 seconds. This of course, depending on what connection you are on.

Highlight or add notes: I found this quite useful. I could highlight a text or add notes to a particular word or sentence. Searching through the text is easier too.

Light in weight: The kindle weighs about 284 grams and its sleek. It feels like holding a 25 page hard bound notebook.

Built-in PDF reader: If you have got e-books downloaded (in pdf format) from a source other than the Amazon store, you can still read it in the kindle with its pdf reader.

Stores a lot of books: Can store about 1500 books. This should be enough for most (if not all) readers. Even for the voracious readers.

Not just books: You are not limited to read just books on the Kindle. You can subscribe to newspapers, magazines or periodicals and even blogs. I saw Indian Express and India Today on it. I am sure there will be more Indian publications on it sooner or later.

Before I go about listing the issues I saw with it. I would like to make sure that due credit is given to Amazon and its Kindle team. They have really worked hard to get this device out in the market in the current form.  In fact, Kindle and all the other ebook readers are solving a real tough challenge in transitioning the traditional book readers to go the e-way.

Now for the downside or I would like to call it enna Kindle(ah)?^[1] points.

Cost: The 6″ Kindle has a MRP of USD 259.  The order to India would cost more than that because of the duty and other taxes. I see this as a major hurdle for the Kindle to be successful in India. I do not see a lot of book readers shelling out Rs.12,500 (without the duty) to just get started off on reading. Over that, it costs another $9.99 (Rs.450) to read a new bestseller. Prices might or read as *will* come down over time but not so drastically.

Only gray-scale display: Currently, the E-ink technology that Kindle is based on supports only gray-scale. So you can not enjoy a pretty, colored picture on a book or newspaper.

No book sorting or categorizing: It does not provide the feature of categorizing books you bought. For example, you cannot separate out the fiction and non-fiction  books into different categories on the Kindle display.

Issues with scroll on PDFs: Scroll while reading a PDF is not page wise. Rather it is just a arbitrary scroll. I got the same text I read already displayed after clicking the scroll button.

No full-fledged browser: Kindle comes with an “experimental” browser that allows users in India to browse limited set of websites like Wikipedia.  I believe the reason being, Kindle is marketed or to be used as a ebook reader rather than a  Internet browsing device. Today, I carry around a Smart-phone and a laptop while on the road.  But not too long ago, I had a mp3 player on that list as well. With the smart phone I got rid of the mp3 player. Now, I read the latest news and listen to my MP3 on my smartphone while travelling. So if the Kindle is going to be used only to read books, that is another device to my travel list.

Security: Though the guy in the commercial (we were shown in the conference) pocketed the Kindle into his Jersey. With the hot weather in India, hardly anyone would wear a Jacket with a long pocket. So carrying it around should be in a bag else people are sure to lose it. So if one loses the Kindle, anyone can subscribe to a number of books and the owner will be billed for it. One of the attendees asked that question to the presenter, the answer given was “It is like a credit card, anyone can misuse it if one loses it”. Well, my argument is that the Kindle is not so small to be kept in a back pocket.

The Verdict:

If the question is if I would buy a Kindle or any other ebook reader device? No, I do not think a device can yet give me the same feeling of reading a hard copy book.  But that said, may be I will buy a device which does not strain my eyes while staring at it for long that also works as a:

1. Ebook reader
2. Lighter and compact Internet browsing device
3. Music player
4. Cell phone

T-Shirt Giveaway:

I got a T-Shirt at the Conference that does not fit me. It is a white T-shirt of size “L” (they did not have XL size) and has “Amazon Kindle Chennai” written on it in black. You can view the picture of it here. If you like to have it just contact me.

BACK TO POST enna kindle(ah)? or pronounced as kin-da-la? in Tamil means asking a person “are you joking?” . This is all in good humor, no offense meant.