Amazon Kindle Touch review

GOOD TO TOUCH

The lack of multiple buttons on the Amazon Kindle Touch certainly makes it a sharper-looking device than its predecessors, though the two-tone grey finish persists, which is so bland and utilitarian as to render the Kindle personality-free. There are still two buttons remaining, a Home button sits beneath the centre of the screen, much like on the iPad. We really like its raised four-strip design, and it’s hard to press accidentally. The power button is on the bottom edge of the Kindle Touch, it has a firmer feel , more feedback and is less recessed than the one on the basic Kindle – which means less hunting for it with your thumb and more certainty that you’ve actually pressed it.

Here’s the text-to-speech mode in action, the robotic voice works better for some books than others

Beside the power button is a microphone port, with the Kindle Touch retaining the keyboard model’s audio capabilities. These extend to listening to Audible audiobooks and MP3 playback, though the latter is still positioned under the Experimental menu alongside the very limited web browser. There are a couple of small speakers on the rear, but they are very weak and only suitable for use in the quietest environments. The text-to-speech feature is also present, if you fancy having your bedtime story read to you by Stephen Hawking.

The Kindle Touch has other similarities with the keyboard version. It has the same 4GB of storage space, and so can hold approximately 3,000 books, twice as many as the basic Kindle. It also has the same size battery as the older model, again twice as big as the basic Kindle’s. No page turn figures are provided, but Amazon reckons it should last two months instead of one – presuming light use and that the Wi-Fi is left off.

TOUCH AND GO

It’s tempting to compare the Amazon Kindle Touch to other touchscreen-capable eBook readers. However, we feel that your choice between the Kindle format and a more open ePUB-based reader, such as the Kobo eReader Touch or Sony Reader PRS-T1, is far more important than whether your device has buttons or a touchscreen. If you must compare across the platforms then the Kindle Touch is slightly chunkier than those devices, and only comes in one, rather boring, colour scheme. However, it has more storage and a longer claimed battery life. The Kindle has a better integrated store, though you can’t use any other store to pick up special offers, and extra features like X-Ray. If this was an ePUB device, we’d buy the Kindle Touch over those other devices, but it’s a close-run thing.

Once again, we feel the Amazon vs ePUB choice is far more important than the minor hardware variations discussed here. For a fuller discussion of the differences read our Ultimate Guide to eBooks.

Comparing the Kindle Touch to its siblings is more straightforward. The keyboard Kindle may still be on sale, but this new Kindle Touch supersedes it in every respect. The keyboard was never that great anyway and we found the new onscreen one to be more than capable of replacing it. As for the basic Amazon Kindle, we still think it’s a great eBook reader at a fantastic price. It’s slimmer and lighter than the Touch, and if you don’t need any of the features listed above it’s still a good buy.

Only a little pricier, chunkier and heavier – it makes up for it in other areas

For only £20 more you can have the Amazon Kindle Touch, though. The slight extra bulk is noticeable when holding it for long periods, but that’s the Touch’s only downside. On the plus side it has more memory and better still, a bigger battery. The touchscreen works flawlessly, not just for turning pages, but in making it easier to navigate your books, use features such as X-Ray, and buy new titles without using a PC. For many these will be rarely-used extras, but for most they are well worth the slight additional expense, and that makes the Kindle Touch our new favourite eBook Reader.