Amazon Kindle (2012) review

FORMAT SUPPORT

Format support has remained the same since previous Kindles, with the new model supporting AZW3, AZW, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI and PRC natively, while HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP have to be converted first. There’s still no ePUB support, so you can’t buy books from other stores. However, you can convert DRM-free ePUB files to a supported format, such as those from Project Gutenberg.

PDF support is basic at best, and you can’t reflow or scale the pages to easily view them. The best you get is the chance to scroll round each page, but it’s not particularly fast or well handled.

For some people the restriction of having to buy books through Amazon may prove to be too much, but we don’t see it as so much of a problem. Amazon’s book store is well stocked and the pricing is very competitive. It’s hard to disassociate the Kindle from its store, as it’s the entire experience that has proven to be so popular and it’s still one of the product’s biggest attractions.

We like the way you can use a variety of different methods, from the Kindle’s built-in store to a web browser on your computer, to buy new books and have them delivered automatically to your device. Your books also synchronise with Amazon’s servers, so you can switch reading device, say from your Kindle to the iPad app, and continue reading where you left off.

Amazon is also introducing a new feature that lets people with Amazon Prime accounts borrow one book per month for free. There are no restrictions or time limits on this, with the service costing £49 per year – for free one-day delivery on everything ordered by post.

STORAGE

Amazon has cut down the storage on the Kindle, so that you get 2GB, rather than the 4GB of some of the older Kindle models. We don’t think it’s that big a problem, though, as this is enough for around 1,100 books, which should keep you going for a while. In addition, all books that you buy through Amazon’s store are stored for free online, so you don’t have to clutter your device with books and worry about filling your storage.

WIRELESS

Amazon sells the Kindle as a Wi-Fi version only. This isn’t too much of a problem, as it’s generally easier to fill an eReader before you go away. Besides, most places now have easily-accessible hotspots if you do need to buy a book in a hurry.

As on other Kindles leaving the wireless turned on tends to drain the battery fairly rapidly; in fact, Amazon quotes battery life with wireless turned off. It’s a bit annoying, then, that you can’t disable wireless from the standard menu when reading a book, as you could with the previous model. Instead, you have to back to the main menu, go to Settings from there and select Aeroplane mode. Admittedly, it’s a minor annoyance, but the Kindle Keyboard used to have the wireless option directly in the menu accessible from the reading view.

BUILD QUALITY AND HARDWARE

Build quality is excellent and the Kindle feels very tough and robust. At just 170g, its light, too, and is very easy to carry around. We have to say that we prefer the light grey case of the previous generation, as the black version doesn’t look as nice and picks up fingerprints more easily, but we’ve generally got no complaints.

The contacts on the back mean you can use the Kindle Lighted Cover if you want a handy reading light

Remaining from last year’s model are the contacts for the lighted case, which has a pull-out reading light for when it’s too dark to see the screen.

CONCLUSION

There’s no doubting that the Kindle Paperwhite is the king of eBook readers. Its high resolution and lit touchscreen make it a pleasure to use. However, if you just want to read and don’t want to spend that much money, there’s no denying that this Kindle is still excellent value. It wins a Best Buy award.