Slimmer, faster, smarter: The Kindle 2 is a worthy sequel to Amazon’s first ambitious digital-reading device. It still offers lightning-fast wireless downloads of thousands of available titles in less than 60 seconds but boasts a design that’s thinner than the iPhone 3G, an improved E-Ink display, an integrated dictionary, and enough storage to hold 1,500 books. Plus, you can subscribe to magazines, newspapers, and read your favorite blogs.
On the other hand, the text-to-speech feature pales in comparison to traditional audiobooks, and Amazon still doesn’t stock many popular titles like the Harry Potter series. And although prices for books are cheap at $9.99 a pop, $359 is a lot to ask for an e-reader when you can get a netbook PC for the same price. Nevertheless, the Kindle 2 is worth the splurge for heavy readers.
Design Improvements
While you may not think of e-books as fashionable, you’ll change your mind when you hold the Kindle 2. It’s much more slender than the original. At just 0.36 inches thick, it’s almost twice as thin as the first Kindle and weighs a similar 10.2 ounces. The Kindle 2’s 6-inch E-Ink display offers the same 600 x 800-pixel resolution, but it has an improved 16 levels of gray scale, up from 4 levels.
The brushed-aluminum back of the device contrasted with its white face makes the Kindle look like an Apple-designed product—which is a compliment. In our hands, it felt more like a premium slate than an awkward, big plastic device like the original Kindle. On the previous Kindle, you could remove the back to access the battery and the memory card. While the Kindle 2 ditches the memory card slot, it can also store 7 times the amount of books that the original could (more than 1,500).
The Next Page keys are now smaller and inward-facing to prevent the accidental page-turning issue that was prevalent on the first Kindle. The added Home button gives quick access to the home screen, instead of having to search for the small Home icon on the keyboard. Two stereo speakers now sit on the rear of the device and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top.
The scroll wheel has been replaced by a stiff but usable five-way controller. We preferred the scroll wheel on the first Kindle for quickly scrolling through pages instead of having to push down repeatedly, but the new controller allows for more precise movement. You can also use it to highlight text and look up words.
A new QWERTY keyboard with rounded keys is a pleasant addition to the new Kindle, which you can use to create notes, search, enter Web addresses, and more. The space bar is comfortably front and center instead of off to the left like before.
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