Me and My Kindle: Comparing the Old and New

So something has happened recently that I did not expect for at least another year or two: The Amazon Kindle has become one of the hottest selling products from America’s largest online retailer.  And by now you’ve probably already heard — and seen — the next generation version, Kindle 2, now available for pre-order and is set to ship on February 24, 2009 (one week from today).  Some may question, however, if releasing a second generation version of the e-Reader this soon was appropriate — should Amazon have waited at least another year?  In my opinion, yes they should’ve waited, but we will discuss that shortly — I first want to talk briefly about the original Kindle and my own experience with the product.

The original Kindle was released November 19, 2007 — when it was first made available the device sold out in five and half hours.  I remember seeing the product back then and thinking: “Neat… but I don’t see how it could catch on.”  Despite many initial complaints about the look of the product being, for lack of a better word, “cheesy,” I actually found it to look quite nifty.  The look didn’t play into my initial reservations about buying the product.  I didn’t want to buy something I was afraid wouldn’t catch on and be left with another Dreamcast on my hands.  And with a $359.99 price tag, it was more than a product, it was an investment, and so I put off thoughts of saving up to buy one for some time.

BUT, ever since my freshman year in high school, I have been a devout Amazon.com consumer.  Back in those days it was mostly just to buy books and DVDs, and as I grew older and moved onto college, it also became a source to buy lower-priced textbooks.  Presently I use the site to, well… buy books and DVDs.  Both formats have changed, however — I now buy Blu-ray DVDs and Kindle e-books, and I’ve also made several purchases from their Video On Demand selection.  And while yes, their videos are DRM protected, I still find comfort in knowing that if I ever accidentally delete one of my videos and I can just re-download it for free… anyways, I think I may just save further comments for Video On Demand for another post… on another day.

But I told you all of that so as to explain how I finally took the plunge and made my Kindle purchase.  Given that I’m constantly on the site looking over potential purchases, I always must first come to their homepage — go there now, what do you see?  You are correct.  You will see an advertisement at the top of the page for Kindle 2.  That’s how Amazon’s homepage as been since the product was first released, so every time I went to the site I inevitably had to see the thing.  And much to my surprise, the product didn’t die out.  Lots of thought had to go into this purchase, though… well, kinda.  To me, there had to be a fair amount of quality to the product because I just couldn’t see Amazon putting their name on it if it wasn’t.  My customer experience from Amazon has always been just about pitch-perfect, and that goes with their customer service as well.  I remember buying the video game Resident Evil 2 once and upon receiving it in the mail and opening it, the disc broke when I went to pull it out of the case.  Heartbroken, I immediately emailed Amazon to see if there was anything I could do.  They responded promptly with a simple, “We’ll send out a brand new one as soon as possible.”  Should I seal and return the first copy?  “No, no, don’t worry about it, we’ll just send you a new one.”

See, that’s customer service, and I couldn’t believe my luck.  Ever since that date I have never doubted Amazon again.  And so on July 15, 2008, even though I still wasn’t 100% sure, I purchased my Amazon Kindle.  A week and half later it arrived at my doorstep and I couldn’t have been happier.

At least until I turned on the device and I found that my Podunk little town didn’t make it into Amazon’s Whispernet coverage area.  I was thus forced to download the books manually to my computer and then transfer them via USB port to my Kindle.  It was a little disheartening at first, but I got over it soon enough.  The product was everything that was described.  A nice, crisp screen, and fairly intuitive controls; it took little or no time to get used to.

I’d had some concerns about problems I’d read about such as accidentally hitting the Next Page or Previous Page buttons while reading or the pages themselves turning too slowly.  The hitting the buttons thing was something that happened to me several times while using but I found that not doing it was really just all about learning to handle the device properly and it’s something that I rarely have a problem with anymore.  The slow page turning, well… I never felt that it turned pages too slowly.  The only time you really notice it, again, is when you accidentally hit a page turning button and have to wait about 4-5 seconds before you can get back to where you were.  Just going from one page to the next takes roughly a second or two — so me personally, I can’t find it in me to complain about something that works, and can be resolved, in mere seconds.

And here we come to Kindle 2.

Kindle 2 is everything Kindle 1 was, with slight upgrades.  The first thing you notice when you compare the two is that Kindle two seems to be taller and thinner.  Was it necessary?  While I like to see newer versions of products get smaller and smaller, I can’t help but think when I see the new Kindle that it looks so… fragile?  Almost like you could break it in half without much effort.  Now, of course I haven’t handled the new version and as such couldn’t possibly know such things — plus there is the fact that Kindle 2 also has a nice metal back plate which can easily offer more support for the device.  So in this case, it’s really all about what you prefer — I quite fancy my own (but then I may just be bias).

The second thing you’ll notice is bigger buttons.  Apparently some people have had problems with Kindle 1’s “small” buttons.  Now, I’m a big guy and I’ve never had a problem with typing on the thing but I suppose such a thing could also be aimed towards the elderly as well so I can see where such a thing might be debatable.

Moving on to some of the specs.  Kindle 2, though smaller, has much more storage without the use of a memory stick, and can hold up to 1,500 titles.  This I find kind of nice.  Now you don’t have to blow money on a memory stick!  The battery life also lasts 25% longer.  Not bad, but then I’ve never had a problem with my Kindle dying on me (I do like, however, that you can now charge the thing via USB cable).  Page turns are also 20% faster as well.  As I stated before, I’ve never had much of a problem with page turns but still, this upgrade isn’t a bad thing.  One thing I am interested to see with the new device, though, is its new 16 shades of gray display screen for even clearer, crisper images and text.

The last two specs I’ll mention are also the ones that I’m most interested to see.  The first, while small, is that Kindle 2 now supports .pdf Microsoft Word documents.  Now, I’m not sure if they’ll have to be converted first, but the way I understand it is that the device itself is now compatible with the media.  This more than any of the other items is something I wish I had on my Kindle 1 — it seems, though, that a simple firmware update could give me this option; Amazon, however, as far as I know, have not made any statements to such a thing (fingers crossed).  And lastly, Kindle 2 now gives you the option to have the entire book read to you if you wish!  Now, some people may love this, it’s all a matter of taste.  I myself have really never been able to get into audio books.  I’ve downloaded a couple but have only gotten so far with them.  For some reason I’d rather just read the book myself than have someone (or something) else do it.  However, this is a wonderful addition for someone who is, say, blind.  Instead of having to pay for pricey audio books, they pay what we pay and can still have it read to them.  Of course I realize by saying this that I’m jumping pass MANY issues in regards to a blind persons interest in a Kindle in the first place.  But still, not a bad feature.

(No judging my current e-book catalog!)

And so there we have it: Kindle 1 and the new and improved Kindle 2.  Was the Kindle 2 necessary just yet?  I think a few more features could have been added before a second generation release.  Like perhaps a more properly designed and intuitive web browser for starters.  The one we have now is a bit slow and the color exchange from websites to a black-and-white (-and-gray) display can be a bit messy at times.  But then most people aren’t buying a Kindle for Internet access, either.  I do wish Amazon’s Whispernet coverage would have made some major expansions before they decided to upgrade as well.  I now live in Savannah, GA where I can use my wireless features but alas I’m still only in their slower “1x” zone.

All-in-all if you already own the original Kindle as I do, Kindle 2 probably isn’t worth the new purchase.  If, however, you’ve yet to purchase the e-Reader, there’s nothing the old device has that the new one doesn’t that would detract one from buying it.  And at the same price as the original, it’s definitely still worth it.

Now if only Jeff Bezos can convince JK Rowling to bring her Harry Potter series to the Kindle library!