Amazon’s long awaited Kindle II has finally been released and made it to my doorstep yesterday afternoon. I got the device as a gift for my wife and though I’ve only had very limited ‘play time’ so far I must say I liked what I saw. I’ve been in the market for an e-reader for quite some time, and have looked at the Kindle’s predecessor and some Sony e-reader devices, but I decided to hold off and wait for the second generation Kindle – I think it was well worth the wait! The packaging is very well made and has clearly been thought out quite extensively. As if mimicing an Apple product the ‘iKindle’ experience begins with the cardboard box which is clearly labeled as a Kindle box (though my wife missed this completely). The box opens by pulling a tab that cleverly says “Once Upon a Time” and the inside reveals a black glossy box and case with letters and the definition of the word kindle. Once you remove the black sleeve the Kindle is very secure and well packaged in a plastic holder and cardboard, which like the rest of the packaging materials, are all recyclable (+1 for Amazon!), in line with the paper saving benefit of owning this 1,500 book capacity behemoth. In your hand the Kindle feels solid and well built. Its remarkably thin and light, and the e-ink display in much more realistic than I had expected. When I powered up the device a personalized letter from Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, welcomed me to the Kindle, and within seconds I was connected to WhisperNet, the device’s Sprint connection which allows instant purchases of books, blogs and newspaper subsriptions from virtually anywhere in the United States. My wife quickly purchased a couple of books to complete the series she’s currently reading. Within minutes they were delivered to the device and available for reading. The display is quite amazing. Here is a close up of the text, and a picture of an actual book’s text for comparison. Incredible.

(the text on the left is the Kindle)

The Kindle charges via a provided USB cord with a cool adapter to a regular 110v outlet. The USB is also used to transfer MP3s from the computer to play back while you read. The full QWERTY keyboard is very nice. It allows for taking notes, searching on the Amazon Kindle store, even typing in URLs and probably e-mail in the not too distant future. There are also some experimental features, like a web browser and a ‘read to me’ feature which reads aloud, but I haven’t played with it yet. It seems like Amazon did its research for this second generation device! Paired with the leather case, it looks very slick. Its very compact and lightweight and can be carried effortlessly. No more taking books on trips- YAY! So far I really like the Amazon Kindle II and hope this review is helpful to evaluate this product. Would love to hear others’ comments.

 

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