5 reasons why the Kindle 3 will still be better than the Amazon Kindle Fire
I’ve always been technology-obsessed since I got my first computer, an Acorn Electron, at the age of 4. At age 9, I did a class presentation about the internet. I was incredibly fortunate to have an Amstrad 1512 and later an Amstrad 1640, hard-drive-less computers which ran single (or dual) floppy disk drives. It’s my 32nd birthday tomorrow, so that’s 25 years of having a computer at my disposal.
After three or four years of working as a service desk analyst, I went fully Apple: not for any snobbish reasons, but purely because I had enough of fixing Windows problems at work. (See: ‘as easy to use as a toaster‘). We have given Android devices a good go, having had an Advent Vega and an Orange San Francisco. I’m au fait with the alternatives and I’m still happy with the Apple technology we have chosen for copywriting work.
However, there is one exception. The iPad 2 is not an ebook reader, and neither is the iPhone 4, or any Android tablet. Given the choice, I would rather read a book on a phone than a tablet, but the Kindle 3 is the absolute best realisation of a device that I have seen in the last couple of years.
We both have a Kindle 3. We love them. Although the joy of buying a book is still there (and we still fund our local comic store, OK Comics, with our monthly purchases on paper), the Kindle 3 is probably the best designed of all the devices and gadgets we currently own.
Here are my 5 reasons for not jumping onto the Amazon Kindle Fire bandwagon and sticking with my trusty Kindle 3.
1. The size.
The reason I got my Kindle 3 was to make it easier to hop on budget flights without hold luggage. We travel regularly to Crete, so a lot of the stuff we need is there in the house already. The less I take with me, the less cash I have to give Easyjet for hold baggage. Thanks to the Kindle, not only is my paperback book reduced to a sliver of its former size, but I can take several. Although the line around using the Kindle during take-off and landing seems to be fuzzy (the Kindle is, technically, impossible to switch off), I have never had an issue. You can’t (easily) slip your tablet PC into the seat pocket, and you certainly can’t leave it switched on.
The Kindle 3 also allows me to study or read the paper, or proof read some copywriting for work, without having to print things our or carry heavy textbooks around. Although I could do this on a tablet, there are plenty of times when carting a larger device around would be cumbersome.
The fact that the Kindle Fire is reportedly going to be similar in size to the Blackberry PlayBook isn’t encouraging. The PlayBook is somewhere in between a phone and a tablet, without the portability of the former or the versatility of the latter.
2. The power.
You know what – it’s nice having an electronic device that I never really charge up. In fact, if I had to go and find my Kindle charger right now, I would have a hard time finding it. I think I’ve charged it two or three times. How long will the Amazon Kindle Fire last between charges? If it’s anything like my Android tablet, it won’t last a day.
3. The screen.
I first saw the incredible low-consumption screen technology on the Motorola F3 a few years ago; I was wowed by it, in fact. Everyone else thought was a bit of a joke. In fact, it was designed for places where power outlets are hard to come by. You could have put a Motorola F3 in your glove compartment on a long winter drive, just in case you got snowed in – it would last for two whole weeks between charges. (You could also drive over it in a car, which is pretty amazing).
The same low-cost screen technology makes the Kindle 3 an ever-ready marvel. It diffuses sunlight just enough to make it very readable on the beach. I don’t really want to read a book on a tablet that’s going to need to be charged very regularly, and I have no need for a colour screen either. Assuming the Amazon Kindle Fire is more or less as we think it will be, it simply can’t improve on this.
4.The single purpose.
The Kindle 3 has a single function: mimicking a paperback. (OK, it can browse the internet and play mp3s, but I very much doubt anyone actually uses it for either of those things.) I’m not sure why Amazon would replace a perfect reading device with a tablet PC that’s no different to hundreds of other Android devices, apart from (I assume) to cream some profit off the tablet market.
5. The perfect design.
The design nuances in the Kindle 3 are modest, but it’s not far behind the iPod in terms of ingenuity. The Kindle is designed to be book-like. It has everything in the right place (apart from the keyboard, but it’s rarely used). It can be used to read my copywriting notes as I write something up. I can proof read something on the plane without hauling my laptop out of my bag. Copying files is easy, navigation is easy(ish). Nobody wants to hold an iPad or any other tablet PC for three hours to read a novel, or prop it up while they’re working in a confined space. Nobody wants an iPad to slip out of their hand and hit them in the face as they’re holding it above their head, either. It’s just what it is – an electronic book.
I know the Kindle Fire is not really designed to replace the Kindle 3 as such, but I fear that it will, purely because people buy tablets without thinking about why they need them. It would be a shame if Amazon phased out the Kindle 3, all for the sake of trying to capture some of the buzz around Android tablets – a buzz which I would argue is often mis-placed.
I await the Kindle Fire announcement with interest. I hope I’m proved wrong about it.
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