Kindle Keyboard (Wi-Fi) Review
Price: £79.99
Verdict: 8/10
The new Kindle Keyboard Wi-Fi is the cheapest Kindle in the current series and is still an excellent choice for first time users.
Available from just £79.99 (£10 cheaper than the Kindle Touch), the Kindle Keyboard Wi-Fi has storage for up to 3,500 books, 6-inch high contrast E-Ink display and 2 months of battery life (more than any other Kindle product). It also supports Wi-Fi connectivity which means you can download books from the Kindle Store wirelessly.
The difference between the Kindle Keyboard and the upgraded Kindle Keyboard 3G (£149.00) is that the latter has a wireless 3G connection. This provides global internet coverage and allows you to download books and connect to the Amazon Book Store remotely. With the Kindle Keyboard Wi-Fi however, you need to be in a wireless hot spot such as at home or in the airport. In either case, there are no system requirements since you don’t need to connect the device to your computer.
Overall, I would recommend the Kindle Keyboard Wi-Fi to most people. Although it is slightly larger and heavier than the Kindle Touch (which costs £89), it can hold 500 more books and I personally prefer the keyboard.
Size, Weight and Specifications
The Kindle Keyboard Wi-Fi is 190x123x8.5mm and weighs 2.5 ounces more than the original Kindle. The size of this device is also slightly bigger than the original Kindle and Kindle Touch since it has to make room to accommodate the touch-pad keyboard.
The good thing about this device is that it still fits into the palm of your hand easily and the page-turning buttons on either side means that you can comfortable hold the device and turn pages with just one hand. When you’re reading for extended periods of time this feature can help a lot. The other good thing about the Kindle is that it has an ergonomic design and doesn’t get hot when you turn it on for a long time like a keyboard.
In either case, I wouldn’t personally worry too much about comparing the sizes of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Kindles since they’re all pretty much identical (asides from the Kindle DX and Kindle Fire which are much larger and heavier). The Kindle Keyboard is good enough for me and has got extremely positive reviews from users.
Screen Display and E-Ink Technology
The Kindle Keyboard eReader has a 6 inch, high contrast E-Ink Pearl display (the latest in E-Ink generation technology) just like its brothers and sisters. The benefits of E-Ink is that it creates ultra high-contrast, crisp text that allows you to read it outdoors in direct sunlight. Your eyes won’t strain like they would on an LCD reader (e.g. Kindle Fire, iPad 2, Nook Color)
Readability and Menu Options
Users have a choice of up to 8 text sizes and 2 different font types with this device. Other reading features include fast page turning, zoom in/out and real page numbers. The Kindle also has its own in-built dictionary and you can makes notes/annotations or play games with the keyboard.
Other cool features include the WebKit experimental web browser, MP3 Player and a Text-to-Speech feature.
Storage Capacity and Battery Life
With a full 2 months of battery life (based on half an hour of reading per day) the Kindle Keyboard lasts longer than any other Kindle device. It actually lasts a whole month more than the original Kindle ($79.99) which is why I recommend buying this one instead.
The storage capacity is 4GB which is enough to hold up to 3,500 books from the Amazon Store. This is twice the storage capacity of the original Kindle and the same as the newer, bigger Kindle DX.
Amazon Book Store
The Amazon Book Store is one of the largest eBook stores online with more than 1 million books (800,000 are available for $9.99 or less). You can instantly download games, newspapers, free books (which have passed their copyright date) and over 60,000 audio books. You don’t have to worry about losing your books either since all the books that you buy are saved in your Amazon account.
Bear in mind that with the Kindle you can only buy books from the Amazon Store.
Kindle Keyboard (Wi-Fi) Product Video:
