Kindle users, recommendations please...

KyleS1

Outstanding Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
27,843
Reaction score
15,140
Points
6,532
I'm about to buy an e-book reader, and the kindle seems the obvious choice. Are there any pitfalls for certain models? Ideally I'm looking for personal experiences. Are there any things that bug you about the one you went for? Or things you wish you had but didn't?

I'm not overly fussed about 3G. I will probably just load books on from my PC.
Is there any feature I should definitely have? I've never had an e-book reader before, so don't really know what is useful and what is just marketing gumf. For a book, it just needs all the pages. :thumbsup:

Thanks in advance!
 
Books from Amazon load themselves into your Kindle using wi-fi. You do not need a PC to it. You can however employ a free program called Calibre which allows you to convert books from other sources to be compatible with a Kindle. In that case you connect Kindle to PC and transfer the book. The models currently available are pretty much the same except that the more expensive one has a touch screen. Older models had several extra facilities, including a full keyboard, but these have been discontinued. Mine also incorporated a 'voice' to read the books, but I think this has been dropped.

There's not much to 'bug' people about the Kindle. It does what it says on the box.
 
Last edited:
I have an older Kindle (with the keyboard) and am very happy with it. Having also obtained a couple of tablets and a smartphone I would recommend against the touchscreen version of the Kindle as you will either be reading through fingerprints or constantly cleaning the screen. That is the one downside of tablets - the smeary fingerprints.

The feature I really like is the sync facility (wifi or 3G) because I can carry on reading my book on a smartphone/tablet when I have forgotten my kindle or the battery is flat.
 
Thanks. So it looks like "any" kindle would do then.

I'm interested in getting some of the books from the Baen Free Library, so as long as the kindles can support the other formats, I should be ok.

I presume .mobi and .prc are ok as well? I think I read it supports .html and a few others too.

Would the basic £89 kindle be ok?
 
Would the basic £89 kindle be ok?

I initially bought a Kindle Touch (£109) for my wife's birthday after the salewoman at Argos talked me into it. I never thought that I wanted an ebook reader but I was off work with back trouble and I read a couple of books on my wife's Kindle Touch. I thought it was good and was impressed as the books that I read were less than a pound each. However I found the touch screen a bit irritating it would often jump lots of pages when I touched the screen for no reason, the screen also reminds me of my cheapo £40 sat nav and is pretty crap IMHO. I decided to get myself a Kindle and as times are hard I bought the £89 one, well a refurbished one from Argos off Ebay for £69.99 delivered. I much prefer the basic kindle to the touch, the buttons for turning the pages do exactly what you want them to. The only thing that the touch is better for is when using the Kindle Touch with the dictionary you just touch the word, and if the screen does what it is supposed to do it will show the word definition. With the regular Kindle you have to cursor down to the word using the thumb button. This is no big deal as there is not that much text on a page anyway and it depends on how often you use the feature.

Personally even if both were the same price I would buy the basic kindle with button controls as I much prefer it as I have never really cared for touch screens and the Kindle Touch's is just not a great example of one, just IMHO.

So buy the £89 one it is very good.
 
Thanks. So it looks like "any" kindle would do then.

I'm interested in getting some of the books from the Baen Free Library, so as long as the kindles can support the other formats, I should be ok.

I presume .mobi and .prc are ok as well? I think I read it supports .html and a few others too.

Would the basic £89 kindle be ok?

What you need is this

calibre - E-book management


so that you can convert other formats to Kindle format


and yes I would go for the cheaper versions rather than the touch
 
Thanks, seen that come up a few times in my searches. :)
 
had a older sony ereader and now have the newest kindle basic model - I really like it - for £89 I would recommend it - formats are not a problem as others have mentioned using calibre when needed to convert. Its light and has wifi if you need it - go for it.
 
Thanks for the link.
Still thinking the Kindle is edging it for me though.
 
Somehow I now own a kobo touch and kindle touch.

I bought the kobo because of the ability to use library books and because of the memory card slot but have actually never used either function.

I have to say I find the kindle to be the more polished product and the touch screen more a bit more responsive than the kobo. I also find the screen definition and contrast slightly better on the kindle but i'd doubt you would notice if viewed in isolation.

I do like the kobos ability to use my book cover as a screen saver and extra fonts over the kindle but I would still go with the kindle. Amazons restrictive formats are easily managed with calibre software.
 
Is there a model of Kobo that should be the minimum to consider?
 
Did you settle in one Kyle?
 
Happy?
 
Only arrived yesterday. Its lovely and small. Screen looks nice too. Easy to set up. Pleased so far, but not tried a book on it yet. Will load some on at the weekend.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom