Amazon Kindle: First Impressions

In the shifting world of electronics, no one's staying neatly in their allotted corner these days. Witness the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Once strictly a hardware showcase, it's promoting the participation of movie studios and TV networks in this January's event.

So it's almost unsurprising that the newest e-book reader, the Amazon Kindle (click on images for a closer look), bears the name of a retailer rather than an equipment manufacturer. The branding actually makes sense, since a seamless link between the Kindle and Amazon.com is the most interesting aspect of the device, which Amazon began selling last week for $399. I tried it out over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The Kindle comes preloaded with your Amazon account information and with software that links, automatically and at no ongoing cost, to Sprint's high-speed cellphone data network. If all goes well, Amazon says, you simply turn it on and start browsing and ordering. Even when your account doesn't appear, as mine didn't, signing on took only seconds.

[Nov. 28, 2007 Update: We corrected the reference to the network Kindle uses; as a reader noted, it's Sprint's data network not its cellphone network. —Ed.]

(While I had no problems with the service when using my Kindle these past few days, Sprint was among the worst providers of cell phone service in our survey of Consumer Reports readers in 20 cities. If you're a ConsumerReports.org subscriber, you can check our Ratings of cell service providers to see the details.)

Then I was off and "kindling" (yes, Amazon really does "verb" the name of the device), using the Kindle's unique rolling wheel navigation device and next- and last-page bars on each side of the 6-inch screen. Orders bill seamlessly to your Amazon account—maybe too seamlessly, depending on your self-control; there isn’t even a checkout to slow you down. Downloading a book to the device took me less than a minute, as Amazon promises. There’s no ongoing monthly fee to use the Kindle.

The Kindle doesn't offer all of Amazon's features; there are no extras like author's videos or search capability. But it offers free sample chapters, which download in a matter of seconds. And it's more natural to read book pages on the Kindle than on a computer, where you must scroll through them using a cursor and read them on a screen that isn’t designed for prolonged reading.

In a fantasy world where books were read mostly on computers, the Kindle would be a must-buy. In the real world, where books remain stubbornly analog, using the device falls well short of the pleasures of holding and reading a book. The type, charcoal-colored on a light-gray background, lacks the contrast of typical book pages. The screen briefly turns black during page turns. And the display is monochrome only, and lacks the grayscale variation even to render, say, black and white photos as accurately as in print. (The Kindle shares the use of patented eInk technology with its main competitor, the Sony Reader, $299, which has been updated since we tested it last year on ConsumerReports.org.)

So is the Kindle worth $400 to you, or anyone on your gift list? An obvious pre-qualifier is a willingness to try new technology that's almost bound to drop in cost, improve in performance, or both in subsequent iterations. Then there's mobility; a book reader probably makes sense only if you often read on the move. Beyond that, here's my initial take on prime candidates for the Kindle:

Heavy hardcover buyers. It costs $9.99 to load a hardcover best-seller to the Kindle—an all-but-unbeatable price, in any format (most older titles cost more, though some venerable classics go for as little as a dollar or two). So, if you buy more than 40 hard-covers, you'll more than make up the cost of the device. But, the Kindle is also significantly smaller and lighter (at 10 ounces or so) than a single hardcover book (see image). And it holds up to 200 books, Amazon says, and so would free up some serious luggage space for a serious reader on a long trip.

News junkies. The Kindle offers subscriptions to 11 newspapers, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and a number of magazines. And there's free access to a host of bookmarked websites, including those of BBC Radio, MSNBC, and ESPN.

Kindle critics have bashed the cost of the subscriptions—$5.99 to $13.99 a month for each newspaper, for example—when the publications are mostly available for free online. But the Kindle allows you to view news on a screen, albeit a black-and-white one, that's bigger than any smart phone and on a network that's faster than the sluggish AT&T network the iPhone uses. And there's no requirement to pay for a monthly high-speed data plan.

[Nov. 29, 2007 UPDATE: As a reader pointed out, some newspaper subscriptions are available to Kindle owners for $5.99 per month. —Ed.]

A caveat for the free sites: They're part of the "Basic Web" functionality, including a rudimentary browser, that Amazon lists under a link titled "Experimental." Translation: Web browsing, and access to the news sites, may not be a permanent feature of the Kindle, and so is a risky reason to buy one.

A final note on gifting: As of today, the Kindle is "temporarily sold out" on Amazon (the device’s only vendor, unsurprisingly).

We'll have more on the Kindle, probably next week on Consumer Reports' Electronics section, as our testing continues.

—Paul Reynolds

Comments

[JR]

You own the book and can read it as many times you want. If you lose your Kindle, you can download it again for free once you get a new piece of hardware.

Kindle has no light. Sony just came out with a reader with one. Link to article is below.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/ptech/stories/10_04_08dnbusReader.d813fe53.html

[Lisa O.]

So, can you, or can you not read a book (or page) more than once with the Kindle?

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[Brenda]

I would like to know if you can use any of these e-books in bed without turning on a light. That is all I want to know.

[David Pitou]

I just bought a Kindle and I like it.

It has these advantages; lightweight and easy to read and carry, fonts that can easily be made larger or smaller so you can read in almost any light, reasonably good free web access, and a huge selection of low priced books, papers, and blogs.

It has these disadvantages; few magazines, no color, poor b&w picture quality, and a gray background.

[Gene Weisskopf]

I've been longing for e-books for years and years, so it's great to see a huge, modern company like Amazon promoting e-books via their Kindle However, my primary complaint is that the Kindle is like the chicken-before-the-egg, or is it the cart before the horse? The way the transition to e-books *should* work is that the publishing industry as a whole should standardize on an unlicensed, royalty-free electronic format for publications, and then let it rip.

Hardware (book displayers) would appear from dozens of different companies in various sizes and shapes, and readers could simply use their computers if they wanted to read that way. Every industry that has anything to publish could get on board, and I'd be a very happy participant. Sure, there might be advertising to pay for the publications, or maybe there'd be no or just a few ads and I'd pay a subscription, but my reading device would be able to handle publications from everyone.

In fact, I'm already pretty happy just by using an existing e-book tool -- my Web browser on my computer. The secret is that I have a computer in the living room, with a 19" LCD screen positioned in front of the couch. In the morning, I take a glass of juice and sit down and read the New York Times -- online, for free, on a brilliant, large screen, with color photos and all the rest (yes, ads, too, but I'm used to that). I'm stuck in one place in the house, but it's a very comfortable place in a convenient location, day or night. I could use my laptop, but I'd rather have a lightweight keyboard on my lap, not a heavy laptop computer. Oh, my mouse is on the arm of this Mission-style couch.

Anyway, the Kindle is a wonderful device for today, still early in the game. But the last thing I want to see is multiple, competing companies all trying to sell their own versions of e-books. Compete to sell the best hardware, but let the books and other publications come from anywhere and everywhere.

P.S. My second of 138 comments I could make -- the cost of e-books. A Kindle version of a $25 hardback should cost not $9, but more like $3 or $4. The publishing house is avoiding a *huge* cost by not having to print, store, handle, and ship books, let alone get them back again a year later when the bookstores haven't sold them. Plus, sales could only go higher if prices were reduced to that "can't resist" point. As someone who has earned a living via royalties, it's not hard for me to figure out that a smaller royalty per sale is fine if they're selling many more books.

[Donna]

Has anyone tried to use the kindle with no ambient light. Is the display light enough that you don't need a book light?

[Derek]

I bought a Kindle for my wife for christmas and she loves it. We live in Albuquerque (low coverage Sprint area) and she has had no problems using the device. She has expressed that she prefers the Kindle to a book because she can put the kindle on her lap and read without having to hold it. She also expressed that the display was easier on her eyes than a standard print book. Her only draw back was she wishes that the keys could be locked (except for the page turning buttons) because as you can see from the picture, thare arent too many places to hold it without pressing a button or covering the screen. Hope this helped.

[Gary Anderson]

Something to keep in mind is that many areas of the USA have no Sprint Data Network coverage at all or coverage is at low speed. The over the air downloading will not work if you have no coverage in your area and will be slow if you live in an area with low speed coverage. You can check for coverage on the Kindle page on Amazon.

I live in Albuquerque NM and the maps shows only low speed coverage here and most of NM has no coverage at all. Not good.

[Cognitive Libertarian]

> I dont like DRM just like the next person
> but this isnt the venue for it.

You are in a Consumer Reports forum; Consumer Reports advocates for the /consumer/. Of course this is the venue for it. DRM is the most relevant "feature" Paul Reynolds could have highlighted, and he missed it. If consumers need to be informed about anything, it's DRM - which is what Amazon marketing has withheld.

So I've done some homework. What I've found is that DRM for the Kindle is restrictive enough to prevent buyers from reading non-Amazon content on the Kindle! You cannot simply upload a PDF file to the Kindle that you paid dearly for. This fact should be boldfaced at the top of the article.

And that just scratches the surface. What other DRM features are consumers going to have to wrestle with? Is the operating system also encrypted to prevent consumers from using 3rd party software?

[Eric Brown]

As a long-time reader, I think you miss some important points in assessing the Kindle: for tired eyes, the ability to vary type size, instantly look up words in text from an electronic dictionary, gaze only at a single page at a time, read in bright sunlight, and hold a volume easily in hand are major advances that allow the reader to truly become immersed in reading.

[Sean M.]

Not for nothing ppl but im here to find out info from ones who used this item so i can consider buying it or not. I dont need to go through a hundred anti drm and down with the corprate world. I dont like DRM just like the next person but this isnt the venue for it. STICK TO REVIEWING THE PRODUCT.

[Heelo]

You anti-DRM fanatics are way off-base, especially in regards to the Kindle.

Once you buy a Kindle book from Amazon you own it for life. If you lose or destroy your Kindle and the books on it, they can be re-downloaded once you replace the hardware. They are books for life that will never wear and cannot be lost. That cannot be said about an "analog" book.

It is true that you cannot loan, sell, or give away ebooks. But that said, I don't know many people who buy books with those intentions being a strong motivator at the time of purchase. I do however, know many people with dozens or hundreds of books and magazines that they will never read again cluttering their homes.

Additionally, between the ecological resources saved by forgoing the production and distribution of physical books, and the ability to download an read the first chapter of every available ebook for free, this should be a no-brainer.

[Laura]

I want to get one of these -- eventually. I want it mainly for the large print capability and the lightness. However, I feel $399 is too much to pay, and I'll wait for the price to come down. I may even wait till Amazon comes out with an improved model, what with all the criticisms of the first version.

Its being out of stock at Amazon has created something of a buying frenzy at eBay, and I'm finding that interesting to watch. Some people are paying 3 times its retail price.

[Lajeanne Leveton]

I'm considering one, due to the factor of being able to vary the font size and increase it. Large print books are hard to find, not all books are published in large print, and cost outrageously. This is something positive to keep in mind for the elderly, and those with eyesight problems. The light weight is a factor for the elderly as well, and for people with limitations of upper body strength, limbs, and so on. I think those who assume we can all easily read paperbacks, and large hardcover books in normal font, are forgetting a large portion of the population for whom this sort of thing MAY be a godsend.

[C. Callas]

I bought one for my husband for Christmas, and played with it for a while to make sure I thought it would work for him. I also downloaded one book to get him started. I was favorably impressed, and I believe even my (somewhat technically-challenged) husband will like using it. The book download took just under a minute, as advertised. One advantage not mentioned here over static-ink books is the ability to change the text size to suit your comfort level. And, my husband is an avid reader of recent, mostly non-fiction hardcover books, so I'm hoping to save a little money in the long run as well as a few trees. He reads them once and then gives them away, so the only loser will be the library book sales.

[C Burwell]

I saw no mention of battery life. How long would this device last on a road trip before recharging?

[B. Goodman]

This DRM-entangled junk is precisely the type of thing I expect Consumer Reports to WARN people about. Why would you pay good money for an e-book that locks you into one device and gives you no ability to share, sell, or give away when you're done. Seriously, imagine if every book you bought had to be burned as soon as you finished the last page! Don't you think CR would be warning people NOT to fall for this??

Seriously, if people would REJECT these onerous DRM "solutions", they'd BE REMOVED. Please avoid supporting this digital tyranny! (And while I'm at it, avoid buying into HD DVD and Blu-Ray for the same reasons!)

[Justin Gombos]

The review neglects the single most important factor: licensing. The idea is to license books like software, so consumers cannot (for example) read a book multiple times (making each page readable exactly once), loan it to friends, borrow it from the library, pass it on to their children, or sell it when they're done. And they want to be able to throw the DMCA book at consumers who violate their restrictions. Consumers are not so foolish that they would by a hardcopy with a shrink wrap EULA, but if you package it like software and sell it that way, they will. The plan has been (since the introduction of eBooks) to entice consumers with some novel, convenient device, purely as a vehicle for transferring readers from books to eBooks (tm) (c). Eink is precisely the device (read: distraction) for accomplishing this. eBooks only failed originally because consumers didn't like to read books off a backlit screen.

If Consumer Reports is advocating for the /consumer/, they have a responsibility to spotlight this fact along with any electronic paper device they review.

[Wendell Lorang]

How do reviewers and users feel about the Kindle for people with the use of only
one arm due to stroke, etc.? Thanks

[ACrl]

On thing I would like to know is: Can you use it in Canada? I looked for any info on that aspect and couldn't find any information. I see it uses Sprint, so I really don't think that you will be able to use it up here in the vast north of this wonderful continent that we call North America !
[As a Canadian -- I moved here from Ottawa in 1993 -- I'm sympathetic! As you say, there's no indication of Canadian compatibility, and the fact that Amazon specifies that the Kindle can't be shipped to Canada, or anywhere else outside the U.S., suggests you'll be unable to use it north of the border -- Paul Reynolds]

[AMITinSF]

error in report: newspaper subscriptions start at $5.99/month. only a couple are $13.99.

[S. Chapman]

As a drawback to the Kindle, Paul Reynolds states that Sprint rates among the worst providers for cellular phone service. However, the Kindle doesn't use phone service; it uses Sprint's cellular data service, which is as good or better than most other providers, especially the dreadfully slow Edge network from AT&T.