Kindle - the review

Its been about 5-6 weeks since I have started using a Kindle and I believe it is long enough to write a review. My Kindle is a 3rd Generation Kindle (with the small screen) with special offers - worth USD 114. For the record, it was a gift from my lovely wife on my just-passed birthday. I picked a good partner.

I will write more about Kindle in the following lines, but it is a device meant only for reading. Don't buy it to do anything else. This is for bibliophiles - not geeks. If you are a geek - buy an iPad or something like that - where you can read books and read emails and browse internet and listen to music and watch movies and video chat and so on. The Kindle is not a general purpose electronic device, and I repeat, it is meant only for reading. Did I tell you, it is only for book lovers?

Right, now that I have put the reason d'etre of Kindle in clear perspective, let's proceed. Here are my quick notes:

• Best device to read. With a nice black and white display and fluid options for page navigation, it is easy enough to read and addictive enough to keep you hooked.
• Form factor is good - fits nice into your palms, easy to hold with a single hand too and still navigate pages with ease. The only complaint I have is that it too thin and too light that it can easily slip out of your hands or hold (I have dropped it a few times already - unfortunately.)
• The hardware seems rigid - and as I said I have dropped it a few times and no major damage done. It also doesn't heat up - so you can hold it in your hands for many hours.
• The battery life is just about brilliant. I don't bother with charging. Seriously, I don't. Once in a while, when I plug it into my laptop for copying books, it gets enough charge to last me till the next such occasion. For the record, the Kindle can go 3 weeks without a charge if you don't use Wifi and 2 weeks if you turn your Wifi on.
• In terms of supported formats - the primary support is for AZW, amazon's own format and generally available only from amazon, and mobi. In general, this is good enough since calibre can easy convert almost any format into mobi and the experience is promising. PDF reading is a bit of an issue though, because reading it directly means that the screen is too small and if you adjust your zoom level, then you are left with too much scrolling for the experience to be good. Converting PDFs into mobi is ok for PDFs with primarily text content - but if you have PDFs with lots of images and such, skip it. 
• Getting content for the Kindle is reasonably straight forward - amazon itself is the best source - it has free and paid books. Prices are costly if you compare to Indian retail prices, but not if you compare to Singapore retail prices. There is of course a decent supply of free content around the internet - both legal and illegal - so chose your pick. 
• The e-Ink technology is just about brilliant - no glare, very easy on the eyes - and the comparable technologies - iPad (too much glare), Computer (again, glare and not easy on the eyes) don't even come close.
• No distractions - all you are doing is reading a book - and not getting a popup here and there for an email or a text message or a call. That makes the experience well rounded.
• The special offers that comes with this price is totally non-intrusive and not detrimental to the reading experience.
• Lastly, it is the price. US$114 (plus shipping to Singapore made it SGD 157) is attractive enough that you should consider buying it. It is cheaper that your mobile (and cheaper than say even 3 months of mobile bills), TV, Computer, A bicycle, a dinner at a costly restaurant with drinks or two dinners at a not-so-costly-restaurant. It is great pricing.

If you are a book lover, who reads at least 10 books a year, Kindle is the device for you.