Kindle Paperwhite

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Kip
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Kindle Paperwhite

Post by Kip » Fri May 11, 2018 6:27 pm

So back in January, I had @Stewmuse bring me down a Kindle Paperwhite I'd ordered. First, let me say I previously was one of the more vocal anti-electronic reading apparati people you'll ever meet. I always strongly preferred a real life paper copy of a book. But, when we moved, I had to give away about 85% of my library, which was pushing 1000 or so books at the time. When you pay to ship by weight, paper isn't a good choice. I kept books that are important to me for various reasons, whether historicity, sentiment, or my own margin notes.

All this said, I still prefer a paper copy to hold and read. However, I absolutely adore the Kindle for its simplicity, portability, no frills nature, and ease of use. My notes and/or favored quotes in a given book are immediately at hand, and I can literally carry hundreds of books in my pocket. The screen is bigger than a phone (easy on old eyes) yet smaller than an unwieldy tablet. It's perfectly proportioned in a traditional paperback format.

As I mentioned, mine is the Paperwhite version which has what I can only describe as black magic in terms of readability in any light - even bright Caribbean sun. There's no fancy color graphics, no browser, no games, no apps. It's just pure, straightforward reading, which is exactly what I wanted.

The battery life, I'm guessing because of the no-frills mentioned above, is phenomenal. They claim 6-8 weeks per charge with 30 minutes per day of reading. I believe I'm beating that handily so far. I easily exceed 30 minutes most days and have only charged it twice these first 4 months - both times before it was actually needed.

I don't understand how the screen works, but it isn't a traditional method. They describe it as a kind of "electronic ink". This is where the readability comes from, but also allows a screen to appear lit with no electrical demand while it's not in use. I don't get it - but I don't have to. I'll leave that to the engineers.

I've grown to carry this thing in my backpack to read after lunch or other down times, keep it by the bed because I don't sleep much but don't always feel like rising for the day when I wake up in the middle of the night. It's almost always nearby. I dig it. A lot.

I don't even know why I'm posting this here, except I was just sitting around appreciating the heck out of this thing.

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White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise....

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kurtdesign1
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Re: Kindle Paperwhite

Post by kurtdesign1 » Tue May 15, 2018 4:28 pm

every so often someone invents one of those indispensable yet completely unnecessary things that changes your life a little bit. Mine was my first car with cruise control. It's mindbogglingly simple yet so, so appreciated.

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Kip
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Re: Kindle Paperwhite

Post by Kip » Tue May 15, 2018 5:53 pm

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I loudly climbed a soapbox to trash e-readers. While I still love the feel of an old book, I now count myself amongst the Kindle proselytes.

Funny thing is, most of my past distaste for e-readers came from Kindle. The software/app I've tried on phone, tablet, AND laptop just didn't cut it for me. The size, the screen, the glare....many reasons. But I gotta say I've fallen hard for this thing.

Besides the huge difference in readability and size/format convenience, I think the lack of frills ranks pretty high for me on my favorite aspects list. With this device, I'm not tempted to be distracted by the myriad mindless other things I would be were it a phone, tablet, or computer.

Sent from my SM-G610M using Tapatalk
White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise....

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