Considering buying a Kindle .. No idea which one to get

lil_tuts

Just looking into the Kindle , The touch screen really caught my eye but you have to order it from the Amazon.com site. And Im not 100% how the store works when buying the books , if i would be restricted to that site then for buying books or if there would be any other complications? Also If i were to just scrap that idea and get one from the .co.uk site which would you recommend ? The normal kindle for £89 or the keyboard version for £149 .

Torqay

lil_tuts wrote: »

if i would be restricted to that site then for buying books

If you buy from scAmazon you'll throw yourself at their mecry. It should be noted that you are not buying books. As Amazon will tell you, they're not selling books but rather licenses to read the books, under aggressively restrictive and prohibitive terms and conditions, mind you.

If you buy a Kindle you are essentially supporting their policies but thanks to a variety of conversion tools deDRM scripts, you are by no means limited to Amazon's book store. You can get your books anywhere you want and read them on the Kindle. It does, however, require a certain degree of knowledge, because you will have to remove DRM encryption (under fair use, of course) in order to get those books onto the Kindle.

And then there are plenty online libraries (i.e. Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive) offering hundred thousands of free books which are no longer copyright protected and thus in the public domain.

Dades

lil_tuts wrote: »

Just looking into the Kindle , The touch screen really caught my eye but you have to order it from the Amazon.com site. And Im not 100% how the store works when buying the books , if i would be restricted to that site then for buying books or if there would be any other complications? Also If i were to just scrap that idea and get one from the .co.uk site which would you recommend ? The normal kindle for £89 or the keyboard version for £149 .

I would avoid the touchscreen - it lacks the nice 'clicky' forward/back buttons that are a feature of the old versions, and the next model "down".

I have a Kindle 3 with keyboard, and if I was upgrading I'd probably get the keyboardless one without the touchscreen.

You can buy or find all your books online and have them delivered wirelessly so you don't really need to transact on the device at all.

boobar

I have the Kindle with the keyboard.

Top class I have to say. Can't compare it to any other model as I haven't used any others.

But the e-ink is a joy and the large amount of books that can be stored is great.

Kindle is a great e-reader.

Ballyman

I have the keyboard one also and I love it. However if I was buying again I would get the cheapest model available as I never use the keyboard at all and all I ever use is the navigation button and page forward/back. To be honest thats all you will ever need 99% of the time if you are using it to read books.

Pj!

I'd also go for the cheapest model. Not for the want of saving money but I think it's a great package.
As Ballyman has said there is no need for a keyboard and I personally think a reader is better off without a touchscreen.

PurplePrincess

I'd give another vote for the normal kindle, you don't really need a keyboard or touchscreen in my opinion
Haven't put mine down since I got it, well worth the money!!!

lizzybradbury

I have the Kindle with the keyboard and 3G and even though it was expensive (not for me, it was a gift from my husband!) I think it's brilliant.

I think I could live without the 3G at the moment because I usually buy books on my Kindle when I have a wireless connection, however if you travel a lot you would probably value the 3G as then you can buy books and download them in under a minute pretty much anywhere.

Having the keyboard and buttons I consider essential as I used a touch screen Kindle someone has and couldn't even navigate it! But that may well be because I'm used to my one.

Kindle's are great if your eyes get strained because you can make the text as big as you like so it's easy to read and even have it read to you by a funny robot voice - haha!

Kindle 3G with keyboard pluses:

Download books anywhere
Can type notes
Use the keyboard to navigate larger books like bibles or encyclopaedias
Larger screen to read on
Easier to navigate because of the buttons

Kindle Touch pluses:

Cheaper but has no 3G as far as I know which limits your book buying
Smaller so it's easier to carry around (Though harder to navigate)

General Kindle Pluses:

Easy & smart to carry
Can carry hundreds of books
Can buy a new book pretty much anywhere, anytime and have it downloaded in seconds
Easy on the eyes because it's not backlit so doesn't strain
Adjustable font sizes
Ability to make notes (ideal for textbooks etc)
Can get emails on it
Can get cheaper magazine subscriptions

As you can see I'm a Kindle fan. Finally you can buy pretty much all books through Amazon so there's an amazing selection and your supporting the e-publishing world!

vibe666

i have the kindle 3 and i've bought the kindle 4, kindle touch and kindle fire for relatives and used them all quite a bit now and everyone is very happy with them. i even got one for my 60 odd year old dad and my step mum robbed it so i had to buy him another one (out of his money, this time!) as he never got a look in.

if i was travelling, i'd hands down go for the 3G kindle 3 as you can use the browser (totally free, with no data charges at all, ever) to access gmail, facebook and other static(ish) web pages, which is a godsend if you need to get online but don't want to lug around a laptop as the battery last for ages (literally several weeks), even with heavy use and the 3G on. obviously, this is when the keyboard is essential, but just for reading books, it's not really needed unless you want to make a lot of notes.

add a solar charging cover and you can pretty much go wherever you like and never ever even need to worry about charging it.

if you're not going to be travelling a lot with it, then go for the kindle touch. the only time you'll miss having buttons on it is if you've had another kindle for a while and gotten used to the buttons being there. if you don't already have an older kindle then you'll do fine and the touch screen is plenty intuitive enough and you'll never miss not having buttons.

also, you aren't restricted to using amazon to get your books, calibre ebook manager will allow you to put whatever books you like onto it (or any other ereader) via USB with very little fuss and is very easy to use.

boobar

Pj! wrote: »

I'd also go for the cheapest model. Not for the want of saving money but I think it's a great package.
As Ballyman has said there is no need for a keyboard and I personally think a reader is better off without a touchscreen.

I'll second that, I have the keyboard and have never used it.

Some people also say that the touchscreen can get quite smudged and that will annoy you after a while.

I had the kindle keyboard non 3g and now have the kindle 4 non-touch. have to say that I preferred the keyboard as I found it easy to hold - kindle 4 is almost too small.

johnayo

I have the bog standard non keyboard-non touchscreen model. Absolutely brilliant piece of kit.

pavb2

Can you buy the (one with the small square controller) non- touch, non -keyboard one with 3g? What model is this one.

Thanks

johnayo

pavb2 wrote: »

Can you buy the (one with the small square controller) non- touch, non -keyboard one with 3g? What model is this one.

Thanks

Not available in 3G. Wi-fi only.

vibe666

tbh, if you have a smartphone you can most likely tether a wifi kindle to your phone for internet access, but you will most probably find you don't even need 3G access 99% of the time as you'd only use it to download new books and if you really think about it when are you likely to be in a position where you can't wait a few hours to download a book from home or the office over wifi?

longhalloween

I'd recommend a kindle 4.

Touch screen is more of a gimmick than a necessity with this ereader, and a keyboard is only necessary if you want to add notes to your books.

If you have a computer and internet at home then the 3g isn't needed either.

Tesco are selling them for €110 euro which is probably the best price for a b&m shop or you can pick them up second hand for €70-€80 on adverts or donedeal.

fourcats

I was about to post a similar question, thanks for that. Also, if I bought one from Tesco will I be able to download books at the UK price? I have heard of people being only able to buy from the US site which I am told are more expensive?

vibe666

the UK kindle store is for UK residents only (something to do with publishing rights afaik), so everyone outside the UK has to use the international kindle store which is US based.

there is a workaround of changing your billing address to a UK one to get around it, but if you keep swapping it back and forth, amazon will eventually cop on and disable your account.

fitzie79

i'm considering buying a kindle as well and the feedback here is great - seems for what i want there is no need to buy one with the keyboard or 3g. however, i don't want to buy one and find that in 1 or 2 months it is superceded. Does anyone know if the kindle fire (or something similar) is likely to be hitting these shores soon?

vibe666

the kindle fire isn't an ebook reader, it's a tablet, it's apples and oranges.

if you want an ebook reader then the (regular) kindle is the way to go so you just have to decide on touch or non-touch really. i've used both and i prefer the touch, but everyone is different and some say they don't think it's needed.

Piliger

I am buying a Kindle Touch from PC World at 135 euros this week. I refuse to be fobbed off the Amazon/com site and have already started sourcing eBooks from many other sites such as Smashwords.com and other great indie sites. You don't have to limit yourselves to Amazon for buying eBooks.

lil_tuts

I ended up getting the Kindle touch on Sunday on my 3rd book already and figured out how to download the books for free , Happy Days

BostonB

Anyone try PDF on the kindle? I was wondering was it worth going for the Sony for its better PDF support?

lil_tuts

all mine are in PDF and are fine

vibe666

BostonB wrote: »

Anyone try PDF on the kindle? I was wondering was it worth going for the Sony for its better PDF support?

i have a mate who had a sony ereader and after having a mess with with my kindle he sold his on ebay and bought a kindle for himself.

he was a big reader himself as he was working away from home a lot and used to chew through books daily.

never had any issues with pdf books, but A4 pdf docs can come out slightly wonky if converted, but are still perfectly readable.

BostonB

Thanks for the feedback.