A first impressions review

Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device - $359.00

I just got my Kindle yesterday, and spent all last evening reading and playing with. Here are my initial thoughts and experiences, which might be helpful for those still considering whether or not to buy this hot new toy.

First and foremost, the Kindle comes in a simple but elegant white box designed to look like a nice, thick book, with an elastic latch to keep it closed. The box has random black letters sprinkled all over it, sort of like a cute alphabet rain. In fact one has to look carefully just to see what it is, since the word "Kindle" is modestly placed. Upon opening the box in a book-like manner, you find the Kindle nicely displayed in a window on the right hand side. The two sides of the box open from the top, and each holds some sort of paper/foam like tray. The right hand tray has the Kindle on top and the cover underneath, while the right hand side holds all the cables and such.

Upon taking out the Kindle you immediately notice just how light it is. For the size, about that of a trade paperback in width and height, it really seems almost of little substance comparatively speaking, and it's probably not much thicker than an iPod. The plastic housing is very nice, perhaps a slightly off-white coloring. Although the Kindle is seems to be sturdy, when you look at it and feel it in your hands, it really feels fragile. I have noticed that the alignment of the buttons along the left and right edges, where the Previous, Next, and Back buttons resides, is very slightly off, rather than being flush even with one another, and that also adds slightly to the impression that the device might not be sturdy. Upon further inspection and use, you realize that it is indeed sturdy, but for those who might open their Kindle for the first time, I thought it worthwhile to point out this so you won't grow afraid that you might break your Kindle if you sneeze on it or anything.

After plugging in the Kindle to charge it, and turning it on for the first time, the Kindle User's Guide opened automatically, and against my general policy to "play first, read the manual later after I've screwed something up," I found myself somehow enthralled by the reading experience, and I probably read the first two to three chapters at least straight through as if I was reading the latest Stephen King thriller. Having spent the last few weeks addicted to the Kindle forums on Amazon, I was anxious to partake in the reading experience on the Kindle, and I have to admit it didn't disappoint. At one point I clicked to go to "Home" to see if my Kindle books had been downloaded from Amazon, and nothing but the User Guide was listed. I went back to the User Manual for a couple of minutes and then checked again, and then the entire library was listed. Not sure if that was a brief glitch or it just took that long to download my books (there were about 9 of them), but I suspect it was the latter.

The interface takes a bit of getting used, especially in the world of mice and touchpads (which I use in place of a mouse). The Select wheel works well once you have grown accustomed to it, but at first I found a bit hard to control. With my disability, it's not as easy to properly grip the Kindle to click the selected items, but like most things, once I worked out the best way to do it, it got easier. And turning the wheel was a bit of an adjustment too because I found it hard to apply enough force to move the wheel without over-scrolling, which again, is a problem specific to me because of my own limitations on manual dexterity. But after using it for a while, these problems became less and less of an issue. Once you get used to the Kindle interface, just like any other operating system or interface you've ever used, it becomes easy to get around. The cursor is always set to the home position, which means that simply clicking it will bring up the menu to navigate around the Kindle and access its other features. Another great thing about the Kindle's interface is that it always remembers where you left off in reading a book. It has bookmarking features as well, but I found being able to stop, go off and play elsewhere, then returning to the exactly where I left off, to be extremely convenient. After finishing the User's Manual, I switched to the book "Physics of the Impossible..." by Dr.Michio Kaku, a book I had already started reading in print form, but decided to complete on the Kindle. My reading experience was not dimminished, and in fact, was enhanced because the Kindle is easier for me to manipulate than the bulky printed book.

As many have commented, the screen is an ash gray, darker than it looks in many of the photos. But if you read for a few minutes in good like (the same level of light one would need for a printed book), you soon realize that the letters are crisp and dark and are well contrasted to the screen, making the book easy to read. I don't know if its precisely comparable to reading a printed book, but it's far superior to reading long passages of text on an LCD or CRT screen. Your eyes do not grow tired, depending upon what size lettering you choose, the words are easier to see than on a standard paperback book, especially a mass market paperback, of which my poor, aging eyes now find a much less pleasant experience than it used to be.

When I made the choice to purchase the Kindle, I readily accepted the fact that it had a low resolution display, and being a graphic designer (as well as a writer), I was prepared to accept the limitations that would mean. But frankly, the display is far crisper and detailed than I expected, and it seems to me that the lack of color and the screen's overall size is more limiting to the graphic capabilities than its resolution. It really is an impressive thing to behold.

As I've said, this is a first impressions review, so I have not tried everything yet. I have not shopped for books through the Kindle yet (I've spent enough in purchases prior to receiving my Kindle as is), but I am looking forward to the convenience. I've only tried a couple of the links under Experimental web browser so far, but the web page display is the same as that one might see on a cellphone, more text based. I'm sure it will be hard to browse more complex web pages on it, and while I can think of some instances where it would be convenient for me to use the Kindle as a web device, I much prefer it to be an e-reader first and foremost, because it does that particular function oh so well. There have been several e-readers over the last few years, but the Kindle is the first one that even remotely piqued my interest, let alone inspired me to buy one. As an independent author and publisher, the Kindle excites me as a great new platform through which to share my works. But as a reader, I'm already anxious to complete this review so I can go and read some more. In fact, for the first time in a long, long time, I'm thinking more about having to take time out from reading to watch certain television shows tonight, rather than the other way around.

So, having owned my Kindle for all of one day, my first impressions of it is that it has in no way disappointed me so far. I once posed the question if the Kindle had "re-Kindled" people's love for reading. I think I now understand why the Kindle is exciting so many people. It's not that it's rekindled the love for reading, but it's the first device to come along that enhances the reading experience, something that no other device has successfully done before. With all of the available features along with an extensive bookstore right at your fingertips, nothing before has come along to make reading such an easy and interactive experience. As author Neil Gaiman says in his video on the Kindle page, this isn't a just a reader, it's a library. And one other thing that strikes me about the Kindle is that it's not only a device which I think will be a major boon in time for disabled people, but it also provides a much improved reading experience for the average "able-bodied" reader. Some things I'd like to see are sticky keys to make key combinations easier, if it had a touch screen or stylus device to perform tasks like highlighting text, navigating the menus, etc., that would greatly enhance the experience. And when the color Kindle eventually comes along, assuming the price point is conducive to enticing users to upgrade, the already hot Kindle could be near incendiary.

I see a lot of growth potential for the Kindle over time, as it's certainly not perfect. What I do think it is a well-engineered, well designed product that was built with the needs and wants of the reader in mind. And quite frankly, I think overall Amazon got it just right. This isn't the ultimately e-reading device, but it is the first generation of what I suspect will be one day.

Until the perfect e-reader comes along, I look forward to having much fun with what seems to me the next best thing. And anyone who decides to take the leap to Kindle probably will be as happy they did as I am.