My Kindle 2 Experience.

“Why do I even need to get an ebook reader? I already have a laptop I carry around with me everywhere I go…”

That was me up until about a month ago. I finally decided to get a Kindle 2 over a Sony ebook reader and I’m not even sure if there’s anything else out there on the market. It was a shot in the dark and I’m actually really happy about the decision.

Here are a few highlights and demerits from my experience thus far. If it gets boring or you’re just completely uninterested about my review, check out this really awesome picture from WWF (no, NOT the World Wrestling Federation).

Highlights

• Fits inside my cow book where I take notes or just draw things to keep me from falling asleep
• Very easy on the eyes unlike a laptop’s screen
• Just enough text on screen to read and not lose focus since I have a hard time focusing when reading
• No distracting applications like DOSBox+XenonII and Visual Studio
• Reading it on a plane – less worry about battery life and the person in front of you leaning back in their seat than a laptop

Demerits

• No SD card support
• No native PDF support – has to be emailed to a service, downloaded, and then moved to the Kindle 2
• It’s white. White tends to get dirty quickly and easily. I need a skin or something…

Neutral

• No backlighting – Reading in the dark is just pointless for me. I’ll pass out after a five or ten minutes.
• Text to Speech – I got the thing to read, not read to me. Plus the voice is really monotone and I’d probably zone out.
• Web browsing capability – I’m reading, not browsing websites, plus the speed is too painful to deal with.
• WiFi magazines, newspapers, book – awesome, but I haven’t yet utilized this. I’m still catching up with all the ebooks I already have.