February 26th, 2009
Review: Amazon Kindle 2 5-way controller more significant than form factor improvement
Back when the original Kindle was announced I hesitated about buying one because I wasn’t that impressed with the form factor. A few days later I decided I would probably enjoy the device only to then find out they were sold out for quite some time. Josh Bancroft then posted an article that further aided in my purchase justification so I bought my Kindle a few months after they were released. This time around I decided to order the Kindle 2 as soon as it was announced a couple of weeks ago and yesterday it arrived. I didn’t want to be stuck waiting for them to come back in stock again, but see they are actually still listed as In Stock on the Amazon site so either the demand is not as great as last time or the supply is better than last time. In today’s economy, I can see more people hesitating to buy such a device so believe the demand is less than the Kindle 1.
You can check out my image gallery that includes comparison shots between the Kindle 2, Kindle 1, and Sony Reader 505. I also shot a video of the Kindle 2 showing comparison between it and the Kindle 1 in regards to the new Whispersync capability, searching, scroll wheel versus 5-way controller, and the text to speech functionality. There are several small surprises in the Kindle 2 that I haven’t seen mentioned by others yet that actually make it much more compelling above and beyond the major form factor improvement. So far, I am quite pleased with my new Kindle, but there are still some changes I would like to see in Kindle 3.
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| Image Gallery:Check out some unboxing and comparison photos of the Amazon Kindle 2, Kindle 1 and Sony Reader 505. |  |
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Hardware - What’s in the box?: The Kindle 1 came in a cool white box and I enjoyed the unboxing experience. The Kindle 2 has a completely different packaging scheme, but still is a bit unique and makes the buyer feel like they purchased something special. The box is only about an inch and a half thick and the wrapping is integrated into the cardboard shipping box. There are a couple of pull down perforated strips to open the outer box and the internal box. There is some cool black packaging with glossy letters all over it as you dive into the Kindle 2 packaging.
The original Kindle also came with a basic carrying case (that didn’t hold the Kindle very securely), but the new Kindle does not include any case at all. I LOVE the M-Edge case and e-Luminator light and plan to pick one of these combos up for the Kindle 2 as well.
In addition to the Kindle 2, you will find a USB 2.0 cable with A/C adapter plug and Quick Start Guide. The Kindle 2 charges via the bottom microUSB port and I verified that my Nokia microUSB charger works just fine to charge it as well. microUSB is becoming the new standard for charging mobile phones so I personally liked seeing the Kindle use this same port for charging. The cool USB adapter wall plug uses universal prongs so it should be easy to use on the go if you don’t want to just use the USB cable to charge it up. Unfortunately, the Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 charging ports are different so you can’t use the same charger. The Kindle 2 User’s Guide is preinstalled on the device in PDF format. Your Kindle comes with a 1 year limited warranty and there is an option to purchase a 2nd year as well.
Hardware - so what’s different between the Kindle 1 and 2 models?: I mentioned the differences in an earlier post, but am reposting them here now that I have both Kindle models side-by-side in my hand and can offer my personal experiences and thoughts.
The new features of the Kindle 2 over the existing Kindle 1 include the following:
- Weight reduced from 10.3 to 10 ounces
- Thickness reduced from 0.7 (thickest area) to 0.36 inches
- Display improved with 16 shades of gray compared to 4 shades in Kindle 1.0
- Integrated available 1.4 GB of memory to store 1,500 ebooks (Kindle 1.0 had 180MB and SD card)
- 25% longer battery life (this will take me some time to verify myself)
- 5-way controller compared to previous scroll wheel
- Pages turn 20% faster (actually seems even more improved than this in side-by-side usage)
- New text-to-speech feature (check out my video to hear the male and female voices)
- Rear mounted stereo speakers (Kindle 1 had a single mono speaker)
- Whispersync feature (view my video to see this feature in action on both Kindles)
These things remain the same:
- Whispernet wireless service, provided by Sprint
- QWERTY keyboard (though it is redesigned in Kindle 2.0)
- 6 inch 600×800 pixels display
- USB 2.0 port
- 3.5mm headset jack
Go to the next page to read more about some new improvements ยป
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 02/27/09
