Interesting blogs of Ashwyn

Kindle Paperwhite Review

Date: 18 August 2016
Rating: 4 Star 
Verdict: It is a very nice Device!

Review

This is Review of Kindle Paperwhite Wifi 2015. I purchased 
Kindle Paperwhite (Black) at Rs.8999 in December 2015 in a 
festival discount. I also got Rs.1000 as Promotional Balance 
to purchase Kindle Ebooks from Amazon. Every One or Two months 
there is Amazon sale in which Kindle prices are reduced. But Rs.1000 
Promotional Balance may not be there now.

Kindle is a device to read ebooks and personal documents
which are in the format of AZW3, AZW, MOBI, PRC, PDF, TXT.  
You need Wifi to download ebooks. Once you have downloaded 
ebook, You can read it offline. Ebooks can be free or paid.

Before Puchasing Kindle I loved it so much that I searched 
for every bit of information on the internet. But nothing 
much was available. Not even in the customer reviews. 
So after purchasing Kindle, I decided to share every 
bit of information that I have about Kindle for people 
who want to buy Kindle.

KINDLE DOESN'T HAVE ANY SERVICE OR REPAIR CENTRE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. 
IF THE DEVICE STOPS WORKING IT'S YOUR RISK.

Pros

1. Good Packing feels like an international product.
2. It is very thin, light and small. Easily fits in pocket.
3. It is much smaller than you think after seeing online pictures
 and specs
4. Once you switch on the device it automatically guides you about 
how to use it and register. Also there is a User's Guide Ebook in 
Kindle which explains all functions.
5. Screen is Glare Free much better than a smartphone or tablet. 
You can read even in bright Sunlight. If the backlight is 
turned Off, reading Screen's white portion is yellowish just 
like the paper of books. That's why it is called Paperwhite.
6. There are two separate models of Kindle Paperwhite. 
One with only Wifi and other one with Wifi and 3G. 
The 3G model has free internet usage. 
You will not be required to pay internet charges for
downloading books from Amazon in 3G model.
7. Don't get depressed after buying. It will take some time 
to adjust to reading on Kindle from Hard books. You will love 
it once you start reading on Kindle.
8. Everything From Hardware to Software is well thought of 
and planned in minute detail. It is a very intelligent device. 
It is a masterpiece.
9. The Kindle is based on Linux Operating System. In between 
there is Java Runtime Environment. On the top is Java and 
HTML/Javascript.
10. On the bottom of Kindle you have micro-USB port for Transfer
of files/Charging, A LED indicator for charging and An ON/OFF 
button (That is the only button on Kindle except Oasis model).
11. The Charger doesn't come bundled with the Kindle device. 
No need to buy charger. Your Samsung Smartphone charger 
or any other Micro-USB charger will work with this. There 
is only one Micro-USB port in Kindle, use it either to 
connect to PC or charge the Kindle.
12. Electrical rating written on box says "5.25v == 500mA MAX". 
Therefore do not buy charger with rating more than 0.5Amp.
13. Battery life is long enough. It will last 6 Weeks, 
if you read half an hour daily. Provided you keep wifi off and 
set the brightness level at 10 (Kindle Paperwhite).
14. There are 24 levels of brightness. For me Level 7 is enough 
for reading even in darkness.
15. I never need to charge it. I connect to my PC everyday for 
USB synchronization for 5 minutes. That is enough for charging 
this device. 
16. While charging Kindle, Orange indicator light is On, When 
fully charged the indicator light turns to Green.
17. Though the data cable comes with kindle. Any mobile data cable 
will work with this.
18. When you switch ON a smartphone or tablet it takes lot of time 
to boot and then it shows the home screen. But Kindle is switched 
ON in a second and shows the page which you were reading last time.
19. While Reading the Ebook, Touching Screen on Right Bottom will 
turn the page forward. Touching Screen on Left Bottom will turn the 
page backward. Touching Screen anywhere on Top will show the Top 
Toolbars & Menu.
20.In the bottom left corner while reading an ebook, The Kindle shows 
you the percentage of book read and estimated time required to complete 
the chapter and book based on your reading speed.
21. The bottom right corner while reading an ebook shows Wordwise 
control. If you turn wordwise on then kindle will display meaning 
of difficult words in small print on top of the difficult words. 
But that makes reading the book a little bit difficult. You can 
turn wordwise off and then long press difficult word with your 
finger to pop-up its meaning by in-built dictionary.
22. The top right corner of Kindle Screen is for bookmarks. 
While reading book if you tap twice on the top right corner 
of Kindle Screen the page is bookmarked.
23. You can take screenshot in Kindle of any screen like Home Screen, 
EBook Cover, EBook Page etc. You have to touch simultaneously Top Left 
and Bottom Right of the screen with your fingertip. A png file will be 
created. You can retrieve that file by connecting Kindle to your PC 
with USB Cable.
24. You can download MOBI, PRC, PDF, TXT, AZW3 ebooks from internet, 
Then transfer to your kindle from your computer through USB Cable 
and read them. There is no limit to how many books you can transfer 
via USB to Kindle except that your 4GB Kindle memory should have 
space left.
25. You can download EPUB, Doc, RTF and HTML ebooks from Internet, 
then Convert to AZW3 or Mobi using Calibre Free Software, Then transfer
to your kindle from your computer through USB Cable and read them.
26. While reading an ebook, Kindle shows what passage other people 
have highlighted. It also shows what notes they have 
written (from those you follow in kindle community).
27. While reading the ebook, If you slide your finger over a text 
or long press a word with a finger, the text is selected. 
Kindle will display the meaning of the selected word. 
You can search the selected word/text on Wikipedia (Needs Wifi). 
You can translate the selected word/text (Needs Wifi).  
You can Highlight or add notes to selected word/text. 
You can share the selected word/text on Email, Facebook,
Goodreads and Twitter. You can search selected word/text in 
current Book, All books, Kindle Store (Needs Wifi). 
You can open Dictionary. You can Report Content Error 
(Type, Formatting, Image, Other, Comments).
28. When you highlight a text or make notes or bookmark a page 
from ebook, it is stored in My Clippings.txt file. You can access 
this file from your PC using USB cable. You can collect all the 
highlights and notes of a particular ebook using this file. 
Even if you delete highlights, notes, bookmarks from My Clippings.txt 
file, they are not deleted from ebook. 
29. Goodreads is a amazon website that rates, reviews and suggests books. 
Goodreads is integrated with Kindle that means you can access Goodreads 
and all its features from kindle. When you open a book for first time on 
Kindle, The Kindle asks you to mark the book as 'Currently Reading' 
on Goodreads.
30. Whenever you look at a word meaning while reading a ebook by long 
pressing a word with your finger, it is added to Vocabulary builder as 
a flashcard in 'Learning' section. Once you have mastered the word it 
moves to 'Mastered' section. You can also delete a word from vocabulary 
builder.
31. In India Kindle comes with two dictionaries inbuilt viz. 
'Oxford Dictionary of English' and 'The New Oxford American Dictionary'
(Default). You can download a third dictionary with in kindle 
free of cost 'Merriam Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary'
if required.
32. You can download Encyclopedia and Thesaurus from the web in Kindle 
format. It will make your Kindle much more useful device. The site is 
https://kindlefere.com/en/dict
33. There is an experimental browser inbuilt in Kindle. You can use 
it to browse internet. It is experimental means it does not have 
all the features of a browser. If you want to find some information on
Google quickly, you can use this browser on Kindle, rather than booting 
your computer. But it doesn't show the mobile version of the website, 
It shows the desktop version of the website that's why the webpage text
is so small that you have to zoom it by expanding your fingers then scroll
from left to right to read each line. It has Back and Forward Navigation, 
Bookmarks, History and Article Mode. In Article mode, it will delete all 
images and advertisements and present the webpage text neatly formatted 
as an article.
34. All ebooks you purchase from Amazon are stored in Cloud 
(Manage Your Content and Devices), From there, they are downloaded
and synced across all your kindle devices and apps. If you want your 
personal documents or ebooks (purchased from other sources) to be stored 
in Amazon cloud you will have to attach them in a mail and Send-to-Kindle 
email address provided to you when you registered your Kindle with Amazon
(It is shown in Kindle settings also).

For receiving documents through email in Kindle you need to add your personal
email id in the list of approved email ids. Go to Amazon.in website. On the 
top right corner you will see "Your Orders". Expand the menu and you will see 
"Manage your Content and Devices" go to this option. Re-Login if Amazon site 
asks for it. Now in "Manage your Content and Devices" page you will see 
"Preferences" on the top middle of page. Go to this option. Now look for 
"Personal Document Settings" Expand this. Now you will see at the bottom 
"Approved Personal Document E-mail List", in the bottom there is a link 
"Add a new approved e-mail address". Add your email id here. After that 
you can send documents to your kindle through mail.

35. If you want to convert documents (htm, html rtf, doc, docx, txt, zip,
x-zip, mobi, jpg, gif, bmp, png) (File size 50MB) (Not more than 25 
documents attached in a mail) to kindle format you can attach them in a 
mail, put subject as convert and Send-to-Kindle Email address provided 
to you when you registered your Kindle with Amazon (It is shown in Kindle
settings also). Conversion of pdf to Kindle format is done on experimental 
basis. visit this link for more information amazon.in/kindlepersonaldocuments/
36. You can read magazines on Kindle. There is separate 
section for 'Magazines in Kindle Store' on Amazon website. You can buy 
magazines and read it on Kindle. But magazines will be visible only in 
Black & White on Kindle. Most of the Popular Magazines are not available 
in Kindle Formats. You can download free magazines from other sites in 
PDF format and read it. But again reading PDF documents is not easy on 
Kindle due to lack of word wrap. 
37. There is a free software K2pdfopt on the net which optimizes pdf 
documents for reading on Kindle device but it increases the file size 
more than 5 times. But I use WPS Office App on my Android phone to read PDFs. 
It has 'Mobile View' which optimizes PDF file for viewing on mobile.
38. As of now, there are no Indian newspapers available in Kindle format.
39. You can read any article on internet on your kindle device neatly 
formatted and in azw3 format. There are bookmarklets for this like 
Tinderizer, Readability, Klip.me, Instapaper(Instapaper sends article without
images). There are chrome extensions for sending articles to kindle by Amazon, 
Klip.me, fivefilters.org. I use Tinderizer bookmarklet, it is the best.
40. You can also read RSS feeds from different websites and blogs on your Kindle. 
The sites which send RSS feeds to your Kindle are Kindle4RSS.com, 
kindlefeeder.com, sendtoreader.com, zenreads.com, keendly.com, inoreader.com, 
fabreadly.com. But these sites are not much useful. Calibre free software is best 
for sending RSS feeds to your Kindle device. 
41. Also there are many Discussion Forums on the internet for Kindle Device.
http://www.kboards.com/
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/index.php
https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/
42. There are many free books on Amazon which you can download for free on kindle. 
New free ebooks are daily added on Amazon. Besides on Internet there are many free 
ebook sites from where you can download ebooks to your pc then transfer them to 
Kindle through USB cable.
43. The Kindle device automatically updates software from internet and 
reboots whenever required. If the battery is very low it will not 
install updates. Intelligently it will install updates once the battery
is charged.
44. Once you register Kindle with your Amazon account, You don't need 
to change Amazon password in Kindle if you change it on the Amazon site.
45. You can preview a book without leaving your current page by swiping
your finger from bottom of Kindle Screen to top (Kindle Page Flip). 
There are three ways to preview a book: Pagewise, Chapterwise, or by 
using a progress bar. 
46. A toolbar displays on top of Home Screen (while reading book 
it is hidden and only displays If you tap in the top area of 
Kindle Screen). It has following icons on the top line: 
Home, Back, Gear(Airplane Mode, Sync My Kindle, 
All Settings, Backlight Level Slider), Goodreads, Kindle Store, 
Search (Search Everywhere from Home, Search in Book while reading ebook), 
Menu. 
47. The Menu Contains Following Items on Home Screen: My Library, 
My Reading Lists (Shows ebook Samples you have downloaded and 
ebooks from your Amazon WishList), Kindle Store, Goodreads, 
Vocabulary Builder, Experimental Browser, Settings, 
Create New Collection(Collections are folders in which 
you organize ebooks), About Collections. 
48. The Menu Contains Following Items while reading the book: 
Shop Kindle Store, Vocabulary Builder, Settings, Notes, About 
This Book, Sync to Furthest Page Read, Word Wise.
49. The Second Line of the Toolbar has following views on 
home screen (Not while reading a book): 
All(Shows items in the Cloud)/Downloaded View, 
Grid/List/All items/Books/Docs/Collections View, 
Recent/Title/Author/Collection View.
50. While Reading a Book the second line of Toolbar is: 
Goto (Shows Table of Contents to navigate, Notes and Highlights
from the book), X-Ray (This feature is not available for most 
of the books), Aa (Select Font, Font Size, Line Spacing, 
Page Margins, Orientation, Reading Progress (Time left in 
chapter, Time left in book)) Share (Email, Goodreads, 
Facebook, Twitter), Bookmark.
51. In settings you can set Wifi Off (Airplane Mode), Select 
Wifi Networks, Register/Deregister Kindle with Amazon, Manage 
Kindle Passcode, Parental controls (Restrict access to Experimental 
Web Browser, Kindle Store, Cloud and Goodreads on Kindle), Manage 
Device Name, Personal Info, Set Device Time, Customize Home Screen 
View (On/Off Recommendations of other ebooks to buy), Buy Next book
in Series, Delete Saved Wi-Fi Passwords, Whispersync for Books, 
Send-to-Kindle Email, Set the Language for your Kindle, Add Keyboards 
for different Languages, Set default dictionary for each language, 
Enable Word Wise and Vocabulary Builder Flashcards, Refresh the 
display with every page turn, Manage Social Networks to share 
highlighted passages, Manage public notes, popular highlights 
and About this book.
52. While reading ebook if you find an image, you can zoom it. 
Long press image with your finger, a magnifying glass symbol 
appears. Tap on it to zoom an image.
53. After reading the book, the Kindle asks you to rate the book 
on a 5 star scale. It also suggests similar or next in series 
books to buy.
54. If you purchase a book on Amazon and it is not downloading 
on Kindle automatically, Check another book. If it still doesn't 
download automatically, you will need to deregister your kindle 
with Amazon and reregister (Logout of Amazon Account and Relogin) 
from settings. After reregister you will see that all books you 
have purchased are shown in Kindle. Adjust view settings to 
downloaded books and you will see only your books. But collections
(folders) in which you arranged books will not be visible. You will
 need to download your collections from online to offline again 
 after reregister. Then all collections and books will be shown. 
 But books will be shown inside collections and outside also. 
 Change the Display settings to All items and Collections and 
 you will see all folders and books only inside them.
 55. Before purchasing an ebook for Kindle from Amazon, 
 read customer reviews marked with verified purchase. 
 Then look inside the ebook especially its Table of Contents. 
 The look inside is available or not you can see from the picture 
 of the cover of book on the book page. You can also download sample 
 of the ebook to your Kindle Device. The Sample usually contains Table 
 of Contents and First Chapter. Once you decide to buy the book after 
 above 3 steps, search Google with title of the book if epub or mobi 
 version of the book is available for download from any site for free. 
 Usually you will get most popular books free of cost to download 
 from many sites for ex: CraxMe.com/forum.php, forum.mobilism.org, 
 gen.lib.rus.ec, Archive.org, avxhome.se/ebooks, free-ebooks.net, 
gutenberg.org, e-booksdirectory.com, aazea.com/books, mobileread.com/forums.
 If you do not get book after googling and from these sites then purchase
the ebook.
56. By pressing Power button the Kindle just Wakes Up from 
Sleep Mode, It doesn't Restart. To Restart the Kindle press 
power button for 6 seconds continuously. You will get an 
option to Cancel, Restart, Screen Off.
57. You can also jailbreak your kindle device by downgrading 
its update version. Then it will allow you to install custom 
screensavers, epub reader and better pdf files reader etc. 
But It is strongly NOT recommended to jailbreak your device.
58. Kindle and Kindle Lite App for Android/iOS has all the features of Kindle. 
If you buy a Smartphone or tablet and download Kindle App. 
It will become a big screen, Coloured, multipurpose device 
but you will need to charge your Smartphone/Tablet everyday 
for hours. You cannot read Smartphone/Tablet in Sunlight and 
their screens are not glare free. 
You can download and use Kindle Software for Desktop PC also.
OR you can use Kindle Cloud Reader on your Chrome Browser.
59. If you are a regular reader of books and read atleast 30 mins daily 
and if you read western books also then you definitely need Kindle.  
But if you are irregular reader and only read sometimes then better 
option is to buy about 15 hard books for Rs. 3000 than spending 
Rs 9000 for Kindle Paperwhite and save Rs.9000.
60. Kindle device has been replaced by Smartphones.These days almost all
books are available on your smartphone through apps. They are customized 
for viewing on smartphone. There is android app called AnyBooks (Muses Lab) 
it has Thousands of the known and famous books available for free to read. 
If you like to read or listen to summary of self help books then use 
StoryShots (Parsida AB), Any Book Summary (AARK) android apps. 
If you want to read or listen to summary of books in Hindi then 
use GIGL (GIGL-APPLICATIONS), Pocket FM, Yebook android app. If you want
to listen to famous or classic audiobooks then use LibriVox (BookDesign) 
android app. I use Moon+ Reader for reading ebooks on Android Smartphone.

Cons

1. Packing without thermocol or anything else to prevent shock
2. Kindle should come bundled with Wall Charger and Carrying Case 
at the same price.
3. White and Grey color should be available for all Kindle models.
4. Hard User guide that comes with Kindle has just one page in English 
and It tells how to switch on the device, that's all.
5. Complete Technical specifications should also be included 
in the User Guide.
6. Screen is completely Black and White. No Colours. It cannot play 
Video, Audio or Games.
7. Amazon should try to make E-Ink Screen of Kindle Coloured. Invest 
in R&D for this.
8. There are no Page Turn Buttons or a Home button on Kindle. 
Including them will make it more convenient.
9. For most of the ebooks there are no page numbers in kindle,
only location number in thousands which seem to be arbitrary. 
This is a little bit discomfortable. 
10. Does not display PDF files properly, the font is very small. 
If you enlarge the font then you have to scroll left to right to
read each line.
11. You will have to convert PDF files to another format using Calibre 
free software or optimize it for reading on Kindle by using K2pdfopt
free software.
12. All hard books are not available in kindle format. 
13. Hindi font should be available in Kindle sold in India. 
14. Kindle should support EPub, Doc, Rtf and HTML formats natively.
15. Kindle should come with Encyclopedia and Thesaurus inbuilt like 
dictionaries.
16. Kindle should come with preinstalled Games to make the Kindle 
more interesting.
17. The real cost of manufacturing this device, I guess, should be 
1/4th of the price at which it sells.
18. You will not get free Wifi in Wifi only model. But you get Free 
3G data in Wifi+3G Model.
19. You will get free 3G but you can't access anything except 
Wikipedia, Goodreads, Post on Social Network and download ebooks 
from Kindle store. You can't get 3G connection everywhere.
20. My Kindle device hangs once in 3 months. It either automatically
reboots or you reboot it manually. After that it starts working fine. 
So no issues.
21. You can't listen to Audio Books in Kindle. But on Tablet/Smartphone
you can listen.
22. There should be a speaker inbuilt in Kindle. Then you can 
listen to audio books. Dictionary can come with pronunciation.
23. As kindle is a costly device it should come with 32GB memory 
rather than 4GB currently. Then whole of Wikipedia can be inbuilt 
for offline browsing. That will make Kindle much more useful device.
Out of 4GB only about 3GB is available to user for storing ebooks. 
But even in 3GB memory you can store more than Thousand ebooks. 
In my Kindle I have calculated that on an average an ebook takes 2.7MB
space, So in 3GB Kindle space you can store more than Thousand ebooks.
24. In Kindle Unlimited subscription you can download 10 kindle 
unlimited ebooks at a time. After 10 ebooks, You will have to return 
old books to get new books. In Kindle Unlimited subscription ebooks 
will be deleted automatically after your Kindle Unlimited subscription 
ends. But this limitation is only for Kindle Unlimited Subscription.
25. The limit in Kindle Unlimited Subscription is Total 1000 ebooks or 
30 days whichever comes first, if you pay for one month subscription. 
YES, you can download and store 1000 ebooks on your COMPUTER FOREVER 
by just paying Rs.150 for one month Kindle Unlimited Subscription. The ebooks can  
be downloaded to your computer forever from 'Manage Content and Devices' page on 
Amazon Website. The ebooks on your Kindle device get deleted NOT the ebooks on 
your computer. But if you download 1000 ebooks, they will go waste and will 
keep lying on your computer. You will never feel like reading them. Though you 
will falsely feel that you have made good use of your money. I am telling this 
from my personal experience. It is better to download 10 to 20 ebooks. Then you 
will read most of them and make good use of your money. You don't need Kindle 
device for Kindle Unlimited Subscription, You can also use Kindle Cloud Reader
(Browser), Kindle for PC or Kindle App for Smartphones.
26. If you transfer azw3 files from USB, sometimes Kindle will not pick 
it up and it does not show. 
27. Most of the times Amazon transfers ebooks in KFX format which sometimes
will not be detected by Kindle when you Manually transferred via USB to Kindle.
You can download its AZW3 version from 'Manage Your Content & Devices' page.
For Hindi books sometimes only KFX version is available and you cannot download
AZW3 version.
28. File names of the many Kindle ebooks are so long that they create problem 
while backing up in PC or deleting them in Kindle via PC. If you shorten or change 
the file name of the Kindle ebook using USB and PC, then the ebook doesn't show up 
in the kindle at all.
29. You can't use OTG cable to connect to pendrive or a 3G Dongle as 
the Kindle is not a tablet with a file explorer. But you can use your
PC with USB cable to transfer files.
30. It does not have a playstore from where you can install apps as it
is not a tablet. But it does have a Kindle store from where you can 
download free and paid ebooks.
31.Ordinary Kindle (Rs.4999  167ppi Screen Resoultion, No LEDs, TouchScreen) 
Kindle Paperwhite(Rs. 8999  300ppi Screen Resolution, 4LEDs, TouchScreen). 
Kindle Voyage (Rs. 16499 300ppi Screen Resolution, 6LEDs, Adaptive Light Sensor,
TouchScreen+PagePress) 
Kindle Oasis (Rs.23999  300ppi Screen Resolution, 10LEDs, TouchScreen+Page 
Turn Buttons, Charging Cover Included, Battery Life in Months) 

You can purchase Ordinary Kindle without backlight if you are not going to 
read in the dark at night. Ordinary Kindle has all the features in it that 
other Kindle devices have. If you like reading in dark then you can go 
for Kindle Paperwhite. Kindle Voyage and Kindle Oasis are too costly.
32. Kindle is a bit unstable device. Sometimes it doesn't show a book you copied
by usb cable. Sometimes it doesn't show an ebook if it is moved inside a folder. 
Sometimes it moves ebooks automatically outside of the folder etc. It keeps on 
doing peculiar things.
33. KINDLE DOESN'T HAVE ANY SERVICE OR REPAIR CENTRE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. 
IF THE DEVICE STOPS WORKING IT'S YOUR RISK. They only have a call centre 
in Bangalore for Kindle.
34. The screen technology of Kindle is called E-Ink. It is black & white. 
It can't play videos. There are two new technologies CLEARink and i.MX 7. 
Which are cheaper to manufacture and coloured and can play Videos. 
But how much time Amazon will take to adopt these new technologies can't 
be said. 
35. Life becomes more complicated with each device you buy. After
buying Kindle my computer and internet tasks have increased manifold.
I have to spend lot of time on 
     a) Finding Ebook Sites 
     b) Contantly checking Ebook Sites for new releases 
     c) Downloading Ebooks from Sites 
     e) Managing and Organizing Downloaded Ebooks on Computer 
     f) Converting Downloaded Ebooks in Kindle format 
     g) Transferring converted ebooks to Kindle  
     h) Organizing ebooks in Kindle into Collections 
     i) Keeping Backup of Kindle Ebooks on Computer
     j) Makig a file of highlighted or noted text from each ebook
     k) Writing reviews of the read ebooks

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