EEVblog #226 - Kindle Touch Review

Dave reviews the 4th Generation Amazon Kindle Touch Ebook Reader.
See the previous Kindle Non-Touch Review here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0wv6_GSg1A

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Amazon Kindle
• touch
• review
• teardown
• ebook
• reader
• e-ink
• display
• e-book
• book
• pdf
• mp3
• audio
• text-to-speech
• amazon
• kindle
• comparison
• keyboard
• ghosting

[0LoneTech]

Since it has dual point touch tracking, have you tried a twist gesture? I'm glad to see a real improvement in pdf handling, though I'm sticking to my 9.7" reader myself.

[EEVblog]

@0LoneTech Yep, tried twisting gesture, no joy.

[hla27b]

The ads are fucking preposterous!!!

Why they don't pay YOU to see their ads?

Do they imply that this thing is not your property even though you paid for it?

In that case they know where to shove it.

[EEVblog]

@hla27b This is the cheaper unit with ads, i.e "ad sponsored". You can buy one that is not, if that's what you want.

[JohnM3D]

So you buy the thing and gets ads forever? lol

This is asking desperately to be hacked... or not bought at all.

[EEVblog]

@JohnM3D To be clear, they sell TWO versions of the Kindle now. The normal one that does not have ads, and this one which is cheaper but "ad sponsored", your choice.

[flubba86]

Do a teardown mate!

[UnimplementedTrap]

@jpelczar I was referring to the case where the ads change more frequently or are animated (animated GIF, for instance). In such a case, bettery life could be considerably worse than ad-free versions that show a completely static display. At the very least, they would have to bring the RAM, parts of the main processor and integrated E-Ink controller out of low-power state, as well as powering the display to refresh on each change. Am I missing something?

[N2CUA]

@EEVblog Plus you can upgrade it later if you arent happy with the ads.. and if you think about it.. you are getting it for a lower price .. so in a sense .. they ARE paying you to look at the ads.. ;-)

[bulby130]

Use an iPad for PDF viewing???

[jpelczar]

@UnimplementedTrap With eInk display you don't need any power to keep the screen state. If the ads are changed in suspend mode, then I guess the processor is woken up every hour for couple of milliseconds - for this they can use some low frequency clock anyway.

[UnimplementedTrap]

Another thing just occured to me: if the ads are drawn the whole time it is in suspend/sleep mode, that is a reason to keep the processor out of the lowest-power states, and also refresh the display. Now I wonder if the ad-free versions don't also offer better battery life.

[robingchann]

the whole UI looks so similar to IOS

[Mydrac]

you can change PDF to .mobi and will works like a kindle book. A good software is Calibre calibre-ebook com

[UnimplementedTrap]

As someone already mentioned, infra-red touch technology does not use an overlay or panel, so you get the full benefit of the clarity of the E-Ink display.

The Kindle DX has auto-rotation. I think it was the only one in the Kindle line-up to have that feature. Sadly, the large-display Kindle seems to be abandoned now. None of the more recent updates were ever released for it, and it had less memory than others, despite costing several times as much.

[iticory]

Take it apart! I too am very interested to see how this new infrared touch works.

[UnimplementedTrap]

@heroineworshipper Why does someone always have to claim that other companies are copying Apple? Apple has /never/ shipped anything resembling an E-Ink display in the history of the company. The Kindle was a shipping product /years/ before the iPad was announced. If anything, Apple stole the "iBooks" idea from Amazon.

E-Ink is kinder to the eyes for extended reading than LCDs, and more power-effecient. iPad/iPhone won't last 24 hours on a charge with the display on; a Kindle can last /weeks/.