ExtremeTech posted a very lengthy article reviewing the pros and cons of the Kindle 2. While there are many reviews out there, I found this one of the most thorough and non-biased reviews. It’s well worth the read and broken into the following topics.
* Introduction
* Book Selection, Buying, and Sampling
* Readability and the Couch Plop Test
* Keyboard, Buttons, and Menu Navigation
* Text To Speech and Web Browsing
* DRM and Proprietary Book Formats
* Problems with the Kindle 2
* The Verdict on the Kindle 2
* The Experience of Reading on a Kindle 2
* Suspension of Disbelief
Their verdict, in summary, is provided below.
Product: Amazon Kindle 2
Company: Amazon
Price: $359
Pros: Comfortable on the eyes and easy to hold while reading, slimmer than earlier Kindle, includes 2GB built-in storage, 16 grey scale screen, revised navigation buttons, text to speech feature, ebooks in the Kindle Store are mostly cheaper than print books, WhisperNet service makes buying ebooks incredibly fast and easy.
Cons: Lacks color screen, no replaceable battery, lacks a folder structure to organize books, some books cost more than $9.99, lacks SD card.
Summary: The Kindle 2 is an excellent ebook reader for anyone who reads frequently and doesn’t want to maintain a print book collection. Although somewhat pricey you can make up for it with mostly cheaper ebooks. It’s also great for impulse readers who browse books and want to get a book to read immediately.
Occasional book readers should probably stick to buying print books. Kindle 1 owners should probably sit tight and wait for the Kindle 3 to see if it’s worth upgrading.
Read the entire article on ExtremeTech.