The positives and negatives of kindle please

[nerd-hippie]

I’ve just d/l the kindle app but haven’t opened it yet.
Any kind people willing to share their opinions and/or experiences of the good & bad things about using kindle?
Thanks in advance 🙂

[CBRetriever]

I'm a tad bit biased as i haven't found an insurmountable downside - positives:

you can adjust the font size of a book and/or change the font itself
long pressing on a word usually brings up the dictionary with a definition of it
you can highlight passages and add bookmarks
you can carry hundreds of books around with you and they weigh less than a pound

possible downsides

poor formatting of some books (I don't like to read a book with a jagged right edge and a lot have it)
publisher/self-published author chooses to insert maps/graphs/charts in low resolution rendering them unreadable

[Anna]

I'm a huge fan of Kindle. I agree with all that CBRetriever has said on the positive side of things and I haven't come across any negatives except I don't find navigating my new one as easy as my old one but that's possibly because I haven't read the instructions yet.

[Ann]

I agree with all the positives noted -- I am on my third e-ink Kindle, use the Kindle app regularly, & also use the Kindle function on my Fire tablet. I will note that the e-ink kindles do not allow for color in illustrations, & may not be the best way to read poetry. I've found that poetry does tend to work well on my Fire tablet most of the time -- but I'd still go with hard copy if you enjoy reading poetry or want to peruse art books, etc.

One positive no one has noted yet: if you have the Kindle app and any other sort of Kindle, you can bounce your reading material between devices easily. Read your Kindle at home, then pull out your phone with the app when you're stuck in a line. There's your book, waiting for you & right where you left off with it! I love that feature.

[Chhaya]

I had written a personal blog highlighting pros and cons of kindle. here is the link. hope it helps.

http://utsfurt.blogspot.com/2020/07/k...

[Richard]

I love my Kindle Paperwhite e-reader which I have had since 2017. If you love to read this is the device for you. The only negative thing I have to say is, next time I will buy a Kindle with more memory, as I am constantly on the lookout for books I want to read. My current Kindle is full, so I have to remove books I want to read less.

[RaChelle]

The ideal answer to the lack of memory is a memory card. Earlier Kindles used them. They shouldn't have quit :-(

[Dee]

Richard wrote: "I love my Kindle Paperwhite e-reader which I have had since 2017. If you love to read this is the device for you. The only negative thing I have to say is, next time I will buy a Kindle with more m..."

why not just remove them - they stay in your amazon account regardless if on kindle or not

ETA - to say remove not delete

[CBRetriever]

RaChelle wrote: "The ideal answer to the lack of memory is a memory card. Earlier Kindles used them. They shouldn't have quit :-("

only the very first Kindle had one and now the later Fires have them. I have over 500 books on my Kindle and no space problems, but I do Remove, not Delete (Delete will remove from the account) books I have read from it.

And it very much depends on the size of the books/docs that you put on it. The Delphi complete Mark Twain is enormous (Most Delphi collected works are), so I only keep the one I'm reading on my Kindle.

[Doubledf99.99]

I use a Kindle Fire HD 8, and the thing I like most about reading on a kindle is it's link to the web, an example, I'd be reading some noir novel and it would describe a certain car from the 30's or 40's. and you can go right to the web to see what the car looks like.

[Ann]

Doubledf99.99 wrote: "I use a Kindle Fire HD 8, and the thing I like most about reading on a kindle is it's link to the web, an example, I'd be reading some noir novel and it would describe a certain car from the 30's o..."

Please note: the Fire tablets do this, the e-ink Kindles generally do not. There is an "experimental" Web browser on them, but I've never found that it works well. That said, good point!

[CBRetriever]

but the Fires are difficult to read in bright sunshine while Kindles do just fine in that situation.

[Ann]

CBRetriever wrote: "but the Fires are difficult to read in bright sunshine while Kindles do just fine in that situation."

Yes, which is why I enjoy having both.

[CBRetriever]

I travel with both

[T.]

Already enough +ves and -ves were listed. Just wish to contribute nevertheless

Positives -

You can carry a large number of books
You can get books cheaper and some very good free books
Hopefully good for the environment and trees
Gives you the feeling of reading from a book
Stays long on a charging
doesn't strain your eyes much
you can make notes
you can get the meanings of words (dictionary)


Now coming to the negatives

Difficult to flip pages.. You can't just suddenly jump to go back and read some 10 pages back
may not be good for studying serious books like academic books

[CBRetriever]

Dilip kumar wrote: "Now coming to the negatives

Difficult to flip pages.. You can't just suddenly jump to go back and read some 10 pages back
may not be good for studying serious books like academic books"

you can use the Go To icon to go back a specific number of pages (bookmark where you were for ease of return)

and it works for serious books because you can highlight and add notes to books

[T.]

CBRetriever wrote: "Dilip kumar wrote: "Now coming to the negatives

Difficult to flip pages.. You can't just suddenly jump to go back and read some 10 pages back
may not be good for studying serious books like academ..."

Yes , you are right. But I find for serious books, underlying by hand (with pen or pencil) and flipping back and forth will be required which may be easier with physical book - just my opinion :)

[Ann]

CBRetriever wrote: "Dilip kumar wrote: "Now coming to the negatives

Difficult to flip pages.. You can't just suddenly jump to go back and read some 10 pages back
may not be good for studying serious books like academ..."
You can also access your notes & highlights afterwards on the Kindle portion for the Amazon web site. I've used this for projects -- easy to print out the notes & highlights you need to do research!

[CBRetriever]

plus you can look at your notes or highlights, tap on the one you want to look at again and immediately go to where they were made then return to where you were reading

bookmarks are quite useful too

[Teresa]

I just got the new Kindle Scribe, which I love. I am still learning all of its capabilities, but to have another kindle (beside the early kindles) that have Audible capability already makes it awesome. I have been referring to it as my home kindle because it is a hefty device to carry around regularly. The size of the page reminds me of reading on the kindle web version, which means less page turning. Would recommend that you buy a different cover than the one offered by Amazon (the device actually fell out of that one), but I found a really nice one from Fintie that is much more secure.

[Shirley]

I love my kindle reader. It is perfect for reading library ebooks. I can check-out from home and it returns automatically. So convenient!

[David]

I love it. I have not read a print book in years. Lighter than a book, adjustable to light settings and font size, it is much easier on the eyes. Store a hundred books! I have a paper white model. I don’t like the app nearly as much unless it is for a graphic novel.

Save a tree, go kindle!