Amazon Kindle 3 follow-up review, reading a book

I posted a hands-on review on the Amazon Kindle 3 hands-on a few weeks ago. This was more of a 'first-impressions' review. So I bought a new book (The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick, if you're really interested) and read it on the Kindle (I have the 3G/Wi-Fi version which costs $189) - to see how it actually fares as an e-reader.

Like I said in the hands-on review, the Kindle is a great device. It feels great in the hand (even though it is a bit too smooth and sometimes slips), and the display is great - after reading a whole book I can also report that it's indeed 'easy' on they eyes. I sit in front of an LCD monitor most of the day, and I find it hard to concentrate and read for a long time on an LCD. But the E Ink display is great. The slow refresh rates didn't bother me too much - when you really read you don't go back and forth too often.

One of the nicest things about getting an e-reader is that you can read PDFs and free e-books. So all sorts of reports and manuals and things like that can be loaded on the Kindle. As a non native English speaker, I found that having a dictionary on hand is also a nice bonus, and used it quite a bit.

It's almost like reading a real book - which is quite surprising. A lot of people think that an e-reader will not be as good as a book, but the Kindle is a nice surprise. Of course a real paper book has its special charm, and even the Kindle which is a great e-reader can't cope with that...

Want to get your own Kindle? Amazon are now offering them for $139 (Wi-Fi) or $189 (3G/Wi-Fi).