White,
bright, 'n' light.
Funnily
enough, as a nation we tend to read more during the summer... or
rather we buy more books. We blame summer holidays and the sense that
we all get that says, “ooo, I'll take a book along, to read by the
pool.” Last year we reviewed a very pool-friendly eReader, the Kobo
Aura H2O, but this summer we wanted to check one out that you'll be
reaching for long after the summer has ended. We test the KindlePaperwhite eReader.
Amazon tell us that the Paperwhite is their best-selling Kindle currently, and after just a week or so using the palm-friendly eReader, we're not surprised. If you were wondering what makes the Paperwhite stand out from the standard (and slightly cheaper) regular Kindle, it's all in the name.
The
exceptionally clever ones amongst you might have guessed that the
Paperwhite's background – the part where the e-ink text appears –
is brighter and whiter than normal eReaders that you might be used
to, including the original Kindle. This really does serve to give the
screen a more papery appearance, and coupled with the subtle yet
powerful backlight, reading on the Kindle Paperwhite is almost like
reading from white paper.
The
detail in the text is also vastly improved over other e-Readers, as
the Kindle Paperwhite possess a pixel density of 300ppi. This makes letters
appear exceptionally smooth and well-rounded, and it is also well
shown off whenever one of the screen saver images pop up when you put
the device to sleep – seriously, the pictures of pen nibs and
typewriter keys look alike actual black and white photographs!
The
whole package will weigh your book-loving hand down by a mere 206
grams (so fine for reading while swinging away in a hammock by a lake
– if you're one of Amazon's models. Also great if you're reading in
bed next to your snoring partner) and the screen is a nice and big
six inches across the diagonal. As ever with an e-ink screen there is
a lovely matte finish to the surface, so even in the brightest of
bright sunshine, you'll never get any glare or the awful 'distorted
face reflection' like you get when reading a book on a tablet.
Christ, is that what we look like?!?
The
backlight is fully adjustable and although it can easily be
completely shut off, we found it helped out, even in bright sunshine,
in making the screen appear more paper-like. Obviously having it on
all the time will effect battery life, but we've been using it for a
couple hours each night for about ten days now, and the battery is
still only half way down; the best of any eReader we've yet to have a
play with.
So
a great screen combined with a neat and tidy (and light) package
makes the Kindle Paperwhite extremely desirable. At about £40 more
expensive than a regular Kindle some might wonder if a slighter
whiter reading plane is really worth it... but it sooooo is. That
brighter and more balanced screen is easy on the eyes, making long
periods of reading more comfortable. We like it a lot.
£109.99