A Kindle Comparison
The amazon kindle is a great device for the daily reader. It solves the problem of the cover page being folded while placing it in their bag. It also saves the burden of carrying enough books to a certain destination.
In this article I would like to address the technical side of the kindle and how it has progressed in ten generations of productions. For my comparison I have chosen two devices:
- The first being a “Kindle touch”, unveiled in 2012; it was the first time kindle had experimented with a touchscreen display. The only buttons on the device were a power button and a home button.
- The second device is a “Kindle Paperwhite (10th generation)”. Even though it was unveiled and available to be purchased in 2018, I have chosen this particular kindle as it is the cheapest one that one could buy in 2022.
Appearance
From the hardware perspective, the older kindle touch has slightly larger dimensions and is heavier compared to the newer kindle paperwhite, but the screen size of the newer kindle paperwhite is bigger. Both use a USB 2.0 to a micro USB charger, but there are some noticeable differences on the body as well. The older kindle came with a pair of speakers and a headphone jack, both of which are missing in the newer device [significance covered later].
Coming to the appearance of the home page, the older kindle has a very simplistic view where all the books are listed in a tabular fashion. Where as in the newer device the approach taken to the home screen is much more flamboyant. The library of available books is available in the top part of the home screen and the rest of the screen is filled with a collection of books that may be enticing to the user.
Software
Jumping straight into the operating system, kindle has always used a Linux based operating system with a simple touch module. One could understand the overall working of the operating system if one is to connect their kindle device to their PC. All the information that gets displayed in the kindle is stored in various folders thus reducing the work of the operation system to simple information retrieval.
The main improvement that has taken place is the number of formats that the newer versions of kindle can support. In the older kindle touch, the only format supported was a “.mobi” format in terms of written documents. On the other hand, its modern successor supports a multitude of formats. For more information on the formats supported, visit the following link.
Coming to the subject of supporting audio formats, I have to give a point to the old timer. As I had mentioned earlier that the old kindle comes with a pair of speakers and a headphone jack, well the old device also came with an option called “Experimental” wherein one could try out different functions of a kindle that were still in a beta stage of development.
In the experimental field were many things among with was a music player that could support MP3 files.
All the other features present in the experimental catalogue have been greatly improved upon in the modern paperwhite versions but the mp3 player has been left behind. In the new versions, all audio experiences have to be experienced via Bluetooth earphones and the only type of audio experience available are audio books.
There is no experimental section any more. The web browser experience has been updated to support multiple web browsers. The text to speech has also been improved. The word search system has been improved as now any selected word would be searched in the dictionary, the Wikipedia, and the web simultaneously.
Another significant change that has been made is the addition of LED’s so now the e-ink display can also be used in the dark. This has greatly improved the user experience.
The removal of most buttons from the body have greatly improved the lifespan of the device, as the only complain that I have for the old Kindle touch is that after many years of use, the home button sometimes malfunctions.
Conclusions
I believe that the kindle has been able to improve its features over time whilst not abstaining from the simplistic user experience and all the changes that have been made till date are for the better.
If you have any other opinions or any extra information to share, please feel free to comment below.
Thank you for your time.
