8 ms·

I was really looking forward to upgrade my paperwhite, but this is total disappointment. Almost 3x more $$ than paperwhite, but the very similar specs; LED ligh

by hudo 11y ago

I was really looking forward to upgrade my paperwhite, but this is total disappointment. Almost 3x more $$ than paperwhite, but the very similar specs; LED lights are just fine on paperwhite, same DPI, same size, same touchscreen, absolutely nothing worth upgrading IMHO! Buttons are ok but never missed them, definitely not worth money. And I still can't read IT books on that 6" screen. What a shame. Amazon is without ideas, and money. Or paperwhite is simply good enough?

TillE 11y ago
Same. I have an original Paperwhite, which doesn't have the latest firmware with the Bookerly font and everything. So I was really excited about buying a new Kindle. But not for $300. Now? I dunno. I'm not terribly eager to buy a year old Paperwhite, so maybe I'll just wait until the next generation.
- colin_jack 11y ago
  Same for me, it looks good but £270 is too much for me to justify.
- ascagnel_ 11y ago
  I have the 2013 Paperwhite with the Bookerly update. The font looks great, but the system is now so laggy it borders on unusable.
therein 11y ago
I really don't understand why they aren't targeting students that have to carry a ton of heavy textbooks. Why not target medical students with a product? Why just make a device with a screen that can only accommodate a novel?
- readams 11y ago
  Because e-readers are just really bad for textbooks. They work really only for things you want to read from start to finish (they work great for that though!). Paper textbooks are a lot better if you're flipping back and forth or trying to use it for reference.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    Even tablets. I bought a couple of cookbooks/cocktail books on Kindle at one point because they were significantly cheaper. A mistake. I like to put post-its and leave pages open on the table etc. I do have a few technical books I got digitally--usually because I had some free or significantly discounted eBook offer. But it's really not my preferred format.
  - neves 11y ago
    I agree. The best use case is novels. Even non-fiction books that you want to go forward and backward are weaker in the kindle. I love my paperwhite, but I must confess that physical books beats them for non-fiction. There's a caveat: if your are not in USA, you don't have to pay shipping for american books.
  - RealityVoid 11y ago
    If they outfit one with a bigger screen and greater processing power so switching pages is fast and it's easier to flip (unless I'm under the wrong impression and the page-lag for the paperwhite is because of the screen not the CPU) then you could have a superior referece platform. Multiple bookmarks, search functionality, cross-referece. For my job I have to read a lot of datasheets. Ctrl-F works wonders and I have no ideea how I'd manage without it.
  - stillworks 11y ago
    I hear you. Trying to read text books or books with diagrams does not work on Kindle or even tablets. Several books have text which refer to diagrams on pages other then current page. I would think it's possible to "inline" or provide a "long-press-to-pop-up" type solution. Same goes with notes and other such internally referenced material. OTOH, if you do read from an actual book... the books are damn heavy on their own ! I found peace in actually buying a Macbook Air, with that I have gotten rid of iPad and Kindle both. The screen is not the best available but it's the right "gadget" at so many other levels.
- whorleater 11y ago
  E-readers have a very noticeable delay when flipping through pages, especially quickly. If I'm trying to construct a scheme for preimage collision resistance in my textbook on cryptography (which is a humble 400 page textbook), I'll go to the index first (last couple pages), then flip to the page on preimage resistance, then flip forward 20 pages to collisions in hashes, and then maybe flip back a couple chapters to hash function constructions. That's about 5-10 different pages referenced in quick succession, and an e-reader gives a very significant barrier. Add onto that typing on a e-reader is a pretty awful experience as opposed to scribbling notes in the margins of the textbook and you have a product that doesn't provide any real incentive. One could make the argument that textbooks should be written in a way that accommodates the web and e-readers better, but that's a whole other hill you'll need to climb.
- giaour 11y ago
  Textbooks are usually printed in color and are "sold" as eBooks through vendors that sell 6 months of access. This market is fairly small and already served well by tablets.
- L_Rahman 11y ago
  They tried this and even piloted a program at Princeton. It failed. There a lot of non obvious tactile ways that student use textbooks that the Kindle can't accommodate.
username223 11y ago
> Or paperwhite is simply good enough? I would say "yes." I was fine with my ancient little paperwhite, and surprised to see that they were asking $300 for an incremental improvement. It would have made more sense to do the Apple thing, dropping the price of the old model and replacing it with the new one at a similar price point. The paperwhite's touch screen is pretty bad, but fine for reading once you get used to it, and the battery lasts long enough that charging is a non-issue. Several years ago, Amazon started making devices that almost perfectly replaced paperback novels: easy on the eyes, light enough to read in one hand, and cheap enough to pay for themselves quickly with the production cost difference between electronic and physical books. The Kindle sucks for books and magazines with significant layout, and I agree with others here that there's room for a larger version to handle e.g. textbooks (which are pricey enough that a $300 reader is NBD). But this thing? I just don't get it.
- mynameisvlad 11y ago
  > and surprised to see that they were asking $300 for an incremental improvement They're asking $300 for a new product. If you want an "incremental improvement" on your ancient paperwhite, then you can get the newest generation for $119.
  - darklajid 11y ago
    What is the 'new product'? It certainly seems like a paperwhite 1.1 to me. A cover that is arguably irrelevant, better(?) backlight where the paperwhite is good already. The big selling point seems to be - the format/size (grip with one hand) I can do that with the paperwhite and often read while walking to the station that way. - auto-rotation for left handed people (only required because of the special format, see above) I love my Kindle. I see no point in this iteration and would strongly recommend everyone around me to pick the paperwhite instead.
    - mynameisvlad 11y ago
      The Voyage is closer to "Paperwhite 1.1" than the Oasis if you want to go down that route, but what it is is a new product in the Kindle family. Just like the Paperwhite was a new Kindle product, and the Voyage, and even the Kindle Touch. They all improve over the previous flagship model, but are fundamentally different in some regard (Kindle Touch - touchscreen, Paperwhite - backlight, Voyage - premium materials/capacitive page turning/first 300ppi screen, Oasis - longer battery life and new form factor) and are sold in parallel for a long time. Just because it has backlighting doesn't automatically make it the successor to the Paperwhite or even an incremental improvement. There is literally one already: the newest generation Paperwhite which has the same 300ppi screen as the Voyage and Oasis and improved backlighting in the same form factor than the 1st generation Paperwhite. It's still being sold, it'll probably still be sold and improved on for many years to come and I can even see it becoming the new "basic" device from Amazon. That's how Amazon does Kindles - multiple lines of products which are differentiated from eachother in some way or another. You can even see this with last year's Voyage. They released it, it looks like a premium Paperwhite, but then they came and brought some of the features like the 300ppi screen back to the Paperwhite. The Paperwhite didn't go anywhere, it was still sold, and it's still being sold now.
fataliss 11y ago
Interestingly enough, most of the images used in their introduction page are actually the Paperwhite... :D
morganvachon 11y ago
The fact that it's designed only for right-handed people is what turns me off (as well as my wife, who is also a leftie). Holding a book or tablet with my right hand just feels alien.
- lotophage 11y ago
  > You can turn the page with either the touch display or physical buttons, and a built-in accelerometer detects whether you are reading with your left or right hand — automatically rotating the page (and page turn buttons) to match. [1] [1] http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/04/the-new-amazon-kindle-oasis-will-cost-449/ http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/04/the-new-amazon-kindle-oasi...
  - morganvachon 11y ago
    Look at the last photo in that same article. If you're holding it with your left hand, the cover is on upside-down. Also, every photo in every article I've seen, as well as Amazon's own marketing, shows it held in the right hand only. It's clearly a device designed for right-handed people. I realize that's the world we live in, but this is the only reading device I've seen on the market that favors one group of people over another.

by hudo 11y ago

TillE 11y ago

Same. I have an original Paperwhite, which doesn't have the latest firmware with the Bookerly font and everything. So I was really excited about buying a new Kindle. But not for $300. Now? I dunno. I'm not terribly eager to buy a year old Paperwhite, so maybe I'll just wait until the next generation.

colin_jack 11y ago
Same for me, it looks good but £270 is too much for me to justify.
ascagnel_ 11y ago
I have the 2013 Paperwhite with the Bookerly update. The font looks great, but the system is now so laggy it borders on unusable.

therein 11y ago

I really don't understand why they aren't targeting students that have to carry a ton of heavy textbooks. Why not target medical students with a product? Why just make a device with a screen that can only accommodate a novel?

readams 11y ago
Because e-readers are just really bad for textbooks. They work really only for things you want to read from start to finish (they work great for that though!). Paper textbooks are a lot better if you're flipping back and forth or trying to use it for reference.
- ghaff 11y ago
  Even tablets. I bought a couple of cookbooks/cocktail books on Kindle at one point because they were significantly cheaper. A mistake. I like to put post-its and leave pages open on the table etc. I do have a few technical books I got digitally--usually because I had some free or significantly discounted eBook offer. But it's really not my preferred format.
- neves 11y ago
  I agree. The best use case is novels. Even non-fiction books that you want to go forward and backward are weaker in the kindle. I love my paperwhite, but I must confess that physical books beats them for non-fiction. There's a caveat: if your are not in USA, you don't have to pay shipping for american books.
- RealityVoid 11y ago
  If they outfit one with a bigger screen and greater processing power so switching pages is fast and it's easier to flip (unless I'm under the wrong impression and the page-lag for the paperwhite is because of the screen not the CPU) then you could have a superior referece platform. Multiple bookmarks, search functionality, cross-referece. For my job I have to read a lot of datasheets. Ctrl-F works wonders and I have no ideea how I'd manage without it.
- stillworks 11y ago
  I hear you. Trying to read text books or books with diagrams does not work on Kindle or even tablets. Several books have text which refer to diagrams on pages other then current page. I would think it's possible to "inline" or provide a "long-press-to-pop-up" type solution. Same goes with notes and other such internally referenced material. OTOH, if you do read from an actual book... the books are damn heavy on their own ! I found peace in actually buying a Macbook Air, with that I have gotten rid of iPad and Kindle both. The screen is not the best available but it's the right "gadget" at so many other levels.
whorleater 11y ago
E-readers have a very noticeable delay when flipping through pages, especially quickly. If I'm trying to construct a scheme for preimage collision resistance in my textbook on cryptography (which is a humble 400 page textbook), I'll go to the index first (last couple pages), then flip to the page on preimage resistance, then flip forward 20 pages to collisions in hashes, and then maybe flip back a couple chapters to hash function constructions. That's about 5-10 different pages referenced in quick succession, and an e-reader gives a very significant barrier. Add onto that typing on a e-reader is a pretty awful experience as opposed to scribbling notes in the margins of the textbook and you have a product that doesn't provide any real incentive. One could make the argument that textbooks should be written in a way that accommodates the web and e-readers better, but that's a whole other hill you'll need to climb.
giaour 11y ago
Textbooks are usually printed in color and are "sold" as eBooks through vendors that sell 6 months of access. This market is fairly small and already served well by tablets.
L_Rahman 11y ago
They tried this and even piloted a program at Princeton. It failed. There a lot of non obvious tactile ways that student use textbooks that the Kindle can't accommodate.

username223 11y ago

> Or paperwhite is simply good enough? I would say "yes." I was fine with my ancient little paperwhite, and surprised to see that they were asking $300 for an incremental improvement. It would have made more sense to do the Apple thing, dropping the price of the old model and replacing it with the new one at a similar price point. The paperwhite's touch screen is pretty bad, but fine for reading once you get used to it, and the battery lasts long enough that charging is a non-issue. Several years ago, Amazon started making devices that almost perfectly replaced paperback novels: easy on the eyes, light enough to read in one hand, and cheap enough to pay for themselves quickly with the production cost difference between electronic and physical books. The Kindle sucks for books and magazines with significant layout, and I agree with others here that there's room for a larger version to handle e.g. textbooks (which are pricey enough that a $300 reader is NBD). But this thing? I just don't get it.

mynameisvlad 11y ago
> and surprised to see that they were asking $300 for an incremental improvement They're asking $300 for a new product. If you want an "incremental improvement" on your ancient paperwhite, then you can get the newest generation for $119.
- darklajid 11y ago
  What is the 'new product'? It certainly seems like a paperwhite 1.1 to me. A cover that is arguably irrelevant, better(?) backlight where the paperwhite is good already. The big selling point seems to be - the format/size (grip with one hand) I can do that with the paperwhite and often read while walking to the station that way. - auto-rotation for left handed people (only required because of the special format, see above) I love my Kindle. I see no point in this iteration and would strongly recommend everyone around me to pick the paperwhite instead.
  - mynameisvlad 11y ago
    The Voyage is closer to "Paperwhite 1.1" than the Oasis if you want to go down that route, but what it is is a new product in the Kindle family. Just like the Paperwhite was a new Kindle product, and the Voyage, and even the Kindle Touch. They all improve over the previous flagship model, but are fundamentally different in some regard (Kindle Touch - touchscreen, Paperwhite - backlight, Voyage - premium materials/capacitive page turning/first 300ppi screen, Oasis - longer battery life and new form factor) and are sold in parallel for a long time. Just because it has backlighting doesn't automatically make it the successor to the Paperwhite or even an incremental improvement. There is literally one already: the newest generation Paperwhite which has the same 300ppi screen as the Voyage and Oasis and improved backlighting in the same form factor than the 1st generation Paperwhite. It's still being sold, it'll probably still be sold and improved on for many years to come and I can even see it becoming the new "basic" device from Amazon. That's how Amazon does Kindles - multiple lines of products which are differentiated from eachother in some way or another. You can even see this with last year's Voyage. They released it, it looks like a premium Paperwhite, but then they came and brought some of the features like the 300ppi screen back to the Paperwhite. The Paperwhite didn't go anywhere, it was still sold, and it's still being sold now.

fataliss 11y ago

Interestingly enough, most of the images used in their introduction page are actually the Paperwhite... :D

morganvachon 11y ago

The fact that it's designed only for right-handed people is what turns me off (as well as my wife, who is also a leftie). Holding a book or tablet with my right hand just feels alien.

lotophage 11y ago
> You can turn the page with either the touch display or physical buttons, and a built-in accelerometer detects whether you are reading with your left or right hand — automatically rotating the page (and page turn buttons) to match. [1] [1] http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/04/the-new-amazon-kindle-oasis-will-cost-449/ http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/04/the-new-amazon-kindle-oasi...
- morganvachon 11y ago
  Look at the last photo in that same article. If you're holding it with your left hand, the cover is on upside-down. Also, every photo in every article I've seen, as well as Amazon's own marketing, shows it held in the right hand only. It's clearly a device designed for right-handed people. I realize that's the world we live in, but this is the only reading device I've seen on the market that favors one group of people over another.