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The Kindle Touch: Two Years Later

You may remember (well, okay, you may not) that I bought a Kindle Touch almost two years ago. I was absolutely smitten with it. I loved the the e-ink screen, the touch capabilities, the ability to buy a book and immediately start reading it without ever having to leave the device. It was heaven for a book lover.

But now it's time for me to say goodbye to my beloved Kindle Touch. It was a trusty companion these past couple of years and kept me company for many long work commutes. The e-ink screen was, and still is, a marvelous piece of tech.

But time brings new advancements and now that I own an iPhone 6 Plus, I don't see the point of using a Kindle Touch to read books anymore. You see, paired with the Kindle app the iPhone 6 Plus is the perfect device for reading e-books (well, at least from Amazon).

When I first bought a the Kindle Touch, people claimed that e-ink screens caused less strain for the eyes while reading when compared to LCD screens. While that may be true back when LCD screens had low DPI (or pre-Retina, if we're using Apple's marketing spiel), we now live in an age where ridiculously sharp, high resolution screens make eye strain a trivial matter. The iPhone 6 Plus offers a really great Retina display which makes text display beautifully. And this helps while reading e-books on the Kindle app.

Another problem with the Kindle Touch that I had was lighting. It did not come with a backlight, so I bought the overpriced leather cover that included an LED light. It worked well and lit the e-ink screen adequately, however the bright white light eventually gave me eye strain and if I was reading in complete darkness, I would also get headaches. I know the more recent Kindle Paperwhite solves the problem with a built-in sidelight but... well, that just brings me to my next problem.

And that would be the problem of... colour!

This is what my Kindle Touch home screen looks like:



Now compare that to the Kindle for iOS app on my iPhone 6 Plus:


Some of you will be saying, "So what? Text isn't in colour and that's where we'll be spending most of our time anyway!"

And you would be right. But I like vibrant exciting screens. It makes it more fun to scroll through my library of awesome books.

When the Kindle Touch first launched it had more features that the iOS app, one of which was the really useful Kindle X-Ray. Nowadays even the iOS app has it, so there's not really much going for the Kindle Touch for me anymore. About the only thing the Kindle Touch has over the iOS app is a built-in book store and browser that allows instant book buying from within the Kindle Touch itself. But on an iPhone 6 Plus, I don't really need it since I can just swap over to Safari and go to the Amazon site myself.

With that, I bid to you, my beloved and trustworthy Kindle Touch, adieu and farewell. Thanks for all the fish.
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Comments

  1. Anonymous2/1/15 9:25 am

    Noticed that you have Masters of Doom on your reading list. Great book! =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ted Mahsun2/1/15 9:32 am

      John! I'm so glad you're still following my blog!

      I still haven't read Masters of Doom yet but I did read the author's other book, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto. I liked that so I bought Masters of Doom to read as well.

      Delete
  2. John Ling2/1/15 12:23 pm

    David Kushner is a fantastic journalist. He really brings his subject matter to life.

    I actually read Masters of Doom when it first came out 10 years ago, and even today, a lot of the details about John Romero and John Carmack are still fresh in mind. Epic stuff.

    I haven't read 'Jacked' yet, but now that you've mentioned it, I think I really should. I expect it to be just as interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ted Mahsun2/1/15 12:34 pm

      Yes, you really should. You're making me want to read Masters of Doom right now actually. Maybe I will tonight!

      Delete
  3. John Ling2/1/15 1:48 pm

    The first chapter is really intriguing and pulls you right in. If I remember correctly, it's about Romero's hardscrabble childhood. A good place as any to start a story like this!

    ReplyDelete

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