Kindle Paperwhite 3 Review
PROS
- Clear, high-res screen looks great especially in natural light
- Huge selection of ebooks on Amazon (including many free ones)
- Light and can be comfortably held in one hand
CONS
- Limited to Amazon’s library and a few other formats
- Not waterproof – if that matters
Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite or Paperwhite 3 is probably the best ereader you can get next to the Amazon Voyage. It has a bright, high-res screen and it automatically connects to Amazon’s huge library of ebooks.
The Kindle Paperwhite 3 has the same e-ink screen and high resolution display as the more expensive Kindle Voyage. If you’re on a tight budget, deciding between a Paperwhite 3 and the Voyage is a no-brainer.
The Paperwhite 3 has an e-ink Carta display screen with a resolution of 1430×1080 and 300 PPI. This is a big upgrade from the previous model that had a 1024×768 and 212 PPI display. It also features the brand new font Bookerly, that Amazon had designed for e-readers.
Paperwhite 3 Features
The new Paperwhite is similar to the 2nd generation model in appearance. The only exterior change is the Kindle logo on the front. It is now piano black, while the logo on the previous model was white.
There is a 1 GHZ processor and 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage. Even though most of your content will be held in the cloud, the reader can hold a thousand e-books at a time. Since Amazon currently controls about 75% of the entire e-book market in the U.S. and 95% of the U.K. market, you get access to the majority of ebooks that are on the market with a kindle.
E-reader, Smartphone or Tablet
Why would you want to buy a kindle Paperwhite e-reader when you can read on your smartphone? Because ereaders do not emit blue light. They are much easier on your eyes especially if you tend to read for extended periods of time. In addition, the screen is matte which allows you to read comfortably even in direct sunlight!
The Kindle device also provides distraction-free reading. It has no other function so you won’t get distracted by notifications, updates or the emails that multipurpose devices constantly distract you with.
Kindle Paperwhite Software
The new model features improved character spacing, hyphenation, justification, kerning, ligatures, and drop cap support all of which means that the words are laid out on the page just as the author intended.
Wordwise
Briefly touching a word brings up a list of synonyms and homonyms and a definition while family Sharing allows you to share the same content using different Amazon accounts. You can translate any word by tapping the word or by highlighting a section and instantly translate it into other languages. This feature is provided by Bing Translator and it also works with pdf files.
Your Paperwhite is also connected to GoodReads. The GoodReads icon is right on the navigation bar. GoodReads is a social book discovery site where you can talk about your favorite books with a community that is geared towards discussion and reviews.
The Reading Experience
The Kindle Paperwhite 3 has a new font that was developed especially for the Kindle. Bookerly is a serif style font that was designed to be more readable across different types of screens. There are fewer large spaces between words and you get more of a ‘reading a real book’ experience. Proper spacing makes ebooks much easier to read than they were in the past.
You can adjust the text size, margins, line spacing and you can choose from among seven different fonts. Text size adjustment is the one area that needs improvement. The device needs to have a more gradual increase in text size to be useful.
Visually, the new Paperwhite 3 looks just like previous Kindles with its 6-inch screen, matte black body, and slim profile. Unlike the new Voyage, it doesn’t have page turn buttons; only the power button and a Micro USB port for charging and syncing ebooks are found on the bottom of the device.
The Kindle Paperwhite 3 measures 169 x 117 x 9.1mm and it weighs just 205 grams. In comparison, the iPad Air 2 weighs double that amount. The Kobo Aura H20, which is waterproof and slightly larger with a 6.8-inch screen, is slightly heavier at 233 grams.
My Reading Experience
I’ve found the new Paperwhite 3 to be very comfortable to hold. It is smaller and weighs less than many books I’ve read. It also has a rubbery texture that makes it easy to hold and the bezels are wide enough for your finger to rest on comfortably while you read.
The new Paperwhite 3 has a 300 pixels-per-inch screen, which makes it one of the highest-resolution readers you can buy. It actually looks like normal paper it daylight reading conditions. In fact, the Paperwhite’s screen makes it one of the only ebook readers with a display that looks like normal paper.
File Type Support
The kindle supports Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, and PRC natively. It also support HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP through conversion.
6-week battery life
The Paperwhite’s battery is made to last up to six weeks if you read for half an hour each day at the level 10 of brightness and turn off the wireless connection. For those who read 1 to 1 ½ hrs a day you should be good for about one week without needing to recharge.
Recharging the Kindle Paperwhite 3 takes about one hour. The initial charge takes about three hours. A Micro USB cable is included with the device.
Recommendation – It’s a buy
I’m glad I bought the Kindle Paperwhite 3. It’s small, lightweight and comfortable to hold. The front lighting feature makes it easy to read for hours without eye strain in almost any lighting condition.