Kindle 3 (Latest Generation), Wi-Fi, Free 3G, Graphite, 6" Display

I received my Kindle as a birthday gift from my fantastic husband, but later went to the different bookstores in my area and checked out the other e-readers on the market. Thankfully, I decided afterwards that my Kindle was the best e-reader for me. I am not a huge touchscreen person (my cell phone still has buttons and numbers), so what stood out most to me about the Kindle was the full keypad. The next thing that stood out to me was the texture quality of the "pages" - Amazon uses e-ink technology for these babies, so it really looks like I am reading a page from a book! As such, it works great in direct sunlight. Now, color would be great if I were reading a lot of illustrated children's books, but I read novels that don't have pictures so I am fine with the black ink-only situation. I didn't really care for the color display of some e-readers anyway, because then it's more like a tablet and less like a book, and I wanted my e-reader to stay as close to a book as possible (I hate that LED glare you see on the color devices). If I wanted a tablet, I'd just get an iPad or something (which has e-reader apps); why limit myself to just reading on a device like that?

Full Keyboard - yay, buttons!

E-ink handles black/white illustrations well

Okay. So I like how the Kindle looks (except the boring graphite - I jazzed that up with a skin showcasing Vincent Van Gogh's "Almond Branches"), but how do I feel about how it actually works? I love it!


* I love that I can read in direct sunlight without a glare.
* I love that I can adjust the font and size to match my preferences (I like my fonts slightly larger and sans-serif).
* I love that I can access the Amazon store and download books anywhere with the 3G capability, and I love how easy it is to search for books because of that full keypad. I love that it recommends other books by that author when I am finished with a book, which is quite handy when reading a series. 
* I love that I can highlight phrases that I like and store them for later reference (ahem, Facebook statuses?)
* I love the built-in dictionary - I never realized all the little details I was missing out on when I skimmed over a word I didn't truly have a grasp on and just tried to place it within context. And it's so easy to use! Just use the cursor to highlight the word you want to look up, and the definition pops up at the top or bottom of the page, depending on where the word is.
* I love that I can easily hold it in one hand - it's really lightweight! The one-handed thing is especially great when I think back to reading those 500+ page books and how tired my hand used to get after reading for 3+ hours. 
* I love that I can download free games! Sometimes I don't have a lot of time to read but I want to stay busy, so I'll play a little blackjack or a word game or two - it's so great.  
* I love that it holds up to 3,500 books (not that I'm anywhere close to filling it up).
* I love that the battery life is fantastic (I usually go a month or two without charging, depending on how often I turn on the 3G; I usually turn 3G off while reading to conserve the battery), and it only takes an hour or so to charge. 
* I love that it has experimental features such as music playback, web browser, and text-to-speech audio book listening. 

Thin/lightweight

Easy to hold in one hand

Speakers for music or audiobooks

While I love the music playback and web browser features, I haven't really taken advantage of the text-to-speech yet other than to make sure it works (it does). But just because I love these experimental features doesn't mean they're perfect. Here are some of my issues:

Music:
* There is no way to go back to a track, only skip forward. It would be immensely better to be able to use the page forward and back arrows to go from track to track, rather than only moving forward by pressing alt + F.
* It would be great if a menu containing our songs came up, similar to novels listed on the home page. 


Web browser:
* When I use the web browser on Facebook, 7/10 times it will freeze up, and the only way to fix it is to put it to “sleep” and wake it up again to make the Kindle work. None of the other buttons will de-freeze it.

Here are some issues that I have with the Kindle in general:
* I wish I could pick and choose which images I want to come up as screensavers. I LOVE the birds and fish (they make me happy), but could do without some of the author portraits.
* I would love to be able to delete books right from the home page, rather than having to plug the Kindle it into my computer to archive.
* It would be amazing if the screen could be gently backlit (with more of a golden light, not LED lighting). I am not sure if the e-ink technology would allow it though. I have a reader light, but still have trouble getting lighting just right at night. I know this is something an update couldn’t fix, but maybe something to hope for with Kindle 4?

Yes, that's right - the Kindle is so true to a book that you need a booklight to read at night! That is maybe a little too bookish for me - I kind of expected the e-reader to be backlit, because it's electronic. But then the accessories people would be out of a job, right? Oh, business politics. Anyway, maybe they'll incorporate backlighting someday. Either way, it's not a deal-breaker for me, just a (slight) disappointment.

Overall: I love my Kindle! After experimenting with other e-readers out there, this was definitely the one for me. I love the full keypad, I love the e-ink that gives it that "real book" look, and I love the features and ease of use. I do have a few suggestions (see above), but these are issues I can overlook because they don't compromise the functionality of my reading, which is what I primarily use my Kindle for.

Re-buy?: I hope that my Kindle 3 doesn't become obsolete almost immediately like many cell phones and other electronics tend to, but when it does, I will definitely upgrade (funds pending).