Kindle Paperwhite

I bought a Kindle Paperwhite the other day. Actually I ordered it a few days before and only got it the other day. Same difference. Now I'm not the richest guy in the world. It should be absurd with all of the technological gizmos that I've gotten myself. I already had a Kindle Fire HD that I had purchased in 2013 so why I should I need yet another e-reader? Could I even afford one? 

Well, I made the decision after I got tired of how heavy my Kindle Fire HD was. I mean, it's really just a small flat-screen SMART TV/Gameboy hybird with some books on it. It's heavy. It is also a pain in the ass to read outside and adjusting the brightness doesn't help much. Also reading at night is a pain because if I don't lock the screen in place I can't read while laying on my side because the screen will rotate to accommodate my position. I would just read it while laying on my back, but it's heavy and after a while I'd have to set it on my chest. This shouldn't sound like a big deal, but I am a guitarist and a blogger and the condition of my hands is kind of important to me. I'm a bit more cautious of things like muscle tightness in my fingers or wrists than maybe other people are. 

So all of these are reasons that I decided to purchase a Kindle Paperwhite. 

Of course, that's not to say I don't love my Kindle Fire. It's still running fine after two years. It could be better and maybe the newer ones are, but with that beautiful screen and 32 GB worth of memory I don't think there can be many better devices out there. I know the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 can get up 64 GB worth of memory, but that one would be even heavier and with a pointlessly larger screen and I just don't see the need for it. 

Now buying one of these devices is always a pain in the ass because the next week there's always a new and improved version. I think the next version will have free commentary on all novels in your collection by Steve Martin while he plays a banjo so you might want to wait for that version. 

However, I chose this time to buy a Paperwhite because it suited my needs at this time. Granted it's not perfect, but as much as I like Steve Martin playing the banjo I am happy with my version. 

My Kindle Fire has a very glossy and smooth screen. This works in Catch-22 fashion because it makes movies look awesome, but it also makes a fingerprint smear look like a Brundlefly and you just can't avoid looking at it.  

The screen on the Paperwhite on the other hand has a somewhat sandy feel to it. It's tough to describe, but it is not smooth like the Fire. It actually feels more like a page in a paperback than a screen. The pages also look like they are out of a book. At this point you are probably saying, "Duh, they are," but I mean that the pages look like pages from a book and not pages on a screen. It has a legit papery look to it and while the Paperwhite isn't as bright as my Fire it also isn't as glaring. I've yet to see a fingerprint. 

The Paperwhite that I ordered has 3G as well as Wi-Fi and it's supposed to be heavier than the regular Paperwhites without 3G, but if it is I find that impossible to fathom. The Paperwhite is light as a feather. Granted you can't look at porn on it or the newest Kanye West video, but you can actually read on it. The issues of manga that I've read on it also look fantastic. Again, like actual paper. 

The only downside to it is that there's virtually nothing else to the device other than a power button and a charging port. It came with a charging USB cord, but not an actual adapter. I thought that was kind of stupid, but I do have a million adapter and USB cord lying around so it is not a big deal. 

In some ways the Paperwhite reminds of my B.C. Rich Avenge Son of Beast guitar with its simplicity. I say that because the Son of Beast only has one set of pick-ups and one volume knob and that is it for the effects. If you don't like treble or the inability to do whammy dives then you are in deep doo-doo. 

You can't expand the memory and while the ability to hold a lot of books sounds promising it is also a bit misleading and that is why having more than one Kindle device is ideal. I don't have as many books as a lot of people, but I do have a lot. The ability to hold eleven hundred books just isn't enough for me. That why I opted for the 32 GB when I had the chance. I want to hold a library in my hands if I so feel the need to do so. 

I have 127 books in my Cloud as you can see from my screenshot and that isn't close to 1,100, but I am 1/11th away from that golden number. Manga like Dragonball and Bleach will be 100+ volumes alone. 

So that is a downside. That's why I have my Kindle Fire, though. I'm certainly not getting rid of it. 

I'm going to try to read more. You know, novels and stuff on my Paperwhite. My Kindle Fire will still be getting heavy usage, though. Those jewel games where you gotta line up three or more are insanely addictive. Also Sudoku. And that Tetris knockoff. Oh, and Crunchyroll's anime streaming service. Maybe that's why I haven't been reading enough. 

All in all, this device is pretty awesome. Now if the Fire had the e-ink and was lightweight and kept the 32 GB worth of memory? That'd be pretty fucking cool. Someone at Amazon needs to get to work on that.

EDIT: I noticed that after attempting to upload my entire Kindle collection to both my Fire (something I had never done before) and my Paperwhite that manga and comic books are just way too big to keep in bulk on a Kindle. Any Kindle except for maybe the big one with 64 gb. My Fire couldn't even hold my entire collection and my manga collection isn't that big compared to my book collection. Of course, I wanted to see how much my Fire would hold compared to my Paperwhite so that's why I uploaded everything and the Fire holds more, but both of them tapped out with just about the same amount of books and manga as the other.  Of course, I had apps on my Fire that probably took up even more memory. Not many but enough to get a warning that I didn't have enough space on my Fire. I didn't get a warning from the Paperwhite as I approached its memory threshold but I was keeping up with it and stopped when I got too close.

So... lesson learned. Manga takes up a ton of memory. I know it says that on every e-manga issue I buy, but I was just curious.

This also makes the option of having 3G excellent since the storage on the Paperwhite isn't great. I can remove a book and then download it again or another book on the go. With my Fire I'd have to wait to get home or wait for another free Wi-Fi signal to do any downloading.