Kindle buying suggestions

So I've been reading a pretty good bit lately and before I start buying a lot of books I think it's time to decide if I want a Kindle or not. I think I've narrowed the choices down to two: the regular Kindle and the Paperwhite. So I guess my main question would be is the Paperwhite worth it over the regular Kindle?

Depends (sorry). If you are never going to be reading in low light situations and/or don't mind using an external light (which adds weight if it's one of the cover things) and crave physical buttons, then get the regular. Otherwise the Paperwhite is really good and the text is a smidge sharper than on the previous version (every 50 pages or so it doesn't recognize a page turn touch and I have to "urn" the page again, though when you use a swipe motion it never misses).

Personally I never touched my Kindle again the day I got my iPad.

Paperwhite.

@TopSteer:

I just bought the paperwhite and it was the first Kindle I ever bought. I really like it. It works really well in a variety of settings which I imagine would be harder with a regular Kindle.

Get the Paperwhite, there's really no reason to get a different one. The screen is better, it's lighter, and there's built in light. I am thinking of upgrading to a Paperwhite from a Kindle w/keyboard, and would have today actually but I saw that they are back-ordered and decided to hold off.

Tested seem to love the Paperwhite.

I plan on getting a paperwhite

As an owner of a regular-ass Kindle, let me tell you how nice it would be to have a Paperwhite. I would love to be able to read in bed without a light on, and just be able to turn off my Kindle and go to sleep. The regular one is great, but go Paperwhite.

So it looks like I'm going with the Paperwhite. Thanks for the suggestions everybody.

The paperwhite seems like it is worth the upgrade price. Even if you are reading in a well lit area you'll benefit from the increased contrast and sharpness and the built-in light is a killer feature for when you aren't.

Remember that kindles don't support ePubs.

@Marcsman said:

Personally I never touched my Kindle again the day I got my iPad.

If you're planning on reading a lot, a specialised e-ink device is absolutely the way to go, even if you already own an iPad or whatever. I can't imagine reading anything substantial on something like that.

@imsh_pl said:

Remember that kindles don't support ePubs.

I don't really have any knowledge about this stuff, so what would be the drawbacks of this?

Epubs are basically the industry standard ebook format, along with the kindle format (AZW). Almost all of ebooks which you would download from a PC and upload to a reader are in epub.

From what I understand, the only way to get books on a kindle is to get them from the amazon store, upload AZW files from your PC or upload PDF files.

PDFs aren't really amazing since reading them on an ereader has many drawbacks compared (I think you can't change the font and its size while reading a pdf).

As fas as I'm concerned it's harder to just download an AZW to your PC and upload them to the kindle that it is in the case of epubs and other readers, since epubs are more popular. You can try to convert them to AZW but I think it might possibly decrease the quality or get rid of certain features, although I'm not sure.

I don't really know that much about Amazon store because I've never owned a kindle, but from what I know their service is regarded as top-notch; that is if you're not interested in super-niche titles or have limited access because of where you're from. But if you want to have the freedom to upload a wide variety of your own books to an ereader you might want to consider other possibilites.

I've personall ordered a nook simple touch with glowlight last week. I chose it over the kindle because I didn't really have an easy way to use amazon store efficiently (I don't have a credit card).

I'd strongly suggest you take a look at this youtube channel. There are many great tech reviews there, including ones about the kindle, the nook and also others.

How good is the touch-screen keyboard on the kindle paperwhite? I like to take notes when I'm reading (for school), and it really helps if there is a solid keyboard without too much lag. And how is it compared to the Kindle Keyboard's keyboard

Get the paperwhite. It replaced my kindle with keyboard. The screen is better. I don't need the cover with the light since it's back lit. I haven't had any problems with it and haven't run into the 50 pages thing mentioned above.

@imsh_pl said:

Remember that kindles don't support ePubs.

Grab a conversion program and this ceases to be a problem, if it ever was in the first place.

I'd be hard pressed to recommend the regular Kindle now that the Fire HD is out.

It's a really decent bit of kit if you like Amazon's ecosystem.

@GetEveryone said:

I'd be hard pressed to recommend the regular Kindle now that the Fire HD is out.

It's a really decent bit of kit if you like Amazon's ecosystem.

The Fire is unusable in extreme lightning or bright sunlight, and you'd have to charge it every 2 days. There's plenty of reasons to own both a Kindle and a tablet, I like having one because I only have to charge it once every 2 months or so.

@Meowshi said:

@imsh_pl said:

Remember that kindles don't support ePubs.

Grab a conversion program and this ceases to be a problem, if it ever was in the first place.

Yep Calibre will convert and send pretty much anything to a Kindle. Not that anyone cares about ePub anyway...

I have the old Keyboard Kindle, not the white one the black one. That is the best Kindle, I recommend that one.

@Sooty said:

@GetEveryone said:

I'd be hard pressed to recommend the regular Kindle now that the Fire HD is out.

It's a really decent bit of kit if you like Amazon's ecosystem.

The Fire is unusable in extreme lightning or bright sunlight, and you'd have to charge it every 2 days. There's plenty of reasons to own both a Kindle and a tablet, I like having one because I only have to charge it once every 2 months or so.

The HD is perfectly usable in sunlight. Extremely bright conditions may cause an issue, but when are you going to have electronics out in high-intensity lighting?

@Sooty said:

@Meowshi said:

@imsh_pl said:

Remember that kindles don't support ePubs.

Grab a conversion program and this ceases to be a problem, if it ever was in the first place.

Yep Calibre will convert and send pretty much anything to a Kindle. Not that anyone cares about ePub anyway...

I do :(