Kindle Touch or non-touch Kindle 4?

[JodyXo]

i have an ipad 2 already, which does almost everything. but it's awful when it comes to reading... i have the kindle app, and plenty of books but can't read as often as i used to because it's heavy and it hurts my eyes. so i just decided to get a kindle, but it's unbelievably difficult, since it'll be my very first eReader, i really have no idea what i should be looking for!
i know the touch one has twice the capacity and battery life, and it also has text-to-speech feature. but i think having an eReader with a touch screen wouldn't be fun since i'll probably be turning pages by mistake all the time.
what do you think?
i'm really torn between the two
if you've tried both, please tell me which one you like better

thanks

[HarryT]

I have the Touch, and love it. I've never turned the page by mistake - you wouldn't read with your fingers on the screen, would you? You'd be hiding the text if you did. It's not like the iPad, which is essentially all screen.

For me it's a complete no-brainer. The Touch has double the battery life and almost 3x the storage, for $20 more than the non-Touch. Get the Touch.

[jcurt171]

I just got the KT and love it. Yes, it's possible to turn an extra page once in a great while using the Touch but that's not much of an issue. Remember you can also swipe which, I've found, never results in an extra page. I also like the small size which makes it very easy to handle in a multitude of reading situations and positions. I take it with me everywhere, just in case, lol.

[tovare]

I would suggest the smallest kindle because it will fit in more pockets than any other kindle and it has dedicated page-turn buttons and is really cheap.

The kindle touch has much better specs than the smallest non-touch model, but it appears to be just a bit better than non-touch in areas where your iPad 2 excels above and beyond what you can do with e-ink technology. (Altough I personally prefer a netbook over a tablet, I can see it's usefullness reading color pdf's and surfing the web).

[Jack Tingle]

Personally, based on limited exposure (in-shop displays + I own a K3), I prefer the non-touch. It's easier to read one-handed with the side page-turn buttons. The touch screen or the keyboard doesn't really add much to basic reading, so I don't really view them as worth the added price.

If you have a particular interface preference or price point, go with that.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[Thalia Helikon]

Literally JUST returned from dropping it off at the UPS Store. I used the $$ from my Amazon credit card points to buy the "sponsored" Touch, but I chose to return it after a week.

The reason I chose Touch in the first place was because of superior software and operating system-- the non-touch is pretty much a brick except for the e-reader function. Supposedly the Touch has better games, the option for "Text to Speech," Audible Audio books, music.

However, I did not like the touch screen. My fingers must be non-conductive, because I have to rap and tap on the screen like I was knocking on a door!! It seriously interfered with my reading enjoyment, to pause and repeatedly tap the screen. In addition, I noticed that the screen flashed black and then refreshed as text. [In the settings, I selected "do not refresh e-ink screen on each page change."]

I was not delighted with the flat file structure. I told my mom it was like throwing all my books into a pond. I couldn't discern series order. I guess you have to make collections on the Kindle, you can't build a file structure while connected over USB. And then you are limited by sort order.

If I choose another Kindle e-reader, it will be the non-touch, non-sponsored. I do not want touch screen. I want a toggle switch, or a rocker switch, to turn pages. I have plenty of smart devices; I just need an ereader with nice display and long battery life. I wish there was a device that operated on Calibre, so I could keep 2,000 books in different genres, tagged, sorted by series order!! Is that too much to ask??

[Pomtroll]

I have the touch & have no trouble holding it one handed & tapping to turn the page. I seldom turn more than one page at a time. But I prefer touch screens. And as for buttons on my K3, I would accidentally turn pages fairly often. I don't know how the K4 is for that since I don't have one.

Thalia you should not have had to tap that hard to turn a page. Something may have been wrong with your KT.

[Connallmac]

I ordered the NT first and it was just too small for my hand, plus it was lacking in features and drive space. Plus entering in info for a search or on the calender program the lack of any keyboard, physical or touch was a killer. So I ordered the KT and found I liked it better, so I returned the NT.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Thalia Helikon

However, I did not like the touch screen. My fingers must be non-conductive, because I have to rap and tap on the screen like I was knocking on a door!!

Hmmm. Why do you believe that the conductivity (or otherwise) of your fingers would be of any relevance to an infra-red touch screen?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Pomtroll

Thalia you should not have had to tap that hard to turn a page. Something may have been wrong with your KT.

You don't actually have to touch the screen at all. You just have to interrupt the grid of IR beams which are about 1mm above the screen's surface.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by JodyXo

if you've tried both, please tell me which one you like better

I'd get the Touch. The added features are worth much more than the extra $20 you'll pay:

• audio player - audiobooks, music, text-to-speech
• 2x battery life (2 months vs 1 month)
• 2.4x additional storage (3 GB vs 1.25 GB)
• X-Ray feature

[mastermesh]

the new asus 7 inch tablet will be the killer... due out 2nd quarter.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mastermesh

the new asus 7 inch tablet will be the killer... due out 2nd quarter.

I suspect that nobody will be killed by it. However, no backlit LCD tablet is a replacement for an eInk reader; it's a completely different market.