MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Thinking of replacing Fire because of book collections

PeculiarPooch · 06-22-2012, 08:23 PM

I would get a Kindle Touch if I were you. The Kindle 4 Non-Touch is well and good for its price ($79 in the US with ads), but it lacks text-to-speech, MP3 compatibility, and has half the battery life and space compared to both the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Keyboard. If you're a heavy reader, or the sort to carry all of your books with you, you might come up against some frustrations.

The Kindle Touch and Kindle Keyboard are very similar in a lot of ways: the same size, the same battery life, the exact same screen, library lending via overdrive and Amazon Prime lending, a choice between wi-fi connectivity only or both 3G and wi-fi connectivity, the ability to make annotations and collections, et cetera. They differ in a few important areas, though, which might make you choose one over the other:

The Kindle Keyboard does a full refresh every page turn. This means that the screen completely blacks out for a split second. Most people stop noticing this after using it for a while. On the Kindle Touch, you can choose whether to have the screen refresh every page turn, or every 6 page turns. Some people notice mild 'ghosting' of the letter without a refresh every page turn, but it's more common not to notice anything.

The Kindle Touch supports KF8, whereas the Kindle Keyboard doesn't. There are no books that the Touch can read which the Keyboard can't, and KF8 doesn't add any new fonts - it helps with formatting, though, and to provide a slightly smoother ereading experience.

The Kindle Touch is lighter in weight and smaller in size than the Kindle Keyboard. The Keyboard has a black bezel, whereas the Touch has a grey bezel. This can cause the contract on the Touch to appear 'washed out' when compared side-by-side to the Keyboard, but it's an optical illusion.

The Touch is all touch-screen interface, obviously, whereas the Keyboard has a five-way controller, page turn buttons on either side of the screen, and a physical keyboard. The on-screen keyboard for the Touch works just as well as the physical keyboard on the Keyboard.

Those are the two best eink Kindles that Amazon currently offers, and as I said before, I'd recommend that you get the Touch. It's better than the Keyboard in many aspects. Good luck!

06-22-2012, 08:23 PM	#10
PeculiarPooch Member Posts: 13 Karma: 425778 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G	I would get a Kindle Touch if I were you. The Kindle 4 Non-Touch is well and good for its price ($79 in the US with ads), but it lacks text-to-speech, MP3 compatibility, and has half the battery life and space compared to both the Kindle Touch and the Kindle Keyboard. If you're a heavy reader, or the sort to carry all of your books with you, you might come up against some frustrations. The Kindle Touch and Kindle Keyboard are very similar in a lot of ways: the same size, the same battery life, the exact same screen, library lending via overdrive and Amazon Prime lending, a choice between wi-fi connectivity only or both 3G and wi-fi connectivity, the ability to make annotations and collections, et cetera. They differ in a few important areas, though, which might make you choose one over the other: The Kindle Keyboard does a full refresh every page turn. This means that the screen completely blacks out for a split second. Most people stop noticing this after using it for a while. On the Kindle Touch, you can choose whether to have the screen refresh every page turn, or every 6 page turns. Some people notice mild 'ghosting' of the letter without a refresh every page turn, but it's more common not to notice anything. The Kindle Touch supports KF8, whereas the Kindle Keyboard doesn't. There are no books that the Touch can read which the Keyboard can't, and KF8 doesn't add any new fonts - it helps with formatting, though, and to provide a slightly smoother ereading experience. The Kindle Touch is lighter in weight and smaller in size than the Kindle Keyboard. The Keyboard has a black bezel, whereas the Touch has a grey bezel. This can cause the contract on the Touch to appear 'washed out' when compared side-by-side to the Keyboard, but it's an optical illusion. The Touch is all touch-screen interface, obviously, whereas the Keyboard has a five-way controller, page turn buttons on either side of the screen, and a physical keyboard. The on-screen keyboard for the Touch works just as well as the physical keyboard on the Keyboard. Those are the two best eink Kindles that Amazon currently offers, and as I said before, I'd recommend that you get the Touch. It's better than the Keyboard in many aspects. Good luck! Last edited by PeculiarPooch; 06-22-2012 at 08:25 PM.