Is 3G worth it in Canada?

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by chamekke

bZkindle and CRussel - thank you both for reassuring me. That's wonderful news.

I've just learned that I have a tax refund coming *yaay CRA* so I am now in a position to splurge, just a little, and snarfle a 3G model.

Now the only dilemma is, do I get white so that hubs and I can easily distinguish our two models when they're cover-free (if they ever are), or do I go for graphite which, frankly, I think I prefer the look of? :-P

*will probably spend the rest of the weekend struggling with this*

While I personally prefer the look of the graphite, there have been several issues with the graphite. None of them deal-breakers, but a concern for longevity nontheless. Specifically, wear of the keys and micro-cracks in the corner diagonally from the screen. By going with the white, it's a lot easier to spot which is yours if you leave the cover folded over, as both of us tend to do.

[chamekke]

Originally Posted by CRussel

While I personally prefer the look of the graphite, there have been several issues with the graphite. None of them deal-breakers, but a concern for longevity nontheless. Specifically, wear of the keys and micro-cracks in the corner diagonally from the screen. By going with the white, it's a lot easier to spot which is yours if you leave the cover folded over, as both of us tend to do.

I've been searching for threads about this (both here and on Kindleboards) -- and for what it's worth, I haven't seen any postings reporting either of these problems since February. Maybe it's no longer a problem with the most recent batches of graphite K3s?

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by chamekke

I've been searching for threads about this (both here and on Kindleboards) -- and for what it's worth, I haven't seen any postings reporting either of these problems since February. Maybe it's no longer a problem with the most recent batches of graphite K3s?

Could be. Our graphite is one of the early ones, and has been replaced once for the keys problem. The crack off the corner of the screen is really, really minor, and it doesn't appear to be causing an issue. At this point, I'm not inclined to worry about it.

[chamekke]

I realized I never actually reported back, so...

I ended up ordering the graphite 3G. And it works like a charm! No problem whatsoever in receiving 3G when wifi isn't available, and the speed is comparable too.

The only thing -- and of course, I failed to notice this until I'd loaded all 700-odd ebooks and other docs onto my Kindle -- is that the 'u' key tends to stick a bit. That is, I have to press it very hard for it to actually produce a typed 'u'.

As I'm about to go out of the country (which was part of the reason for buying the 3G now), I'm not about to return it just yet. I'm hoping, actually, that the stickiness will pass off by itself, although I do recognize that might not happen. Still, there isn't enough time to return it before my trip, so I'll just have to remember to press extra hard when I'm typing words like colour and honour. Otherwise people will think I'm using American spellings -- the horror! ;-)

Aside from this, the Kindle is perfect. I haven't seen any cracks or anything like that, and it's utterly gorgeous. I'm thrilled! So, thank you all very much for your kind encouragement. It really helped.