same screen quality….why upgrade?

[max99]

putting aside the copy-cat tablet which i have no interest in, this is my analysis of the new kindle lineup:

1. exactly the same pearl eink screens
2. exactly the same core software engine
3. more distracting services - X ray

i see no valid reason to upgrade from a K3, the main selling point for the K3 over K2s was the vastly clearer eink technology…what do others think?

[GoversAU]

Totally agree. I'm seriously underwhelmed, and possibly a tad disappointed, and will be sticking with my K2 and DXG.

I would seriously miss the page turn buttons on the side (it's bad enough with them on only one side with the DXG).

As for the Fire ... what's the point? I want an ereader.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by max99

putting asked the copy-cat tablet which i have no interest in, this is my analysis of the new kindle lineup:

1. exactly the same pearl eink screens
2. exactly the same core software engine
3. more distracting services - X ray

i see no valid reason to upgrade from a K3, the main selling point for the K3 over K2s was the vastly clearer eink technology…what do others think?

Some people like touch screens. Those are the people that the new devices are aimed at. If the K3 meets your needs, then that's great - it meets mine, too.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GoversAU

As for the Fire ... what's the point? I want an ereader.

The Fire isn't aimed at the reader market - it's aimed primarily at the video and music market. That's a very significant market sector.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by max99

i see no valid reason to upgrade from a K3, the main selling point for the K3 over K2s was the vastly clearer eink technology…what do others think?

You forgot touch screen. A major upgrade, whether you use it or not.

[abookreader]

If I had a working K3 I probably wouldn't upgrade to the Touch just yet.

[Papi]

I prefer keyboard so I don't mind much about the Touch, and the IR technology implies a 2~3mm recessed screen which I don't like much. But I wonder if it will be much faster with the new Freescale chip. I didn't see the Touch in action yet (maybe it's shown in the press conference), but you can see a page turn (2 times actually) in the Quick Tour on amazon's site and it seems pretty fast, though maybe it was edited to make it look faster. In the rest of the Quick Tour video, they cautiously avoid showing the device in action.

[mr ploppy]

I don't think they are aimed at existing users, they're more for the new Xmas market. If they had wanted people to upgrade they would have replaced the keyboard with an extra inch of screen.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

I don't think they are aimed at existing users, they're more for the new Xmas market. If they had wanted people to upgrade they would have replaced the keyboard with an extra inch of screen.

This is my sense of things, too. The new Kindles aren't primarily aimed at existing owners (unless their Kindles broke, I guess). They're for people who don't already have Kindles --especially those who were holding off because of price. Even though they're ad-supported, Amazon broke the $100 mark with these Kindles, so that will attract some people.

I'm not sure what to think of the Kindle Fire. Clearly, a $200 tablet is a big deal -- especially if it can be rooted to put a later version of Android on it. On the other hand, 8GB of memory w/ no expansion slot is kind of hard to swallow for a tablet these days. That's less than a lot of phones have now.

[mewmartigan]

Part of the problem is that e-ink doesn't really advance like some other technologies. I think until color e-ink comes out, the Pearl is as good as it gets.

I have a Touch on order becuase I need to have the latest gadget but I really like the touch interface and its smaller/lighter/etc...All the usual bullet points. I will probably never use the X ray feature but maybe I will be surprised.

I like the desgin of new lighted cover over the old one as well.

[Alissa]

I don't think many people noticed it but I was impressed by a photo on a new Kindle product page:
This picture makes me think that typing of accented letters is enabled at last. I'm not sure the feature is provided on Kindle 3 through firmware upgrade, but, if not, I think it can be a sole reason for me to buy the new Kindle.

For the moment, I don't pre-order it because it may be enabled on Kindle 3 soon, and Amazon doesn't take pre-orders from Japan...

[Zeebra]

Originally Posted by max99

putting aside the copy-cat tablet which i have no interest in, this is my analysis of the new kindle lineup:

1. exactly the same pearl eink screens
2. exactly the same core software engine
3. more distracting services - X ray

i see no valid reason to upgrade from a K3, the main selling point for the K3 over K2s was the vastly clearer eink technology…what do others think?

Faster processor, smaller overall size and it's lighter. Removing the keyboard makes it even more like a paperback novel in size. Some people really like that.

[avatar78]

I did notice on this demo he refreshed the page while reading about a half dozen times before the screen flashed. I also like the pinch to zoom, especially if it works on pdf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlO3r2IndlQ

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

Part of the problem is that e-ink doesn't really advance like some other technologies. I think until color e-ink comes out, the Pearl is as good as it gets.

Here's a Kindle-friendly link to a long Business Week Jeff Bezos profile touching on this:

http://tinyurl.com/43e6vkp

For years the engineers at Lab126 tried to create a workable and reader-friendly color Kindle, according to three former employees. New color display technologies like Qualcomm’s Mirasol and another MIT IT-offshoot called Pixel Qi proved unreliable and difficult to produce in large quantities.

[emellaich]

+1 on the size and weight. It now fits in my pants pockets.