Going to get my kindle!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Blossom

K4 is the best Kindle if you are just a reader like me and don't use audio and don't take notes and want something you can hold for long periods of time.

In what way would you consider it to be better than the Kindle Touch?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In what way would you consider it to be better than the Kindle Touch?

I wouldn't say it's better then the Touch but if you want a basic reader it's the best Kindle to choose from for reading for the price. It's cheaper, it has page buttons and it's lighter, smaller and the Kindle collections plugin works with it so you can use your own font, change margins and manage your collections with Calibre. However if you are a note taker then it's not for you because the keyboard isn't really made for that.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I wouldn't say it's better then the Touch but if you want a basic reader it's the best Kindle to choose from for reading for the price. It's cheaper, it has page buttons and it's lighter, smaller and the Kindle collections plugin works with it so you can use your own font, change margins and manage your collections with Calibre.

On the other hand, for only $20 more money, you're getting a whole lot more reader: double the battery life, almost 3x the amount of storage space, text-to-speech, etc. Personally I think that's worth spending the extra $20 for, but obviously that's very much a personal decision that everyone has to make for themselves.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

On the other hand, for only $20 more money, you're getting a whole lot more reader: double the battery life, almost 3x the amount of storage space, text-to-speech, etc. Personally I think that's worth spending the extra $20 for, but obviously that's very much a personal decision that everyone has to make for themselves.

+1

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by HarryT

On the other hand, for only $20 more money, you're getting a whole lot more reader: double the battery life, almost 3x the amount of storage space, text-to-speech, etc. Personally I think that's worth spending the extra $20 for, but obviously that's very much a personal decision that everyone has to make for themselves.

These are the reasons I opted for the non-touch--

I have a strong preference for page-turn buttons. I often eat while reading, so I'd rather not touch the reading screen itself with french fry fingers. I had also heard that the screen on the touch was a little slower to respond than the page-turn buttons, but was also easy to accidentally activate and jump around chapters/pages (my sister-in-law's had an issue with that on her touch; I presume sleeping it is a work-around but I'm not too crazy about having to do that either). I've already used a nook for a long time and found I don't enter text to the point where using the 5-way controller is an issue. I also know I'm a bit heavyhanded with a touchscreen, and that I'm never gonna use any of the audio features or games.

I also wanted the option for landscape reading and to be able to use the Calibre Kindle Collections plugin. The storage/battery time on the NT is not ideal, but I have no issues archiving stuff and recharging--what's on the NT is way, way better than my 1st gen nook (which I also plan to use until it dies, since it has books on it I still haven't read).

I wasn't dead-set against the touch but combine those things with the cheaper price, I'd say I'm happy with the non-touch so far. I used the extra money to get the cover and buy an ebook

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Joykins

These are the reasons I opted for the non-touch--

I have a strong preference for page-turn buttons. I often eat while reading, so I'd rather not touch the reading screen itself with french fry fingers. I had also heard that the screen on the touch was a little slower to respond than the page-turn buttons, but was also easy to accidentally activate and jump around chapters/pages (my sister-in-law's had an issue with that on her touch; I presume sleeping it is a work-around but I'm not too crazy about having to do that either). I've already used a nook for a long time and found I don't enter text to the point where using the 5-way controller is an issue. I also know I'm a bit heavyhanded with a touchscreen, and that I'm never gonna use any of the audio features or games.

I also wanted the option for landscape reading and to be able to use the Calibre Kindle Collections plugin. The storage/battery time on the NT is not ideal, but I have no issues archiving stuff and recharging--what's on the NT is way, way better than my 1st gen nook (which I also plan to use until it dies, since it has books on it I still haven't read).

I wasn't dead-set against the touch but combine those things with the cheaper price, I'd say I'm happy with the non-touch so far. I used the extra money to get the cover and buy an ebook

Those are my reasons too. You really don't need all the extra storage space. The Kindle gets cranky when you put too many books on it anyway. You can always use Dropbox but better then that there is your Personal Documents Cloud 5GB where you can keep all your non amazon books there and retrieve them when needed. You don't need full space like the K3 or KT has.

With the new Send to Kindle program you can just send the documents to your PDC and not your Kindle.

[Joykins]

Yeah, I just got the Send to Kindle App! Pretty awesome!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Joykins

Yeah, I just got the Send to Kindle App! Pretty awesome!

I love it! Before you had to email the book to your Kindle using your email servers now it just uploads directly to Amazon's servers and before you couldn't just upload the book directly to the cloud you had to send it to a Kindle. Now you can make your own Archive and not clutter up the Kindle. It's great!

Now if only Pdoc Cloud would work with the Kindle Fire.

[Haesslich]

I opted for the Touch because I -do- need the extra storage space. Not everyone has only a collection of ten 400-500kb AZW/MOBI files, after all.

Yes, I miss the page-turn buttons. No, I don't miss the landscape mode. Yes, I do have files which need the extra space (PDF files, which I find work rather well on the Touch, are fairly easy to navigate now, ditto some manga and comics which I've converted to PDF and MOBI format - although the latter runs into the image-size limit that Amazon seems to have imposed in this latest version of the software). I also have omnibus novels/collections which take anywhere between 3-4 MB of space each... so a hundred of those is about 400MB, or almost half the Kindle 4 Basic/NT's storage

Plus, I find the web browser (for downloading my files from Box.net or Dropbox) works better on the Touch than it did on the K3; faster to render pages, easier to navigate. The 5.0.3 update did fix the responsiveness issues as well with the touchscreen - at least Amazon seems to have listened to the complaints of the early adopters with regards to that part. In fact, I sometimes find it a little TOO responsive now, as my fingers may not move away from the screen fast enough to avoid a double-tap.

I've found the extra $20 to be worth it, even if I miss my page turn buttons. I've already got almost a gig used right now of 3... and I haven't loaded my full library on there yet either.

[Joykins]

I do have a large collection but most of it is epubs for my nook, so I'm just not converting them. I'm leaving them on there. I have ~ 100 azw books, no high-graphics just text so I'm good for at least a few years here. I use Calibre to manage my collection as a whole.

[Haesslich]

The Nook Simple Touch is also a nice unit, from what I've seen... but the need for a B&N account doesn't work for non-American customers. I've personally got about 100 novels and omnibus collections from Amazon or Baen, so it's surprising how quickly a gig disappears.

[Joykins]

My method is to archive books I've read and don't plan on rereading soon--on my computer and on the "cloud" at Amazon and B&N. I agree with Blossom that the devices just don't handle large active libraries very well.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Joykins

My method is to archive books I've read and don't plan on rereading soon--on my computer and on the "cloud" at Amazon and B&N. I agree with Blossom that the devices just don't handle large active libraries very well.

What would you consider "large"? I currently have 622 books on my Kindle Touch, and there are absolutely no problems with handling that.

[Traye]

Originally Posted by Blossom

K4 is the best Kindle if you are just a reader like me and don't use audio and don't take notes and want something you can hold for long periods of time.
Battery lasts about 14 to 18 days with WiFi off.

Same! This is the only Kindle I've had so far but I love mine. I want to read books on it, nothing more. I only turn on the WiFi when I'm downloading a book and it's straight off afterwards.

Joykins, I also read when eating. I much prefer having page turn buttons.

I'm glad you like it!

[dax123]

I have both the K4 NT and the Touch and I must say I prefer my Touch right now, eventhough I rarely if ever use TTS. It's just way easier to navigate with the touch screen, collections are easier to make without having to scroll through the entire keyboard to select a letter etc. I bought the NT first because I was afraid I would miss the page turn buttons..well surprise I don't..the Touch is so easy that I have room on almost the entire screen to just tap to turn my page. Left side tap is to turn a page back, top page tap is to open the search bar with menu button..and the rest of the screen is for tapping to turn page forward. Awesome. My K4 NT is now used as my back-up device as right now I only use my Touch to read.

But that said, I love the K4 NT too, it's a great step in device for people who never had a kindle before and a great follow up on the K3. I'm sure you're going to enjoy yours.