Fire 7 as a dedicated reading device?

[hleo12]

Hi there.

I have an old kindle 4th gen (the one without light and no touch). It has served its purpose but I find myself just using the kindle app on my phone. It is a pain looking for a decent lightsource to just read, specially at night.

I'm not as big of a reader as I used to be, so getting a dedicated reading device is kinda of a waste for me. Best case scenario I just read for 30 minutes a day. But I still want one, as I find reading on my phone to be quite distracting.

How is the reading experience of Fire 7? I'm going for the cheapest option I can find here.

Is the kindle app there the same as the one from android/ios?

How about reading for longer periods? I heard the screen isn't that good.

And lastly, is it worth spending more to get the Kindle Basic even if I'm not reading that much?

Thanks for any input.

[atonement]

Try to avoid reading in pitch dark and especially don't crank up the brightness if you can't. Dark mode helps but only so much. Years ago I made the mistake of reading ebooks in my mobile in pitch dark and despite dark mode and minimum brightness I had developed issues with my eye sight which warranted a visit to the ophthalmologist. Afterwards I almost never read in complete darkness and the issues gradually resolved. Read extensively thereafter on my LCD smartphone for years and never had an issue.
A high quality LCD like in an iPad is fine. OLED should be better but ofc e-ink is the best.
I do not use the frontlight in my PW3 even during night time. I prefer to have a background light source.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by hleo12

How is the reading experience of Fire 7? I'm going for the cheapest option I can find here.

Is the kindle app there the same as the one from android/ios?

How about reading for longer periods? I heard the screen isn't that good.

And lastly, is it worth spending more to get the Kindle Basic even if I'm not reading that much?

Thanks for any input.

The only person I knew who tried using a Fire 7 as an ereader gave up on it after a couple of weeks. Basically, her issues were the 1024x600 screen resolution which made smaller text hard to read, the Fire 7 was not usable when she was trying to read on their sun porch and she started getting headaches after reading for over 30 minutes at a time.

The Kindle app on her Fire 7 wss pretty much identical to the Kindle app running on my Lenovo M8 FHD tablet.

Personally, I would go for the Paperwhite 2021 edition. The higher resolution, higher contrast screen and the colour changing backlight make it worth the extra cost. Comparing the 6" 800x600 167DPI screen on the Kindle Basic to the 6.8" 1236x1648 300DPI screen on the Paperwhite is no contest. If you wait for sales, the price difference can get pretty minor.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The only person I knew who tried using a Fire 7 as an ereader gave up on it after a couple of weeks. Basically, her issues were the 1024x600 screen resolution which made smaller text hard to read, the Fire 7 was not usable when she was trying to read on their sun porch and she started getting headaches after reading for over 30 minutes at a time.

The Kindle app on her Fire 7 wss pretty much identical to the Kindle app running on my Lenovo M8 FHD tablet.

Personally, I would go for the Paperwhite 2021 edition. The higher resolution, higher contrast screen and the colour changing backlight make it worth the extra cost. Comparing the 6" 800x600 167DPI screen on the Kindle Basic to the 6.8" 1236x1648 300DPI screen on the Paperwhite is no contest. If you wait for sales, the price difference can get pretty minor.

Thank you. That's what I was afraid of. The 7's screen resolution is crap, and basically worse than reading on my phone. The only reason I was considering it was the price.

The paperwhite 2021 edition is waaaaaay out of my budget, I'm afraid. Even the regular paperwhite. And sadly, we don't have Amazon here so I can't wait for sales to buy directly. I gotta rely on 3rd party sellers, which makes things more expensive. Import tax and stuff.

So my next cheapest option is the basic model. It is a direct upgrade for my 4th gen, but it's still more money into something I only have one use for.

Considering all things, the basic might be what I end up with. Shame tho, I was hoping the Fire 7 would be a suitable alternative.

Originally Posted by atonement

Try to avoid reading in pitch dark and especially don't crank up the brightness if you can't. Dark mode helps but only so much. Years ago I made the mistake of reading ebooks in my mobile in pitch dark and despite dark mode and minimum brightness I had developed issues with my eye sight which warranted a visit to the ophthalmologist. Afterwards I almost never read in complete darkness and the issues gradually resolved. Read extensively thereafter on my LCD smartphone for years and never had an issue.
A high quality LCD like in an iPad is fine. OLED should be better but ofc e-ink is the best.
I do not use the frontlight in my PW3 even during night time. I prefer to have a background light source.

Thanks. High quality lcd the fire 7 is not

[cvkemp]

I use my Fire HD10 tablet for reading at times. My eyes will give issues at times so I need the larger text. But I mostly use my PW5 for reading and it is much easier on my eyes.

[JSWolf]

hleo12, I suggest you save up for a new Reader. How much is in your budget now?

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

hleo12, I suggest you save up for a new Reader. How much is in your budget now?

I have the budget for a Kindle Basic. I just figured I could go for something cheaper and have money left for extras.

I could save up for a paperwhite (not 2021), but I'm not really convinced I would need all the other features it has over the basic model.

Night mode strains my eyes more, and being waterproof is kinda meh to me. I'm not someone who would take it somewhere wet. With rona going around, pool or beach trips are highly unlikely.

The only thing I can think of is the even screen. My cousin and aunt both have the basic model and the depressed screen makes the inside edges quite icky.

As for the screen resolution, I'm quite ok with my 4th gen, so I wouldn't imagine having the pw's higher dpi would mean that much to me. But I haven't really held a pw in person, so that might be something I'm into.

I just don't wanna buy something I'd regret since budget's a little tight.

I haven't really found any good comparisons on youtube between the basic and pw. They can talk specs all day, but it's hard to find a review that talks about real world usage.

[Sirtel]

Given your use case and requirements, I'd say go for the basic. It does what it needs to do, which is to let you read books relatively comfortably. If you don't read that much overall, there's no need to get a more expensive model.

[drofgnal]

I used a Kindle fire 7 as a reader for a long time. It was fine. I eventually left it on the roof of my car when driving off one morning. Found it a hour later with the screen cracked. Went up to a kindle fire 8, which has a bit better screen resolution. I still have it. Check out woot.com Today they currently have a kindle paperwhite for sale at 69.99. They are new 2018 models from canada. The main difference is on startup the language selections are english and french instead of english and spanish.

https://computers.woot.com/offers/ki...lnd_cat_pc_8_1

Some days they'll have others. Look under computers, then tablets.

A new fire 8 is 89.99.

[Kusuri]

before getting an PW4 a few months ago, i used a Kindle Fire 7" (rooted with ebook reader apps). All i can say is.. if you really want to read on it for longer Periods.. don't get one.

my experience with it:

- after 1 to 2 hours of reading, my eyes started to hurt and i got really tired as hell

- battery only lasted around 3-4 hours since the display etc. takes a lot of energy

- it was heavy. holding it for longer periods is really annoying because of this.. especially in bed.

- after 1 year or so the kindle fire starts to get "glitchy". my family (sister, dad, mom, me) have all a kindle fire 7" and they all had the same issues after around 1 to 2 years. it tells you suddenly that your memory is full even if you have almost no apps installed and no files on it.. you can't clean the memory and it even if you remove all things, it still stays at around 80-90% full memory. also it gets SLOW as hell. it can take 20-30 seconds to open apps sometimes, and then it takes ages to navigate inside apps. videos on youtube etc. buffer like hell so you can't really do anything good on it anymore.

- the brightness isn't really good for reading in the dark. even if you put the slider for the brightness to 0, it's still too bright.. it's really annoying. and if there is someone else with you in the room, he will not be able to sleep.

if you maybe get a kindle fire for 30-40€ and only want to use it for reading webcomics and manga.. it's "okay".. but for reading normal books or for longer reading session.. i wouldn't recommend it. far away from it.

i really would rather recommend to get a normal Kindle with e-ink display for reading. even mangas as an example are looking really great on a paperwhite.

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Given your use case and requirements, I'd say go for the basic. It does what it needs to do, which is to let you read books relatively comfortably. If you don't read that much overall, there's no need to get a more expensive model.

Would you say the upgrade from basic to pw4 is worth it? Even though the pw4 is a year older?
Every review/comparison I've seen on youtube is just trashing the screen resolution of the basic.
I could delay getting one and save up some more if the pw4 is really that big of an improvement.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by hleo12

Would you say the upgrade from basic to pw4 is worth it? Even though the pw4 is a year older?
Every review/comparison I've seen on youtube is just trashing the screen resolution of the basic.
I could delay getting one and save up some more if the pw4 is really that big of an improvement.

To the PW4? Not particularly, as it's known to have less than average contrast, despite the superior resolution. The PW5 would be a real upgrade.

[kyrilson]

I would say get the Kindle basic or save up a little to get the PW4. I do think the basic's screen is just fine for reading, though. It's not as bad as the youtube people say. Those people are obsessed with dpi, and having the clearest and bestest, etc. I think there is a certain amount of time that you can return the kindle to Amazon if you're not happy with it (might be 30 days?), so why not get the Kindle basic and try it out for a week or so?

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by kyrilson

I would say get the Kindle basic or save up a little to get the PW4. I do think the basic's screen is just fine for reading, though. It's not as bad as the youtube people say. Those people are obsessed with dpi, and having the clearest and bestest, etc. I think there is a certain amount of time that you can return the kindle to Amazon if you're not happy with it (might be 30 days?), so why not get the Kindle basic and try it out for a week or so?

I don't live in a country with Amazon, so rip I guess
I have to order through 3rd party sellers (which they already mark up the price), and returning it would be a whole different nightmare, so I'm kinda really checking all my bases before I commit to one. Although based on reading here, there really isn't taht much of an advantage into getting a pw4 over the basic.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

To the PW4? Not particularly, as it's known to have less than average contrast, despite the superior resolution. The PW5 would be a real upgrade.

Thanks. The price jump from basic to pw5 is too steep for me at this moment, so I might just really get the basic.

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by hleo12

I don't live in a country with Amazon, so rip I guess
I have to order through 3rd party sellers (which they already mark up the price), and returning it would be a whole different nightmare, so I'm kinda really checking all my bases before I commit to one. Although based on reading here, there really isn't taht much of an advantage into getting a pw4 over the basic.


Thanks. The price jump from basic to pw5 is too steep for me at this moment, so I might just really get the basic.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you don't have Amazon in your country. Makes sense to do your due diligence before committing to one.