TLBHD - Thinner Lighter Better

Kindle 3 digital reader – most popular 6 inch ebook reader

By Andrei Girbea , updated on June 4, 2014

Like netbooks, eBook readers where not very popular a coupe of years ago. And if for netbooks, the EEE PCs were the ones to revolutionize their segment, for digital electronic book readers, it was Amazon’s Kindle: a 6 inch reader that made eBooks almost more popular than standard printed ones.

The Kindle now reached its 3rd generation and was continuously improved to be the great and compact device that it is today. In this post we’re going to take a look at this digital reader and see what are the good and bad parts of the Kindle 3.

Body – design and ergonomics

Kindle 3 packs your entire library in a compact=

Kindle 3 packs your entire library in a compact gadget

The Kindle 3 looks great and is at the moment the lightest and most compact amongst the top digital readers on the market. It measures 7.5 x 4.8 x 0.335 inches and weighs 8.7 ounces, so it is very light and easy to carry with you when commuting, traveling or just plan to read something in the park or at the beach.

The device comes with a 6 inch display. Under the screen you get a Full Keyboard and a navigation button on its right, as you can see in the picture below. Keys are soft and easy to press, although quite small and cramped. On the sides you get the buttons for turning pages and quick navigating between books. They are quite narrow on this new generation Kindle and while I for one have nothing to complain about, those of you with big hands might find them too small.

You should also know that the new Kindle 3 is available in White and Graphite finishes, while the previous ones were only available in White.

Sllek and ergonomic design

Sleek and ergonomic design

Technical Specs

The Kindle 3 is quite a capable machine and there’s almost nothing it lacks and you would need.

The screen is a 6 incher, like I said before, using e-ink technology, which mimics regular paper as much as possible. You get 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi and 16-levels of gray.

On the new generation, display is actually better, with improved contrast. Of course, being an e-ink display means you will be able to use it in direct light and outside, but will always require an external light source, like a regular book does.

Available in white or graphite

Available in White or Graphite

The screen can only display black and white static content on this generation and does not support touch commands.

Other specs can be found bellow:

  • storage space: 4 GB (only 3.2 actually usable for files) – enough for around 3500 books
  • battery life up to 1 month with Wi-Fi Off
  • connectivity: Wi-Fi and 3G (with Free 3G coverage in many countries, but only for the more expensive version)
  • text to speech
  • portrait and landscape viewing modes

So pretty much all you’ll need. Of course, not having a card expansion slot limits you to those 4 GB of integrated storage, which is OK for books and such content, but once you’ll load some music, you’ll end up finding it insufficient.

Battery life is good and varies from up to 1 month if you switch Wi-Fi OFF and 10 days for the 3G version with Wi-Fi always ON, which should still be enough for all your trips. Battery is not replaceable and that might be an inconvenience.

Content

There’s no reason having a cool little reader like the Kindle 3 without access to the proper content. But that’s not a problem here.

The Kindle 3 natively supports PDF, TXT,  MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC and AZW files. Plus HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP files trough conversion with the free special software provided, which works on both PCs and MACs.

AZW is Amazon’s proprietary filetype, used for content available in their Kindle Store. The Kindle gets access to Amazon’s books collection, one of the best available online and also, one of the most affordable priced. For the States, bestselling and popular titles go for around $9.99, while you get tons of other titles cheaper or free of charge. You also get access to a vast collection of newspapers, magazines, comic books and you can subscribe to daily digests from your favorite sources, that will be delivered automatically every morning, like your newspaper is in your mailbox.

The biggest problem is that the Kindle does not support ePUB content, which offers free access to all titles written prior to 1923. Biggest libraries using ePUB are the ones provided by Google and O’Reilly. However, ePUB files can be converted into MOBI files and transferred to your Kindle, although conversion might not always work perfectly.

I for one don’t really find the lack of support for ePUB files on Kindle that much of a problem. Of course, it would have been something great to have, but i can live without, mainly because I’d rather pay a couple of bucks for a piece of content that will for sure work flawlessly on my machine (as in, buying it from the Amazon store).

Plus, if I would really want that kind of content on my Kindle, i could convert it or try to find it as PDF. It’s a little bit more complicated than just going to ePUB collections and select the title for download, like you can on the Nook for instance, but it is possible nonetheless.

Great not just for books, bur for music, magazines, comics and newspapers also

Great not just for books, bur for music, magazines, comics and newspapers also

You can also run music on your Kindle while reading, which is quite cool. Speakers are only average, but they’ll do the job. Also, on this new Kindle 3 digital reader, you get an improved web browser that will allow you to surf quite easily on static pages. Movies and moving elements are still a no no, for now, but anything static should work great, like blogs, RSS feeds, newspapers, pictures, etc.

Price and recommended accessories

The price for the Kindle 3 is now lower than before. In fact, at the moment, the new Kindle is cheaper than the competition. There are in fact two different versions, both of them available in White or Graphite. You can read about them below:

  • Kindle 3 Wi-Fi – $139 w/ Free Shipping
  • Kindle 3 Wi-Fi + 3G – $189 /w Free Shipping

Both are available Internationally, but the Free Delivery is only available for the States. Click the links for more details, pictures, reviews from buyers and the options to get one of these yourself.

Know that the 3G version is 0.2 ounces heavier than the Wi-Fi only version (weighs 8.7 ounces) and battery life is slightly poorer. However, you get Free 3G coverage in around 100 world countries, but it can only be used to access the Kindle store for new content, and not for browsing. You won’t require a SIM or a 3G plan, the device comes with those included.

There’s also the bigger Kindle DX from Amazon, with a 9.7 inch display. You can [see more about it via this link and I’ll also write a proper post about it too, soon.

Leather cover for Kindle 3 - stylish protection

You also get a couple of interesting accessories I would recommend, like:

  • the official leather Kindle 3 cover, available in many different colors, for $34.99
  • the official cover with retractable night-light, powered from the Kindle itself (useful for reading during the night, without you keeping the night lamp ON and disturbing other persons in the room ). Goes for $59.99 and you can read more about it here.

That’s basically all you’ll need, but if you want a tougher protection option, you should also check out this post about Kindle 3 covers and protection accessories.

Conclusions

Perfect travel companion

Perfect travel companion

As you saw, there’s no wonder the Kindle 3 is the most popular digital ebook reader on the market. It is light and portable, solid built and marvelous looking. Also, specs wise, it’s top notch, with enough space for storing content, high quality eink display and good connectivity options.

It provides access to a huge collection of proper priced content, although it does not offer support for ePUB books, which is in fact its biggest problem.

Of course, the Kindle 3 is not perfect, as you’ve seen from the rows below, but it is the closest to perfection you’ll get right now, especially for this kind of money.

That’s about it for this mini review of the Kindle 3 digital reader. See this other post for more info on Digital eBook readers and also looks forward to posts about Kindle’s main rivals, B&N Nook and Sony Readers .

As always, feedback and opinions are greatly appreciated, so don’t hesitate to post your replies.

Disclaimer: Our content is reader-supported. If you buy through the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
Andrei Girbea, Editor-in-Chief at TLBHD.com. This project was born as part of my search for capable mini-laptops that I could easily lug around to work, and still provide the performance that I'd need on a daily basis. I'm primarily using such ultracompact devices and have been testing them since 2006.

2 Comments

  1. Mitty

    October 21, 2010 at 4:08 am

    I have to second the comment regarding the value for money – the Kindle at US$139 (Wi-Fi version) is very cheap for an ebook reader, and it’s actually very well-built and designed. Here in Singapore, there are a number of Chinese-manufactured ebook readers which retail for US$250 or more, but which are simply not very good – poor build quality, mostly.

    The UI sometimes seems clunky. It works well as long as you’re just reading, but if you’re trying to navigate within your device it can be a bit tedious.

    • Andrei Girbea

      October 21, 2010 at 4:28 am

      Yea, I’ve tried a couple of other Chinese readers as well . On average, screen contrast is worse than even on the first kindle, page refreshing time is almost 1 sec and construction is pretty flimsy. So after seeing the new Kindle a couple of weeks ago, I’m pretty sure I will never buy one of those, and nobody on their right minds should 😛

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *