The Kindle advertises a battery life of around a month. I got my Kindle on May 28th (as an epic birthday present!). I ran the battery to the very end of its life without charging it (but it charges when you plug it into the computer, so it charged when I put new books on it). There are a few factors here as well: First, the battery is drains faster if the wireless is turned on. Second, my case (which I love!!), if I don’t put the Kindle to sleep, sometimes presses buttons. So, I would wake it up and find that the wireless was on. With all of these things taken into account, my battery officially died on June 14th. It didn’t quite last me a month, but I probably use mine more than most people use theirs. I have read 10 or so books… I haven’t reviewed them all so I have no way of keeping track of how many books I’ve read. I know I’m forgetting one or two, but 10 is a safe number. Part of that battery consumption is also because I love arranging my books in ways that make sense probably only to me. That being said, the Collections function on the Kindle is my new best friend. Stephen King has his own Collection, and right now there are 24 books in it.
Here is my Kindle list/review:
Things I love about my Kindle:
- I love how small it is. I have the 6” one, and it is the perfect size.
- I love that you can flip the page by pushing buttons on either side of the Kindle. It makes it a whole lot easier if I’m attempting to multi-task.
- I love how many books it can hold. I think mine has somewhere near 80 on it right now with plenty more space available.
- I love that I can bookmark, highlight, and add notes. I like doing that in some books, but generally consider it a sin to write in books… especially ones that aren’t mine. On the Kindle, I can always remove the notes if I want to.
- The Kindle has an experimental function that allows you to browse the interwebs. It’s… different. I don’t know that I would ever reach the point where I need to use it, but it’s nice for one reason. There are a few sites out there that offer free books that Amazon might not offer for such a competitive rate. I can just use the Kindle browser to download the books directly onto my Kindle. That’s actually how I got my mythology books. They have pictures and are awesome.
- It has the same charger that my Droid (phone… not like R2D2) uses, so I only need one cord. Win!
Things I’m not so keen on:
- I’ve already scratched the screen… it’s minor, and I think it happened before I had my case.
- There is this weird glare. It’s not bad, I can totally read the Kindle in full sunlight, but it has a glare like a magazine page would.
- Along the lines of the glare, there is no backlight (which is good for battery). You can use one of those little clip-on reading lights, but it’s really hard to avoid glare with them.
- The keyboard is tricky. For some reason, whenever I try to press the “n” button I end up hitting the “m” button. This could totally be an "ID10-T" error, but I like to blame the Kindle.
My overall review:
I love my Kindle. I love it a little too much. I was totally the person who refused to like Kindles. I love the smell of old books, I love the tactile feel of the pages, and I love the act of turning the page of a page turner. I was stubborn. Then I tried one out. It is nothing short of an addiction. I have read significantly more books than I would have if I had only books. First of all, having that many books would make my traveling around quite difficult. Secondly, the percentage bar at the bottom of the screen while reading is like a personal challenge. 80% complete? I can totally finish this right now!
So, would I recommend a Kindle to others? Most definitely, wholeheartedly, undoubtedly. Not only would I, but I do, regularly and animatedly. I love my Kindle. It’s not perfect, but nothing is. It’s getting closer though.