No vacation would be complete without a little bit of field testing thrown in. This past week, my husband and I escaped the last minute holiday crunch with a trip to Hawaii. Whenever we travel together for more than a long weekend, we face a logistical dilemma: books.
Both of us are avid readers (my husband's greatest fear is being unexpectedly stuck somewhere without ample reading material) and we use our vacations as time to catch up on the books we accumulated since our last getaway. A good week's vacation in a "butt in a beach chair" destination can require at least 5-6 books per person. In the past, we've shipped a box of books to our destination ahead of time, or checked a separate bag full of books.
Fortunately, Amazon's Kindle was introduced in time for me to buy one for my trip. While my husband lugged 6 books in his luggage, I loaded my Kindle with 8 titles and packed only one "real" book (I carried it for safe measure in case I didn't like the Kindle or it broke or something, then I'd at least be safe until I could find a bookstore).
Here's the verdict on my Kindle experience:
Portability: The Kindle is lightweight and fits easily into my handbag, so I was able to take it with me everywhere - big win.
E-commerce: Buying books for the Kindle is a breeze, and the wireless delivery is fast and slick. When I first ordered my Kindle it was sold out, so I used the two weeks leading up to the delivery to buy my digital books - they were all waiting for me on my Kindle the minute I took it out of the package. I do wish the selection of books available were a bit better, but it's not bad and I'm sure it will improve over time. Buying books and newspapers on the Kindle itself (as opposed to on Amazon.com) is terrific when you're on the road. At the airport, I purchased that day's WSJ for 75 cents, vs. having to wrestle with a newspaper on the plane and deal with cramming the used paper in the seat pocket. I'm not ready to give up the "real" newspaper for everyday, but for travel, I'll never lug the newspaper again.
Reading: The Kindle is easy on the eye and not a compromise compared to traditional books. I read 4 complete books on the Kindle and started a 5th during my vacation, with no eye strain. It has a long battery life, and reading in the sun was no problem. The only issue I had with readability was when reading a business book (yes, I did read a business book on vacation) which had some numerical charts, and in most cases the charts did not fit on one screen and were pretty much unreadable.
Interface: Using the Kindle is more intuitive than I thought it would be. If a sign of good usability is that you don't have to read the manual or go to the demo screens, then the Kindle passed the test for me - I was able to figure out just about everything in one try, though the Kindle probably does some things that I have not discovered yet.
Design: There are a few design flaws with the Kindle, which you've probably read about in other reviews. I had read that some users objected to the very large "next page" and "previous page" buttons on the side of the device, as they caused users to hit them and turn pages when they didn't want to. I initially had this problem, but resolved it easily by using the Kindle in its case, which is easily held like a traditional book. By resting my hand under the spine, I was able to easily turn pages only when I wanted to. This, however, created another issues. With the Kindle in its case, it is impossible to turn it on or off, or to turn the wireless on or off ; the buttons for each are two very tiny switches on the back of the Kindle. You have to either take the Kindle out of the case or try to get your finger between the back of the Kindle and the case, either of which is impossible to do without hitting the paging buttons. This is a minor annoyance, not a deal breaker for me.
The Bottom Line: At $399, the Kindle is expensive. It's a e-commerce winner as far as the buying and fulfillment experience goes (as you'd expect from Amazon). There's room for improvement on the book selection and product design side, but for an "out of the gate" product, I'm calling it a success.
And my suitcase, for the first time ever, is lighter than my husband's!
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