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Kindle 2 First Impressions by davistroy

17K views 34 replies 17 participants last post by  loca 
#1 ·
My Kindle 2 arrived on Tuesday, but I didn't get home from a business trip until late Thursday, so I had an exercise in what I always am talking to my kids about - patience.

In summary, I love this thing.  It's absolutely awesome.  I'd really give it an 8.5 on a scale of 1-10.

But it's not perfect.  Rather than devote a lot of text to what's already been said, I thought I'd point out a few things that I think could have or should have been done better.

1. The 5-way - I really like it, but it's too small/slick.  This concept has been around for years on mobile phones, game consoles, and digital cameras and the like so I would have thought that Amazon could have implemented this better.  The 5-way is the right concept, but it seems small (too hard to get your finger or thumb on it just right to manipulate it), and it is "slick" - meaning your finger/thumb slips on it.  I have had laptops with replaceable rubberized "nubs" that work great, and I have had cell phones that actually had smaller nubs, but had sharper edges or something that made it easier to use ... so maybe small isn't the real problem.  Maybe it needs a texture or edge so that your appendage can more easily "grab" it.

2. Screen/Cursor responsiveness - the cursor responds slowly when moving it with the 5-way - I constantly find myself waiting for the cursor to catch up.

3. Folders and/or tags - yes, it really needs it.  I'm less than 24 hours with the device in hand and I already need something like this.

4. The contrast could be better - the screen is excellent, but obviously, stark white background with deep black letters would be better.  I'm getting REALLY nitpicky here, because the screen really is fantastic.

5. Allow other fonts - I'd like to try other fonts to see if I like them better.  The built in font is nice, but options would be nicer.

6. Better web browser - the browser really is horrible - it renders a LOT of pages that I visited incorrectly.  Once Chrome comes out for Linux, a port of Chrome over to the Kindle would be fantastic (Firefox is too feature-rich for a device like the Kindle).

That's it for now.  I'm sure I'll have more as I use it.

To summarize - a fantastic device, exceeds my expectations - it really does "disappear" when I am reading.  A few minor changes, some of which can be fixed with a firmware upgrade and it would be perfect.
 
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#4 ·
Hi, davistroy. Great review. I agree with you on the controller thing. Some texture would have been nice to give some grip. I'm beginning to think my K1 screen was darker than some or on the blink because I find the new K2 screen contrast so sharp it almost seems like black and white to me. My K1 page background was much darker.
 
#5 ·
Wow, your review made me look at the fonts and I hadn't noticed before that they changed the font on the K2!  They are using sanserif on the K1 but not on the K2
 
#14 ·
davistroy said:
1. The 5-way - I really like it, but it's too small/slick. This concept has been around for years on mobile phones, game consoles, and digital cameras and the like so I would have thought that Amazon could have implemented this better. The 5-way is the right concept, but it seems small (too hard to get your finger or thumb on it just right to manipulate it), and it is "slick" - meaning your finger/thumb slips on it. I have had laptops with replaceable rubberized "nubs" that work great, and I have had cell phones that actually had smaller nubs, but had sharper edges or something that made it easier to use ... so maybe small isn't the real problem. Maybe it needs a texture or edge so that your appendage can more easily "grab" it.
It took me awhile to really figure out a good way to use the 5-way, I basically use my fingernail on the side of the 5-way and push it towards the direction I need it to go. Whenever I tried to just lay my finger on the top of it, I would either go the wrong way or accidentally click down.

2. Screen/Cursor responsiveness - the cursor responds slowly when moving it with the 5-way - I constantly find myself waiting for the cursor to catch up.
I think that's more a limitation of the e-Ink screen, probably not much they could do to speed that up.

4. The contrast could be better - the screen is excellent, but obviously, stark white background with deep black letters would be better. I'm getting REALLY nitpicky here, because the screen really is fantastic.
I agree with this one, others have found some success with adding a dark, solid color skin which increases the perceived contrast to your eye.



Changing the font to a darker, bolder font also helps the contrast tremendously (see below).

5. Allow other fonts - I'd like to try other fonts to see if I like them better. The built in font is nice, but options would be nicer.
Couldn't agree more, which is why I did THE FONT HACK. I used Georgia 2 which looks 100x better than the original Kindle font, but there are several to choose from.
 
#19 ·
davistroy - just curious if you could give us a review now that you have had it over a year. I love follow-ups
 
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