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The new Kindle 2011 with WI-FI and various special offers is regarded as a low-priced ereader. In fact, when studying the current market, it is easy to notice that there are very few models priced below $100. Among the competitors to Kindle there are Aluratek Libre Air, Jetbook Mini, and Pocketbook 360 Plus. If you compare these item, you will realize that Amazon has the most extensive ecosystem, letting you to digest not just books, but also magazines and newspapers.

Hardware

Kindle 2011 has a 6-inch E Ink Pearl display with a resolution of 600*800 pixels and 16 levels of grayscale. The device offers 2 GB of internal memory, but you can only use 1.25 GB to store your own content. Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow to expand memory through SD or micro-SD. As for the battery life, it is considered fairly solid, with the lifespan accounting for around a month. The reader only takes four hours to fully charge through the micro-USB port on the device. The same port is used to load your own media like books and pictures.

The new Kindle 2011 is the lightest one across the series, and feels noticeably different from its predecessors. The company claims that this model is 30% lighter and is able to fit into your pocket, unlike the previous editions. The reason is because there’s no physical keyboard, because the device uses a virtual one instead. However, the biggest drawback of it is that it isn’t the standard QWERTY model you are used to. For some reason, it features an ABC style keyboard which is really hard to type on. However, for people who don’t use the keyboard much it won’t matter anyway.

Another thing contributing to the lightweight design is no audio in the reader. The device has neither 3.5mm headphone jack nor built-in speakers, which means that the users won’t be able to download or listen to audiobooks. Meanwhile, the absence of the keyboard and audio functionality leaves the device in the range of many new ereaders, like the Nook Simple Touch or Kobo Touch. Moreover, Kindle isn’t a touch screen model, but instead uses the 5-direction D-Pad to navigate through the settings.

The device only uses Wi-Fi to facilitate connection to the web, while there is no 3G model. Overall, the hardware design is quite minimalist, and the device doesn’t have many ports or buttons – only home, back, settings, and keyboard button on the front, plus left/right page turns on the corresponding sides. At the bottom of the device there are micro-USB and power buttons. The device itself is a very slick thing, and it’s great it can finally fit in the back pocket while weighing next to nothing.

Software

The Kindle 2011 is running an updated version of the Amazon Kindle operating system. Both menus and books load quite fast compared to the prior models of the Kindle. Still, there’s not much difference with the home screen for prior Kindle users. The screen just lists all books on your device, allowing you to scroll between them with the page turn buttons. In case you have got a lot of books on the device, it offers a functionality to create your own collections.

Using the main settings bar, you can access the Kindle Store and change your orientation. It also allows to sync and access the Internet browser. The latter hasn’t actually changed with this updated release. Still, it has a number of new features making this model great for surfing the web. The browser allows changing the font size of the site you are viewing, which is especially convenient when making blogs with small fonts appear larger in size. Another great feature is Article mode, which condenses the text, making blogs extremely easy to read. This feature also makes the text appear from left to right and fit the screen of the device perfectly – that’s convenient as the users doesn’t have to scroll from right to left when reading.

As for the reading experience, it is also great. The books look tremendous, with the cover art being stellar with high contrast and resolution. The device can read Kindle format (azw), as well as txt, pdf, html, doc, and many others. Despite the fact that the company does try to lock the user into their ecosystem, it still allows to load in their own books. People using software like Calibre are able to convert non-DRM books from, say, EPUB or other formats to MOBI, which can be read by Kindle.

While reading a book, the orientation can be easily switched from landscape to portrait mode. In addition, Kindle 2011 features more robust page turns then prior offerings. As for the Kindle store, it didn’t change either – the user still has a lot of options to purchase books, newspapers, and magazines. For gamers, the store offers a wide selection of games designed especially for ereaders.

Wrap-Up

The soundest reason to choose this device over others, aside from the cost, is its portability. The company has given up with the physical keyboard and sound, thus making the device the lightest electronic reader ever. The item can easily fit in the back pocket, thus being very convenient for lots of people who may want to use Kindle to travel or bring to the beach.

There are a couple drawbacks, including the virtual keyboard and the absence of expandable memory. Therefore, if a user stores a bunch of books on their device, it may fill up fast, because the device only allows for 1 GB of storage. In addition, the keyboard differs from the standard QWERTY that most people are used to on ereaders or smartphones.

However, the advantages undoubtedly outweigh the drawbacks. In fact, Kindle 2011 can be viewed as a normal model without some of the hardware features. The best thing in it is the updated Kindle operating system. Thus far, Kindle is available on the Internet. People residing outside the United States may find it hard to get the device. Still, the consumers from Australia, New Zealand, and Europe can try to order the reader from the retail shops. Now, with the Christmas quickly approaching, experts predict this reader being habitually sold out.