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6 in stylish e-book reader with E-Ink display at the price of $140 – $160 caused lots of discussions, as the declared functionality deserved much higher pricing. However, low gadget price was justified by specific peculiarities in use. Amazon Kindle 3 is a part of massive system of book sale via Amazon. It is completely customized for company services and users who purchase books at Amazon. The company made e-book prize affordable hoping that it will attract many new customers who will actively buy books, increasing its profits. However, there are a lot of free books on Amazon bookshelves, you can also add books from other sources, but with little more efforts than in other common e-book readers.

The initial Amazon Kindle 3 price is $139 for Wi-Fi version and $189 for version with 3G module. Mention that the final price can be different, depending on delivery fees. But it is still significantly cheaper than any other 6 in reader model with such functionality and specs. So, Amazon Kindle 3 is definitely worth your attention. Here is a detailed reader review.

Design

3 version of Kindle reader became 21% smaller in size and 16% lighter in weight than its predecessor. Mention that display size remains the same. This is not the most compact 6″ model on the market, but thanks to thought out design with rounded and narrowed side edges the device seems more compact and elegant.

The front panel is made of smooth high-quality plastic of graphite-grey tone, while the back panel is covered with soft-touch material of the same colour. The main controls of readers, buttons for turning pages, are duplicated and located on both sides from the display, slightly going beyond the side edges of the body. This provides handy use from both right and left hands.

The main control block consists of 4-position joystick with OK button, a line of service buttons and full QWERTY keyboard, typical for Kindle model range. All slots and service keys are located on the bottom edge, including 3.5 mm audio jack, micro USB slot, volume controls, Power button and charge indicators.

Display

Amazon Kindle 3 features display based on mid-gen E-Ink Pearl technology that is 50% better in contrast and 20% quicker in updating the image than previous E-Ink generation. The background is lighter, the text seems almost black, 16 tones greyscale palette is supported. The pages are turned significantly quicker. All these peculiarities make reading more comfortable compared with older reader models.

Compared with LCD screens, E-Ink provides excellent text quality. It is impossible to read from the E-Ink screen in the darkness. For some readers this can be a problem. One more advantage of such screens is their extremely low power consumption. A week of heavy use may require about 20% of the battery charge. This is really convenient when using e-book reader while travelling.

The screen slightly blinks when showing menus, but this doesn’t spoil the impressions from excellent image quality that is important for long time reading.

Functionality

The collection of book can be filled with new items with the help of USB port or via Wi-Fi and 3G wireless connections. Of course, online-libraries and Amazon synchronization services are also available for the same purpose. Kindle 3 has no memory card reader, there is only 3 or 4 GB memory storage available. After registering email address you will be able to send books to it. After conversion these books will be automatically uploaded to e-book reader. The supported formats include AZW, TXT, PRC, PDF, MP3, MOBY, while DOC, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, and HTML are suitable only after conversion. There is no built-in FB2 support. Each Kindle has its own email address that can be used for sending files of DOC, JPEG and other formats that require conversions. The files will be converted to proper format and sent to your device. In the same way you can upload any book to your Kindle 3 with no need to attach it to PC. When sending books via 3G, you will need to pay for the traffic, while sending files via Wi-Fi is free of charge.

User is able to listen to audio books and music, however the device lacks functional audio playback interface. It is possible only to switch to another track or pause the current one. There is also a web browser with basic functionality. It would be much handier if the gadget had touchscreen.

The main menu looks plain, each screen contains 10 lines with book title, its format and source. There is ability to group books into collections, the same book can belong to different collections. Text settings are available via Aa button. There are 8 text sizes and 3 font styles available for choose. Also user can change line spacing and borders. There is no automatic screen rotation, but you can change the text orientation manually. User is able to go to any book page directly, access notes, search, contents and bookmarks. In PDF reading mode there are a few scaling modes, the navigation is performed with the aim of joystick.
5 gradations of contrast is excellent for books with images and simple texts. However 6 in screen is not big enough for full-format PDF reading.

There is a built-in web browser based on WebKit engine (like Safari and Google Chrome). It is rather handy in use, has all standard features for web surfing. There is also MP3 player and audio book reader. Kindle is able to ready you books aloud. If user is unable to read from the screen (when it is dark, for instance), he can use this loud reading feature.

General Impressions

To sum up, Amazon Kindle 3 is lightweight and compact e-book reader with high-quality screen and ergonomic interface. It is not a perfect reader, but for the price of only $160 its functionality is more than impressive. Amazon took care of making its gadget suitable for both purposes: making the device oriented at Amazon services and filling it with useful and flexible features for the fans of reading. It is sold exclusively via Amazon only, in two versions – with 3G and Wi-Fi modules.