Amazon Kindle 2

When Amazon came up with its first e-reader called Kindle, it got a lot of flak in the design department from the oddball angling of the keys, the sharp corners, to the off-white color that looks like a day-old newspaper. After months of speculation, Amazon unveiled the newest version of its electronic reader.

The Kindle 2 is not exactly a departure from its notorious prequel model. It still has that same off-white color, which totally eliminates any chance of buying a pink Kindle anytime soon. The good thing, however, is that Kindle 2 is stripped off from its awkward design. Gone are the slanted excuse of a keyboard layout and now we have a more standard layout with small and round keys as opposed to the rectangular pellets on Kindle 1.

The next/ previous buttons are now smaller than its predecessor, so you do not end up accidentally hitting them. The screen on Kindle 2 is also a refreshing change. It is somewhat clearer than the last time, with an e-ink display that can show up to 16 shades of gray compared to Kindle 1’s four. Now you can see the differences of the smoothing both in the font and the images. The SD slot has been removed in favor of a 2GB storage output, but we wished there should have been option for both.

Meanwhile, there have been minor adjustments on Kindle 2 when it comes on the software, but you can definitely notice the ease-of-use of the e-reader. There is now a search tool on the menu that enables you to jump from the home screen to your search results.

The dictionary function can now display the definition of a certain word unlike every word from a line, which was a problem in Kindle 1. The Kindle 2 also has a new function called the "read to me mode," or text-to-speech, wherein a page is being read aloud by the computer.

Despite the improvement, we do not think Kindle 2 would spark a trend on e-books. Books are just as expensive when you download it, and you would need to shell out US$359 just to read those electronic books.

Image source: Amazon.com

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