Amazon Kindle in the UK - First Look

Amazon started shipping a new version of their eBook Reader, the Kindle, from the 27th of August 2010.

The new eBook reader is smaller, lighter, has double the storage and improved screen contrast. One charge will give you a month's reading and 400,000 books will be available.

The new, third-generation Kindle, is a UK version, not a US import as before.

The Next Generation Kindle, released in August 2010

New Kindle in the UK

There are two versions available:

• Wi-fi and 3G: For getting books and content on the move. The 3G is using Vodafone and is subscription-free. Launch Price: £149.99
  
  
• Wi-Fi only: No built-in 3G. Launch price: £109.99.
  

Ten reasons why the new Kindle kills:

1. Over 400,000 books from the Amazon UK store, plus UK papers and magazines
   
   
2. Download a book in 60 seconds
   
   
3. Built-in 3G (Vodafone) - no subscription
   
   
4. Preview books without buying
   
   
5. Small and thin, and can be viewed in direct sunlight
   
   
6. Holds 3,500 books, one month of reading on one charge
   
   
7. Newspapers delivered over-the-air automatically
   
   
8. Text-to-Speech book reading, plus MP3 music, audio books and podcast playback
   
   
9. Share with Facebook and Twitter
   
   
10. Dictionary, Wikipedia, blogs and experimental web browser access

Pictures of the UK Kindle

Here's a small collection of images of the UK 3rd generation Kindle, taken from our Day One Kindle review

The underside of the Kindle, showing the volume up/down, 3.5mm headphone jack, microphone (not surrently used), micro-USB connector, on/off slider switch and charing light

Supplied with a Kindle - A slim "getting started" guide (the main manual is on the Kindle), plus a USB charging lead with UK mains plug.

Web browsing with the UK Kindle. Here's our site, in landscape mode:

The Kindle, next to the rather dated-looking Sony Reader PRS-505:

Your Kindle Questions

PDF Quality: Thanks to listener Ijaz for this question: "Could you please review that how quality/response etc of PDF books on Kindle. I have already bought some PDF books and these books have large number of Images /diagrams. I would appreciate if you could review a PDF book on kindle that has loads of diagram or images"

Our reply: From our initial tests, we've found that PDFs view flawlessly on the Kindle. We've tried with the Sky+ manual, a TomTom manual, a couple of eBooks and the BT Home Hub Guide. Below is a photo of the Kindle showing one of the more complex pages in the Home Hub manual, showing hi-res images, tables and shading. Click here for a larger image

More Information:

• eBook Readers
  
  
• Kindle Hands-on Review

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