How's everyone feel about the new Paperwhite?

[1Q84]

See, I've been trying to switch over to e-reading for a while now but I was very unimpressed with the Kobo (from 3 years back). I tried the iPad and found that I was trying to do too much with it and bumped up against its limitations (and found myself just using my phone or laptop instead.) 

 

I was interested to read reviews of the new Paperwhite. It's appealing to me because a) it's cheap and b.) it is so limited in its function that I would only ever use it to read (and thus cause less distraction).

 

Anyone else use the old version of Paperwhite and want to share their experiences?

 

ETA: here's a review that makes the new model look particularly sexy

 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/17/8797749/amazon-kindle-paperwhite-2015-hands-on-photos

Edited June 18, 2015 by 1Q84

[TakeruK]

We currently use an older version of the Paperwhite (I think we got it in 2013). It's great but I only use it for reading novels and nothing else (no web surfing, no reading papers or technical articles etc.)

 

I like how the touchscreen responds and I can only imagine the newer version would be just as good if not better. The page turns when I want it to, and I don't have annoying problems like multiple page turns with one touch. Also, it is easy to differentiate between a touch that will turn the page vs a touch (on a particular word for example) that will pull up a definition. Even if you accidentally touch right on a word to turn a page. Navigation within books is decent--the popup menu that shows chapters works fairly well. It's good at remembering bookmarks so I can pick up where I left off. Page changing is also very smooth and fast.

 

And I really really love the e-ink screen. I wasn't sure about this at first, but the e-ink screen with the white light is so much easier on my eyes than reading from a LCD screen. 

 

Again, all my experiences are based on my old Paperwhite but I really love it for what I use it for. Would highly recommend Paperwhites in general for a basic e-ink reader.

[1Q84]

Awesome! Thanks. How come you don't use it for reading papers or articles? (I'm mainly interested in it for those purposes.)

[TakeruK]

My wife and I share our Kindle and the only purpose we use it for is reading for entertainment. But I also have no idea how to put PDFs of articles and papers on it (I guess I can probably plug it into a computer or something? But haven't tried to do that yet). I personally like to separate "work" and "play" so I don't plan on putting any work reading onto my fun reading device.

 

Also, I think the screen is way too small for reading papers. First, the two column format of papers might not display well on an e-reader. I have not tried it yet on my Paperwhite, but I've seen other people use e-readers to view papers as PDFs and the display just shows the PDF cut up into screen sizes so it's a lot of flipping back and forth (i.e. first screen might show the top half of both columns, so you flip to next screen to see bottom half of first column, then flip back to first screen to see first half of 2nd column, etc.). Second, the Paperwhite does not display colour, and colours are essential for understanding some plots in my field. Third, I often need to flip back and forth between text, tables and figures to properly understand the work. This is easy on a full screen (with a mouse and everything) but really hard on an e-reader. Fourth, without a full keyboard (or mouse), it's hard to type and draw annotations. And finally, hyperlinks in reading papers are super useful to me--I can click on a reference and it will go to the page for that article on the journal's website. 

[rising_star]

I don't have a Paperwhite but I do have a Kindle Touch. I've tried reading PDF journal articles on it and found it really annoying if the article was in columns. For journals that don't use columns, it's not so bad. Also, at least on the Touch, the notetaking ability was limited, which got on my nerves. I only did it because I was in a bind at the time and wouldn't do it again if I had any other option.

[quirkycase]

I have a Paperwhite, which I've been really happy with, but I never use it for academic purposes either.  It's a great e-reader, but I don't think it's practical for reading articles for all of the reasons TakeruK pointed out. In particular, not being able to annotate is a major issue for me.

Edited June 19, 2015 by ashso

[1Q84]

Good to know! Definitely going to hold off on this one for now.

[felinebookworm]

I hear the Kobo from a few years back is not that great as several of my friends have told me. I got the KoboAura and if you don't mind me throwing in my opionin about it, I have to say I'm quite happy with it. It's easy to load PDFs from your computer, you can adjust the screen brightness, the battery lasts, comes with wifi to be able to download books. The biggest reason I got it is that I can borrow books from any library in Canada and access a lot of resources. Reading journal articles is quite pleasant and columns show up quite nicely even when zoomed in. The only downside of it so far has been plugging it into a computer in order for it to charge.

 

But really, this is something I find to be up to personal preference. I've had people knocking off the Kindle and switching to the Kobo and vice versa.

[Between Fields]

We currently use an older version of the Paperwhite (I think we got it in 2013). It's great but I only use it for reading novels and nothing else (no web surfing, no reading papers or technical articles etc.)

 

I like how the touchscreen responds and I can only imagine the newer version would be just as good if not better. The page turns when I want it to, and I don't have annoying problems like multiple page turns with one touch. Also, it is easy to differentiate between a touch that will turn the page vs a touch (on a particular word for example) that will pull up a definition. Even if you accidentally touch right on a word to turn a page. Navigation within books is decent--the popup menu that shows chapters works fairly well. It's good at remembering bookmarks so I can pick up where I left off. Page changing is also very smooth and fast.

 

And I really really love the e-ink screen. I wasn't sure about this at first, but the e-ink screen with the white light is so much easier on my eyes than reading from a LCD screen. 

 

Again, all my experiences are based on my old Paperwhite but I really love it for what I use it for. Would highly recommend Paperwhites in general for a basic e-ink reader.

 

I have that same model and I agree with everything you said--I also never figured out how to read non-eBook type things on it.

 

OP, you mentioned trying an iPad and running up against its limitations. I have an Air 2 and I've found it's great for both books and PDFs. It's much easier to carry to class than my MacBook, and it's really convenient to be able to access all of my different eBook delivery apps at once--with the Kindle Paperwhite, I think you're stuck with Amazon only.

[1Q84]

I hear the Kobo from a few years back is not that great as several of my friends have told me. I got the KoboAura and if you don't mind me throwing in my opionin about it, I have to say I'm quite happy with it. It's easy to load PDFs from your computer, you can adjust the screen brightness, the battery lasts, comes with wifi to be able to download books. The biggest reason I got it is that I can borrow books from any library in Canada and access a lot of resources. Reading journal articles is quite pleasant and columns show up quite nicely even when zoomed in. The only downside of it so far has been plugging it into a computer in order for it to charge.

 

But really, this is something I find to be up to personal preference. I've had people knocking off the Kindle and switching to the Kobo and vice versa.

 

I was using the Kobo Mini so I don't think it was an accurate representation of the Kobo experience but... it definitely did turn me off from e-ink for quite a while. That thing about borrowing books from Canadian libraries is awesome, though!

 

I have that same model and I agree with everything you said--I also never figured out how to read non-eBook type things on it.

 

OP, you mentioned trying an iPad and running up against its limitations. I have an Air 2 and I've found it's great for both books and PDFs. It's much easier to carry to class than my MacBook, and it's really convenient to be able to access all of my different eBook delivery apps at once--with the Kindle Paperwhite, I think you're stuck with Amazon only.

 

By limitations I meant that I was trying to make it into a word processor/notetaker along with my reader, which was a frustrating combination. Trying to type notes or, god forbid, an essay on an iPad was a horrendous experience. Absolutely agree with you on the portability, convenience, and readability points. I especially love the Books app layout and intuitive UI.

[maelia8]

I have an "old" paperwhite (1.5 years old), and I use it to read PDF articles, highlight them, and bookmark key pages. The only problem is that the kindle display does not adjust to the size of the PDF that you uploaded manually the same way that it does to a kindle-optimized document, so you usually end up having to do a lot of zooming to get the text to a readable size or deal with column justification problems. Note-taking on the kindle is too painstaking, so articles that I read on the kindle generally do not receive marginalia. I also do academic ebook reading on my kindle but take notes in Evernote on my computer, using the kindle just as I would a paper copy. I think that the kindle is still not optimal for marginal note-taking and text searching PDFs, but it's a lot better than carrying around dozens of crumpled papers (which, for me, is the inevitable alternative).