On February 10th I placed an order for Amazon’s Kindle 2 electronic reading device.  I have never owned such a device in the past and had no first hand knowledge of Kindle 1, Sony Reader or any other device.  I am an avid reader and also find that I read online articles very frequently, but I do not like being tethered to my computer.  I thought this might solve some of my issues with both.

My only research before purchasing was reading about the Kindle 2 from the Amazon site as well as other postings about the device that were leaked out in advance.  I also read everything I could find on the Sony Reader.  Lastly I posted a couple of questions on Twitter for Kindle owners regarding the use of the Kindle email to upload your own personal documents for reading on the go.  I then made my purchase which was set for release on February 25th.

My Kindle 2 arrived by UPS on the afternoon of February 24th.  (UPS made three trips to my office that day.  I asked for it on each trip and of course he refused to deliver it until the third package!)  I knew the Kindle was small, but was a bit shocked by the small brown box.  I went to open the package using the pull tab and noted it said, “Once upon a time…”  I thought that was an interesting touch.

The remainder of the packaging was also well received.  The Kindle logo of black on black was nice as was the packaging that cradled the Kindle itself and covered the cord and starter guide.

I knew from my reading that the Kindle was thin and lightweight.  I did not have a true concept of 10.2 ounces.  This device is very thin and very lightweight.  It weighs less than a regular size magazine.  It is thinner than my wallet.  The best thing I can really liken it to is the trial Prevention magazine that often comes free in the mail.  The Kindle is about the same size and weight of that mailer.  Despite it’s somewhat delicate size, it feels sturdy in the hand.

Turning on the Kindle is done by sliding a button along the top edge.  The Kindle comes alive with black and white photos (in 16 shades of gray) of famous authors.  This is the screen you see when the unit goes to sleep also.  I found it a nice touch.

After ordering my Kindle 2, I navigated to my Amazon page which allowed me to manage my Kindle subscriptions.  I requested some sample chapters in preparation for my Kindle 2 to arrive.  Once it arrived the sample chapters were already available for me to read despite not having had it in advance.  All registration of the unit was done upon shipping.

It took me a few minutes to get the hang of the difference between the Home page and the Menu page.  The mouse button needs improvement (as has been mentioned by others).  I don’t understand why it is square and flat.  It would have been much better if it had been one of the little pencil eraser type mouse buttons from the old laptops, or even a little toggle switch that was raised a bit more.  It feels awkward.

The E-ink is as awesome as stated in the ads.  Reading is very easy on the eyes and you do not feel as though you are reading anything other than actual paper.  That is, until the page turns.  I found the page turning to be slow though this is supposed to be an improvement over the original Kindle model.  The flashing of black and white before the page changes is distracting.  After awhile you anticipate the delay and begin turning the page in advance of actually finishing the last line.  I was pleased with the ease of which you can change font sizes.  These old eyes are not getting any better and a couple of the things I read required a bit larger font for comfortable reading without my glasses.

The keyboard provided could also use some help.  The buttons are small and spaced wide enough for easy typing, but the buttons are too flat. They could be described as flat bubbles.  Just a bit more air in those bubbles would make typing much better.  Frankly I am glad I will not have to spend much time on the keyboard.

Previous models of the Kindle were cursed with accidental page turns simply by picking up the unit due to the placement of the turn buttons.  Kindle 2 has fixed this with buttons that click in towards the center rather than out.  This allows you to pick up the device on either side without those accidental pages turns.  I thought this might make the buttons difficult to use, but they are not at all difficult.  Actually they are quite effortless to use and when reading you don’t even notice that you have to mindfully push the button to advance the page.  It becomes very automatic.

The cord is specific for the Kindle 2 so don’t loose it.  Replacement cords are available from Amazon for $40.

I tried the new Read Out Loud/Text to Speech option.  As expected it is very robot like.  There is no inflection in the voice so reading drama to you is out of the question.  Despite the mechanical sound, it was actually better than I had anticipated.  It is accurate, but I would only use this on rare occasion to listen to dry or technical reading.  I would like to see improvements on this in the future, but I highly doubt it will ever be equal to an audiobook.

One of the reasons for my purchase of the Kindle 2 was for my personal document reading.  I had set up my special Kindle email address online with Manage My Kindle on Amazon.com.  I then emailed attachments to the Kindle email address.  After about 30 minutes the files were converted and sent to my Kindle.  I did not incur any charges despite the notations from Amazon that conversion of the files and upload to the Kindle would be .10 per document.  When I talked with Customer Service about this, I was told Amazon was not currently charging, but “reserved the right to do so in the future.”

I sent a variety of documents to the device.  Some were documents that I had in Word, others were PDF files, and still others were, MS One Note files.  I even clipped a few things from some web pages into a document complete with photos, links, etc and sent them.  All of the documents with the exception of one were converted, easy to read, and worked like a charm.  The one exception was a document that had been turned landscape (not sure why) and I could not enlarge the font size.  The original had been a PDF made from scanner jpegs of a long article.  The individual pages in the original were not lined up together and were apparently made by hand.  The fact the Kindle 2 could not accurately convert this was not a big surprise.

The one thing I had hoped the Kindle 2 would convert for on-the-go reading was emails.  I was hoping to be able to forward lengthy emails for reading later.  This does not work as Kindle does not recognize the text unless it is an attachment and in a format that it recognizes.

The original Kindle had a storage card slot while the Kindle 2 does not.  However the Kindle 2 has enlarged its storage capacity to roughly 1,500 books.  If you happen to need to carry more than 1,500 books, Amazon maintains your entire library for life so you can change what you carry on your Kindle at any time.

I am only on day two, but thus far the battery is holding up well.  I did not fully charge the battery upon arrival.  According to the battery indicator it arrived at just over half full.  I have loaded a few books, read for hours, used the browser, all while keeping the wireless turned on.  The battery indicator light has not budged.

All in all I am very pleased thus far.  I am in the process of loading up my library in preparation for my vacation next week.  I wonder how well it hold up to the sand, sea….and margaritas??