do I wanna buy a kindle?

pattycake

I am nearly convinced to get a Kindle for my Christmas/Birthday (Boxing Day - a pain) but now I do not know whether to plump for the £89 model or get the 3G one which is £60 more.

I mainly want it for when I am on holiday and it would be useful if I can check emails etc on the 3G one. Is it worth the extra money?

buyitall

Treed wrote: »

The kindle is good, however i find the ipad is good for reading books also and there is a wider variety of free books available. Even for technononos its still really simple and easy to use. Also theres extra perks with the ipad.

Sorry, but I disagree - I totally love my ipad and use it every day, but it is no more than 'ok' for reading. Unless the book has photos (eg cookery books), the Kindle is 100 times better for reading - IMO it recreates the reading experience as well as being lighter and has no glare. I love both, but the ipad cannot compare with the kindle for reading!

Flat_Eric

borders wrote: »

Interesting reading folks. Thanks for the advice.

Nearly bought one a few weeks back but decided to wait to the new year and see what deals are available. Still not 100% sure about it. Had hoped ebooks were going to be considerably cheaper and easier/quicker to get than normal books. Seems that's not always the case, so I'm still not decided.

A good bargain in the new year might sway me.

See thats exactly where I am. Suspect OH would stretch to £89 kindle for xmas even though I have had part of my present already (theatre ticket). and already found the cover I like (£30) but I am annoyed that Amazn are not selling the keyboard kindle that cost £109. Its either pay £89 or £149 and thats a big jump especially when you factor in a case which costs extra (up to £50 for one with a light). I suspect Amazn are dictating the price and won't be budged particularly in the run up to xmas. I'm also frustrated that if you buy the Kindle in the states, its cheaper again. I did think that if Argo$ did their £5 voucher when you spent £50, £10 when you spent £100 etc again before xmas then I would probably go for it but to be honest, I can't afford the £149 kindle (which is the one I would like) and I'm not convinced they are for me.

chalky_75 wrote: »

I had one for Christmas last year -- and even though I can use it etc-- I so much prefer books-real books-page turning -books!
It is in the drawer!

Ditto. I have hundreds of books waiting to be read. I could not justify replacing them with e-books and I suspect owning a kindle would be a five minute fad!

pattycake wrote: »

I am nearly convinced to get a Kindle for my Christmas/Birthday (Boxing Day - a pain) but now I do not know whether to plump for the £89 model or get the 3G one which is £60 more.

I mainly want it for when I am on holiday and it would be useful if I can check emails etc on the 3G one. Is it worth the extra money?

I couldn't make up my mind - and read up on both. What put me off the £149 kindle is that this isn't new so when the page refreshes, its noticeable. The £89 kindle (to my knowledge) only does a proper refresh every five pages. I also read that the £89 kindle has had its audio features removed and of course there is no keyboard.

In summary, if I was going to buy one, I would be tempted to pay the extra and get the more expensive model but as I'm not convinced its for me, I'm not bothering particularly as I have too many books to read. I don't think anything can replace a proper book and whilst i accept that if you are going on holiday, a caseful of books isn't exactly practicle, I don't have a need for one at the moment.

Waffle over!!

Badger_Lady

grinningdog wrote: »

I absolutely REFUSE to buy a Kindle when I have a choice of one model (effectively) and it's £80 (or thereabouts). In the US the same model is £48, but there are two other models including a very nice looking colour screen. WAKE UP AMAZON! Nobody in their right mind should be buying this overpriced rubbish until you bring the price down to a worldwide level.

Yep, that's true - it's much cheaper in the states. The whole market is - tablet PCs are much cheaper too. And of course when they sell in the US they're expecting the eBooks to be purchased from Amazon.com using the US licences, which is factored into the cost.

Also the US version comes with advertising to subsidise the cost further - whenever you switch the Kindle "off" it displays a .com advert as its screensaver, and there's a banner advert on the "home" screen.

There are people importing the US versions and selling them on eBay for slightly less than the UK price. Import tax actually takes it up to about the same price, so these are probably a little bit naughty. I go to the US regularly so I've bought them for my friends and family there, but never sold on the open market.

The Kindle Keyboard 3G is still a strong option while it remains available - it's the only Kindle (and likely the last one ever) that allows you to browse the internet for free around the world. The newer models have 3G but only allow you to download books over it, so it's not as strong an offer. If you're a globetrotter like me, I recommend you snap it up before it sells out like its non-3G counterpart has!

rising_from_the_ashes

Flat_Eric wrote: »

The £89 kindle (to my knowledge) only does a proper refresh every five pages. I also read that the £89 kindle has had its audio features removed and of course there is no keyboard.

There is a keyboard on the cheaper Kindle - not a "proper" one with keys but there is one which will do most people (name collections, send the odd email etc).


I've had mine for around 3 weeks - I paid £63 for it (Mr T's - had a £10 off £75 spend plus clubcard points & gift voucher).

I've thought about one for ages but also wasn't convinced (a total bookworm and can get through a book in a few hours:o) as I also like a "real" book.

However, I have used it everyday ... and love it!:D

The free books are great and as mentioned change regularly so you do need to pop on to check every so often (downloaded another 15 yesterday!;)). There's also the daily deal when books are hugely reduced for a 24 hour period.

I like not having the weight of a book in my bag and no need to worry if you are nearly finished one and very handy to read in bed as you can keep under the covers without getting the pages stuck on the top of the duvet/cold hands!:)

Covers ..... mine's fine and it cost £4.68 from an Amazon seller (it is leather) so you don't need to spend a fortune.


The only thing I'm not keen on (there had to be one) ...... is not being able to read the description of the books - it's fine when you read it and download it but if there's loads of books stored & you want a "memory jog" before choosing one, it's a bit annoying.

Sooki

pattycake wrote: »

I am nearly convinced to get a Kindle for my Christmas/Birthday (Boxing Day - a pain) but now I do not know whether to plump for the £89 model or get the 3G one which is £60 more.

I mainly want it for when I am on holiday and it would be useful if I can check emails etc on the 3G one. Is it worth the extra money?

Yes it is worth spending the extra on the 3G if you want it for holidays as you don't need to worry about data roaming charges if your wanting to browse the Internet where the is no wifi access etc.. If you bear this mind the extra money spent on the 3G should pay for itself in the long run.

I use mine a lot in this way, it's also great if your on the train, bus etc.. Plus everyone thinks your reading a book, when your browsing the web.

I got mine from tesco's and used my points (I save these up for treats) so it didn't seem so expensive, I certainly have not regretted the purchase.

Also the kindle is great for procastinating people like me who are messy with a short attention span as I can dip in and out of stuff with the minimal amount of evidential havoc that normally would be apparent with old style books.

scottish_stresshead

eeek i want my kindle now lol roll on xmas day

already downloaded a few of the free books onto kindle for PC and i got many many more too!

zzzLazyDaisy

Just hope that Kindle you saw is definitely for you....

You are going to be really disappointed if you get a selection box!

scottish_stresshead

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Just hope that Kindle you saw is definitely for you....

You are going to be really disappointed if you get a selection box!

lmfao!!! Knowing my luck eh? just in case it isnt ill go buy myself one with xmas money haha!

its so easy to use didnt realise it would be to download the books!

Ms_Sparkle

I cant decide whether to get one but can help but think, what about in the bath? I love reading in the bath so how do you do that? At least with a book the pages can dry.