Preorders are now available for both the 3G + WiFi Kindle 3 and the much anticipated WiFi-only Kindle 3. The improvements on both models(the only difference between the two being the exclusion of 3G coverage from the WiFi model and the lower price that that entails) are quite noticeable, if a bit less drastic than many people were likely expecting.
Here’s what we’re going to be looking at:
- Higher Contrast Display, such as has recently been seen in the Kindle DX Graphite
- Slightly Streamlined Body: 21% smaller, 17% lighter, but with no sacrifices to screen size
- Improved Battery and Main Memory Storage, which with the release of Collections a few months ago finally proves incredibly useful
- Built-in WiFi Connectivity: This is huge. Connect and download books even in areas where reception is horrible? You’d better believe I’ll take it
- 20% Faster Refresh Rate
- Enhanced PDF Navigation, again much like what we’ve seen in the DX
- New Kindle Software will support some international characters – Cyrillic (Russian), Chinese, Japanese and Korean
Now, I’ll freely admit that the only thing I was set to care much about was the improved screen. And, to address that point, it looks like it will be as amazing as could be hoped for. That said, I love the body redesign. It’s smaller, lighter, easier on the eyes, claims to have quieter page turn buttons, a more pleasantly textured backing, and has done away with the annoyingly protruding navigation stick in favor of a directional navigation pad. If there were ever a reason not to Kindle, it’s flown right out the window.
So far all pre-orders are due to be shipped on a release date of August 27th.
You’ve left a major feature out – Chinese and Cyrillic font support is in this device!
Ah, I see the note for added font sets now. Nevermind!
The only small thing I find upsetting is that Amazon is not letting people who bought a Kindle on July 1st from Woot exchange it for the new model, even though Amazon owns Woot. This one day “deal” on Woot seemed good at the time, but now I have come to realize it was just a clever ploy for Amazon to dump 500 units of their now outdated model.
Either way, the new model is AMAZING and I’m very glad Amazon did not try to make it just like the iPad.
Thought you would like to know that it has been several days since your RSS feed has shown up on my Yahoo page. In order to read the blog, I have to access it directly.
It looks very nice. It would have been nice to have the new kindle dx with 3G+wifi but it doesn’t seem the case. Do you know if they will be changing that?
PDF support – what does that mean exactly? Can someone explain please. Does that mean I can download all and any sort of PDF documents that exist anywhere (other than the books that Amazon sells) and read them on the new Kindle? Doug.
Doug,
assuming that Kindle 3 will get the same level of PDF support (and not more) than what’s present in Kindle DX Graphite, you should be able to download and view any PDF file without DRM copy protection or encryption/password protection.
Great – thanks for the quick answer. So I can download any pdf from anywhere including my computer and read it on Kindle. I like that feature better because I read a lot of white papers and sales brochures in PDF form when I am travelling. So instead of reading them on my laptop or cut trees down, I’d rather take my kindle around and read stuff while travelling.
Hmm, that schematic is useful. Just reading the numbers didn’t give me an impression of how much smaller the body is. Interesting…
Doug,
Kindle would surely display PDFs you are talking about. I would recommend using Kindle DX because Kindle doesn’t reflow text in PDF so having a larger screen will make it much easier to work with documents meant to be printed on a letter sized paper.
admin,
My daughter is in a PhD program and wants to use a Kindle that allows PDFs to be loaded and she would like to make annotations in the margins. From what I have read, this is not yet possible with the Kindle (any model). Is it possible to use a program to convert a pdf to another format that would then allow her to make margin annotations on a Kindle? Which model would be most versatile for her in these regards?
Tim,
From what I understand, it would be possible to annotate PDFs in new Kindle 3.
Since this is purely software functionality I guess that these features will eventually make it to other Kindle models (with the exception of 1st generation Kindle).
I’ve ordered my Kindle 3 early so hopefully I’ll receive it around August 28th and would be able to do a hands on review then.