eBook Readers
Amazon Intros New Kindle Devices
Amazon has introduced the fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever, and a new entry Kindle in a fun, new Matcha colour. “Customers love Kindle and are reading on their devices more than ever — global sales last year hit their highest in a decade with the majority of purchases by first-time Kindle device owners,” said Eric Saarnio, vice president of Amazon Devices International. “We are excited to bring our customers new Kindle devices; we obsessed over every detail to deliver the best possible experience for them.”
Kindle Paperwhite
Since its debut in 2012, customers have made Kindle Paperwhite our best-selling Kindle —and the all-new Kindle Paperwhite is our fastest yet. Scrolling through your Kindle Library or Store is snappy and responsive with 25% faster page turns. The display uses an oxide thin-film transistor, which gives it the highest contrast ratio of any Kindle Paperwhite, so text and images pop off the screen. A larger, 7-inch display is a first for Kindle Paperwhite — yet it is also the thinnest Kindle Paperwhite ever with up to three months of battery life.
The Kindle Paperwhite is waterproof, has 16 GB of storage for thousands of books, and comes in Black. The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which has 32 GB of storage, optional wireless charging, and an auto-adjusting front light, comes in Metallic Black.
Kindle
Weighing in at just 158g, the new entry-level Kindle is small enough to fit in your hand or carry in your back pocket —and it’s packed with premium Kindle features. It has a 300 ppi, glare-free display, now with faster page turns, a higher contrast ratio, and a front light that is 25% brighter at max setting—as bright as Kindle Paperwhite. It comes in a fun and fresh new Matcha colour, offers weeks of battery life from a single charge, and has 16 GB of storage for holding thousands of books— all of which make it the ideal device for reading anywhere the day takes you.
Kindle is available now at AED 449. Later this month, customers in the UAE will also be able to purchase Kindle Paperwhite at AED 679, and Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition at AED 759. Our new Kindle devices come in packaging that averages 99% wood fibre-based materials from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources.
eBook Readers
Lenovo Smart Paper Review: A Digital Twist to Note-Taking
The Lenovo Smart Paper is a digital notepad that aims to revolutionise the way we take notes, read, and sketch. With its slim, premium design, it stands out in the market of E-Ink tablets.
The Smart Paper comes with a 10.3-inch E-Ink display with a dual-colour auto-adjustable front light. You also get a responsive stylus, thus making it an excellent tool for note-taking. The matte screen provides a crisp display with 227 pixels per inch (ppi) and a resolution of 1872-by-1404 pixels. The writing experience is smooth and responsive, with a latency of 25 ms, ensuring a seamless flow of writing.
It also offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt detection. One of the standout features of the Smart Paper is its all-metal body, which gives it a classy, professional feel. It’s also lightweight, weighing just 408g, making it one of the lighter digital notepads out there. The Lenovo Smart Paper is also quite thin at 5.5mm, making it easy to carry around.
The Smart Paper comes bundled with a stylus and a case, which is a nice touch considering its high retail price of AED 1600. The stylus can be magnetically attached to the device, and it feels almost like a pencil, providing a comfortable grip. The nibs are replaceable, and the writing experience is as good as most other E-Ink styluses.
Despite its impressive features, the Smart Paper has its drawbacks, one of them being its high cost. Though this could be a deal-breaker for some users, if you are one of those who value build quality and features more than the pricing, the high price may not be a biggie.
For this review, I used the Smart Paper exclusively for around two weeks, instead of a traditional paper notepad. I wanted to experience seamless note-sharing through offline handwriting recognition on my laptop or phone. Lenovo’s digital notepad does indeed distinguish itself in various ways, making the creation and sharing of notes a walk in the park.
You can use it for pencil sketches, doodles, and note-taking. The Smart Paper offers an outstanding writing experience with its matte finish. Since it also comes with a built-in light, you can use it in various ambient light conditions. In addition, the Smart Paper also features a built-in microphone for recording voice notes, although it does not come with speakers.
Lenovo’s Smart Paper is powered by an open-source variant of the Android 11 OS. On the software front, Lenovo offers a straightforward touch interface. There are 74 notepad templates on the Smart Paper, which range from simple lined paper to multi-column layouts for on-the-go spreadsheets. Navigation on the device includes tapping, swiping, and gestures.
The Smart Paper also comes packed with the usual apps such as a clock, a calendar, and an email client. The reader supports EPUB, PDF, and Office files, including notes from the Smart Paper. For book shopping, you get the eBooks.com app preinstalled onto the device.
All in all, the Lenovo Smart Paper is a solid E-Ink tablet with a premium design and a strong writing experience. However, its high cost and restrictive software may deter some potential users. Despite these drawbacks, it’s a versatile option for those seeking a feature-rich premium E-Ink tablet.
Price: AED 1600
Lenovo Smart Paper AED 1600
Summary
The Smart Paper comes bundled with a stylus and a case, which is a nice touch considering its high retail price of AED 1600. The stylus can be magnetically attached to the device, and it feels almost like a pencil, providing a comfortable grip. The nibs are replaceable, and the writing experience is as good as most other E-Ink styluses.
User Review
( votes)eBook Readers
Review: Amazon Kindle 11th Gen (2022)
The new 11th Generation of the Amazon Kindle Basic e-Reader has undergone significant revisions from its predecessors. Notably, it now boasts a new 300-PPI display, a major improvement from the previous model’s 167-DPI. The new e-reader also includes a USB-C port for charging and data transfer, as well as 16GB of storage to store all your e-books, audiobooks, comics, and manga.
You also get an all-new system-wide dark mode, in which the colours are inverted, with the background black, and the text being white. This offers better contrast for reading in low-light conditions. Amazon made a wise choice by not increasing the screen size on the entry-level Kindle, which was different from the previous Paperwhite upgrade.
This decision is great because it maintains a smaller and lighter form factor for the basic version. As a result, it is easy to hold in one hand and weighs only 158 grams, making it lightweight and comfortable to use.
The 2022 Amazon Kindle has a compact form factor of 6.2-by-4.3-by-0.32 inches and features a six-inch display, weighing just 159 grams. The device’s bottom display bezel is designed to allow a thumb to rest on it, preventing accidental screen taps while reading.
The 2022 Kindle, being an e-reader, offers a significant advantage over devices such as tablets or laptops. E-Ink displays consume minimal power. So, even with frequent page turns and maximum display lighting, you can expect to go several weeks without needing to recharge the device.
In terms of design, materials, and styling, the 2022 Kindle remains an entry-level device, which means that it is quite basic. The device features a plastic body with black or blue denim options, lacking the soft silicone texture found on the Paperwhite. Our review unit was the black variant. In addition, the device is not waterproof, which means it cannot be used near water.
The 2022 Kindle comes packed with a 1 GHz single-core processor, 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. It has a USB-C cable for charging the battery via a wall outlet or computer. In addition, users can sideload their own digital books using Windows Explorer or a third-party application such as Calibre.
The new Kindle also features a new home screen experience, which may take some time to get used to. Unlike previous versions where the home screen primarily consisted of the user’s library, the new design has removed the navigation bar.
This means that icons with text underneath that provided access to services such as the Store, Home, Library, Goodreads, and settings are no longer present. Instead, there is a large search bar at the top of the screen, with the store icon located next to it. Goodreads and other functionality have been relocated to the settings menu.
As mentioned earlier, Amazon has moved away from the lower resolution 167 pixel-per-inch E-Ink screen that was on the previous model, and upgraded it to 300 pixels-per-inch. This has resulted in much crisper text, with finer lines and smoother curves, providing a reading experience that is almost as good as ink on paper.
Unlike other e-readers that compromise legibility when using smaller font sizes, the 2022 Kindle offersa no-compromise reading surface. In addition, the device offers nine font families to choose from, such as Bookerly, Helvetica, Baskerville, Futura, and OpenDyslexic, which is designed for people with dyslexia.
You can also adjust the font size with 14 different degrees, as well as the boldness, line spacing, text alignment, margins, and whether to read in portrait or landscape mode. I am surprised by the level of customisability offered on the 2022 Amazon Kindle.
The Kindle Store is possibly one of the best digital bookstores globally. It offers a vast collection of titles, from the latest bestsellers and timeless classics to comics, magazines, manga, and newspapers. You can easily search or browse titles and even download free samples to your library. Additionally, the book description pages are similar to those on the Amazon website, complete with user reviews and a “buy now” button.
The device offers an easy-to-use interface that enables swift navigation to your library or Home Screen. The device can also stack books from the same series to provide better organisation.
Moreover, it comes with useful features such as the ability to highlight sections of texts and save words to a personal dictionary, allowing you to easily access definitions or translations of specific words and phrases. Additionally, you can save quotes you like for future reference.
For a price of AED 399, the Amazon Kindle 11th Generation comes across as a great value-for-money device. Amazon has successfully addressed the drawbacks of the basic Kindle while also introducing additional features that enhance the reading experience beyond the Amazon ecosystem. If you aren’t looking for a waterproof e-reader or a larger screen, the entry-level model offers great value for its price.
Price: AED 399
Amazon Kindle 11th Gen (2022) AED 399
Summary
Unlike other e-readers that compromise legibility when using smaller font sizes, the 2022 Kindle offers a no-compromise reading surface. In addition, the device offers nine font families to choose from, such as Bookerly, Helvetica, Baskerville, Futura, and OpenDyslexic, which is designed for people with dyslexia.