I have always liked the idea of e-readers. I was definitely an early adopter and had a few short lived products. Eventually, I became really serious about my 3rd Generation Kindle. I kept it in this amazing leather case that had a light powered by the device. I used to raid Gutenberg Press and torrenting sites and amassed a huge collection of classics and science fiction texts that I would systematically work my way through. Every Heinlein, Asimov, Frank Herbert or Edgar Allen Poe book that I read was read on that Amazon Kindle. Then one day, it had a catastrophic battery failure and became a paperweight. I have since learned that this was extremely common for that particular generation. I still have that Kindle collecting dust on my bookshelf because I can’t bear to properly part with it. The death of that device killed my enthusiasm for e-readers and, if I’m honest, most of my passion for reading for pleasure. 
This year, I have had trouble sleeping and decided to seek out that joy again. I read a few actual books and had a good enough time. Of course, they were awkward to read in bed, working my wrist and back and requiring blinding light to fill the room at all times. I rarely ask for specific tech for my reviews but made an exception in this case and begged the editors at DRN for a chance to review a modern e-reader. I was delighted to hear that the industry heavyweights, Amazon, were interested and finagled myself a Matcha Green Amazon Kindle 11th Generation to review! I couldn’t wait to see what changes, if any, had been made in the last 8 generations when my heart was last full.
First Impressions
The new Kindle is about half the size of my old Kindle and feels like it’s a quarter of the weight. It has a 6 inch screen and its dimensions are 157.8 x 108.6 x 8.0 mm. There is no wasted space in the thin cardboard box which carries both the device and a moderately sized, USB-A to USB-C charging cable.
Environmentally, Amazon has made all the right choices. No single-use plastic and instructions with as little information as is necessary to start the device. The Kindle is now a touch screen device with one single button for power and no headphone jack. I love the Matcha Green colour and it does feel great to hold.
I would probably have liked some instructions on swiping or manipulating the menu but I found them quickly enough with a google search. What amazed me the most was how familiar the device felt. I feel like the screen savers haven’t changed and much of how it looked and functioned felt very intuitive to me. Perhaps it is just good design, but this new device still has the heart of my old 3rd gen.
Set Up
There are a few different ways to set up an Amazon Kindle and they all seem relatively straightforward, if time consuming. I personally had trouble with my Amazon password which I recently updated and forgot. However, even if you don’t have an Amazon account, you can choose to set up the Kindle manually with your home WiFi. If you do this, you purchase directly from the Kindle store without ever touching a computer or phone.
There is a Kindle App that bridges the gap between your Amazon account and your Kindle. The app set up route is particularly quick, if you know your password. This is clearly the method they recommend and you can be purchasing and reading books within minutes of opening the box.
Finally, you can do what I did, activating the Kindle with the app, then downloading a bunch of different apps to help me convert between book formats and upload a wide range of books, magazines and newspapers from a wider range of sources. The ‘Send to Kindle’ website is really powerful and a major improvement on the methods I vaguely remember using to populate my ancient Kindle.
In Use
There are so many great features of this Kindle that it is hard to know where to start. Firstly, backlighting. The greatest aspect of e-readers for me used to be the fact that there was no backlighting. I could read for as long as I wanted and my eyes wouldn’t hurt because it was basically the same as reading a book. This is still a feature of the 11th generation Kindle if you turn the brightness down to zero. However, now you can set up the backlight to whatever level of brightness you want. Even up to what amounts to a flashlight in your face. I know that doesn’t sound appealing, but it does mean that I can choose a level of brightness that allows me to read for a long time regardless of the situation going on around me. Time to crack out my reader at raves and be the coolest guy in the room!
You can also change the font size and typeface, you can decide how close you want the lines to appear on the page, you can read in landscape or portrait…there is so much adjustability. Bookmarking is a lot easier than I remember it being and you can now highlight and save text or whole pages for later reference. My favourite feature is that it tracks how quickly you read and predicts when you are likely to finish your current chapter. I’ve been re-reading Dune Messiah and it’s been spot on since Chapter 1.
Uploading books from the ‘Send my Kindle’ website is really quick and you get an email notification when it is complete. I was also impressed to see that books in the Kindle store are relatively affordable. Usually cheaper than physical books, and certainly cheaper than local bookstores, which hasn’t always been the case.
Finally, there are some other exciting specs and features that make this e-reader stand out above its competitors. It has a hard drive of 16GB for books, a battery that can last for 6 weeks and fully charges in 2 hours and the capacity to connect to headphones via Bluetooth to provide screen reading functionality.
Gripes
Ultimately, I don’t have many gripes. I did have to use Google to find out how to access the menu and leave the book I’m currently reading, as well as some of the other swiping functions. It would have been nice if they were listed in the instructions.
My biggest gripe however, is probably more with the intersection between the publishing industry and the library system than Amazon. I’m a big fan of libraries in general and wanted to borrow e-books from my local library using their preferred platform, Borrow Box. However, in order to prevent people from holding onto e-books or sharing them with friends, Borrow Box uses Adobe’s DRM to ensure they self-destruct when their loan period has lapsed. That DRM prevents the files from being read by almost everything except Adobe’s Digital Editions program, making the files basically useless. Perhaps there is a future where I can borrow e-books as easily as real books but it is frustrating that in 20 years of e-readers we have made so little progress in this area.
Conclusion
I’m so glad to once again be an e-reader and this device is a huge step up from what I’m used to. It’s so light and portable. It is quick to load books into and I can fiddle with so many features that I’m still adjusting to find the perfect setting for my delicate sensibilities. I honestly don’t know why I waited so long to make this upgrade and am looking forward to a happy future with my new best friend. You can get your own on Amazon, this version has a RRP of $199 and comes in Black or Matcha Green.
DRN would like to thank Amazon for providing the review unit.
