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I had a second generation Kindle (still had buttons, still had free 3G everywhere in the world, which was an awesome feature), and loved it. I dropped it many, many times, over the years, and finally the screen broke. So, I replaced it with a Paper White.

It's a better product in most regards, but I find I use it for reading far less. I tend to almost exclusively read on my Nexus 7. Twilight makes it possible to dim and turn the screen orange, which isn't something Kindle can do, so I like it for night time reading. I haven't tried to figure out which is better for getting to sleep after reading, but I suspect both are problematic.

Also, the Nexus is faster than the Kindle, in every dimension, so it's just more fun to browse/buy books. And, as others have noted, the touch screen on the Paper White is bad. Not a little bad, either. It's annoying as hell. And, I've also had problems with unintended page turns, and intended turns not working. The Nexus 7 has a great touch screen.

I also have an Amazon Fire Phone, and that's enough to convince me that Amazon just can't do hardware well. It's an awful phone; it would have been barely passable three years ago. Today it's laughable. And, their priorities for where to expend resources are way out of whack. The 3D stuff and four front-facing cameras to make it work, is just ridiculous. I'd much rather have one good camera than five shitty ones.

I recently got some ebooks from O'Reilly, and found that they looked much better in Google Books than on the Kindle or in the Kindle app. Amazon might be in trouble. I currently have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, so I still do most of my reading in Kindle (whether the app or the hardware Kindle), but the experience of reading in Google Books is better.




I absolutely hated my Kindle Touch (1st gen), so I sold it and bought a used 3G. Since then, I've cracked two screens, but fortunately, they're very easy to get parts for and repair (http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Amazon-Kindle-Parts-for-Repair...).

Amazon still sells used Kindle Keyboard 3Gs for reasonable prices, if you're ever tempted to go back.


Only 15 bucks to fix my old Kindle! Why didn't I think of that? I definitely miss the old one, and wish I'd thought of doing this to start with. I wasn't really excited about the new Kindles (the move to touch screens everywhere has been a thing I've been unenthusiastic about, always...I was hesitant to move away from the G1 to a touchscreen Android phone, too). I just assumed I had to "uprade".

Thanks for the link.


Yeah, the lack of responsiveness/feedback makes the touchscreen kindles especially frustrating - my page turning error rate was probably >10%, between accidental brushes, double turns, and other mishaps. Really got in the way of getting lost in the book. Plus, I love the tactile feedback of the buttons they used on the old ones.

If you want an old one, looks like good quality ones are going for ~$60-80 on Amazon, and it's pretty easy to sell a Kindle via the fulfilled by Amazon seller program - just set a price slightly below others offering Prime, ship off your Kindle and other old electronics, and they send you money when your stuff sells.




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