New Kindles, fall 2012

Amazon today announced new Kindles in a big event:
The small model is now ten bucks less, and has a bit higher screen resolution, and finally you can select more than one font. (This goes for the other new Kindles too.)

Journalist's photo of the Paperwhite model

The one I was most excited about based on rumors: the Kindle Paperwhite*, has a front-light like the Nook Glow (though said to be even more even, as it were), and higher screen contrast, thus the "paperwhite" moniker. I am torn though, is it really as revolutionary as they said? Because a slide on the presentation said "25% higher contrast", and 25% is really not a lot, and a long way from from getting the background up what I would call "white", especially since they also say the blacks are now blacker. Also on the pictures taken by journalists (example shown), it still looks rather greyish to me. I guess I'll do my usual thing though and buy it on hope. [Update: this review gives me a bit more hope.]

 (See video below.) Without the front light, "the contrast is very similar to the old model", according the Verge. That casts doubt on the name "Paperwhite".
The saving grace might be the front light, which looks nice. This hands on review is another one that makes it seem promising. I like that they specifically mentions that the blacks still look quite black with the light on.
And one has to say that the front light technology in a kind of flat fibre-optic cable is really impressive technology, see this video clip off Bezos' presentation. They say it took them four years of development to make that.

Without the frontlight the contrast is only barely improved.

The Kindle Fire is now in HD for $200 for the seven-inch model, and $300 for the new HD 9-inch model, which has nice specs.

So clearly Amazon is continuing their policy of selling the devices basically at cost, and aiming to make the money on selling content. Heck, Bezos even came out and said directly, this time.

It seems, though it was not mentioned at the event, that all the Kindles and Kindle Fires now include 'special offers', meaning they are ad-supported, there are ads in the screen savers. I take this to mean also that they won't come very soon outside the US, if they have to make ad deals in each country. Hmm, not a great choice, I think. Or maybe it will be like currently, that the "international" ones are not ad-supported, and a bit more expensive for it.

Default pricing is for ad-supported models...

... Oops, my mistake. I was in such a hurry to get an early order in, that I did not notice the button which was pre-selected at "ad-supported". If you pay twenny bucks more, you can get it without the ads. ...I think it borders on the disingenuous to announce the prices and not reveal the fact that they only apply to the ad-supported varieties.

Update: well this is a surprise: the UK Amazon store is already updated, but not with the e-ink Kindles only like last time, instead with Kindle Fires only! (Sadly only the 7-inch models.) Huh, that's odd. But it's good news in that it must mean that they now can sell us video here. But sadly there's no mention of any great Prime deal included in the price like in the US, with tons of free content. Not yet anyway.
(I wonder if I can now buy/rent video on Amazon UK on the KF I bought from the US last year?)

ttl said...
I tried to order. Amazon said: wrong country, no Kindle for you.

Yep, I had to order via my US reshipper, like I did with the Fire last year.
I'm not sure why they do that now, unlike with the Fire, I don't see any functionality which should not work outside the US. Even the 3G they say works in 100 countries.




(That orange thing in the logo is a smile?? I always thought it was an arrow!)

* By the way, the journos at Twit didn't like the "Paperwhite" name, they said it sounded like "paperweight". I think that's part of the pun and fun. A new word is more apt to catch on if it sounds like an older one. Like "Playstation" sounds like "paystation". Another issue is that "paperweight" is not really the most flattering association of course, for an electronic device! It's what you'd call one which is stone dead.