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Old 12-30-2010, 12:50 PM
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AndyKoh AndyKoh is offline
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Default Re: Kindle & e-Book Reader Review

Hi Amanda & Eve,

I think another factor for the lack of reception and exposure of e-readers in Malaysia is due to the general lack of interest in reading here - and now with lots of high tech gadgets, gaming devices and things to distract the younger generation, I think reading is turning into a hobby of yesteryears.

When I visited Taiwan, I saw many large multi-storey bookstores, and they open 24 hours. That signifies the demand and interest of the consumers there. I doubt we'd find many bookstores here that open for more than 12 hours

That's right, Hanlin and iRiver are the ones I was referring to. As you can see, the price is more than the Kindle - because they can get away with such pricing, due to the biggest competitor, Kindle, not being present in Malaysia.

One very important thing to note when choosing eReader - their display contrast. First of all, some inferior eReaders use 8 shades of gray - iRiver happens to be one. This makes reading more strenuous as the words do not outstand as much against the background, and images look uglier. Kindles (and newer immitation eReaders) use 16 shades of gray. Then again, they could still differ in contrast level, as the lightest to darkest shade range might differ. Even within Kindle itself, my older Kindle has a lesser contrast that makes reading a little tiring, although it has 16 gray shades. The newer Kindle is much better, at a 50% improved contrast. You have to really put them side by side or actually read for some time under different lighting conditions to better notice and appreciate it - photos usually don't give an accurate perception of this.

Here's a photo comparison of Kindle 2 & 3 contrast:
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/2010...of-screen.html

Now, imagine the immitation eReaders with worse contrast and you'll get the feel of it.

Another thing, of lesser importance but contributes to your reading pleasure, is the speed of page turns. iRiver's review states that it takes a whopping 2 or 3 seconds to refresh to a new page, which I think is way unacceptable. Kindle 3 takes maybe half a second to do so. iRiver is also bulkier and needs a stylus pen, which I think is inconvenient and obsolete. Here's the iRiver review:
http://thetechjournal.com/electronic...e-reader.xhtml

Hanlin's specs appear better in comparison to iRiver, but I can't find much literature or review on this product, probably because it's a China product that's not sold in western countries. Its design is very near an immitation to the older Kindle 2.
http://www.mphonline.com/offers/HanlinV60.aspx

These immitation eReaders also do not usually have text-to-speech capability, and neither do they tie up with any online bookstores for convenient purchase or download.

There are some larger competitors in the eReader market, i.e. Sony's PRS models and Barnes & Noble's Nook (not available in Malaysia). These have been compared in detail (lots of literature on the Internet), and Kindle 3 wins out in most reviewers' opinions.


p/s: Amanda, since you have a friend in US, you could actually ask her to DHL or Fedex to you after Amazon ships to her. I believe the cost would be something like RM100+, not far off from using vPost, but you'd get it in 3 - 5 days with a much more reliable and insured delivery service. The cover and Kindle, even if in separate parcels, would add up to less than 1kg in total weight.


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Last edited by AndyKoh; 12-30-2010 at 01:15 PM.
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