As you will no doubt know, Amazon have recently launched their latest ereader, the Kindle Paper White Ereader.  This name is no overstatement, as it has what has to be the best screen for reading of any ereader yet made, and will surely be hard to beat.

For the rest, this ereader is much like its predecessors in most respects, as it has all the various functions we have come to expect from our ereaders, built in dictionaries, adjustable fonts, note-taking and sharing, WiFi connectivity and so on.  And as with all other Amazon ereaders and tablets, an amazingly well organised and easy to use method of finding, buying and downloading our ebooks on line at any place we have a WiFi connection available.

There are two things that set this ereader apart from all others, and these are the illuminated screen, and the amazingly clear screen, and it is these two things that make me say that this is perhaps the ultimate ereader.. where on earth can ereader makers go after this one?

Paper White Screen.

This is no exaggeration, the screen on this ereader really is paper white, unlike all other ereaders that have to varying degrees what in effect is a light grey page on which the text is visible.  Whilst the contrast between the “paper” and the text on all ereaders has improved immensely over the last few years, it is still for all other ereaders a somewhat grey “paper” we have to read our ebooks against, which means that the contrast between the “paper” and the letters is not optimal.  But with this one it is really amazingly clear.  They claim that the contrast has been improved by some 25% over previous models, as well as having 62% more pixels (dots) per inch than older models.  All of which means that reading on this ereader is as pleasurable and easy on the eyes as reading a brand new paper book.

The picture below shows clearly how much better this ereader is than older Kindles – and other ereaders.

Illuminated screen:

The other thing that is a real step forward with this ereader is its screen light.  Barnes and Noble with their Nook Glow and Kobo with their Kobo Glo have also given us screen lighting recently, but in both of those ereaders they have stuck with the system that Sony developed about 3 years ago, namely a row of tiny LEDs along one side of the screen, shining their light onto the screen sideways (as it were).  This method works to a degree, but still has hot spots and is brighter nearer to the LEDs than on the opposite side of the screen, obviously.  Amazon have taken a completely different approach to illuminating the screen of this ereader.   They have used a flattened and highly precise optical cable to spread the light over the screen (see drawing below), which ensures that the light is totally even over the entire screen, and no light source is visible, no matter how you turn the ereader.   And to make good even better, you can dim this light from 100% to ) seamlessly, so you can set the lighting level to meet exactly the situation you find yourself in when you want to read.

We will have to wait to see if this light screen is as fragile as the Nook apparently is.

Read for days on one charge

And what makes all of this even better, they claim that the battery endurance is about 8 weeks between charges (based on 30 minutes reading per day), even with the light turned full on.  Compare this with the average of 8 hours use on all tablets and LCD screened ereaders…

So, if you haven’t yet bought an ereader, you should look very seriously at this one, as it is simply a very good and user-friendly ereader with all the other goodies that we now associate with Kindle ereaders.

Availability

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is available for pre-orders now, with delivery on October 1, 2012. The device comes in Wi-Fi Only and Wi-Fi + 3G models, as well as with or without Special Offers.

Where from.  Well Amazon of course, and soon other outlets as well.

Cost: Depending on which model you choose, it goes from $120 to $130.

Share with us.

Would you buy this one in preference to a Nook, Kobo or Sony, and if so, what are your reasons for that decision?