A big chunk of users now automatically associates the word “books” to Amazon. The US company was in fact one of those that has invested more in the field, and through the creation of a real ecosystem, is commercializing the dedicated reading devices: the Kindle eReader . The last two terminals of this family, presented in recent months from Amazon, however, are quite special, since they are almost the polar opposite to each other. On one side we have the economic Kindle, which while not integrating particularly innovative solutions allows excellent reading experience at a very low price, on the other we find the new Kindle Voyage : a top of the range really complete and well done, which raises the lev el of the class but that is sold at a price far higher. In the USA the terminal starts from $ 199 in the version without WiFi and with commercials, to reach $ 289 in the WiFi + Free 3G without ads. Will be worth such a high price? The pros are so many, but can be appreciated in full only if you are really avid readers.
Design and materials
As soon as you pull out the device from the package you see several differences in the Kindle Voyage and previous models produced by Amazon. The design of Voyage is particular and also quite innovative for the series: it takes much inspiration from the tablet Fire HDX that the Paperwhite, its direct predecessor. The thing you notice in a very obvious especially looking at the rear bodywork of the terminal, characterized by a trapezoidal plate to which they connect the four panels from the sides. All this creates a special three-dimensional shape really pleasing to the eye and improves ergonomics. The shell is in Magnesium Black with a matte processing, except for an upper insert in shiny black plastic. This item was posted more for practical reasons than aesthetic, as it takes to improve the WiFi connectivity which otherwise affected too much of the metal structure. But we must recognize that this technical solution has also been cleverly exploited to give an even more pleasing to the device.
Also on the back, on the left side, we find the button on and off , which is also very similar to that seen on the aforementioned HDX. Initially I thought that the location would be impractical and that favored the accidental pressing of the button, but to activate it you have to give a strong and well-balanced with a steep angle, factors that make it really hard to crush him erroneously. The grip offered by the shell is greater than that of the other of the line Kindle eReader and the terminal gives an excellent feeling of solidity and strength . The only annoying drawback I found in the back seat, however, is the type of work, because of which the panel tends to hold back a bit ‘too easily fingerprints, thus creating a visual effect unpleasant.
The use of magnesium, however, significantly improves the scratch resistance and shock and reduces the heaviness del’eReader, which comes so just 181 grams . It’s not the lightest player who has tested, but the difference with the Paperwhite or the Kobo Aura H2O is felt, resulting in greater comfort that stands out especially after a few hours of reading. In defense of Aura must still emphasize that this device implements a display from the diagonal wider 6.8 inches.
We then several innovations also in the front of Voyage. The most obvious is definitely the E-Ink display card flush with the frame , choice already seen on other eBook Reader as the Aura. The screen is protected by a glass with matte finish that according to the statement from Amazon should reproduce the feel of the paper and reduce glare. As regards the first point, this feeling is not so evident, while for the reduction of the reflection if the quarry rather well: does not wholly eliminate annoying glare on the screen, but still quite improves the situation compared to other terminals. Among other things, according to the statement, this protective cover is made from a process that it should make more scratch resistant . Indeed, the reader has withstood very well the tremendous “test backpack” to which I submit all eReader, which is to be placed with little care in fact of my backpack and then sballotto lato right and left during my daily commute .
On the long sides are other unique elements of Voyage: two pairs of soft-touch keys . These are inserted under the protective glass on the sides of the display and marked with a line and a dot. The pairs are placed symmetrically on both sides of the screen. These elements, which when pressed activates a tactile feedback given by a slight vibration, allowing you to easily navigate through the pages of their books also using Voyage with one hand. By pressing the button marked by the vertical line passing to the next page while crushing the one with the bullet going back. The fact that both keys are placed on both edges of the screen also allows you to use the device is in your right hand and with his left hand without having to continually re-map the buttons via software.
Initially I did not think that the evidence in question would bring a significant difference compared to the use of the classic touchscreen, which remains present. I have, however, changed his mind in a hurry, it will seem silly but continue reading without even having to move your fingers from page border in a short time is more comfortable and functional. In short, this is not a novelty revolutionary but definitely improves the reading experience, especially in mobility.
Voyage is so aesthetically appealing and pleasant to use even one-handed , thanks to the weight of 181 grams and the excellent choice to implement the soft-touch keys. Undoubtedly handling it you realize that it has to do with an eReader top of the range: the meticulous finish and quality materials return to the user a feeling of solidity and strength really good. The reduced thickness, 7.6 mm , and the particular shape of the rear bodywork, improve ergonomics and make Kindle Voyage a terminal really handy.
Display
On this new Kindle the words take shape through a really good display: a E-Ink Paper 6 inches with a density of 300 PPI . It is a panel from very high quality and it is noted in the reading. In fact, thanks to a striking contrast and resolution best characters are sharper and easier to read than any other eReader’ve tried so far. And if you go to make a comparison between images the difference is even more striking: the screen of the Voyage has an outstanding performance.
Compared to Paperwhite also found significant improvements in the front-lighting system : the board of the new top of the range is more homogeneous and brilliant. It is not perfect yet but sicuramento much more pleasant than that of his predecessor, who despite being decent quality, I was never totally convinced, especially when compared to the front-lighting adopted by others, such as Kobo Aura HD and H2O. A strong point of this system is then in the ambient light sensor , located in the upper left of the front. The automatic adjustment of the brightness of the screen works, in fact, in an excellent and proves useful reading companion.
During the whole time of the test I kept this feature on constantly and have never had to resort to manual adjustment. The sensor and the software have always been able to select the right level of brightness for me to read comfortably. Even in situations where other readers are struggling the front-lighting combined with the glass from opaque finish allows reading experience easy and really notice the difference. I also loved the night light function, which when activated by the menu settings and used in a dark gradually reduces the brightness to give way to the eyes to get used to the change without fatigue.
The technology chosen for the touch is capacitive, now typical of eReader products from Amazon. As you may know if you’ve read my other reviews on this type of device are not a big fan of that decision. In my opinion, in fact, on an eBook reader is more comfortable the infra-red touch that allows you to use your device even with gloves. This is because in my experience of player I happen to find myself often use the eReader appearance while public transport or maybe when the weather allows, even to the park during the lunch break. In winter, in these situations, having to take off the gloves to read annoys me a lot. Fortunately the navigation buttons on the side Voyage solve this difficulty in large part, because they allow moving on smoothly. In case, however, you wish to use other functions, even the dictionary or notes, unfortunately you have to use the touchscreen. Of course, this is not a problem because overly disabling is easily solved by buying a pair of gloves compatible with capacitive screens, but for me it is a small flaw.
The display is still undoubtedly one of the greatest strengths of Kindle Voyage. Thanks to the high resolution, the lighting system improved and the ambient light sensor the difference with its predecessor is also seen in everyday use. Very apt then the choice to use a sheet of opaque glass to protect the screen, even though it seems a detail not characterizing, in certain lighting conditions there and you notice the difference.
Hardware and Battery
To animate the excellent panel E-Ink Paper just described we find a 1 GHz Freescale processor , helped by 512 MB RAM and 4 GB of internal memory – unfortunately not expandable. Fortunately the size generally not too high and the file unlimited storage cloud made available for free from Amazon partly remedied for such failure. The whole is powered by a battery 1340 mAh. According to allegations made by the company that module should allow about 21 hours of reading with the WiFi off and the brightness set to 10. On paper it is therefore a range slightly below that of the Paperwhite, that with the same setting should withstand up to about 28 hours on a single charge. This is very probably due in large part also to the display, that having a higher density requires a greater energy expenditure.
Fortunately, however, to come to our aid is, also in this case, the sensor brightness . In everyday life, in fact, if you activate the automatic adjustment of the front-lighting the difference in consumption compared to Paperwhite not notice, or at least I have not noticed. This is because the system is usually better than us to select the appropriate level of brilliance to allow us to read comfortably taking care to energy consumption. In addition to this it must be said that those who, like me, is very careless or otherwise accustomed to use only devices with ambient light sensor, often forget to adjust the brightness of the display itself, especially if you move from an environment where the light conditions are the most difficult to one where they are best. This means that with the Paperwhite, but also with the Kobo Aura H2O and with most of the other players, I often forget to turn down the brightness level when I go into a room where I could read e ven with the front-lighting to a minimum , thus wasting energy unnecessarily.
With the Voyage rather not happening to me: cue simply the option for automatic brightness and the problem does not arise again. But we must make it clear that the data declared by Amazon speak of reading texts, if you take advantage of a lot of other features such as the experimental browser, or if you sail long inside the store owner consumption grow . In any case the autonomy proved in line with the average of the main competitors: nothing extraordinary but enough to allow even the most assiduous readers to recharge the eReader not too frequently.
As said one of factors affecting more about the battery is the Connectivity . Voyage is available, as is now the case for eBook reader flagship of Amazon, in two versions: WiFi only and WiFi + 3G Free. Both are equipped with a module WiFi 802.11b / g / n , which gave me no problems of any kind and it turned out good quality as regards both the stability of both the scale of the signal . The second version, however, also includes the ability to browse the store and download their books from the Cloud via 3G Free . There is, in fact, need to insert a SIM or pay a subscription: traffic data must offered by Amazon through some special repeaters included in the price, but a lot of salt. It speaks well of $ 269 to a model also equipped with 3G (289 version without advertising).
interface and operating system
The operating system Voyage aboard is to Own Amazon now iconic line of Kindle eReader. The interface is the usual: very minimal and intuitive . At the top we have the notifications bar that shows the time, the charge level of the battery, the status of the WiFi and the account with which you are connected. Just below there is the navigation bar main, which is made up of six icons : the house to go to home, the back arrow, the light bulb to control the level of front -Lighting and activate the automatic mode, the truck to enter the store, the magnifying glass to search the content and the menu key, consists of three horizontal lines.
If the latter can display the various features of the Voyage, including FreeTime , the system parental control weblog Amazon. With this you can set a password to restrict access to content and connectivity, so you can give in the hands of a child without having to worry about the Voyage of misuse. Among the other items we find the browser experimental , as always useful mostly for some quick search on Google or Wikipedia, the Enrich your vocabulary , which is a collection the different words we searched on the built-in dictionary during reading, and the settings menu . The menu is fairly complete and allows us to set various parameters, including those related to WiFi, the front light and the sensitivity of the side buttons. From here we can among other things, enable Airplane mode , which automatically turns the modules for connectivity.
The rest of the homepage is occupied at the top of the covers of our eBook , ranked from the last that we opened, and at the bottom by the new exclusive Kindle. All menus are really immediate and easy to use, and the same goes for the store, which at the moment is also the most comprehensive and intuitive that you will find a built-in eReader. The Catalog Amazon is indeed very rich and well organized: you can easily browse by genre or language, but also offers quick access to flash, to news and headlines beds last period.
Experience reading
Simplicity and immediate remain even in the interface of reading. With regard to the text file, the menu is minimal and easy to understand: during the reading by pressing the high end of the screen opens a further panel. Through this, in addition to achieving the notifications bar and the six main icons illustrated before, you can also use other four options key: text formatting, the index, the key to share quotes on social and the insertion of a new bookmark. In the lower part we also find the menu for navigation, which when pressed gives the chance to turn the pages by previewing in the central area of the display. The text formatting is not particularly complete: we have three measures for slugs, three to six different fonts and margins. Although the choice is not very large, we still managed to get different combinations pleasing.
While holding on to a word you can then read its meaning through the built-in dictionaries, are already installed on Voyage Zingarelli and Oxford , highlight some text, share it on social or add a note text using the keyboard touch screen. Reading files AZW3, AZW, TXT and MOBI is very easy, the display responds promptly and pages are turned rapidly. If you go to open a PDF from higher dimensions the reader is slightly slower but still say better than most of its competitors, and the user experience with these documents is quite pleasant. Thanks to E-Ink panel of high quality, high contrast and good front-lighting system words are sharp and stand out well against the background. The supported file types natively from Voyage are AZW3, AZW, TXT, PDF, MOBI and PRC. In order to instead display HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP must convert them using the service Personal Documents Amazon, about wh ich you can find more information on the official page.
How have noticed lovers of comics, the reader, as well as all the latest eReader Kindle line, does not support archives CBR and CBZ . Fortunately we can convert even the comics were not purchased on the store owner in a format readable by the Voyage thanks to Comic Kindle Converter tool, created by an external developer, or Kindle Comic Creator, official Amazon. Comic Kindle Converter software is actually faster, but the official one allows you to manually enter, and then with a lot of patience, the convenient function display for cartoons . This approach, already present in automatic in many volumes in the Amazon store, allows you to display a sticker on the screen at a time, without having to zoom and so to navigation on the page while reading books, manga and comics. Thanks to this and to the high resolution of the display also reading comic books is so very pleasant.
Conclusion
After having tested Kindle Voyage for several days, I can say that it is of ‘ eReader most complete and enjoyable to use I’ve tried so far.
The handling is really very good and side buttons, the light sensor and the display from high density make the difference compared to Paperwhite and to most competitors. It should however be considered a thing: this difference is especially noticeable if you are readers really greedy . Who reads occasionally or with a very high frequency may not notice these improvements. For these users Amazon in list two more very good: the new Kindle that starts from 59 euro and the Paperwhite, which remains in the line-up at the price of 99 euro currently good.
However, if you are a devourers of texts, love reading and dedicated to this activity several hours a week, maybe one or two a day, the Kindle Voyage could really be the device for you. I know, the price is very high, but the reading experience is really amazing and well worth the expense, as long as said before to depreciate much good reading.
The product can be purchased at the time only in United States, through Amazon USA. The starting price is $ 199 .
Kindle Voyage Rating (9/10)
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