With over 12 million titles available for download on Kindle, more and more people are buying a Kindle device, also known as a Kindle E-reader.
E-book popularity has spiked in recent years. Since 2010, over 191 million e-books have been sold in the U.S.
By 2020, e-books had generated 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. So, is it time for you to invest?
According to a 2020 survey, print books are still the most popular choice of reading medium, but e-books are second. According to the research, around 25 percent of Americans prefer e-books over print.
Is a kindle worth it?
If you’re wondering whether or not you should buy a Kindle, consider the pros and cons we’ve outlined below.
Reading preferences vary, so what suits one person may not suit another. If you can, borrow a Kindle from a friend for a day or even a few hours and see how you feel about it.
Kindle is a low-cost reading option, but it’s still essential to consider its long-term value before spending.
Size
If you’re an avid reader, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of carrying around a book too big and heavy for your bag. It may be the most exciting book you’ve ever read but hauling it with you is a task, especially when you carry other vital items like a laptop, purse, or spare clothes.
The Kindle’s size is a considerable part of its appeal.
The device is small enough for you to neatly tuck it away in your backpack or slide it into a handbag. It’s also incredibly lightweight, so there is no fear of breaking your back trying to carry it around.
Consider that you can hold thousands of books in a Kindle, while print books need all that physical space.
Night reading
Many readers enjoy winding down with a book before sleep.
However, to wind down effectively and best prepare for rest, it’s essential to have low light in your environment. Keeping a bright light on late-to-read print may make it harder to sleep.
Using a device at night is also bad if you want to sleep well. Most screens have a blue light that acts on brain receptors leading them to believe it’s daytime, resulting in improper melatonin distribution.
Kindle e-readers have a blue light filter, which limits blue light emission and displays a warmer tone, still readable and gentle on the eyes.
Annotation
Kindle e-readers allow you to annotate with ease.
There are many reasons to annotate – collect your favorite quotes, agree or disagree with the author, research and citations, or highlight your favorite parts of the book.
Annotating a print book sometimes means writing on it, using highlighters, dog-eared pages, and margin asterisks. On Kindle, you can create and remove annotations easily.
You can also annotate books you’ve borrowed from the Kindle Library, and if you borrow the book again, you’ll find all of your previous annotations saved.
Display
If you’ve ever spent time reading on your phone or laptop, you know just how irritating device screens can be to the eyes.
According to research, blue light emissions from devices make us blink less often than we should, which can strain and damage the eyes. These emissions also lead to eye fatigue, focus flexibility, and retinal damage.
Kindle screens are different from standard device screens. They use e-ink display, a technology made up of a grid of millions of capsules.
They imitate physical books with a grid that uses an electrical charge to display black and white pigments, forming letters and a background that makes it easy to read, unlike standard devices that use tiny colored bulbs.
Price
Kindle devices are highly affordable. In a time when phones and laptops are available for upwards of hundreds if not a thousand dollars, Kindle’s low cost makes it a budget-friendly device.
- Kindle Basic (8GB) – $89
- Kindle Paperwhite (8GB or 32GB) – $139, $189
- Kindle Oasis (8GB or 32GB) – $249, $279
- Kindle Kids – $109
- Kindle Paperwhite Kids – $159
Long battery life
iPhone users are all too familiar with the frustration of their device’s short battery life. Many laptops, too, fall short in this department.
Those who travel for work or need to be out of the house a lot need long battery lives on their devices. Kindle’s battery life is unrivaled.
A fully charged Kindle will offer around 20-25 hours of reading time. That means if you read for 2 hours a day, one charge will last over ten days.
Of course, other device processes require power, which can drain the battery faster than reading.
For example, setting up the Kindle requires much processing power, so you’ll see a short battery life when you first use it. Similarly, an internet connection requires extra battery power.
These are minor issues. The first is expected, and the second is resolved by disconnecting from Wi-Fi when you don’t need it.
Dictionary and Word Wise feature
Sometimes we discover a word we don’t understand when reading. The traditional resolution is to get out a dictionary or use your phone to look up the word.
This takes you away from the story or narrative and can be distracting. Still, you need to know the word’s meaning to understand the message.
You can quickly look up word definitions on Kindle by tapping on the word itself. This feature keeps your attention on the book, meaning you won’t get distracted by notifications.
Even when you look up a word in a dictionary, you may still not understand its whole meaning in the context you’re reading it.
Kindle’s Word Wise feature, found at the bottom right corner of the screen, elaborates on the word’s meaning and explains its use related to the context. This feature improves the reading experience while expanding your vocabulary and linguistic skills.
Kindle Library
Kindle Library allows you to borrow books for free as long as you own a Kindle Library card. You can download these books for a limited time, and when your time is up, the book is removed from your device.
Kindle library saves you on library visits. It also complements the annotation feature. As mentioned earlier, annotations and bookmarks in borrowed books are the same as when you re-download a library book.
Kindle Paperwhite
Kindle Paperwhite is the basic Kindle model’s upgrade. Paperwhite is slightly bigger and heavier than the basic Kindle Model.
Its screen is far superior to its predecessor’s, with a resolution of 1,448 × 1,072 pixels (300 pixels per inch), compared to the basic model’s 800 × 600 pixels (167 pixels per inch).
With Kindle Paperwhite, you also have more storage space (8 G.B. or 32 G.B., compared to 4/8 G.B. to the original), longer battery life, and more color options.
Cons
There are many pros to buying a Kindle device but there are also some cons. Below we’ve listed some of the most common disadvantages of Kindle.
Geolocation limits
Kindle’s library feature is one of its most popular. The downside to this feature is that it’s only available to those who live in the U.S. So if you reside anywhere else, you can’t use it.
Feel
As convenient and functional as it is, one of the significant drawbacks of Kindle devices is that it doesn’t offer the same pleasure gained from reading a physical book. Avid readers enjoy the texture and weight of print books.
Different books can offer different reading experiences based on weight and texture alone. The aesthetic experience of reading on a Kindle is the same, no matter what book you read.
Speed
Kindle’s processing speed is much slower than a typical smartphone or laptop. If you prefer fast loading speeds, navigating on a Kindle may be frustrating.
Speed is not an issue when turning pages but typing and webpage loading.
Lending
One of the pleasures of reading a great book is passing it on to a friend when you’re finished. Book sharing is a great way to bond with new and old friends.
Since all of your books will be stored on your device, you can’t enjoy the pleasure of sharing a physical book with someone. However, you can still share books and files through the Kindle App and Kindle Unlimited.
Is Kindle unlimited worth it?
On Kindle Unlimited, users can download an unlimited number of titles for a monthly subscription fee of $9.99, much like popular streaming services.
One downside is that not all books on Amazon are available to K.U. Subscribers.
A significant benefit is that you don’t need to own a Kindle device to access and use Kindle unlimited. The service is available for anyone with a device that can read and an Amazon account.
K.U. also allows you to explore titles and authors you usually wouldn’t.
When you spend your hard-earned money on a book, you want to enjoy it. As such, you’ll search for titles, themes, and authors that you expect to be enjoyable.
With KU, you have unlimited downloads every month, which means you can explore books you would otherwise dismiss and not experience any financial doubt about them.
You can also take advantage of a large selection of free books in the Kindle Store.
Conclusion
Is buying a kindle worth it? To look at costs alone, a Kindle can pay itself off in months, depending on how much you typically read.
Print books generally are more expensive than e-books, which means that a few months of reading Kindle books cover the price you would pay to read the traditional way.
Overall, deciding to buy or not a Kindle comes down to your reading habits and preferences. Cost is hard to argue, given their affordability, so it’s best to decide based on how much you think you’ll use the device.
If you read every day, a Kindle may be a wise choice. If you’re just an occasional reader, you may not get the total value out of your device for years.
If you don’t read much now but want to improve your reading habits, a Kindle can undoubtedly help.
