Amazon Kindle Voyage with Special Offers, Wi-Fi

CUSTOMER REVIEW



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Although I've owned almost every model of Kindle ebook readers since the 2nd generation Kindle that I bought in 2009, I had to think hard about ordering the new Voyage. I was very happy with my Paperwhite (the 2nd generation that was released in the fall of 2013), and as much as I wanted to try the Voyage, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend $199 on one. It became a moot point, though, when my wife ordered the Voyage, saying it was her early Christmas present to me. Now that I've had time to use the Voyage, I have to say I'm impressed. With hardware features like a 300 ppi display, LEDs that automatically adjust the screen brightness depending on the ambient lighting, and the user's choice of a touchscreen or sensors acting like buttons to turn pages, the Voyage is hands down the state-of-the-art e-ink ebook reader. At the end of my review, I'll give my opinion on whether it's worth upgrading from your current ebook reader.



When I received the Voyage, the setup was quick (although you do have to go through a brief tutorial), and after downloading a few of my books from the Amazon Cloud and adjusting a few settings, the Voyage was ready to go. Here's a brief comparison of the Voyage and the Paperwhite:



Voyage

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Size: 6.4"x4.5"x0.30"

Weight (wi-fi version): 6.3 ounces

Display: 6" diagonal, 300 pixels per inch, 16-level grayscale, LED frontlit

Storage memory: 4GB

Page turns: Touchscreen plus PagePress

Display lighting: Adaptive light sensor (automatic) plus manual adjustment



Paperwhite

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Size: 6.7"x4.6"x0.36"

Weight (wi-fi version): 7.3 ounces

Display: 6" diagonal, 212 pixels per inch, 16-level grayscale, LED frontlit

Storage memory: 4GB (for the Paperwhites currently being sold)

Page turns: Touchscreen

Display lighting: Manually adjustable front-lighting



So the Voyage weighs an ounce less than the Paperwhite, and it's slightly smaller. Those are not substantial differences, but it might make a difference if you hand-hold your ebook reader for long periods of time. The higher resolution does make a difference, however, especially if you read many books with illustrations or photographs. I've been reading most illustrated books on my Kindle Fire, but with the increased resolution, I may read them on the Voyage now. And the Voyage's 300ppi resolution compared to the Paperwhite's 212ppi definitely makes a difference in viewing. Even the smallest font size is very sharp, although I prefer a slightly larger font for reading.



Besides the smaller size, the Voyage has some other obvious differences from the Paperwhite. The shell is made of magnesium instead of plastic. The capacitive touch screen is made of hardened glass instead of a plastic-like material. The Kindles have always been pretty resistant to damage if they were dropped. (Remember the videos Amazon used to show to demonstrate that?) The change in materials should make the Voyage even more resistant to damage. The location of the power button has moved from the bottom of the case to the rear of the case, at the top right, but if you're using a cover that activates the Voyage's Auto Wake function, you'll seldom need to touch the power button. The micro-USB charging port remains at the bottom.



One of the most significant new hardware features on the voyage are the pressure-sensitive page turn sensors. The last few Kindle models did away with raised buttons in favor of touchscreen controls. I prefer the touchscreen, but Amazon has obviously listened to Kindle users who miss the buttons, so they're back, but they're in a new flush, pressure-sensitive design that Amazon calls PagePress. The PagePress sensors are located on the sides of the bezel (the frame around the screen), which in the Voyage is flush with the screen, whereas in the Paperwhite, the bezel is raised about a millimeter above the screen. (This makes it less likely for sand or dust to get trapped along the edges of the screen.) The PagePress sensors are located on both sides of the bezel, so they're ambidextrous (thank you from all of us southpaws). Press the long vertical line on either side of the bezel to turn the page, and the dot sitting above it to flip back one page. You'll feel a slight vibration to confirm that you've pressed the sensor. The amount of vibration and the sensor's sensitivity can be adjusted in the settings. If you prefer touchscreen controls, the PagePress sensors can be turned off so you don't accidentally flip pages. After seeing how they worked (and they do work well), I turned them off. One thought: If you're reading on the Voyage in a darkened room, you can see the screen just fine, but you can't see the PagePress sensors, especially the little dots for returning to the previous page. It might have been better if they had made little bumps for some tactile feedback to your fingers.



Another new hardware feature that I like is the Voyage's new adaptive lighting that automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen depending on the lighting of your surroundings. You can turn it off and adjust the brightness manually (like the Paperwhite) if you want to, but I tried it in several lighting conditions, and it works pretty well. When reading the Voyage in the dark, you can use the Nightlight feature to gradually reduce the screen brightness over time as your eyes adjust. To enable Nightlight, go to Settings, Device Options, then Screen Light. With my Paperwhite 1, I could see noticeable shadows across the bottom of the screen from the lighting; it was much less noticeable on my Paperwhite 2, but the lighting appears to be perfectly uniform on the Voyage. Like all of the Kindles, the Voyage's display is very readable outdoors even in bright sunlight that makes backlit tablets and phones almost impossible to read.



The storage memory in the Voyage is 4GB, the most memory that Amazon has ever put in a new Kindle. After accounting for the operating system, there's about 3GB available for books. Amazon says that's enough for thousands of books. Even with books that have illustrations and graphics, 3GB will hold a lot of books. Personally, I doubt if I've ever had more than a hundred books on a Kindle. With every book that you purchased from Amazon being stored in the Cloud, there's really not much need to store thousands of books on a Kindle, but the memory is available if you need it.



I haven't had the Voyage long enough to get a feel for the battery life. According to Amazon, a full charge will last up to six weeks, based on a half hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 10 (the maximum is 24). Battery life will vary based on the illumination setting and wireless usage. I've always used my Kindles a lot, and since the Voyage uses a tiny graphic to show the remaining charge instead of a digital readout, I'll keep on recharging it about every two weeks to keep the battery from going dead.



The Voyage's software is pretty much the same as the Paperwhite's. The Voyage retains what I thought was the most useful new software feature of the Paperwhite - Page Flip. It's the digital equivalent of putting a finger between pages of a paper book while flipping back (or forward) to see other pages. To turn on Page Flip, swipe up from the bottom of the screen, and you'll see a pop-up of the page you're on. You can then go back or forward to find whatever it is you're looking for. When you're done, tap the "X" in the upper right of the pop-up, and it goes away. This is a really useful feature, although using the search function is often an easier way to find things.



In other software features, the Voyage includes full Goodreads integration, which was added later to the Paperwhite. And like the Paperwhite, the Voyage has a web browser that enables it to look up words on Wikipedia when you press and hold on the word. In a pinch, you can use it as a general web browser, but keep in mind that it's fairly slow and it's in grayscale. In other words, it's clunky.



Note that a USB charging cable is included in the box, but you'll need to provide your own AC charger. Amazon sells a 5V/1A charger (Amazon Kindle 5W USB Power Adapter), but there are tons of third-party chargers sold, with many of them costing less than Amazon's. Actually, your cellphone or tablet charger will work fine in most cases. You can also recharge the Voyage's battery from a USB port, but it may take longer.



I highly recommend a cover to protect the screen and to make it easier to hand-hold the Voyage. If you do get a cover, get one that supports the Voyage's Auto Wake function that puts the Voyage to sleep when you close the cover and wakes it when you open the cover. My favorites are the very thin, lightweight covers that fold back for one-handed reading.



I purchased the Kindle Voyage with wi-fi only and with the special offers. Frankly, I don't think most people really need 3G for an ebook reader. Wi-fi is so available in most locations nowadays that it doesn't seem worth the extra cost to get a 3G ebook reader. If you're traveling to a location that doesn't have wi-fi, just download the books you want to read before you leave home. If you do get the 3G option, note that AT&T provides the connection for Amazon's Whispernet service, so you should be able to receive a signal anywhere within AT&T's coverage area. About the special offers, you get used to them so quickly that you hardly notice them. And they're not intrusive - they don't pop up while you're reading - they only show on the lock screen and at the bottom half-inch of your book listings, and you swipe them away in a second. My advice: Save your $20 and get the special offers. And a lot of the special offers are worth seeing anyway.



Okay, the bottom line: Is the Voyage worth $199? In my opinion, if you're perfectly happy with your Paperwhite or other Kindle, there's no compelling reason to upgrade at this time. On the other hand, if you're a techno-geek or someone who reads a lot of books and insists on having the latest and greatest e-ink reader, there's nothing else on the market that even comes close to the technology of the Voyage, so go for it. If you're one of those folks who reads a lot but has resisted buying an ebook reader, the Voyage may be for you. With your choice of swiping or pushing buttons to turn pages, you get the best of both worlds. And as pricy as the Voyage is, it's only half the cost of the original 2007 Kindle, which had almost none of the bells and whistles the Voyage has (but it did have a speaker and headphone jack for the text-to-speech feature, which the newer Kindles, including the Voyage, lack). Another factor you might consider is that Amazon recently released a new 6" Kindle Fire HD tablet for under a hundred dollars. The Kindle Fires are all-purpose color tablets with hi-res displays that are fine for reading ebooks, although many people say they can't read for long on a backlit tablet without getting eyestrain.



Based on the Voyage's features and its performance, it's a solid 5 stars in my opinion, but honestly, it's a lot of money, considering that the Paperwhite is much less expensive and is a great ebook reader in its own right.