Gadgetory

no you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a great ebook reader I'm John Falcone and this is the Amazon Kindle for 2012 the Kindle is now better than ever but it's also cheaper than ever starting at just $69 for the ad-supported special offers version or $89 for no ads it's physically identical to the 2011 model but page turns are now 15% faster unlike color tablets that cost $159 or more this entry-level Kindle is an e-ink reader that offers just the basics books magazines and newspapers on a black and white screen unlike the more expensive Kindle paperwhite and Nook Simple Touch this Kindle has no touchscreen and no built-in light there's also no 3G option this is just a Wi-Fi device the Kindle doesn't come with an AC charger just a cable but the microUSB port is compatible with most cell phone chargers so you probably already have one the Kindle does have a rudimentary web browser but it's nothing you want to use versus a smartphone or tablet because there's no touchscreen on the Kindle everything is controlled with the on-screen buttons page forward and back buttons are on both sides of the screen so they're equally accessible for left-handed and right-handed readers controls below the screen include home back menu and a five-way directional pad to type notes or search terms you click the keyboard button and enter letters with the d-pad it's a pretty clunky way to input text and a reminder that you should not get this model if that's a priority on the other hand if you're just interested in reading books this Kindle has some important distinctions unlike a tablet or phone you'll get very long battery life you can go up to a month between charging with normal usage you also get an excellent no glare screen so you can read it in full sunlight and this Kindle is less than 6 ounces so unlike many tablets it's not difficult to hold even during long reading sessions the Kindle also gives you to Amazon's excellent content ecosystem and only Amazon since it's not compatible with the ePub file standard so while you won't get the ability to buy from non Amazon stores you do get Amazon's best-in-class book store with more than 1.8 million titles and almost 200,000 exclusives and because the Kindle can hold up to a thousand books at a time and offers even more instantly accessible from the cloud you'll never run out of things to read additionally Amazon Prime members can get access to thousands of free loaners with the Amazon lending library and the Kindle can also be used to get free ebooks from many local libraries as well the other advantage of the Amazon ecosystem is that it's compatible with reading apps on almost any other device so using the whisper sync feature you can pick up reading any Kindle book where you left off on an iPhone iPad Android tablet Android phone Windows Phone blackberry pretty much any system with an app store or a web browser Amazon also offers a send to kindle plugin for major web browsers so you can send long articles to your Kindle for later reading it's pretty much a free version of Instapaper as for the ads on the special offers Kindle there occasionally annoying but they only appear on the lock screen in the index page they never interrupt what you're reading and you can always pay a one-time $20 fee to make them go away forever while this Kindle does come with a basic feature set it does a fantastic job of delivering a no-frills reading experience ad in Amazon's best-in-class eBook selection and it becomes clear that the Kindle is the best overall ebook reader available for under $70 I'm John Falcone for CNET thanks for watching