Kindle Voyage e-reader: Amazon's thinnest Kindle yet coming in October for $199 (hands-on)
Amazon's unveiled two new e-readers: the higher-end Kindle Voyage and a new entry-level Kindle ($79), which sports a touchscreen interface but no built-in light.
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Amazon's dream is to someday make a Kindle e-reader as slim as a piece of paper. Or so says Amazon Kindle vice president Dave Limp, who was on hand in New York to unveil two new e-ink Kindle e-readers, the $199 Kindle Voyage and Kindle (2014), a new entry-level Kindle that starts at $79. Both are available for pre-order now and will ship in October.
Amazon still has a long way to get to that goal, Limp admits. But the Voyage, measuring 7.6mm and weighing less than 6.4 ounces (181 grams), gets it a little closer. By contrast, the existing Kindle Paperwhite, which remains on sale for $119 with a bump from 2GB to 4GB of memory, weighs 7.3 ounces (206 grams).
The Voyage is the first Kindle e-ink reader to feature a flush glass front and magnesium back and it's the nicest Kindle I've used. In some ways it resembles the Kobo Aura, which weighs 174 grams and also has a flush glass front and similar specs (1GHz processor, 4GB of memory, built-in light). There's also the new $179.99 Kobo Aura H2O, a 6.8-inch waterproof e-reader that sports a similar Carta E Ink HD touchscreen to the Voyage (1430x1080 resolution, 265 dpi) and has a memory expansion port. But the Voyage is sleeker.
Amazon says the Voyage uses a brand new Paperwhite display, with "the highest resolution, highest contrast, and highest brightness of any Kindle." It has 300 pixels per inch (PPI) and its display stack uses chemically strengthened glass, which Amazon says is designed to resist scratches. Also, the cover glass is micro-etched to diffuse light and reduce glare.
Amazon has also equipped the Voyage with a couple of pressure-sensitive page-turn buttons (you can also just touch the screen to turn the page) and they worked well. You keep your thumb resting on the button and then press lightly to make the page turn forward or back, depending on whether you touch the top or bottom button. You also get some haptic feedback -- a slight buzz on your finger -- with each page turn. Amazon calls the new feature PagePress.
I put the Voyage next to the Paperwhite and turned both lights to the highest brightness setting and the Voyage's screen indeed appeared brighter and whiter and the light splayed across the screen a bit more uniformly. Everything's a little better with the Voyage, but the reading experience remains just fine with the Paperwhite.
New budget Kindle
For $79, you can pick up the new Kindle (2014), which replaces the previous model that didn't have a touchscreen. It's worth noting, however, that the entry-level Kindle's touchscreen isn't the same as the capacitive touchscreens of the Paperwhite and Voyage. It's the older, IR-based touchscreen (IR sensors are embedded in the bezel).
In any case, I was told by Amazon reps that having the touchscreen allows Amazon to use the same operating system across all three e-readers, all of which now run on 1GHz processors and have 4GB of built-in memory. So that should help streamline updates in the future and give users access to the same features, no matter what Kindle they own.
Worth $199?
Some people may balk at the price of the Voyage, especially with Amazon selling the Fire HD 6 tablet for $99. But there's been a trend lately by companies, like Kobo, toward creating higher-end e-readers which retail for closer to $200. They're targeted at heavy readers who want the best dedicated e-reader available.
In addition to the $199 base model, Amazon is offering a Voyage with built-in 3G data (for Amazon content downloads only) for $269. As usual, both models require an additional $20 charge to remove the embedded ads on the homescreen and lock screen.
Our full reviews of both the Kindle Voyage and Kindle (2014) will post as soon as we get final shipping products and spend some time comparing them to existing products on the market.