Kindle

[Amadeus]

I'm looking to buy my wife a Kindle for Christmas, but am wondering whether to go for the newer one (without a keyboard and 3G) or the older one which has a keyboard and 3G.

The benefits of the new model are:
1) It's smaller
2) It's cheaper (not really much of an issue)

The benefits of the older model are:
1) It has 3G - difficult to know how much she'd download over 3G and she'd probably have wifi a lot of the time. I don't know how good the browser is on the kindle - can anyone comment?
2) It has a keyboard (when is that of use?)

She travels quite a lot and most of the time she'd have access to wifi. I'm not sure on 3G coverage in the US either. Smaller would obviously be good but even the older models with keyboards aren't massive.

Any suggestions based on experience?

thanks

[grimey121uk]

The newer model is cheaper but it lacks they keyboard and numerouse reviews seem to say the newer one has a lower quility display.

I have the older one one and wouldn't want to do away with the keyboard tbh

[Littlepeahead]

Anyone know when the Kindle Fire is being lanched over here as that looks good and I may be persuaded to buy one.

[robh539]

I need to get one of these as a pressie, so the older one is the best to get if I can find one?

I have no knowledge of these as i preifer to read from books (I think this is the start of my old man grumpy technophobia haha)

[Amadeus]

So what do you use the keyboard for Grimey?

[NTECUK]

Anyone know when the Kindle Fire is being lanched over here as that looks good and I may be persuaded to buy one.

http://fwd.channel5.com/gadget-show/gadget-news/amazon-kindle-fire-coming-to-uk-this-january

[LankyIanB]

Got the older one with keyboard but not 3G. Connected to wireless network at home and Starbucks at the airport if I need something to read when I'm travelling...

[Captain Nemo]

the browser is awful :( a really clumsy interface

[Nick762]

Just got my dad the new (keyboardless) Kindle for Xmas, he specifically requested that one but I did some digging around anyway. Seems to me as long as you do your organising on your home PC there's no real need for the keyboard unless you are a really voracious reader. I got the impression that the display was the same for both models.

On a slightly different note, been using ebooks for about ten years, started with my old Palm PDA and have progressed to Kindle, eReader, Kodo and Stanza on my iPhone. Now I do most of my reading this way and I'm starting to think I should go for something with a bigger screen for comfort. The dedicated readers may have a better battery life and e-ink screens but of course are tied into one format hence the advantage of the iPhone and its ilk. I've got an eye out for a lowish cost 7" tablet, probably android which will support all the main ebook clients (Kindle, eReader, NOOK and Kobo for starters as there are a few differences between their stock lists) and am intrigued to know whether the Kindle Fire will allow this (edit: just found out it does not connect to Android Marketplace :-( ), if not there's plenty of others out there that will. I'll be watching this one with interest http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/first-ice-cream-sandwich-tablet-costs-just-60-in-china-50006336/ (http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/first-ice-cream-sandwich-tablet-costs-just-60-in-china-50006336/)

[Amadeus]

Thanks Nick - good info - thanks