I’ve been reading ebooks on my handheld devices for as long as I can remember (we’re talking about US Robotics Pilot circa 1997 here), and have been absolutely fascinated by the success of the Amazon Kindle.   For one, they’ve turned their entire retailing model from moving paperback books to an estimated $1 billion business moving ebooks.  With the launch of the Kindle 2 last month, Amazon has refined their ebook reader product and made it even sleeker and sexier to behold.

For me, the main attraction is the display technology – the e-Ink or e-Paper screen reflects light instead of using a backlight – making it akin to reading a real book as opposed to a small LCD screen.   It is much easier on the eyes, reading in sunlight is no sweat, and battery life is measured in weeks, not hours.  Another selling point is that Amazon have hooked in free wireless connectivity via EVDO/CDMA networks, meaning wikipedia lookups a tap away.  In fact, some people buy a Kindle just to surf the web for free, in style.  Finally, with Amazon’s stock of 240,000 ebooks and counting, you’ll never be left wanting for more content (again, wireless delivery works wonders here).

Unfortunately for Australians like me (and pretty much the rest of the world), that’s where the dream ends as Amazon have chosen to limit availability of the Kindle device to the US for the time being.  Sure, you can get the Kindle App for the iPhone, but you don’t get the luxury of the beautiful 6 inch e-Ink screen.

Anyway many of us are wondering how the 2nd generation Kindle reader compares to its predecessor.  Some key differences:

• 16 shades of grey vs 4 shades
• 20% faster page turns
• 5 way navigation button vs 2 way scroll wheel
• 8-in.x5.3-in.x 0.36-in., 10.2 ounces vs 7.5-in. x 5.3-in.x .07-in., 10.3 ounces
• 2GB onboard storage vs 256 MB
• Stereo speaker vs mono
• Text to speech capability
• 2 week (continuous) battery life vs 30 hours
• Sleeker, thinner, body with rounded corners

Based on the above, the Kindle 2 certainly wins hands down, but one needs to look at the user experience factor as well.  Thankfully, having been out for over a month, a number of sites have posted their reviews and opinions.

With comments such as “being a sexier device” and “best e-book reader out there”, Wired and CNet were mostly positive:

Overall, the Kindle 2 addresses the key problems with the original, boosts performance and points to some interesting directions. Now we’re a little bit further down the road toward e-book Nirvana.

However, Engadget were unimpressed with the changes, calling them mere “hardware tweaks”.  “Besides the text-to-speech function, there’s not much you can do on the new Kindle that you couldn’t do on the old one.”  Gizmodo were particularly scathing – calling it the “same Kindle as before”, and an “evolution” than a “revolution”.

Brighthand also provide an in-depth review, and points out some flaws:

“Despite the overall positive tone of this review, the Kindle 2 isn’t perfect. I’m not a huge fan of the 5-way joystick, as it’s slippery and at times difficult to use, and there are still some user interface bugs that need ironed out. Moreover, when you flip the power switch to turn wake it from sleep mode, it can take up to thirty seconds before it’s fully responsive; until then it can take more than a second for pages to refresh.”

However, they again end off their review saying that the Kindle 2 is “best e-reader on the market today, based on a combination of features and price”.  This seems to be the general consensus, despite appearing to be an incremental upgrade to the original product.

What about you?  What are your thoughts on the new and improved Kindle, and has it met or exceeded your expectations?  Which areas does it fall short in?  Looking forward to hearing your comments…