Kindle 3 Photos

Picture is worth a thousand words so rather than writing one more Kindle 3 Review (which I encourage you to read if you haven’t already), today I decided to publish several Kindle 3 photos.

eReader Comparison: Kindle 2, Nook, iPad, Kindle 1, Kindle 3, Kindle DX, Sony PRS-600
eReader Comparison: Kindle 2, Nook, iPad, Kindle 1, Kindle 3, Kindle DX, Sony PRS-600

Personally I’m a huge eReader fan and gadget geek as you can see from my pile of eInk hardware. Out of all devices Kindles get the most use: 6″ devices to read books and Kindle DX to read newspapers and magazines. iPad is also used quite a bit but mostly not as eBook reader.

Kindle 3
Amazon Kindle 3

Kindle 3 frontal shot. Kindle has a picture viewer easter egg. In order to use it: create “pictures” folder in the root directory of the Kindle USB drive, create some sub-directory there and fill it with pictures. Once in home screen, press Alt-Z to make Kindle 3 rescan picture folders. Subfolders of “pictures” folder that have JPEG, GIF, PNG or BMP files in them will be visible as books and images will become pages. It may be a nice way to enjoy manga on your Kindle 3.

Kindle 3 Back Cover
Kindle 3 Back Cover

Kindle 3 back cover has a nice rubbery feel to it that makes the device very comfortable to hold. I has Amazon Kindle logo embossed in it. If you look closely at the slit between front and back covers you will be able to see screwdriver marks from my Kindle 3 disassembly attempt.

Kindle 3 Weight
Kindle 3 Weight

For some reason Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has overstated Kindle 3 weight. It really weights around 8.2 ounces as opposed to the official spec of 8.7 as confirmed by multiple sources.

Kindle 3 in Lighted Leather Cover
Kindle 3 in Lighted Leather Cover

Kindle 3 Light
Kindle 3 Light

One of the standard Kindle 3 accessories that Amazon sells separately is Kindle 3 Leather Lighted Cover. It is intended to protect your Kindle from scratches and falls. Although I’ve never field-tested it, judging by it’s solid construction it should do a good job. It also has a built-in LED light for night reading that draws power from Kindle battery via conductive cover hinges. The downside is that the cover doubles the weight of the device.

As you can see, page lighting is not completely even. However from my personal experience I can tell that the cover is completely usable for reading at night. DSLR cameras tend to exaggerate contrast.

Kindle 3 in Leather Cover
Kindle 3 in Leather Cover

When not in use the light slides into the cover and stays completely hidden. There is also leather cover without built in light that costs less and is couple of ounces lighter.

Kindle 3 Power Light
Kindle 3 Power Light

Amazon designers have moved all buttons (except for paging) and connectors to the bottom edge of the device. From left to right you see volume control (for two built-in 1W stereo speaker or headphones used for “Read To Me” text-to-speech feature, listening audiobooks or DRM-free MP3 files), stereo mini-jack headphone connector, microphone (that is not used for anything right now according to the user’s guide), standard micro-USB PC/charging connector, power switch with integrated large charging LED light. The light blinks green when Kindle 3 is turned on or off, glows orange when Kindle is charging and glows green when the device is completely charged.

Kindle 1,2 and 3 side by side
Kindle 1,2 and 3 side by side

Witness 3 years of Kindle evolution. Kindle 1 released on the 19th of November 2007, Kindle 2 releaed on the 9th of February 2009 and finally Kindle 3 Graphite released recently. Notice the improving progression of screen contrast as eInk displays evolved over time.

Kindle 3 and Kindle 1 side by side
Kindle 3 and Kindle 1 side by side

Kindle 3 vs Kindle 1 - thickness comparison
Kindle 3 vs Kindle 1 - thickness comparison

Although Kindle 3 and Kindle 1 have very similar footprint in the terms of thickness, Kindle 3 is almost 3 times thinner than the original first generation Kindle.

Kindle 3 and Kindle 2 size comparison
Kindle 3 and Kindle 2 size comparison

Kindle 3 vs Kindle 2 - thickness comparison
Kindle 3 vs Kindle 2 - thickness comparison

Although K3 and K2 are almost indistinguishable by thickness (the difference is 1/50 inch), difference by footprint is considerable.

Kindle 3 and Kindle DX
Kindle 3 and Kindle DX

As you can see Kindle 3 completely fits inside Kindle DX screen with still some room to spare. These are two different classes of devices.

Kindle 3 vs Nook - Size overlay
Kindle 3 vs Nook - Size overlay

Kindle 3 vs Nook : Thickness comparison
Kindle 3 vs Nook : Thickness comparison

Kindle 3 vs Barnes and Noble Nook side by side
Kindle 3 vs Barnes and Noble Nook side by side

Kindle 3 is slightly smaller than Barnes & Noble Nook. It is also almost twice at thin and significantly lighter while packing same 3G + WiFi connectivity. In case of Kindle 3 however you can use free 3G Internet to browse any website rather than just download books.

Kindle 3 vs Sony PRS-600 Touch Edition
Kindle 3 and Sony PRS-600 Touch Edition side-by-side

Kindle vs Sony PRS-600 Touch Edition By Thickness
Kindle and Sony PRS-600 Touch Edition - Thickness

Kindle 3 has slightly larger footprint than Sony PRS-600 because of keyboard but is slightly thinner and considerably lighter. However the main difference is in display contrast. Kindle 3 Pearl eInk display contrast is almost 5 times higher than that of Sony. This difference has mostly to do with the touchscreen layer in PRS-600.

Kindle 3 vs Apple iPad
Kindle 3 vs Apple iPad

Although these are completely different kinds of products I still photographed Kindle 3 and Apple iPad side-by-side just for the fun of it.

I’ll wrap up this Kindle photo review with a daily Amazon.com user review and shipping date check-up:

Right now there are 220 customer reviews for Kindle 3. Of these 155 are completely positive five star reviews, 35 – positive four star reviews, 6 – neutral 3 star reviews, 7 – negative two star reviews and finally 17 – completely negative one star reviews. For the last several days ship date for Kindle 3 remained unchanged as “on or before September 17th”.

BTW: I have plenty of hosting bandwidth so you are welcome to hotlink these pictures.

6 thoughts on “Kindle 3 Photos”

  1. FYI— amzn still is shipping sept. 17th, BUT it has downgraded from free 2-day shipping to super saver….. on the other hand, the backlog is down to 17 days as opposed to 30.

  2. I noticed a typo in this statement: “Although Kindle 3 and Kindle 1 have very similar footprint in the terms of thickness…” and am guessing you meant Kindle 3 and Kindle 2, no?

    Great and wonderful pictures as always. Love reading this blog!!!

  3. OK, I was excited and waiting for my K3, after seeing the comparison pictures above, now I can hardly wait. Good thing I have a K2 and iPad to keep me occupied till my K3 gets here. The cover should arrive tomorrow :)

  4. Your side-by-side photo of the Kindle 1, 2 & 3 demonstrate how much attention Amazon has paid to design issues, for both usability and aesthetic qualities. What other (successful) company is known for the design of its products? Apple…. Good job, Amazon. :) PS Still waiting for my Kindle 3!

  5. The photo tip was great. Now if I could just figure out how to create my own screensaver.

    “Kindle has a picture viewer easter egg. In order to use it: create “pictures” folder in the root directory of the Kindle USB drive, create some sub-directory there and fill it with pictures. Once in home screen, press Alt-Z to make Kindle 3 rescan picture folders. Subfolders of “pictures” folder that have JPEG, GIF, PNG or BMP files in them will be visible as books and images will become pages. It may be a nice way to enjoy manga on your Kindle 3.
    Read more: http://blogkindle.com/#ixzz0yK6THHYd

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