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e-reader for mom

R

railer

Golden Member
so my mom....mid 70's gal who is borderline internet illiterate, likes to read, and her birthday is next week. So guess what she's getting?

Whatever you guys tell me to get her, that's what.


It's going to be something in the Kindle family, because I've got a Prime membership already, and with the Prime lending library it looks like she'll be able to have many "free" books. I had her read a few pages on my Nexus 7 and she thought it was great, so my only decision is wheter to get her a full-on tablet, like the Fire HD, or would a regular Kindle e-reader be best?
98% of her time is probably going to be spent reading, vs. surfing the internet or looking at media, but I'd love to see her get on the internet more, and it seems like the Fire's have about 100x more functionality than the regular Kindles if you're going to do anything besides reading?
Do the Kindle Fires perform just as well as the regular Kindles as e-readers, but just in a bigger, more expensive package? Money is not really a huge concern.
Thanks.
 
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Sounds like you're going to be looking at a Kindle Paperwhite. For reading B&W text, nothing beats an e-ink display. The Fire models can do more, but it sounds like they'd be too complex for your target.
 
Bateluer said:
Sounds like you're going to be looking at a Kindle Paperwhite. For reading B&W text, nothing beats an e-ink display. The Fire models can do more, but it sounds like they'd be too complex for your target.
Click to expand...

Agreed, if it is reading only, e-ink beats everything hands down.
 
Canbacon said:
Agreed, if it is reading only, e-ink beats everything hands down.
Click to expand...

Oh, so the regular Kindles are actually better for reading than the Kindle Fires? I'd like to kind of gently nudge her into using the tablet for more than just reading, that's why I was leaning towards the Fire, but if the regular Kindle is actually superior for reading, and I imagine it has a much longer battery life, then maybe a regular old Kindle is the best bet.
 
railer said:
Oh, so the regular Kindles are actually better for reading than the Kindle Fires? I'd like to kind of gently nudge her into using the tablet for more than just reading, that's why I was leaning towards the Fire, but if the regular Kindle is actually superior for reading, and I imagine it has a much longer battery life, then maybe a regular old Kindle is the best bet.
Click to expand...

If she's going to read books, ie, b&w text books only, then go for the Paperwhite. If she's going to read magazines, or you're trying to get her into Words with Friends/social networking/Angry Birds, then go with a Fire model.
 
Just an FYI, it's not like she can just tear through the lending library as she pleases. You get to check out one book a month.

Also everybody is right. The paperwhite is your best bet for just a reader but if you want to get her using the tablet for more then you can start to look at the fire.
 
railer said:
Oh, so the regular Kindles are actually better for reading than the Kindle Fires? I'd like to kind of gently nudge her into using the tablet for more than just reading, that's why I was leaning towards the Fire, but if the regular Kindle is actually superior for reading, and I imagine it has a much longer battery life, then maybe a regular old Kindle is the best bet.
Click to expand...

Yup, since e-ink does not use energy to sustain the image after it is set, the device sips very little amounts of energy. It is not unheard of people not charging e-ink devices for weeks to months. Of course the more you process/read then the more the battery drains.

On another note, if your mom is going to check out books from the public library, you may want to look at other brands that supports the epub format.
 
Bateluer said:
If she's going to read books, ie, b&w text books only, then go for the Paperwhite. If she's going to read magazines, or you're trying to get her into Words with Friends/social networking/Angry Birds, then go with a Fire model.
Click to expand...

Basically this. If you buy an e-ink based device, treat it as buying a really fancy book. It functions REALLY well as a book, but only as a book. You can technically do some tablet-like features but I wouldn't consider it.

But if you wanted to buy her a new gadget to surf, watch videos, youtube, facebook, become less Internet illiterate, then a Kindle Fire would be better.
 
With the new high res fires the reading is fine indoors. There are downsides

-Battery life. A battery won't even last a whole day of intensive reading vs weeks. Not having your book charged could be annoying.
- Sunlight visibilty. A fire is hard to read in direct sunlight. Okay in shade. The paper white will be better if she likes to read outside
- Complexity. If she's not already a reasonably competent computer user the fire will probably get shelved. Its not hard to use by any means, but a lot of people from that generation perfer one use devices. 'borderline' internet literate doesn't bode well for this.

I have both types of kindle myself. I'd buy a paperwhite in your situation.
 
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