Hello friends! If you have been on my social media, you’ll know that I recently got myself a Kindle Paperwhite 2021. Today’s post is all about how I feel about the Kindle after using it for one solid month. A detail you may need is that I have been using my Tolino Vision 2 for the past 5 years (it was a gift from my husband – then boyfriend haha) and I loved it! I truly had no issues with it other than the fact that the screen was slower than what I would have liked. I am a huge highlighter, so not being able to highlight parts I needed was driving me kind of insane, but other than that, it was a fully functional e-book reader that I did not spend a day away from ever since I got it 5 years ago. One of my best friends was coming back from the US and I kindly asked him to bring me a Kindle Paperwhite, I ordered it to his home and the delivery was horrible (I have a huge thread on my Twitter- oops, X on this matter) but I eventually got it after 2 weeks of Amazon trying to rip me off. Now, since I am no beginner to an e-book reader, how do I feel about Kindle Paperwhite 2021 in general?
The first thing I have noticed is definitely the reaction speed. I do not understand the science behind e-ink technology, but the speed of the screen has definitely improved my reading pace and enjoyment. Although the Tolino Vision 2 wasn’t slow when it came to changing pages within a book, it was very slow when going through the library or trying to highlight something, as I have mentioned above. With the Kindle Paperwhite, I can say that it is significantly faster and easier to move around within the library and the highlighted notebook, or I should say in general.
It is slightly bigger than my older one. Considering that I read in the smallest font available, it didn’t change much. The only sad part is that my Tolino could fit almost all of my bags, including my incredibly small waist bag; with this one, I have to carry around a tote bag or keep it in my hand. Carrying it in my hand does not create any issues for me since I often carry around my physical book copies by hand everywhere I go because I get irritated when they get damaged within my bags. So in terms of the size change, nothing really creates a difference for me.
The biggest reason that I ended up upgrading from my Tolino Vision 2 was access to certain books. Back then, I wasn’t able to afford even the ebook format, which is significantly cheaper than physical copies, and I had to download and send them through a USB cable to my reader. With the Kindle Paperwhite, everything is more systematic. You do not need a USB cable. There is a page on Amazon where you can upload your books to the system, and after you synchronize it with your Kindle (which requires your Kindle to be connected to Wi-Fi), your library appears on your Kindle. You have to download every single book after synchronization, but this doesn’t take much time, to be honest with you, and it doesn’t bother me that much in general.
When I mention access, I have to also mention that I have finally subscribed to Kindle Unlimited. I do not like downloading books without paying for them because I respect the authors and try to do my best when it comes to paying for a literary work because they deserve it. Whether I like a specific book or not doesn’t really matter; if I am spending my time reading something, I feel like the person who spent his or her time writing it down and offering it to me should be able to get paid one way or another. Thus, I ended up subscribing to Kindle Unlimited, and now I have most of my TBR list accessible there, which is a huge plus because it gives you 20 books at once, and as you read and finish them, you can return them and then get another book. I haven’t looked through it that much because I haven’t started reading the books on Kindle Unlimited yet, but I do believe that it is like a rental system, which is pretty cheap considering the number of books I read and the selection they offer.
The last thing I want to mention is battery life. My Tolino Vision 2 didn’t have the battery percentage displayed, so I didn’t really check how long the battery lasted, but I would say that it lasted me at least three weeks when I wasn’t reading much. With the Kindle, I first had my doubts because it felt like the battery was going down faster than my old ebook reader, but after reading some comments on Reddit and Amazon, I realized that since I was connected to Wi-Fi for a longer period of time and ended up uploading and downloading at least 300 books, the battery went down faster than usual. I kept my old ebook reader on flight mode at all times because I didn’t have any reason to get online or download anything since everything was handled by a USB cable. In general, the Kindle is much more versatile, and the things you can do are more when you are connected to Wi-Fi. The screen light and the connection to Wi-Fi actually affect how long your battery lasts.
So far, I have enough books to read for at least a month, so I will keep it on flight mode as much as I can. So far, it has lasted me at least two weeks with a daily reading time of two to three hours. On Amazon, it is said that the ideal battery life is 35 hours, so whether you spend it in 10 weeks with only 30 minutes of reading each day or in seven days with five hours of reading time daily, it really depends on how you are using it and how often you are using it.
You may ask what I did with my old ebook reader. I actually gifted it to my little sister. I ended up buying a new case, cleaning it up, and gifting it to her because I know that there are a lot of books that she cannot find as physical copies because they are not published anymore or have no translations into our language. So instead of selling it, I thought a university student would make good use of it.
Overall, I am very happy that I made this purchase. The last one lasted me five years, and if I hadn’t decided to change it, I do believe that it would last me another five because I use my devices very carefully in general. But my sister is happy, and I am happy, so it’s a win-win situation for me. For those who cannot carry books around anymore or are on a tight budget to buy physical copies of books, I think this is a good and understandable investment that you can make for yourself because I know how much reading impacts my life. It has impacted me ever since I was a kid, and I do believe that I deserved it.
Thank you for reading this very long post about my recent purchase. I will be back with more blog posts, and until then, take care and stay safe. 🫂
Luster of Books 