Admittedly the title of this post is misleading, as technically this should be the same Amazon Kindle. But I've noticed a few differences between my original Kindle 3, and the one that Amazon sent me to replace my Kindle, I thought I would document them.
My original Kindle 3 was a pre-order. Or at least almost a pre-order? I don't actually recall. I remember that my first two week's paycheck from working at The Grove last year went into my Kindle, I ordered it sometime in September/early October (2010) (which I believe is when they started shipping the pre-orders out (there was apparently not enough units to fulfill the pre-order, if I recall correctly)) and it had just arrived when I got home for Thanksgiving (I had it shipped home, instead of to college). The order for the new Kindle was put in on Wednesday (August 31, 2011) by my customer service representative after he figured out that my Kindle was malfunctioning (more on this later).
Aesthetically the two side by side look almost identical. The replacement is a refurbished model, but I'm more or less simply happy that it WORKS. I would have been perfectly happy, even happier, if they had been able to fix my old unit (I was actually hoping that some sort of software patch would fix the problem). The concept of refurbished in general, I know shouldn't make me unhappy/more nervous, but I don't think I can help that, especially because it looks simply inferior to my old unit. It looks new, aside from the obvious differences that I've noted below, which I've made in having the new device side by side with the old one for four hours. If there are more changes that I notice I will update accordingly. It's clean and it even doesn't have the crack in the bezel that my original did (which I've noticed that from browsing around Kindle forums that this actually is a fault with the Kindle manufacturing/design.)
The problem with the old unit was that to put it simply, it was SLOW, and then it FROZE and RESTARTED ALL THE TIME. It was simply quite aggravating. The slowness I could deal with, it had been building up for months and months. I had thought though that it was a side effect of just loading LOTS and LOTS of books on the device. When you fill up the hard disk on your computer it slows down, right? I figured that something similar was going on. At this point in time though, when I need to turn the page in a book, I'm more likely to have to press the button, go away, maybe leave to use the restroom or something, come back, and either it'll still not have turned the page, or it has (sometimes it takes ten minutes to turn one page, I was ready to go back to paper books, I was reading more on my laptop Kindle application then the device itself, and sat there and timed it once), or for some reason, THE UNIT HAS FROZEN OR RESTARTED ITSELF. Now if it's frozen, I can do a hard restart by holding the power slider to the side for twenty seconds, that's generally what is recommended by the Customer Service (and is in fact what they asked me to do, first thing after acknowledging that I believed I had a problem). But there is NO REASON why a device needs to restart itself five times in one day, unless I tell it to. (By five times, I'm probably fed up with it and I'll give up for the day.) This never happened when I first got the unit. Even with three classes' semester's worth of powerpoints in PDF form, plus a summer session. And those PDFs can take up a lots of space. Towards the end of June is when this problem started presenting itself I suppose. After the first summer session, I removed all of my class PDFs from my Kindle. THIS is my original and primary purpose for my Kindle: To be able to take along my class material in a small and wonderfully light and easy to read device. After I started to do this last fall, I rarely ever had to print powerpoint slides, electronic text based materials, etc. I didn't even have to take my laptop to class with me anymore, and have it take up the entire desk in the lecture hall. Those desks are small but the little Kindle and a notebook fit on it well. My laptop is no monster, with only a 13" screen, but I need to write in my notebooks ON TOP of the keyboard, in a cramped desk/chair combo. After I discovered how to make fanfiction mobi files, I hardly ever had to use my laptop anymore except to access the internet to do research, do homework, or to look at blogs. With this in mind, I had to stop my lagging to call CS because a device with all these problems wasn't going to work with the school year starting. Even with primarily philosophy classes this year instead of primarily science classes in prior years, the Kindle would be a big part of my academics. I even had to order a CISS for my printer in anticipation of the amount of text materials I knew I would have to print.
It was quite funny actually when the CS agent realized that he would have to replace my Kindle, and I suppose that was primarily because I could hear him swearing in the background. It was obvious that he had said it away from the phone or had attempted to muffle it with something, but I could hear it.
But all this stuff is not what this post was supposed to be about, so let's get down to nitty gritty.
The devices look the same more or less when you initially look at them. The first difference I noticed is that the buttons on the type pad are different. In the old unit, it is clear that Amazon attempted to make the buttons also matte to reduce as much glare as possible on the device. The product was that the buttons, while matte, also had a slightly grainy texture to the touch, which I suppose was helpful in giving a tactile feel to the buttons as well as stopping the sliding sensation on buttons that are shiny and very small. If you've ever worked with very small shiny buttons on devices before, you might understand what I mean, I noticed this primarily on my old Blackberry. The buttons on the new unit are shiny, although this is not obviously to the eye, I noticed the difference in feel first, and then noticed the visual difference. Personally I like the old version, because it provides a slight grip on the letter keys when you use them. There were numerous reports though that the Kindle 3's key labels had a tendency to wear off after an extended period of use. This never happened to me, but I believe that that is mostly because I don't play that many games on my Kindle, and I had kept the original plastic cover that came with the device on the front until about February. Looking at them closely now, I do detect some wear on the labels. Printed labels on the shiny type keys on the new unit might prove to be less prone to wear off. This would be an interested experiment to do, but not one that I would do personally. Which do I prefer? I have gotten used to the feel of the old unit's buttons, and the slick feeling of the shiny buttons is not something that I welcome, but if that will increase the longevity of the labels, I honestly can say that I don't know which I would toss up. The shininess though, I definitely don't like.
Part of Amazon's claim is that the back of the Kindle has a tactile feeling back, so it is less prone to slip out of your grip due to dry or slippery hands. The backing to the new Kindle unit is smoother in grain then the one on the old unit. Perhaps smoother in grain is the wrong description, but it is smoother feeling to the fingers. The old unit has a lovely almost velvet type feel to the supple plastic covering the back of the Kindle. The new unit has a smoother feel, and less of the velvet feel. The plastic does not seem to be as soft, or tactile. Will this be easier to slip from the hands? I don't know. As I keep my Kindle in a leather case (secured by elastic ties) most of the time, the back is something that I rarely touch on my old Kindle unit, and that will probably continue to be the case with the new one. (You forget how small the Kindle actually is after you've had it in a case for awhile, my particular case increases the thickness by about three times the thickness of the device on its own.) I do feel that this is not what Amazon promised to it's customers though. The tactile feel of the back of the device is significantly decreased, and while enough for a good amount of tactile feel, I like the old version better.
The power slider on the new device is sticky/stiff. This problem might go away with use, but for now, it feel like the slider is just more cheaply manufactured. The whole new unit seems more cheaply manufactured from my original unit. I might be wrong, but there's what I think.
Aside from the look and feel of the device, the real question is that how does it perform? I can say that after copying the documents folder from the old device to the new one, and so it has the same amount of space taken up, the new one still performs better. The page turns are a little slower than a brand new, mostly empty device, but it is still actually turning the device at least close to a slow page turn.
As much as I feel that I like the old unit better, I have to admit, I like the new one more because it works. And in the end, that's what really matters, the device needs to perform, or it's not worth it.
Another question though, is that does my manufacturer's warranty now expire from the purchase date of the original unit, or the 'purchase' date of the new unit, as I did receive a purchase confirmation, and what exactly is the warranty information on a refurb unit?
OK- Time for bed now, driving home for labor day weekend tomorrow morning.
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