Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

OK, I fouled up with my Kindle Paperwhite 11th edition purchase. It was Prime Day and the Kindle was marked WAY DOWN, and I opted for the bundle: Kindle + Charger + fabric cover. Now don't get me wrong, the Charger is nice and the fabric cover is very nice, but for a device Amazon says you only need to charge 5 times a year, getting a premium charger doesn't really make much sense. I already have plenty of chargers, and the Kindle will charge overnight whether I use their super-fast premium charger or something else. And while the case is undeniably nice, you can get one for less than half the money from other sellers on Amazon. I did not make the mistake of getting the ad-free version. The ad appears on the lock screen and as soon as you swipe the screen, it goes away and stays away for your entire reading session. It's 100% unobtrusive. Other people have given the Kindle one star because they bought the ad-free version, and were angry there are still "suggestions" on the Home screen that they consider ads. All I can say is that you get that no matter what, and the solution is to switch to the Library screen rather than the Home screen; that's very easy on the latest software version. The other huge mistake I made over 4 years ago was subscribing to Kindle Unlimited and somehow not knowing that it was automatically renewing silently every month (for $9.99). I paid enough to buy several Kindles. I guess I thought it was part of Amazon Prime or just something that comes with a Kindle. You can bundle Kindle Unlimited "Free" for 3 months with your Kindle purchase, but just watch out when that 3 months are over. I have generally found Kindle Unlimited books second rate (with a few exceptions). I bought one of the original Kindle Fire versions and the first Kindle Fire HD. They were cool, but I didn't end up using them much. They didn't have good battery life, they were hard to read outdoors, and Kindle software on other portable devices was fine. I think the first one eventually failed, and I gave the HD away to someone who needed to do something that required a Kindle. I have a nice Windows tablet. But I have always wanted a Paperwhite because of its long battery life and superb readability outdoors. Plus it was heavily discounted on Prime Day and I bought one. So how did it live up to expectations? Pretty well. The "10 weeks" battery life claim seems exaggerated, but still if you pick it up to go somewhere, it will probably be charged and last another day. Outdoor readability is simply amazing. After receiving the device, the software updated. I think it updated twice. My "Experimental Web Browser" turned into the "Web Browser" and the navigation improved markedly (addressing issues I read in other 1-star reviews). The web browser is still very limited and doesn't display some web pages correctly (like the Internet Archive), and error messages still mention the "Experimental" browser. You can't access YouTube, for example, Twitter doesn't seem to work at all, and the New York Times is not readable. On books, three-level table of contents don't work on the Kindle, although they work on Kindle for PC. I had a very good experience emailing a PDF document downloaded from our local Planning Commission to the Kindle. Things you send to the Kindle arrive very fast. Amazon did, however, require me to verify myself as a sender before it would deliver email attachments to the Kindle, even though my email address is on the approved senders list at Amazon. Also plugging the Kindle to a PC lets you drag and drop supported document types (notably MOBI and PDF) to the Kindle where the immediately appear in your Library. The Send to Kindle for PC app is currently broken as reported by me and others on Amazon forums. The device is somewhat sluggish in general with a 1-second delay for most things: swipes, scrolls and navigation. That's certainly not something that would interfere with reading a book. There are so many different ways to navigate, that it can appear jumbled and confusing, plus the software updates I got changed everything, making me re-learn the UI. I think in the end that I will be accustomed to it and it will appear more natural. One severe limitation is that you cannot play audio files in general. While it supports Bluetooth headphones for books from Audible, it cannot play music or audio books in general. (I hope this is enhanced in a future software update.) So should you buy one of these? If you want to sit outdoors under a tree or at the beach for hours on end reading a book, a Kindle Paperwhite makes a lot of sense. The reading experience is good, it's visually sharp and the charge lasts a long time. If you want to listen to music, or do much of anything else you can do on a phone or a tablet computer, you're out of luck.