Re-Kindling the Fire? - Amazon Kindle Three Years On

Three years ago, I made my first forays into proper e-Readers with my first Kindle. I’d always been fascinated by these little things and the tail-end of the first pandemic summer seemed as good a time as any to try out one of these. The fact that Amazon had a sale on for their Kindle devices certainly didn’t hurt, but it was my desire to get reading a bit more that was the deciding factor behind my decision to get a 10th generation Amazon Kindle. And, not to beat round the bush here, I was impressed. My original review at the time was pretty positive, something I hadn’t expected. However, that was in 2020 and as anyone will tell you, three years can be a long time. Given how much the world has changed, how well does the baseline Amazon Kindle hold up three years later?

Even after nearly three years, a coffee and a Kindle session is still one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon.

Pretty well If I’m honest. Granted, the case has picked up more than a few scratches, but that’s to be expected for a device that’s nearly three years old at this stage and has seen quite a bit of use. While the battery does seem to have lost some of its capacity, it still lasts multiple days of intense reading, and several weeks of standby mode with ease. The display continues to go strong as well, being as easily readable now as it was back when I got it. While it still isn’t fast, that also still doesn’t matter. You’re not going to be playing World of Warships on the Kindle. Unfortunately, the power button continues to be as annoying and frustrating as the display is consistent. 

A cover, like this one, goes a long way towards covering up the scuffs and scratches that come with several years of use (and coffee).

However, both issues can easily be remedied. I only recently splurged on the Punch Red Fabric Cover for my Kindle, originally just to bulk out an Amazon Prime order, but it’s turned out to be a surprisingly useful addition. It covers up the badly scratched backside of my Kindle and adds some much-needed bulk to that device, making it easier and more comfortable to hold. More importantly, it also puts the Kindle into stand-by or turns it on, depending on if the cover is open or closed, something I wasn’t expecting. Plus, it just looks good. In fact, it was this cover that triggered the idea for this revisiting of my Kindle.

Unfortunately, the good news doesn’t quite extend to the software side. Don’t get me wrong, the software is perfectly usable, after all, you’re likely only going to use the Kindle for reading or listening to audiobooks. However, in retrospect, a massive software update that Amazon pushed out to most Kindles back in August 2021 didn’t do the device any favours by placing a massive search field on the top of the screen and banishing the navigation shortcuts for Settings, the Home Screen and Goodreads into a small menu on the right. What’s more, I can’t shake the feeling that Amazon has curtailed the already limited functionality of Goodreads still further. It is not even possible to scroll down in Goodreads, let alone update your reading progress or check out the reviews your friends have left for their latest books. Thankfully, the reading experience continues to be as great as it was when I originally reviewed the Kindle.

I'm not a big fan of the reworked interface that came in with a software update a while back.

Unfortunately, the Kindle effect, a massive increase in reading activity triggered by getting the device, has not turned out to be a persistent phenomenon. Don’t get me wrong, it has gotten me back into reading, but not to the degree that I would have wanted. To be fair, the last few years have been tough, with constant anxiety about the pandemic, political upheaval and a constant creeping infiltration of my private life by work as a consequence of working from home. The resultant pandemic-related exhaustion meant that I would often just reach for my iPad and open up YouTube. I’ve only recently started pushing back against that trend. It certainly didn’t help that I didn’t really go anywhere for much of the pandemic, and when I did go somewhere, I usually ended up forgetting my Kindle, preferring my iPad instead. 

Goodreads, never too amazing on the Kindle, is now little more than an artefact, with nothing but the bare minimum possible on the device.

It remains to be seen whether this renewed interest in reading will stick around this time. It won’t be the fault of the Kindle if it doesn’t. The device is certainly still a good one even several years in, and even if Amazon has recently updated its entire Kindle line-up, the 2019 base model is still a decent machine that is likely to keep going for quite few more years. If you’re okay with shovelling even more cash into the already overheating boilers of Amazon’s massive economic machine, you really can’t go wrong with a Kindle.