Evaluating the Kindle Voyage – Top Benefits vs Drawbacks Before Buying

Pros and Cons of Kindle Voyage and Should You Buy it

Posted by Jonny Greenwood on 1/20/2016 2:43:23 AM.

Amazon updates the Kindle product line in the third quarter of 2014 as predicted, coming as a surprise, the new product is not Kindle Paperwhite 3, but a whole new Kindle Voyage.

This comparison (or we can call it a review) won’t too much specs and numbers, that doesn’t make much sense.

Body material and screen

First let’s take a glimpse at the new member of Kindle family. The device on the left side is Kindle Paperwhite 2, which is announced in 2013, the other is Kindle Voyage.

An intuitive insight is the Kindle Voyage is a little smaller than Kindle Paperwhite 2, and the body material is different, which looks more black and less frosted. I personally like this new kind of material, as the Kindle Paperwhte 2 looks too plastic. Another impressive improvement is the screen, even from the photo we can see the new screen is sharper.

The back design

To be honest I don’t like the new design of the back, looks sharp but dull. The power button is mounted in an awkward place, as a result, the protecting case need to carve a hole for the button.

Page turns

Kindle Voyage supports two methods to turn pages: touch the screen, and press the bezel.

Touch method is exactly the same as how we turn pages on Kindle Paperwhite. Another method is called “PagePress” by Amazon.

I believe many Kindle Paperwhite users miss the flip buttons on Kindle 3 (Kindle Keyboard) and Kindle 4 (5-way controller), with practical buttons people can turn pages with ease, no need to move finger, and the feedback of the buttons are nice.

Now Amazon brings it back and makes it more advanced, the “PagePress” is not real button, users only need to press the bezel, then it will provide a silent haptic response (vibration).

It’s hard too tell if this new operation feels nice or not as the new device is not yet starting to ship, however, I’m glad that I can flip pages without moving finger.

Some takeaways

Kindle Voyage has a smaller but shaper screen;
It’s lighter and thinner;
It responds faster than Kindle Paperwhite 2;
Now you can touch the screen to flip pages, pressing the bezel will also do;
Kindle Voyage’s battery performs worse than Kindle Paperwhite 2, the duration time is 6 weeks vs 8 weeks;
Kindle Voyage improves the back light, it distributes more equally and solves the light leaks problem (this is not verified as the new device is not shipped yet);
The price: Kindle Voyage with special offers is $199, while Kindle Paperwhite 2 with special offers is $119;
And a tiny new feature of Kindle Voyage: now it can adjust back light volume automatically depends on the environmental lights

Should you buy Kindle Voyage or not

If you already own a Kindle Paperwhite, I would not recommend you to buy Kindle Voyage. Of course, if you have enough budget then that is totally OK. From the angle of cost performance, the Kindle Voyage is not good enough to make you pay another $200 while you already have a Kindle Paperwhite.

If you are using a Kindle eReader without backlight, or you don’t have a Kindle yet, I would recommend you buy Kindle Voyage. It will impress you how comfortable reading on a digital device can be. After all, it’s definitely the best eReader on the market right now.

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Evaluating the Kindle Voyage – Top Benefits vs Drawbacks Before Buying