Lighter than an iPad Air and with the same attention to detail, the Kindle Voyage is an e-reader for those that place a financial and intellectual premium on reading.
In a high-tech world focused on tablets and smartphones, it's not often that a lowly e-reader can steal headlines from either, but in the case of Amazon's latest batch of new tablets, announced this week, it's exactly what has happened.
The Kindle Voyage has rejected plastic in favour of a magnesium rear shell, weighs just 181g and is 7.6mm thick meaning that it's light enough and small enough to hold with one hand.
But it's not just the dimensions or the choice of high-quality materials for the casing that make the Voyage stand out, it's the screen. Amazon claims the 300 ppi 6-inch monochrome display will look and feel like reading a sheet of laser-printed paper.
And that's because as well as resolution, the glass itself is micro-etched so that it cuts out glare and has a tactile, paper-like feel when touching the display to swipe between pages or highlight words.
Avid commuting bookworms will also be glad to hear that when one hand is needed to hold on for dear life, the Kindle Voyage's pages can be turned without swipes, just press your thumb gently on the screen's bottom corner.
However, this premium reading experience comes with a premium price tag. The Kindle Voyage costs US$199 (RM648) and although that includes free 3G mobile internet for downloading new books -- Amazon says it will cover the data charges not only in the US but in 100 countries around the world -- it is still more expensive than several of Amazon's full Kindle Fire tablets.—AFP Relax News 2014
