Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G Review

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Review: September 2012

Rating:

In a nutshell: The Kindle Keyboard 3G is the Kindle for frequent travellers or anyone without easy access to Wi-Fi. The free 3G data access is convenient, as is the physical QWERTY keyboard and extended battery life.

4 reasons to choose it

The Kindle Keyboard 3G is the most expensive of the Kindle e-reader family. It offers all the features of the basic Kindle e-reader, plus the following:

A free 3G connection so you can download books without the need for a Wi-Fi connection.
A physical QWERTY keyboard.
More memory (enough for up to 3,000 books).
Extended battery life.

3G & Wi-Fi

The 3G connection is probably the main reason why people choose to buy the Keyboard 3G version of the Kindle. The Kindle and Kindle Touch both use Wi-Fi to download books and access the Kindle store on Amazon. Although Wi-Fi is free and fast, it's not always available. Having the option to use Vodafone's 3G high-speed data network in the UK and partner networks outside the UK means that you'll be able to access the internet in places you otherwise couldn't. Where 3G isn't available the system falls back to slower GPRS/EDGE networks. The best thing about the 3G connection is that it's completely free. And you can still use Wi-Fi when it's available.

QWERTY keyboard

The push-button QWERTY keyboard is handy if you like to make notes or annotations on your reading material. A five-way controller lets you move around the page and select text.

Conclusion - for power users and frequent travellers

The 3G version of the Kindle is ideal for frequent travellers, or for anyone who doesn't have easy access to Wi-Fi. The physical keyboard, extra memory and extended battery life are useful features for power users. But the 3G version is the biggest and heaviest member of the Kindle e-reader family, and it's the most expensive too, costing more than twice as much as the basic Wi-Fi version.

Features of the Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G include:

Display: 6 inch e-ink Pearl display with optimised fonts, 600 x 800 pixels, 167 ppi, 16-level grey scale
Memory: 4 GB internal (approximately 3 GB available for user content - enough for up to 3,000 books)
Free cloud storage for all Amazon content
Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), USB 2.0 (used for charging), 3G HSDPA with a fallback to EDGE/GPRS, 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
Web browser
USB cable included
Formats supported: Kindle (AZW), Kindle Format 8 (AZW3), TXT, PDF, Audible (Audible Enhanced(AA,AAX)), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion
Size: 190 x 123 x 8.5 mm
Weight: 247g
Battery life: up to 2 months with wireless off and 30 minutes of reading per day

Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G User Reviews

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