From iPad the Kindle
The Amazon Kindle helped foster my love of reading unlike anything else (even more than my parents trying to bribe me to read with toys and sweets).
Recently I decided to purchase an Amazon Kindle to replace the iPad mini as my default eReader. Here are some meandering thoughts about why I made this decision and my first impressions upon switching.
The Before Time
I am no stranger to using eReaders. I started using a Kindle back in 2009, a year before Apple announced the iPad and accompanying iBooks Store. The Kindle quickly grew to become a beloved device because it supercharged my desire to read. Within a couple of months of purchasing it, I had read more books and read them faster than I had in years. I'd never read nor enjoyed reading as much as I did when I owned my Kindle, and that period has left an indelible impression on me.
Then I Strayed
The original iPad released in 2010 didn't persuade me to switch from reading on the Kindle to the iPad. There were three reasons for this: first, the iPad was significantly bulkier & heavier than the Kindle; second, it had a non-retina LCD panel that made the reading text for extended periods quite straining; and third, the iBooks Store, at least at launch in Canada, had a significantly smaller library of eBooks compared with Amazon's Kindle store at the time.
By the time the second-generation iPad mini was released, my allegiance to the Kindle had begun to falter. I was busier with school and had less time for pleasure reading, and the purchase of an iPad mini began to crowd out the Kindle from my everyday carry. The retina-display also made reading on the iPad mini much more tolerable. My other gripes with reading on the iPad: maturity of the iBooks Store along with the size of the device, had been resolved by the time the retina iPad mini was released. I always felt that reading wasn't as easy on the iPad mini, but I convinced myself that it was good enough. Across time, the demands of school and having only a "good enough" reading experience meant I was reading less and less as time went on.
Coming Back
What ultimately drew me back to the Kindle was the very device that caused me to abandon it in the first place: the iPad mini. When Apple introduced News+, its oft-maligned periodical subscription service, I began to plow through articles with abandon. I'd rediscovered (dare I say, rekindled) the joy of reading that drew me to the Kindle in the first place.
But the iPad mini wasn't perfect. First, the ease-of-reading the iPads display pales compared to the Kindle's eInk screen; there's no eye-fatigue and absolutely no glare. Second, and I know this can be solved by turning on Airplane Mode or silencing notification, there are no distractions. No notifications, no temptations, nothing but a focused reading device; the result being that I remain focused on reading longer than I otherwise would on a tablet. Third, the Kindle is a worry-free experience: I don't worry about charging it (each charge provides weeks of battery life), nor do worry about it being in direct sunlight or getting wet (the Paperwhite model is waterproof). And with a price tag nearly $300 less than the cheapest iPad mini, even if I were to damage the device, the hit to my wallet is substantially smaller than with the iPad mini.
Overall
Each person's device preferences are often so specific to their means and current needs that I can't give a declarative recommendation. I'd go as far as to say that if you have or are considering a device to use predominately for reading and plan on reading for at least several hours per week, then at least consider an eInk device. The Kindle may be a one-trick pony, but that one trick is a highly polished & finely tuned reading experience that has helped me rekindle (yes... I used the stupid, stupid pun twice) my love of reading.
