Some time ago, the e-book readers came to the market, but none had achieved so much success as the Kindle, the first device of that kind developed by Amazon, a company whose primary focus is on books.

The first Kindle was launched in November 2007, had 256 MB of storage capacity (about 200 books) and with retail price of USD 399, but it had some design flaws. The second model, launched in February 2009, had increased its internal memory to 2 GB (about 1,500 books) and with retail price of USD 359, this time with improvements. Just four months later, Amazon surprised everyone by bringing to the market the Kindle DX, larger, heavier and with 4 GB of storage capacity (about 3,500 books - the double of the previous version), with retail price of USD 489.

The latest of the Kindle models came to market in late August in two versions: Wi-Fi (graphite color) and 3G + Wi-Fi (available in white and graphite), sold for USD 139 and USD 189 respectively. We took a good look at the model 3G + Wi-Fi to find out if it is any good.

Kindle 3, as users call it, comes in a simple cardboard box that resembles a book, shown in Figure 1.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: The packaging of the Kindle 3G

In the box, besides the wireless e-reader, we found a multi-voltage power adapter (100V-240V), USB 2.0 cable (for connecting to the electrical outlet adapter for Kindle, also included, or to connect to a computer) and a Quick Start Guide, as seen in Figures 2 and 3.

click to enlarge
Figure 2: What's in the box
 

click to enlarge
Figure 3: USB cable with adapter for electrical outlet