iPhone/touch-Kindle Smackdown
eMedia. Everyone wants it. And Amazon's Kindle is the latest media darling. For all that, we think that the iPhone and iPod touch may be getting overlooked. These devices offer a full-color screen with 480-pixel wide displays in landscape mode, PDF compatibility without fees, and full access to the Internet. Sure, you have to jailbreak your system or stick with Safari, but feature-to-feature we think Apple's hardware stands up pretty well. What do you think?
| Feature | Kindle | iPhone | iPod touch |
| Cost | $399 | $399 + $50/month | $299 |
| Connectivity | EV-DO (free) | WiFi & ATT/EDGE (monthly charge) | WiFi (free) |
| Onboard Memory | 256 MB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory Expandability | SD slot | No | No |
| Screen Size | 600x800 | 320x480 | 320x480 |
| Measurement | 6" diagonal | 3.5" diagonal | 3.5" diagonal |
| Screen Depth | 2-bit Grayscale | Full color | Full color |
| Book Software | Included | PDF reader and Books (requires jailbreak) | PDF reader and Books (requires jailbreak) |
| PDF compatibility | Yes. (You pay to email directly to the Kindle.) | With free software | With free software |
| Flash Support | no | no | no |
| 3rd Party Apps | None at this time | Unofficial only until February | Unofficial only until February |
| Weight | 10.3 ounces | 4.8 ounces | 4.2 ounces |
| Video Playback | No | Yes | Yes |
| Newspapers and Magazines | By special subscription, full content or via websites (with the Kindle's experimental browser) |
Via websites | Via websites |
| Physical Keyboard | Yes | No | No |
| Touch Screen | No | Yes | Yes |
| Font resizing | Yes (6 levels) | Yes (arbitrary) | Yes (arbitrary) |
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Ian MacLeod said 12:06PM on 11-30-2007
The Kindle *can* read PDF documents for free (using *free* 3rd party software): http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsCreator.asp
The deal is just that it doesn't natively view PDF files (and how do you nicely view a fixed layout document on a fluid layout rendering engine?) - but it can take any number of .mobi files that you throw at it
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alan said 12:12PM on 11-30-2007
Good comparison, but when comparing apples to oranges, if someone purchases the iPhone, they will probably be replacing a current cell phone... which means they previously had a monthly bill for cell phone service.
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Ian MacLeod said 12:14PM on 11-30-2007
Heh, but it's not like you're going to replace a cell phone with a Kindle, either
puffin said 12:16PM on 11-30-2007
Isn't this an apples to oranges thing? I mean the Kindle makes no allusions to what it does and doesn't do... it is a E-book reader with an easy to read screen and ability to subscribe and buy content. For what it does, it does it well... far better then Iphone. It's much easier to digest a novel on the Amazons new toy then on a Iphone.
A more appropriate comparison would be the Iphone with any number of PDAs out there.. or Kindle to a Ebook reader.
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Chris said 12:17PM on 11-30-2007
iphone vs. Kindle is somewhat an Apple and oranges situation. The Kindle uses eink, which is nearly identical to reading off of a printed page (no LCD backlit eye-strain). The screen is also comparable to a paperback page in size, so reading is much more natural. Eink also allows for devices that can run for weeks without needing recharged.
I'm not a huge fan of the Kindle, it's annoying-as-hell DRM, or its 80s-style commodore casing, but mentioning video playback without comparing the benefits of the Kindle's big feature doesn't seem very informative.
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Patrick McCarron said 12:20PM on 11-30-2007
Don't forget the iPhone has built in PDF support already. You can easily read PDFs loaded from emails or the web. The "free software" just extends on those abilities that exist already.
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Kristian Freeman said 12:21PM on 11-30-2007
At the risk of being flamed, in pure aesthetics there's no comparison to the iPhone. I would sacrifice some features to not be seen carrying the Kindle around.
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Matt said 12:29PM on 11-30-2007
What about the main point of the comparison? How the reading experience is?
I love how you've adopted the Apple hater mentality.. Compare specs over usability. tsk tsk..
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5cents said 12:29PM on 11-30-2007
Kindle has an OLED screen though doesn't it? Those are nif-fty.
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Michael Rose said 1:12PM on 11-30-2007
Nope. eInk is not OLED.
5cents said 1:49PM on 11-30-2007
Right you are. And it's ugly.
BJ Nemeth said 12:29PM on 11-30-2007
It's valid to consider the iPhone as an eBook reader, and compare it to Amazon's Kindle, even if they are very different products. A motorcycle is very different than a car, but they can both be used to get from one place to another.
In my opinion, the question isn't whether someone in the market for an eBook reader will buy an iPhone -- it's whether someone who has an iPhone needs a separate eBook reader.
Unfortunately, this comparison has the same flaws as all the music player-vs.-iPod and SmartPhone-vs.-iPhone comparisons. The most important factors can't be covered in a simple feature-by-feature comparison. I think an article comparing the two devices in *actual use* would be much more useful to readers. (Such as a Kindle vs. stock iPhone vs. jailbroken iPhone.) That would be much more insightful than a feature-by-feature comparison.
If the Kindle had a pleasing physical appearance, and a better designed interface, I'd buy one. But it's ugly and awkward, and that would keep me from wanting to use it. I'll wait for Kindle 2.0.
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bijan said 12:33PM on 11-30-2007
I don't have an iPhone but it does support Bluetooth. Can you not connect a bluetooth keyboard to it? Heck, Apple even has Bluetooth wireless mice and keyboards to boot.
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WakkaWakka said 12:33PM on 11-30-2007
This is a really silly comparison - no matter whether iPhone and iPod touch have video playback or so on or not, I would hate to read an eBook on their screen, but would be more receptive to the Kindle's larger greyscale eInk screen which bears much greater resemblance to actual print. Chris has already pointed out the advantages of this.
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Leonard Nimrod said 12:40PM on 11-30-2007
Nice slanted comparison. Not one mention of the battery life of each device. Cold it be beacuse the Kindle would trump the iPhone.
Sometimes I really hate TUAW blogs.
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outtastock said 12:46PM on 11-30-2007
one is a phone that plays music, one is just a music player, and the other is an ebook reader. I don't think they are getting confused with each other. No one wants a music player and accidentally gets talked into a kindle.
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JiN said 12:31AM on 12-02-2007
Exactly! I have never heard of someone saying the iPhone is a E-Book Reader. I was amazed by it when compared to my Treo 700p but I wouldn't call the Treo, iPhone or any other PDA, a good e-book reader. Especially when you're in a dimly lit train/bus/car for a hour commute.
Kindle on the other hand is a very good e-reader but a crappy web surfing device (see what I mean).
Can you throw in my Palm Pilot 1000 and my Newton into the comparison cause they might offer the Kindle more of a fight. By the way, they still work even though the Newton requires 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. (Come on! Am I that old?)
Billy O'Keefe said 12:47PM on 11-30-2007
So if I essentially soft-mod my iPhone to allow it to run some sort of e-reader program ... then what? How do I get it to replicate the Kindle's screen or access that huge Kindle marketplace with all those books, magazines and newspapers? Is there a trick for that as well?
God forbid Apple fanboys allow another company to create an electronic device that somehow isn't shoehorned into an iPhone/iPod comparison. Not everyone in the world is trying to compete with Apple, hard to believe though that may be.
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Luigi193 said 12:48PM on 11-30-2007
I DIDN'T KNOW THE IPHONE HAD PDF CAPABILITIES!!!!
OMG THATS AWESOME!
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tim said 12:49PM on 11-30-2007
the biggest problem with comparisons like these is that they only compare the features that one of the other has. it is the same as if you added the comparison of 'has home button at bottom with a white square on it,' or 'is made by amazon.'
just like any criteria comparison, you need to establish a decent set of criteria first. perhaps a baseline of what someone would want from these devices compared to what we are allowed by the manufacturers.
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