A Kindle for Dad: 4th Gen Pros & Cons
Wednesday, July 10, 2013 by Miss K in Labels: , , ,

On Father's Day, my husband and I went down to Alabama to visit my parents.  I'd been all keyed up for this holiday, because for the first time, I was able to afford to get my dad something really neat.  In the past, presents for the people I care about have fallen under the constraints of things like my allowance and my minimum wage job, or under the shadow of big things like going to Germany, paying for college, and paying for a wedding.  I wouldn't say I'm free and clear of all things like that yet, but I'm in a nice little period of respite.

I was looking online for nice copies of books my dad would really like, when I discovered that for $10 more than what I was going to pay for two books, I could have a 4th generation Kindle.  Then I thought about the size of the house my parents live in and how it's already full of the things they've acquired throughout their lives, so really, there's no room for me to impose a book collection of my own design on them.  And this tiny little Kindle that can hold something like 1300 books is the size of less than one book.

Kind of an old picture of the best Dad ever

I was all squirmy during dinner.  I couldn't wait to see if this good gift, this costs-more-than-$20 gift, would be something my dad would actually like or be a useless lump of technology that my dad wouldn't bother to figure out.   And speaking of dinner, the Logan's in Cullman SUCKS.  Anyways, we get back to the house, and I give him the little black box.  He opens it up and...

Poker face.  My dad is notorious for his grumpy poker face about everything; my friends were terrified of him when I was growing up.  I never could figure it out, but eventually I realized that to people on the outside of the family, he just looked tall and angry and potentially mean.  So I showed him how to work it for the most part, but even after that, I still couldn't figure out whether he actually wanted the thing or not.

So I went home and was a little sullen, because I could tell he didn't hate it, but I didn't know if he loved it.  It was a complete toss up, and I had to go home before I could even see how things turned out.  That's part of what sucks about living so far away: I don't get to be a part of my family's everyday things anymore.

BUT THEN.  He called me the next morning because he couldn't get the navigation controls to work right so that he could read the Kindle User's Guide that came on the device.  I knew then that he was actually interested in it and maybe even (gasp) liked it.  He also had another issue: I had put so many books on the Kindle, the device didn't have enough memory to actually read a book...  I did not know that this was a thing, but it is.

In order to help him with this little problem, Mike and I grabbed a delicious apple stack cake from Publix and made another southerly trip.  My dad has always been very quick to pick up new things, so once the memory issue was solved by deleting some random books that he'd never read anyway, he was quick to figure everything out.  Watching him learn the ins and outs and look the device over, I now know that he's happy with it.

So what's the verdict on the Gen 4 Kindle?  After having factored in what I thought personally and what my dad had to say about it, I've reached the following conclusions:

4th Generation Kindle

Summary:

 Pros:
  • Extremely long battery life
  • Very affordable 
  • Great for just reading, no bells and whistles
  • Very easy to load files onto it
Cons:
  • No keyboard
  • No wall charger
  • Not really old people friendly
  • Low memory, slow processing
  • Book organization is lacking, no selecting sections by letter
 
What We Love:

I love that it's finally been long enough that a generation of the Kindle that is just an e-reader, no bells and whistles, has dropped in price so that just about anyone could get one.  Granted, Amazon probably doesn't advertise that this product is available and cheap because they want to plug the new stuff, but it is.  It was $69 brand new with free shipping.  That is an amazing price, and I'm glad I found it.

The battery life on the book-reading-only Kindles is EPIC.  The device can last a month on a single charge, so it's perfect for carrying anywhere and everywhere with you to read without having to worry about the battery dying.  This was a big seller for me.  I don't really like to carry my books around with me for fear of ruining them, yet I can never go without reading.  I've tried to make the life last as long as I can on my iPod so that it can do the Kindle's job, but it doesn't hold a charge for more than a day of sporadic reading.  So jelly of my dad right now!

The lack of bells and whistles like a backlit screen, sounds, and color account for the great battery life, and it's perfect for someone who just wants something to read with rather than a fully functional tablet.  Sure a tablet can use the Kindle app, but it can't compete with dat battery life.  This Kindle is a good choice for someone who already has an iPad, because you wouldn't be doubling up on tablets. It is very lightweight, which makes it easy on the wrist when reading, whereas tablets can be pretty heavy.

It's very easy to get your own MOBI eBook files onto it.  Some of the later generations have safeguards against adding non-Amazon MOBI files to your device because of pirating fears, but this one works exactly like a portable hard drive: drag and drop.  Very simple stuff.
Just drag and drop.
What We Hate:

I didn't think it would be an issue when I bought it, but it is.  This thing has no keyboard, and it's horrible.  You have to navigate around a little keyboard with the arrows like it's the dark ages, which made my dad roll his eyes and sigh.  It is incredibly tedious and makes simple tasks exceedingly difficult.  Also, the symbols on the four provided buttons are somewhat non-standard looking and weird, which also doesn't help.  If I had this to do over again, I'd buy the Kindle Keyboard; it costs exactly the same amount and would save everyone a headache.

Look at this lunacy
It seems to run pretty smoothly, but god forbid if you want to run a search.  I wouldn't even bother.  It can only hold 1.35 GB, and searching that much data is just beyond the little thing.  If you're looking for something, it's easier just to surf through the list rather than perform an actual search.

The book organization on it is terrible.  If you place it by author, it seems to be very confused about sorting them by first or last name, so it just does a jumble of both.  We've got Ambrose Bierce next to Isaac Asimov.  How is anyone even supposed to find anything if it can't sort and it can't search?  And you can't select the letter your book title or author name starts with and skip to that section, you must surf through every book from A to Z looking for that one elusive bastard of a book among 1,300.

Also, instead of buying it used, I bought it new and paid the extra $10 because I assumed that the charger in the description meant wall charger.  Not so.  The device only comes with a USB charger, and seeing as how my parents have no computer, it was useless until they went to Wal-Mart and bought a converter.

Even though I got this device for someone who is nearly 70, I do not recommend this as a gift for everyone's grandpa.  My dad has always been rather tech savvy, so he didn't struggle with it.  However, I could never give this to my mom or aunt.  The lack of keyboard, weird button locations and symbols, jacked up sorting system, and odd layout/navigation all combine to make something that your average grandparent would never figure out.  If you're looking for something old-folks-friendly, I'd go for the touch.

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