Amazon Kindle Touch

Though building off most of the same reliable formulas that sustained Kindle eBook readers for years, the Amazon Kindle Touch takes important steps forward in providing a touchscreen in all four models and 3G connectivity in two.

Essentially the Touch is basically a slightly more advanced version of its brother release, the Kindle 4. Like the Kindle 4, the Kindle Touch includes an 800 MHz microprocessor and convenient links to the Amazon Kindle Store, Wikipedia and web browser; it’s also good and light at just 7.6 ounces (about 0.2 kg). Plus, that notable super-long battery life (estimated at two months) is maintain for the new Amazon models.

The keyboard so prominent on the Kindle 3 and earlier models is of course gone in the Kindle Touch as well, but with the highly responsive touchscreen, data entry is a breeze – especially when compared to the necessity of having to use the toggle pad on the Kindle 4. Finally releasing a device with a touchscreen serves as Amazon’s delayed answer to Nook and Kobo in this respect.

The Kindle Touch also provides one handy feature for eBook devotees to give it an advantage over the Kindle 3, namely the “X-ray” function. With this feature, the user may search for keywords within a given eBook and see all results alongside related material from Wikipedia and Shelfari.