I have had a Kindle 2 (second generation) since it was first released (2009) and have bought numerous books for it (I’m surprised that Amazon does not say “NORM!” when I visit the Kindle store). The Kindle has encouraged me to buy significantly more electronic books than I ever bought printed versions previously. Once I got my first iPad I began to regularly use the Kindle app for it. The iPad was generally my go to device because of convenience but I still occasionally used my Kindle 2 because it is easier to read with.

I had been reading about the Kindle Voyage reader (2014) and the very good reviews that it gets so I decided it was time to upgrade my reader and I ordered it. As expected, Amazon Prime delivered it the next day and I’ve had a week of use and wanted to pass along a few observations.

Click the following link to get a view of them.

The Kindle Voyage and Kindle 2 side by side.

At first glance the Voyage looks like a smaller display but that appearance is deceptive because it does not have a keyboard. The Voyage display is actually a little larger than that of the Kindle 2.

The haptic feedback (vibration intended to simulate the feeling of a keyclick) for page turning works well enough but I am not sure that I really find it useful. The device feels a little faster than my 2 and has more memory (4gb compared to 2gb) in it. I do not know if I would ever notice the memory capacity difference between them. It is certainly very light weight and highly portable with a smaller total size than the 2. It will easily fit pretty much anywhere.

One of my main requirements for a new reader was having a backlight. I have an external LED style light that I attach to my 2 but that is not always convenient. The Voyage has an adaptive backlight which can adjust to the current room lighting conditions. The Voyage E Ink display is definitely easier to read than the iPad so I will probably be using it a bit more often as compared to my 2.

My only complaint so far is that I’m having a slightly more difficult time highliting passages from my books. I can’t seem to get the hang of moving the end selector to the end of the block that I want to highlite and regularly have to mess with it several times before I finally get it. On the 2 I used the cursor to select the text and that worked pretty well.

I am completely satisfied with the Voyage (but a little sorry that I am finished with my old friend the Kindle 2).

If you like to read and like eReaders the Kindle Voyage is a definite recommend.