Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Kindle and iPad Screens Under the Microscope

Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad. As you see in the photos, the closer you get, the more interesting things become.










Above are pictures snapped at “about 26x” (the Kindle is on the left). So far, so expected, right? The Kindle’s e-ink display looks almost the same as it does to the naked eye, although one surprise is just how well the iPad’s anti-aliasing works to keep the text smooth, even though the pixels are clearly visible as jagged squares.










Jack things up to 400x and it gets a whole lot weirder. On the left again is the Kindle (400x). It resembles a bowl of sugar, or at least like some ink splattered on gray paper. It “looks almost organic”. Compare that to the iPad’s display at 375x, whose sharp edges and primary colors look more like a 1970s arcade game.

6 comments:

  1. Does Kindle work here? I gather from Amazon that you can't get the downloads.
    Please advise, tks, JM

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  2. Dear John (sorry always wanted to write that:)
    Yes the Kindle Global will work here I know that because we bought one for a friend in Feb. Will check with her for the details and post here.

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  3. Hi John- The Kindle is a cinch, you just need to register it at Amazon and then when you purchase a book for the Kindle you download it to your PC and connect your Kindle to your PC and drag it over. The wireless delivery does not work in Kuwait because Whispernet is not available here, but the PC method is nearly as quick.
    Hope that helps?
    Kim

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  4. I want to buy one for my husband at Christmas, do you recommend getting it from Amazon.Co.Uk or .com? Once it has downloaded content will it then work fine in other countries?

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  5. Hi Anonymous, I think I would go with .com as the prices seem to be cheaper in the US. You have to get the global edition of Kindle and download the books to your PC if in Kuwait. Hope that helps.

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  6. Hey there,
    from your review I can't tell which one you think is better from the display :)

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Always great to hear from you :O)