The iPad Vs the Kindle

With the launch of the Kindle HD 8.9 inch a lot of writers and bloggers immediately started to write all sorts of reviews and I have to say most were either hurried or not really well thought out. Basically, most did not give a fighting chance to the Kindle HD. True, the Kindle HD 8.9 might not be the better piece of hardware but at least it should be given a fair analysis.

I thought I had to write my own view until I read the article by David Gewirtz @davidgewirtz goo.gl/fb/uzaky   . I still think it is the most objective comparison I have read so far.  I will recommend it again and again.

But just to add, while we can’t rule out the advantage of the cheaper cost of the Kindle I did compare the screens of the two devices and found an interesting fact. I don’t think that the 8.9 inch screen size chosen by Amazon is a coincidence. While I am sure that its part of the trick Amazon is using to help in driving down its cost apart from using it as a differentiator.  I also found out that the 8.9 inch 16 by 9 screen has the same width as the height of the iPad while held in portrait mode or its width when held in landscape view.

This means that when the Kindle is held in landscape orientation to watch movies, and the iPad is also held in landscape, the size of a 16 by 9 HD movie will be the same. The difference will be the black borders the iPad will have at the top and bottom will not be visible on the Kindle or will be reduced.  This also means that using the Kindle HD in landscape (it is designed to be used this way anyway) will make the width of your content identical with that of the iPad.

So while it is easy to brush aside the size of the Kindle DX screen as smaller it actually works better for movies and may offer no considerable dis-advantage for other kinds of content you use the Kindle HD for . For one thing if you read a lot of pdfs or web browsing like I do all you will do will be more scrolling. The pdfs and the webpages will be the same width on either tablet.
So while the 9.7 inch iPad is the standard for now the Kindle HD 8.9 just might not be really far behind technically.

iPad and Kindle DX 8.9 Screen size comparisons - Landscape

iPad and Kindle DX 8.9 Screen size comparisons - Portraits to Landscape