Critical design changes make the Amazon Kindle 2 more appealing than the preceding model - but while Amazon has succeeded in enhancing its e-book reader, it has done little to advance the device to the next stage.

The first-generation Amazon Kindle weighed 0.29kg and offered a paperlike E-Ink display that keeps eyestrain at bay (as compared with the backlit displays of mobile phones and other mobile devices). The first Kindle was readable in sunlight; it also offered long battery life and allowed you to look up words on the fly, as well as to take notes and highlight passages at will.

The Amazon Kindle 2 retains all of those capabilities, in a slimmer form (it’s 9mm thin). We like the thinner profile: the new device feels better in your hands, and we think it will be easier to pack. At just 0.28kg, the device’s weight is virtually the same as before.

Continue reading the review here.