iPad vs Kindle

Lou Hattersley looks at what each has to offer

Should I get an iPad mini or an Amazon Kindle. 
Most of our readers here at Macworld would 
plump for the iPad mini with Retina Display 
over a Kindle, but there are still many questions to 
ask. Is the Kindle better for reading books than an 
iPad mini, and will it be easier for non-tech savvy 
relatives to use an Amazon Kindle or an iPad mini.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the various iPad 
models available, and compare them to the Amazon 
Kindle devices. We’ll look at what the iPads and 
Amazon Kindles have in common, and how the iPad 
and Kindle are both di fferent.

Amazon Kindle

The original Kindle pre-dated the iPad and was a 

pure text reader. It delivered black and white text, and 

rough images, which you could read on a screen.
This Kindle still exists today in the form of the
Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite. To this device has
been added a second kind of Kindle, known as the
Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is a more iPad-esque
device that the original Kindle, with a full-colour
display running on Android operating system. It’s
closer to the iPad but also loses some of the pure
focus and functionality of the original Kindle. Not to

mention it’s more expensive.

Apple iPad

Apple’s iPad should need little introduction. It’s
the original and most popular tablet device on
the market. There are two main models available,
the iPad and iPad mini. The first has a large 9.7in
colour screen, the second a 7.9 inch display. Some
iPads feature a Retina Display, which packs pixels
so closely together you can’t tell any di fference
between them. This makes text much easier to read.

Amazon Kindle vs Apple App Store

The iPad comes with an app store that enables you
to download apps. Apps can be just about anything,
and Apple’s app store has a legendary amount
of apps available. There are over a million apps
available on Apple’s App Store. According to Google
results, there are just over 129,000 apps available
on the Kindle App Store. That’s still a lot of apps, and
you’ll fi nd big hitters like BBC iPlayer on both stores.
However you don’t get apps like GarageBand or
iPhoto, and you won’t find apps that are causing a
stir like Sunrise arrive on Kindle until long after they
have been on the Amazon store .
Buying books and entertainment
Both the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad have vibrant
book apps. The Amazon Kindle itself enables you
to buy and read a range of bestsellers from the
Amazon Kindle store. You can also subscribe to a
range of newspapers and magazine articles that are
specially formatted for the Amazon Kindle.
The Apple App store has, undeniably, the upper
hand here though. Apple has a vibrant iBooks app
with its own iBooks Store; this has a huge range of
best sellers and free books formatted for the iPad.
Not only that but you can also buy the Amazon
Kindle app for the iPad, which gives you access
to any Kindle books, magazines and newspapers
purchased or subscribed to from the Kindle Store.
So on top of that you can access Apple’s Newsstand,
which enables you to read magazines that are either
in the original print format, or specially redesigned to
make the most of the iPad display.

Reading

The original Amazon Kindle and Kindle both use
e-ink (electronic ink.) This only refreshes when
you move to the next page, this compares to the
constant refreshing found on most tablets (or a
computer). Some people believe that it is easier on
the eyes to read on an e-ink display. However, we
find it easy to read on an iPad with Retina Display for
prolonged periods of time.
We also find it easier to fl ick around books on the
speedy and responsive Apple iPad, whereas the
Kindle can seem a little clunky when you do anything
more than move to the next page.
The stock Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite both
have a distinct battery advantage over the Apple
iPad or Kindle Fire HD. Amazon advertises the Kindle
as having a one-month battery life, so it’s great for
taking on holiday; likewise the Kindle Paperwhite
battery lasts for weeks, according to Amazon. The
Apple iPad has an impressive battery life of around
10 hours, but it’s measured in hours, not days. The
iPad needs recharging every day.

Technology

Both the Kindle Fire and Apple iPad mini share a
lot of similar properties. Both are small devices with
high resolution tutorials. They both run on ARM
processors and run similar amounts of storage. The
key di fference is the operating system. The Amazon
Kindle Fire runs a locked-down variant of Android,
whereas the iPad runs iOS.
Where the iPad shines is Apple’s iOS operating
system and the App Store. A wide range of apps
available for the iPad ensures that you can do
all kinds of things. The iPad has a lot of creative
software like GarageBand, iPhoto and iMovie; plays
with a wide range of business and presentation apps
it’s considered a vital tool for the modern worker.
So all this is on top of the usual books, movies and
games that you can use as entertainment.

Price

Amazon has a big lead on price, with the Kindle
Fire starting at £119. Although it’s the Kindle Fire
HDX that Amazon wants you to buy. This is £199
but has a faster processor and newer operating
system, along with Amazon’s heavily touted
Mayday service (where it has built in connection to
a video chat helpline).
For its part Apple has the iPad mini which
starts at £249, but really it’s the iPad mini with
Retina Display (£319) that’s closest in terms of
hardware. This higher-quality Retina display makes
it ideal for reading. You might be wondering why
anybody should pay so much extra for the Apple
iPad? It’s a valid question. A lot of the answer lies
in the software, and what you can do with an iPad,
rather the hardware.

Conclusion

In most cases, we’d advise you to go for the
Apple iPad over the Kindle. If all you want to do is
read books then the Kindle makes a good book
reader, but it’s limitations soon become clear. Most
technology users treat the Amazon Kindle and
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite as a second device that
augments their iPad, rather than a main device.
While the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and HDX both
o er functionality more similar to the iPad, we’d
rather have the range of creative apps that Apple
o ers on its device. We think it’s all this extra
functionality that makes the iPad worth the money.