Amazon Kindle (2011 edition) ebook reader

Amazon's Kindle ebook readers have long been very impressive. To begin with it was only available by ordering it from the American Amazon website and paying import fees, and it cost $400 (£250).

At £89 the 2011 edition of the Kindle is still a very good ebook reader, but now it has the advantage of being even better value too.

The new Kindle is smaller and lighter than before (170g to 247g for the previous Kindle) and the user benefits as a result, in one important way: it now fits nicely into an inside jacket pocket and, at a bit of a squeeze, even into a trouser pocket.

The more bulky previous version (now known as the Kindle Keyboard) has its advantages: this model has half that one's battery life and storage capacity. That's still one month of standby time and enough space for about 1,400 books, so it's not really a big deal - that's more than enough for most people.

The big difference is the lack of a keyboard - you can still use the Kindle to buy books over the internet, though searching for books is more difficult - you need to navigate using the small four-way button at the bottom of the screen. Still, this was a small trade-off to regain the space used by the keyboard, which felt redundant 99 percent of the time.

This model must be connected to a wireless network to buy books from the Kindle Store - it lacks the mobile phone network connection of the earlier model. If you're buying ebooks you're still largely locked into the Amazon Kindle store, while other ebook readers can download books from a choice of stores.

Reading books was comfortable on the new Kindle. The buttons on the side to move forwards and backwards between pages were pleasant to press and easy to reach. The font used for ebook display was easy to read and the options for changing font size and spacing easy to access. As it is smaller, the new Kindle was easy to hold in one hand, which is especially useful for commuters.

Note that this is not the same model being sold in the USA - that model is cheaper and shows advertising. It's also not the same as the Kindle Touch with a touch-sensitive screen, also available only in the USA. In any case, ebook readers with touch-screens haven't been very impressive and the Kindle doesn't feel like it needs one.

In our opinion the Kindle is still the best-looking ebook reader: it is thin, sleek, has a nice brushed-metal finish and a high-quality 6in screen.

Apart from the design there's not much here that's new but the smaller, lighter, more portable Kindle gets everything right. At £89 it is great value and still the best ebook reader available.