Kindle Fire 7.

The magnetic charger adapter – circled – protrudes very little.

I had yet another Kindle reader fail the other day. The previous two (Paperwhites) were rendered useless by trashed MicroUSB sockets, the latest, a costly Voyage (still sporting that awful MicroUSB connector), decided to go nuts and the screen started delivering crazed images.

So I thought I might try an iPad Mini until, that is, I saw the price. $400. Are you crazy, Apple? Never discounted, it’s over $100 more than a base full size iPad. No thanks.

I was reluctant to go with another Paperwhite owing to the fragile USB socket when I chanced upon a clever solution in the guise of a magnetic MicroUSB adapter. Costing all of $7, the small, chrome end piece goes in the Kindle’s socket and thereafter the cable is attached magnetically for charging. Elegant and inexpensive, you will never need to trouble that fragile connector again.

Then, by chance, I spotted that the base LED Kindle, the Fire 7, was selling for $30. Thirty dollars! At that rate I can replace it annually for a decade and I’m still way ahead of the cost of an iPad. And as my sole use for the device is as an eReader, paying up for lots of added functionality is money wasted. Sure the Fire 7 is replete with Amazonia, ads for this and that, direct links to the shopping site, and on and on. But, hey, one swipe and you are in the Kindle reader app. I downloaded free Wikipedia and Dictionary apps and that’s it. You really do not want to trust your contacts, calendars and so on to a device which runs a (modified) version of the Android OS, a system designed with thieves and hackers in mind, and not in a good way.

The LCD screen, which is perfectly adequate for reading all day long, means that you cannot read in direct, bright sun, but I can confirm that with the brightness cranked up to 80% I get a solid 7 hours of reading time. That’s barely adequate for a cross country flight, but the iPhone can always fill in for the last hour while the bus driver at the controls tries to find the landing strip and the cabin waitresses regale you with offers of free miles. What sort of masochist would want more time on an American flying cattle car?

Weight? 10 ounces, same as the iPad Mini, compared with 7 ounces for the Kindle Paperwhite.

And yes, you can comfortably hold the Fire 7 in one hand above your head lying on the sofa, a key requirement for this reader.

The Fire 7 comes with modest storage, netting to 10GB once the OS and apps are installed. This is more than adequate for ereading with each loaded book consuming 1-3 MB. That’s thousands of books and there’s no need to have them all loaded at one time. If more storage is needed, simply install an inexpensive MicroSD card in the provided slot. Up to 512 GB can be installed, with a quality 32GB card running Under $10.