it does mean I need light otherwise. I thinkthe newer ones all have lighted screens though, which decreases battery time but you do not need external light. The original kindles they were, imo, trying to make more like books to break into the market.
I like the size of my kindle device, more smaller book than my ipad, and the battery lasts forever. But with my old kindle, I can barely get online, with the experimental browser. The newer kindles, or kindle fire, have more online capability. It is nice to have it all in 1 device.
Considerations would be size, what you want to do, battery life between recharging.
I end up traveling with the kindle to read with, the ipad to go online, check email, etc. I just used a rather dull smartphone and they are quite appealing as they have reading, computing, email, etc capability, depending on what apps/programs you put on them.
If I were starting over and buying what I wanted vs cobbling together the cheapest way, would probably go for a larger smart phone for an all on one device. But I do not really know because then I'd probably be stuck with some monthly plan, as of now just use wifi and a pay as you go phone plan, being the frugal/cheap person I am. There are some nice devices, but you end up chosing size. Small packs well but is small, large is easy to use but large. Around and around.
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