To touch or not to touch?

Seems that this is the place to ask the question - I am undecided on which Kindle version to buy. Friends who own the Kindle Touch have told me that it's ultra-sensitive and liable to jump irritatingly if not handled with absolute care. I'm now torn between my desire to have the latest gadget and taking notice of the recommendations I asked for. Interestingly everyone who doesn't have a Kindle Touch wants one!

I'd really appreciate input from those that have used both.

Well, I have the Touch. Maybe once or twice I've neglected to put the screensaver on and brushed the screen and had all kinds of weird things happen. You adjust pretty quickly, and start starting the screen saver when you put it down, or closing the case if you have one. No problems then.

I wouldn't say "absolute care" but if you accidentally bash the screen things are going to happen. A handy trick can be pressing your finger to the very far left of the corner of the screen and you can touch it anywhere else, and nothing happens. Handy to remove any little hairs or bits of fluff you end up with.

Personally I find the KT a lot easier to use, because there are no fiddly buttons to navigate.

I have the Touch and LOVE it! I do not have any problems with the screen whatsoever. I bought an anti-glare screen cover for it too and even that doesn't bother the sensitivity of the screen. I bought the Touch because it seemed a better product for not much more money - and I am glad I did!

Good luck with your decision.

I don't want one! I have a KK and everyone on holiday was moaning about the touch as they couldn't use a waterproof case so they were getting wet from kids splashing in the pool and getting covered in sunscream etc when touching it to turn the page while I was sat by the pool reading worry free with my Kindle totally waterproofed and protected :)

Hi Miss Taylor
I have discovered my KT will turn when using the corner of my tshirt for example instead of my greasy hands (usually just after putting hand cream etc on) interestingly enough the nose of one of my teddy bears also will turn the KT but not Kindle on iPad.

So you could perhaps use a stylus to avoid messing up the screen - the £1 shop has stylus's (stylii ) in and not much outlay to try and see if it works for you.
I like the Touch as I have an iPad too so makes remembering better.

I have a Touch. It's fantastic. All I want from a reader.
Not had any problems with the screen or anything else.
Have not experienced any sensitivity issues..

I have the kindle 4, but I've tested the Touch in PC World, and I prefer the kindle 4, purely for the side buttons as they're easier to turn the page. I would want a touch if they kept those buttons in.

Hi Campievanner,

I hadnt really thought of any of those options, I just went buy what people who own them were saying while on holiday v my KK.. Maybe I will research it more if Earnie ever dies! I love my iPad also so no problem with touch screen but I just love the buttons on Earnie :)

I have a K4, my wife has a KTouch, so I use both on a fairly regular basis.

If you intend to use the keyboard to input more than a WiFi password think no further - go for the touch. The virtual keyboard on the K4 is just a chore.

As far as touch-screen sensitivity goes don't worry, the designers seem to have put some thought into this and it's actually quite difficult to turn pages by accident. If you own another touch device like a phone or an iPad you might, however, find yourself having to re-learn how to do certain things and the Touch's interface is by no means perfect. On the library page, for example, you swipe up to scroll down, like an iPad. Once you're reading a book though a swipe up will skip you to the start of the next chapter or, in a badly formatted ebook, to some random point in the text, which is where I think some of the comments about the screen being 'too sensitive' come from.

Having said that it's surprisingly difficult to put down an unlocked K4, with its buttons on the edges, without accidentally turning a page or two, so swings and roundabouts. I find that the Touch has slightly better screen contrast that makes it easier to read in low light as well.

The Touch is a little bigger and heavier which, as a one-handed touch screen page-turn is slightly more awkward then the buttons, makes it a bit more difficult to use single-handed for long periods (50-shades readers take note :-)). My K4 lives in my pocket for the train so being slimmer is a plus there.

Which one do I like best? Difficult to say but as my poor middle-aged brain has difficulty in re-wiring my iPad swiping habits I think I'd stick with the K4 and spend the difference on books.

"I would want a touch if they kept those buttons in."

I'm with you, that's why I'm sticking with my K3 (and have bought a spare).

I have a Kindle 4 but have never used a Kindle Touch. I enjoy my Kindle but I think if you already use lots of 'touch' devices, you may as well keep it uniform and go for the touch. Personally, I doubt if I would bother to upgrade now - I don't find the keyboard too much of a chore, but I think it would perhaps be easier to hold the Touch and turn the page using only one hand, if that matters to you.

I also have an iPod Touch, which I sometimes use to read in bed if hubby's asleep (it's backlit). One funny thing - my husband is a mega-teaser and when reading on the iPod Touch before I got my Kindle, he noticed that I turned the pages by tapping the side of the screen and would sometimes tap it a couple of times, quickly, whilst I was reading, out of devilment. Now, if I'm reading the Kindle in bed, he'll lightly 'double-tap' the side of the screen and then chuckle to himself and turn over. He doesn't seem to notice the screen stays the same and I haven't the heart to tell him it doesn't make a scrap of difference. In your face, hubby!

I have a KK and love it - I have no desire whatsoever to "upgrade" to the Touch. I have tried the Kindle Touch and I don't like it. On my KK I can page back and forth one handed regardless of which hand I'm holding the Kindle in.

I'm not a fan of touchscreens anyway, and when I tried the KT I found it distracting that I had to touch the screen and, for want of a better way of putting it, break the page - on my KK, my fingers never creep into my eyeline.

I don't find the buttons remotely fiddly on the KK, I've written reviews and emails on it, and I make a lot of notes in my books... never been an issue.

The only plus side I see with the KT is that it's lighter (or it seemed so when I tried it, I haven't compared them directly), but given how light the KK is anyway, that's a very small consideration for me.

It would be worth going into a local Tesco/Currys/PCWorld and having a try - in the end, you are the only person who will know what you prefer :) and of course, you can use it for a month and send it back, if the model you plump for turns out not to be suitable.

i have the k4. simple of use, i like it.

the K4 and Kindle Touch are definitely smaller and easier to carry in a handbag/purse

I have all three - I don't like the buttons on the K4 as they feel cheap and have sharpish edges and the keyboard is a pain. The keys on my Kindle Keyboard are having problems (the enter key gives me a forward slash as well as an enter, thus rendering it semi-useful).

It's a lot easier to highlight a word and get the definintion on the Touch - no having to use the 5-way controller to navigate up or down or sideways which takes quite a few clicks sometimes (reminds me of the complaints about the airplane mode), I just put my finger on the word, and voila, there's the definition

To , French , to :)

You're in touch heaven , CB . Can you speak french by the way ? - just noticed the' viola'

Voila, Bri - voi meaning see, and la meaning there, roughly. (I have no idea how to do the accent on the la)

Viola is a musical instrument in the violin family :)

somewhat, but with an atrocious accent

and since I bought it to replace the KK2i when it dies, I should like it (it would have cost the same to get a KK from the US as to buy a Touch from amazon.fr)

and I hate the american tendancy to write voila as wah-lah (the seem to think it's an american expression)

and I love viola, violin and cello music (especially Jackie Du Pre)

Ha! ha! well spotted thanks Sarah - I'll leave it in for a laugh :)

Me too :) Du Pre for cello, and I'm a big fan of Maxim Vengerov for violin. Friend of mine has played his Strad :-o *jealous*

I play violin and viola, though not all that well. I did borrow a cello from a friend a few years back and taught myself to grade 1 standard, but I can't afford to buy one so I haven't played since I gave it back :(

Brian, Et voila means 'Here you are', 'Here we are,' 'that is it' etc... (but not the 'here you are ' as in location.
example : To make a cup of tea , pour water in the kettle, put to boil, put a tea bag in the mug and pour hot water on tea bag. Here you are'..)

Thanks French, I was just wondering if CB spoke French, and I of course spelt 'voila' wrong, which just happened to be another word, 'viola' - how coincidental is that?

"and I hate the american tendancy to write voila as wah-lah (the seem to think it's an american expression)"

Ugh, I wish I thought you were joking. That is ughleeeeeeee.

In a freebie I read on Kindle I came across a really weird new unit of measurement, "sonameters". I actually looked it up online... turns out it was a phonetic rendering of "centimetres" in an American accent. Evidently the writer had never heard of centimetres.

"I have no idea how to do the accent on the la"

Voici - "voilà"!