Kindle to Kindle: The Buttons

What better non-political way to honor the hot-button issue Amazon finds itself dealing with today than with a post about the K1 and K2 buttons? The first Kindle's scroll wheel (left) had single-click functionality. The five-way controller of the Kindle 2 (right) offers a much more versatile interface. Both gave me a great excuse to play with my close-up lens.

Kindle to Kindle: The Speakers

This photo isn't to scale, but gives an idea of what the speaker for the first Kindle (center) was like versus the split configuration that was adopted for the Kindle 2. The actual difference in sound is comparable to what the picture suggests, though still not something I've spent a lot of time listening to so far. Click on the shot for a closer look.

Kindle to Kindle: The Bottoms

This bottom view of the Kindle and the Kindle 2 together give a really good idea of what kind of an evolution in design took place between the two, and what an odd bird the original Kindle (bottom) really was. The K1 crowded five elements in, including the headphone jack, the USB connector, the charge indicator light, the power adapter jack and the volume controls. The new Kindle has only a charge indicator light and dual USB/power port, with the volume controls now on the upper right side and the headphone jack on the top.

Kindle to Kindle: The On-Off Switch

The Kindle comparisons continue with a shot of the on-off switches. A lot of people still seem to be asking, "What's better about the Kindle 2?" Well as far as exterior design goes, this is at the top of my list. On the old Kindle (right), users deal with separate switches for Whispernet and power; this can be pretty unwieldy when the K1 is in its standard-issue cover. The original also requires users to push keyboard buttons to get the device to sleep.

The Kindle 2 (left) eliminates the Whispernet/Whispersync switch (it's now operable as a menu function) and moves the power switch to the top, where it also has a sleep mode enabling function and is much easier to get to. I'm not crazy about the decision to move the headphone jack from the bottom to the top, but I don't find myself using the headphones much anyway.

Kindle to Kindle: The Backs

People asking about the differences between the Kindle 1 and the Kindle 2 usually get a lot of good spec answers. This weekly series of photos will put the focus more on the aesthetics and design. The K2's sturdy metal back (right) has been getting a lot of attention, but the K1's character-covered rubber back had a great feel to it.