Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology I give the Kindle itself a 5-star rating -- it's everything you want in an eBook reader. Light, portable, easy-to-use, easy-to-read, decent battery life (if you turn off the wireless connection when you're not using it), and sold at a competitive price-point. If I could, I'd give most eBook publishers a 2-star rating... I'll explain why later in this review... Amazon has stated that their goal is for the Kindle to "disappear" when you're reading a book. They have achieved this in spades. You are simply able to be absorbed into the story you're reading, and the Kindle itself becomes almost invisible in your hands. (Not to mention that it's a whole lot easier to hold a Kindle in one hand than it is a book!) The eInk Pearl technology that the Kindle 3 uses is so close to real paper that, after a very short time, your eyes really can't tell that you're not reading a piece of paper. And unlike a physical, paper book, you can change the font-size as you wish -- this is GREAT if you have trouble reading small print. It's like being able to have every book you own in a large-print edition, or a normal-print edition, or anywhere in between! Really fantastic! In my opinion, it's just not worth it to buy the 3G version of the Kindle. Even if you travel a lot, have you been in an airport recently that *didn't* have a Wi-Fi hot-spot somewhere around? Save yourself the $50 and get the Wi-Fi-only version, unless you think you're REALLY going to need to buy a book RIGHT NOW and you won't be able to find a Wi-Fi hot-spot anywhere... I bought the Wi-Fi-only version, and I don't miss having 3G capabilites at all. Word of warning: it's almost TOO EASY to buy books! I've spent more in eBooks already than I did buying the device itself, and I've owned it for less than a month! I honestly think Amazon could give 'em away and still make a profit off the eBook sales alone. (Heck, maybe that's why they're only $139? Because Amazon is subsidizing part of the cost because they're expecting to make a profit off of you when you buy eBooks from them? It's possible, I suppose...) Ok, so making eBooks too easy to buy isn't really a complaint. One real complaint I do have about the Kindle is that it doesn't seem to have quite the battery-life that they claim it has... Maybe I read more than the average person, but even with the wireless-transmitter turned off, I still am only getting about half the advertised battery-life. But two weeks without re-charging is still WAY better than any laptop or smart-phone! So that's not a major issue for me. The battery-life is still very, very good when compared to nearly every other rechargeable device I own, even if it doesn't last as long as advertised. Finally, we come to the biggest problem I've seen so far -- and it has nothing to do with the Kindle itself, but with eBook publishers. eBook publishers will very often set the prices of eBooks themselves, rather than letting Amazon (and other eBook retailers) set the prices according to market forces. This often-times results in the eBook version being MORE EXPENSIVE than the paperback version of a given book! This is completely ridiculous! The publisher has NO costs when it comes to printing an eBook, and extremely low distribution costs (How much does bandwidth cost these days? Most eBooks are less than 1MB in size... Even if the book has to come from a server-farm halfway around the world, it can't cost them more than a couple of cents to transmit the eBook file to Amazon...) So why, then, do these publishers insist on setting prices that are equal to (or even greater than!) the prices of their paper books?! If the eBook publishers would simply allow all eBook retailers to set their own prices, market forces would take over and we'd all be paying what the publishers actually deserve for these eBooks, instead of what they think they can get away with. Hopefully we can get these eBook publishers to listen to us -- Amazon.com has a HUGE presence in the eBook market, so at the very least they'll listen to Amazon. If Amazon has to stop carrying some publishers' eBooks because those publishers won't allow Amazon to set their own prices, I think we should support that -- send Amazon an e-mail telling them you'd be willing to live without certain publisher's eBooks if it would mean that they'd gain the freedom to set their own prices in the end. I certainly plan to. At ay rate, even with eBook publishers behaving the way they sometimes do, I'm still thoroughly enjoying my Kindle. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading!