Google PlayBook Vs. Amazon Kindle

The title is kind of self-explanatory, right?! LOL. So which one will you choose?

I was so in favor of Kindle. But I am not right now, and I will just keep being a swing voter, for now, to compare which one offers the better price. Why?

What can I say? PlayBook definitely shows significant improvement. In early August 2022, I just wanted to read series about Majapahit (the most prominent kingdom in Indonesia’s history).

This series is unavailable on Kindle (Indonesia’s books are not available on Kindle as much as in PlayBook). So I just gave PlayBook a try. I was astonished that it has improved significantly since the last time I used it. N.B.: I never uninstalled the application; it was just sitting in the corner of my smartphone screen.

I used to read in my Kindle apps every day until this past month. I don’t know whether it’s just because I open it daily or there is not much change in the Kindle e-reader.

Smooth and effortless purchasing experience

It used to be very easy to purchase Kindle books, and you could just hit the “Buy now with 1-click” button with your thumb on your smartphone. After the new Kindle policy, purchasing books is getting more challenging because we have to open the website or the Kindle gadget (not from the Android apps).

Please don’t get me wrong. To me, the Kindle gadget is still the best reading gadget. But my Kindle Paperwhite is very slow in executing most things, so I do not prefer to transact in it. On the contrary, it is still effortless to buy books at PlayBook.

Reading experience (highlight, brightness, reflowable format, dictionaries, and other features)

PlayBook did not provide me with a satisfactory reading experience. When I used the highlighter, the highlighted lines were messy, which annoyed me. I got 2 books I didn’t read for 3 years just because these books are PlayBook’s. But now, the highlighting experience is so smooth.

I also could not set the brightness and adjust it to paper-like light. In addition, it used to be not in a reflowable format. NB: Below is the difference between Reflowable Vs. Fixed format.

But now, I can say the PlayBook’s reading experience has significantly improved. Now, you can set the brightness (although nothing beats the Kindle gadget’s paper-like light). The reflowable paging is already enabled, although it does not apply to the 2 previous PlayBook books I told beforehand.

It also has a chapter list, bookmarks list, and notes list. It didn’t have dictionaries back then, and now, boom, you can block the word, and the dictionaries will pop up, just like in the Kindle. It keeps getting better.

Books options

PlayBook definitely offers me a wider range of books compared to Kindle. Its library, or in PlayBook’s terminology: Shop, offers me a wide range of books, those in Bahasa, those written by Indonesian authors, and even those without ISBN. So I guess it is not only beneficial for the reader but also for the author.

Book recommendations

I think PlayBook still has homework for improving its recommendations. I feel that the Kindle suggestions are always interesting. I need to restrain myself from impulsively purchasing books on Kindle because it can guess my preference perfectly. It is pretty different from PlayBook, and I don’t know if it is because I have used Kindle for a long time or because the Kindle algorithm is much better.

Pricing

Because I am in Indonesia, I always convert everything to IDR. Most of the time, I found that PlayBook’s price is lower than Kindle’s.

Bookish social media (let’s say Goodreads)

Unlike Kindle, PlayBook is not connected and, thus, not automatically synchronized with Goodreads. As a Goodreads Reading Challenge activist, I am very concerned about that. LOL.

But it’s okay; I can tolerate 10 minutes longer updating my reading progress to Goodreads for a lower price in return. One more thing, my Kindle highlight will go directly to the Goodreads quote. I love this Kindle’s feature.

Audiobooks

For the audio experience, I cannot comment on that area because I seldom use the feature. So, you can probably read it somewhere else.

All in all, I reckon that I will juggle between PlayBook and Kindle for now.

And, just so you know, Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart is already out today (I’ve been waiting for more than a year now, I’m so excited I need to announce it here! LOL.)!

Happy reading, you!

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