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Ordering the latest 6 inch Kindle 3 from Amazon to India

This just might be your “definitive” guide to ordering the new Kindle Wi-Fi, 6″ Display, Graphite – Latest Generation (also known as Kindle 3) from India. If you are planning to order one or simply curious to know how the process of ordering the Kindle in India from Amazon.com is like, this blogpost should cover most of your queries.

I woke up one day and decided that I wanted to buy a Kindle. No plans, no prior thoughts. I just wanted one. May it something that was brewing in my subconscious mind since a while. Every year I indulge myself in an expensive gift on my birthday. Not that I don’t buy gadgets all around the year, but buying it near my birthday just makes me feel less guilty

One thing that was keeping me from ordering it there and then was whether to go for an iPad or the Kindle. I read a few blogs, consulted a few friends and finally decided that Apple was in a different game altogether and not directly competing with the Kindle. The iPad was a “multi purpose” entertainment and computing device, whereas the Kindle was a dedicated e-book reader which did only one thing – display eBooks. Having both a Macbook Pro and an iPhone, I was certain I didn’t need an iPad to carry with me all the time. Besides, the iPad was heavy, tad heavy. It was hard to hold it as elegantly as Steve Jobs did in his demo. That must have taken weeks of practice

Like a true Indian, I began my quest for finding out where and how I can get the Kindle the cheapest. I was told that ordering it from Amazon.com would cost in excess of Rs. 10000. Since I was aiming for the $139 model (without 3G), paying a generous Rs. 3000 (Rs. 10000 – 139*50) towards shipping and customs was hard to digest.

Amazon charges a hefty import duty on electronic items being shipped from abroad. The same is not true for other countries. I had a friend who happened to be in Germany at that time and I planned to get the item shipped to his house to save on that duty. However, things didn’t work out for some reasons. I was also informed about websites like http://www.shopyourworld.com which supposedly do a good job of shipping the Kindle to India.

Nevertheless I decided to go ahead with the order. The ordering process was simple and Amazon showed me an estimate of how much the total order will cost (including shipping and customs) before I actually placed the order. The breakup was something like this-

Subtotal: $139.00
Shipping and Handling: $20.98
Customs: $56.34
Order total: $216.32

The order was placed on October 4 2010. The initial estimates for shipping and arrival were the following:

Estimated shipping: October 12 – October 15
Estimated delivery: October 18 – October 25

As it turned out, it was way off course. On 12 October, I got an email that my Kindle has been shipped and my credit card was charged. (Amazon.com does not charge your card till they are on the verge of shipping your item. You may even cancel your order before it gets shipped.). In rupees, I was charged Rs. 9966 by my bank.

The email contained the AWB (Airway Bill) number for DHL, which did an amazing job of tracking my shipment at each step through the DHL.com website. I could literally track my Kindle being shipped from country to country as it moved towards India. By the second day, it had reached New Delhi and cleared from customs. On the evening of the third day (15 October), the Kindle was delivered to my address.

The Kindle arrived perfectly wrapped in a neat box made of recycled cardboard paper and easy to tear “frustration free” packaging. See a few YouTube videos on Kindle unboxing to see what I mean.

Before writing this blog post, I put the Kindle to the ultimate test. I ordered one full e-book on Amazon.com and read it non-stop in 8 hours straight. The whole experience was absolutely mind boggling. The “electronic ink” display appears just like paper and to the brain and the eye, it’s exactly the same sensation as reading from a physical book. There was absolutely no strain on the eyes, since the display was not backlit. However, unlike other displays, it needed a source of light nearby to keep the Kindle’s display visible.

The page flip buttons were also an absolute pleasure. The buttons depressed with just the right amount of pressure, hard enough to not get pressed accidentally and soft enough to not hurt your fingers during repeated use. The keyboard keys were really hard though. It took a real push to punch in keystrokes while entering passwords or titles to search on the Amazon store.

Few positive surprises:

1. There are a few Indian newspapers and magazines you can subscribe to. They include Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Financial Express and Mint. The costs are hefty though. One month of HT will cost $9.99 and you can download a single issue for $0.50. That’s more than 5 times the price of the printed version. India Today is the only Indian magazine available on the Kindle.

2. The device can be password protected.

3. You can download a free sample of all books (which generally contains about 1 chapter of the book) before you go ahead and buy the full book. All newspapers and magazines also have a free 14 day trial.

4. The Kindle can store and play songs while you read.

5. Amazon has an amazing and very responsive customer support. You can ask them any questions you have before placing your order and they’ll reply within a few hours. I emailed them atleast twice for different concerns before placing the order. They were extremely quick and helpful. Amazon also has a section called “warehouse deals” where refurbished Kindles are sold on Amazon.com for very high discounts.

6. I have heard a few people saying that there may be a small refund due to me since the custom duty collected during my order is the maximum it can probably be charged but it is generally cleared for much less. The refund takes a good 3 months to arrive though. Amazon’s customer care will not comment on this issue incase you inquire.

There are a few downsides too:

1. The screen initially feels very primitive compared to the super bright and high resolution displays found in TV’s and laptops. You’ll get used to it very soon though. It’s not a touch screen too.

2. Even though you can grab the Kindle with one hand, if you hold it by the edges you are bound to press the page flip buttons thereby losing the page you were on. You can however lock the screen and keypad to avoid this.

3. A sense of monotonicity starts to set in after a while. When you buy a physical book, each book has a new cover, a new font and a new feel to it. With the Kindle, each book will look the same, exactly the same.

4. A true book lover loves the process of buying books as much as he enjoys reading it. With Amazon, each book is a click away. Very soon, you’ll start missing your trips to the book store.

5. Not all books are available in Kindle format. If you are looking for a specific title, there is a good chance it will not be available.

6. Most books are completely text. Most images or photos in the book are not included in the Kindle version.

7. The e-book format is not as expensive as the print format but it’s not cheap either. Remember, Amazon’s primary motive of selling the Kindle this cheap is so that it can make solid profits selling books.

8. The Kindle supports a landscape mode for reading as well. But the page flip buttons don’t suit that page layout.

9. The Kindle cover is necessary if you plan to carry it around with you without having other objects in your bag damage the screen. Some people have suggested that I can use a laptop sleeve or a simple cloth bag to carry it. Sure I can, but the original Amazon cover looks very tempting. It’s very expensive though, costing about $35, adding significantly to the total cost of ownership. If you do plan to buy it however, book it in the same order since shipping it later separately will turn out to be more expensive by about $20.

Overall, I think the Kindle is an amazing piece of technology and an absolute “must have” for any avid book reader. Incase I left out anything or you have any specific questions about the ordering process or about the Kindle itself, please add it as a comment.

Update: I got a refund of $16.83 from Amazon on 15 December 2010 stating the reason as “Export fee reduced” and the same was charged back to my credit card. Hence the net cost of owning the Kindle turns out to be Rs. 9966 – 727 = Rs. 9239.

Technology — 104 Comments
20
Mar 08

Sony Vaio VGN CR35G and CR36G Review

Sony caught my attention with some really neat ads in the print media with a large range of colorful notebooks in shades of Blue, Red, Silver etc. with a pretty girl holding the laptop covering half her face with the laptop. The Sony tag line reads “All eyes on you”.

Having been impressed with the laptop and buying the laptop after a thorough comparison check with Dell, Toshiba and some other machines in my budget of Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 60,000, and using it for quite sometime now, I am finally in a position to review the laptop.

The laptop comes packaged neatly in a compact cardboard carton, which contains the laptop, a 2-pin AC charger and a concise product manual. The laptop carry case was delivered separately to me by my vendor.

Hardware check:

The first thing you’ll notice about the laptop is it’s spectacular super bright 14.1″ wide-screen LCD display. It’s by far the brightest LCD monitor I have ever seen. The keyboard keys are placed with a small gap between the keys, something that’s apparently found in Apple laptops as well. It takes a day or two to get used to it however. I ended up hitting the Caps Lock key almost every time I wanted to press the “A”.

The laptop has a “Display off” button to instantly turn off your LCD incase you are running on batteries and want to save on your battery juice. The keyboard doesn’t have seperate keys for commonly used keys like “Page Up”, “Page Down”, “Home” and “End”. These have been combined with the “Function” key. So incase you want to do a “Shift + End”, you’ll end up holding 3 keys together.

The laptop speakers have been positioned on the left and right of the keyboard. Although it seemed like a good idea at first, I am wondering whether after somedays, dust might start accumulating in the speakers tiny net. The sound quality is OK, nothing great. A headphone or a speaker is a must have.

The touchpad isn’t as great as I expected it to be. But I may be biased here. I’ve always hated touchpads (I just can’t seem to use one) so in reality it may not be as bad as I feel it is. I leave this one for you to decide.

AV mode:

This laptop allows you to listen to songs, play movies stored on your hard disk or from CD’s and watch photos, without the need to boot the laptop. The AV mode menu is available by pressing a key on the laptop while it’s in Power Off mode. Although I am not completely sure, the lack of password protection might actually mean that your laptop content can be accessed without permission by through this mode.

Battery Life:

Sony claims the battery life to be about 4 hours (without wi-fi on). However, in my little experience, I have experienced about 2.5 hrs of battery life with Wi-Fi off and about 1.5-2 hours with Wi-Fi on. An optional 9 cell battery is available but that will add some centimeters to the back of the laptop as the battery protrudes from the back.

A small problem with the battery is that the battery doesn’t lock into the laptop too well. The latches to lock it in place aren’t good enough. A mild shock may be enough to dislodge the battery out of place and switch off the laptop.

One excellent feature I found in this laptop is that when the battery gets fully charged, the battery actually STOPS CHARGING. Your laptop runs directly on the DC power from the adapter. This means the battery is protected from over-charging and ultimately enhances battery life.

The good old Sony shock problem:

The laptop comes with a 2-pin adaptor which means that your laptop is not grounded properly. Since the laptop has a metallic armrest (which also has the controls for AV mode), you are highly susceptible for some electric shocks. And the problem is not as uncommon as you think – in fact, most of Sony’s laptops DO give shocks. I have covered the details in a separate blog post.

CR35G or CR36G?

What’s the difference you may ask. The CR35G comes in cool stylish colors like Red, Golden etc. The CR36G comes in Black only. Since I wanted a black anyway, I went for a CR36G. And the good thing is that this model has a fingerprint reader built in. Once your fingerprints are registered, you can use a finger-swipe as an alternative to login to Windows when you boot. You can also use the inbuilt Sony software to authenticate yourself to various websites (say, GMail) using your fingerprint.

The fingerprint reader gave reasonable performance. Typically it takes 2-3 tries before your fingerprint is read successfully and you are allowed access. You can still use the password to login if on some day, the fingerprint reader doesn’t read your print.

The laptop also has an inbuilt web-camera, which is pretty good and a microphone next to it, which I am yet to test.

The laptop cover is black but I feel it’s prone to scratches if not handled delicately. The cover actually snaps back with a thud in case you are not careful to close it gently. Don’t know for sure if it’s actually made like that or if the shocks may harm the LCD panel. The VAIO written in silver on the black cover looks stunning. Sony exudes style! Carrying a VAIO is an ultimate style statement and you’ll know why only after you get it

Technical Specifications:

I am sure you must have had a look at this before coming to this page, but for the sake of completeness, I’ll reiterate them here.

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo T8100 Processor 2.1 GHz(from the latest Intel’s Penryn Series)
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Hard Disk: 200GB SATA @ 5400RPM
Optical Drive: DVD and CD Writer
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
Display: 14.1″ wide-screen extra bright LCD panel
Fingerprint reader (optional)
Card readers: Yes, Sony and SD card reader
Graphics: 128 MB ATI Radeon
Ports: 3 high-speed USB 3.0 ports, 1 S-Video Out port, 1 S-400 port (to connect to Sony digital camera’s etc.), 1 10/100 Ethernet port
Keyboard layout: Standard QWERTY keyboard, AV mode button, Volume Up/Down, Capture button – To launch Sony web-cam application, Display on/off – To turn off LCD backlighting

This laptop is available for around Rs. 54990.00 (as per the Sony India’s website) but you can try negotiating a deal to get around Rs. 1000 discount, depending on how you make the payment (Cash or credit card)

Overall, a pretty solid and sturdy laptop with a great price/performance ratio. Ideal for anyone looking for a right mix of performance, style and sturdiness.

Overall rating: 8/10 (Excellent)

1. Dell XPS 1530 Vs. Sony CR35G/36G

2. Sony VAIO Laptops give electric shocks

Technology — 98 Comments
18
Mar 08

Dell XPS 1530 Vs. Sony CR35G/36G

Of late, I have been caught in the middle of a laptop buying decision. With a budget of Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 60,000, I am spoiled for choices, with each brand I see claiming to sell me the best of what they have. (Yes, 60k is good enough to get a good high-end laptop today!)

I have the following brands under consideration:

1. Dell – “Cool” reputation + Solid price/performance ratio
2. IBM (Not Lenovo) – My old R40 is 4 yrs old and still works perfectly.
3. Sony – The #1 electronics company in the world gotta get it right. Sony is style!

Brands like HP, Acer and others are not even in the picture. They just don’t cut it.

So I went to Nehru Place, Delhi’s IT hub for a quick stroll of what is available for sale. My first stop was Toshiba. I was mighty impressed with the solid build and excellent LCD display of some of the laptops they had on display. Toshiba was suddenly “into the picture” now. The one I liked the most was about 77k… Too much. Time to move on. Out of the picture again.

The next stoppage was a general multi-brand consumer electronics showroom, which had Dell and Lenovo on display. Saw the Dell XPS 1330 out here (Base configuration, without any customizations are also available off the shelf, as per that shopkeeper) – Seemed flimsy and delicate. The silver keyboard sucked. The LCD wasn’t as bright as Toshiba’s. It seemed that opening the LCD cover above the maximum angle would make the laptop break into two. Overall, the machine fell well below my expectations. Almost dropped the idea of buying a Dell whole my life.

Next landed up at Sony. Although I was sure I can’t afford a good Sony laptop in my budget, it wasn’t really the case. Sony’s price range starts at about 50k or so, and the starting model they have on sale (The CR 35G and CR36G) is almost as powerful as the Dell’s XPS 1530 which is Dell’s flagship model! And prices are almost the same! Whew!

There was something about Sony that I couldn’t resist. First was the super solid build. The laptops looked super sturdy and rugged. The LCD’s were super-bright and the front of the laptop in that stunning golden color with V A I O written over it in silver almost took my breath away. There was something in there that stuck.

Now I am back home and thinking about the final decision I have to make. The Dell XPS 1530 or the Sony Vaio CR36G (since I need black anyway, I get a extra fingerprint reader built in)

Comparing Dell XPS 1530 and Sony CR35, I see the following:

Pro’s for Sony:

1. Trusted name
2. 3 yr extendable warranty (Costs about Rs. 5000 extra)
3. Oomph factor (it’s a VAIO after all)
4. Plenty of after sales service
5. Stylish looks
6. Business laptop

Pro’s for Dell:

1. Popular brand
2. CNET editor’s choice + 8.1 rating (This means a lot!)

Cons for Sony:

1. “Starting model” syndrome
2. No standard reviews on the Internet so far

Cons for Dell XPS:

1. Hate that silver keypad
2. 15 days delivery time – Way too long!
3. After sales service existent?
4. Not too sturdy and rugged
5. More of a gaming machine than a business machine. Good if you are buying a laptop for games.
6. The fully loaded model would cost about 8k more than the equivalent model for Sony.

Configuration wise, 62k for Dell = 53k for Sony. Plus, I wonder about this as well – Dell’s flasgship model costs same as Sony’s starting model. It’s like buying a high end Honda vs. a low end Mercedes.

So which one should I buy?

1. Sony Vaio VGN CR35G and CR36G Review

2. VAIO Laptops give electric shocks

Technology — 26 Comments
18
Mar 08

Sony VAIO Laptops gives electric shocks !!

Yes, SONY has given a shocker yet again, and this time it’s a rude one. Sony laptops/notebooks have become notorious for sending mild electric shocks to the user from the laptop’s metallic armrest.

After a bit of Googling (try searching for “sony vaio electric shock”) and experiencing a few mild shocks myself, here is what I found out:

1. The problem is not new – People have been complaining about this issue since 2006. But nothing has been done about it by Sony so far.

2. The shock can occur only if all three of the following conditions are met:

a. The laptop charger is connected and laptop is charging.
b. Some part of your body is touching the metallic armrest in front
c. Your body is grounded

The shock voltage could be anything from 1.5V to 3V but I am pretty sure the voltage was much higher in my case.

How to fix the problem (it’s easy, actually) :

1. Sony charger comes with a 2 pin adapter. Go get yourself a 3 pin plug – either buy it or demand it for free from the Sony Customer Care (India # 1800-11-11-88) or your nearest service center. You just might get lucky (If you have a 3 pin plug and you are still getting shocks, skip to step 2 or read the quickfix tip as your last resort)

2. Make sure the grounding pin in your extension board/multiplug actually works! (This was the culprit in my case)

That’s it, no more shocks.

Incase you are looking for a quickfix (say, if you are traveling right now), just put some plastic tape on the mettalic cover. But do remember that the adhesive might get a bit irritating once you get a 3 pin plug and take out the tape.

(Please remember to add a comment if I saved your day)

1. Sony Vaio VGN CR35G and CR36G Review

2. Dell XPS 1530 Vs. Sony CR35G/36G