Amazon Kindle 2

Though the Amazon Kindle 2 uses the same E Ink technology as the ebook readers from Sony, iRex, Hanlin and others, Amazon's ebook reader is a bit special.

It has a 3G connection built in so that, without having to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot or even muck about downloading books on your Mac then sideloading them to another device, you can shop directly from Amazon.

There's no contract – Amazon pays the data fees. In fact, that's part of the problem. This is not a true UK product; it's the international edition of a US product. You buy it from Amazon.com – it's around £205 once you've added shipping and import duties – but there are limitations.

You shop for DRM-protected books and newspapers from Amazon.com too, but sadly, though there are many tens of thousands of books available, it's still a subset of the range available to the US.

As deals are made with UK publishers, more books will appear, but there are glaring omissions now.

Because you're roaming with this device, Amazon removes pictures from newspaper subscriptions, and while you may access Wikipedia on the web browser, that's the only permitted site.

The hardware itself, however, is lovely. It's small, relatively light and beautifully built, and the E Ink screen, while lacking contrast compared to an LCD, is fantastically readable.

While it lacks books' individuality and charm, it adds features such as the ability to annotate and search ebooks, and look up words in a dictionary.

It's a good device. Not yet great, but good. Brits, however, should wait for a proper UK launch.