David Pogue reviews the Kindle 3

A couple of days ago, David Pogue had a look at the Kindle 3, positively comparing it to the iPad: it might do less, but it costs a lot less—a great bargain for people who just want to read e-books. Though he doesn’t pull any punches about the prices of e-books themselves, mostly up to $13 from the $10 they used to be.

Those prices seem high. The fact that e-books involve no printing, binding, shipping, distributing or taking back and shredding unsold copies ought to save you something. And it’s outrageous that you can’t sell or even give away an e-book when you’re finished with it. You paid for it; why shouldn’t you be allowed to pass it on? (End of rant.)

Pogue notes that the Kindle’s real competition is actually not the iPad, but rather all the other e-ink readers that have been coming out lately. Even compared to these, it is still doing well. Pogue writes that “the new Kindle offers the best E Ink screen, the fastest page turns, the smallest, lightest, thinnest body and the lowest price tag of any e-reader. It’s also the most refined and comfortable.”

Related: NYT’s David Pogue: Kindle 2 better choice than Sony Reader PRS-700