Are Kindles often lemons, or am I unlucky?

[abyssinia]

I purchased a Kindle in April 2011, a bit on a whim, and found I really loved reading on it. I've used it a lot, but rarely take it outside the house (unless I'm flying somewhere) so it doesn't really get banged around or stressed much. In December 2011 (8 months later) my screen completely died. Amazon was super responsive and quickly sent me a replacement, which was awesome.

Now the last two days (8 months later) Kindle has started freezing, pretty much constantly. I can reboot it but it refreezes again within a few minutes. I chatted with Amazon customer support who had me restore factory settings, which didn't fix the problem. Since it's been a year since my original purchase, they won't replace it again, but they'll give me a $15 discount on a new Kindle.

I really love my Kindle, and I want to have an eReader, but I can't justify spending money on a device that's only going to work for 8 months.

What I'd like to know is:
1) Is this a common problem with Kindles, or am I just really unlucky? Do most of you who own them find they last longer than this?

2) Is there anything else out there you guys really recommend? Something with a screen as good as a Kindle, but without the 8 month lifespan? [I'm highly tempted by that Nook with the light around the screen]

thanks!

Comments

[teafeather]

I think an important thing to keep in mind is that while there are a lot of Kindle hardware failures, there are also a lot of Kindles out in the world and in the public eye. It can be easy to fall into a trap of confirmation bias--there are fewer owners of Sony and Nook devices, and of more obscure manufacturers' devices, so at a glance they may seem more reliable because it's harder to find examples of hardware failure. I know of people who are still happily using the original model Kindle and of people who have had problems with their device right out of the box.

That said, it's hard to know exactly what to expect from an e-ink device. They simply haven't been around long enough for there to be a consensus on how long they should be expected to last.