Amazon launched Kindle Lite in beta at the end of last year, and the app is now formally making its debut in India (opens in new tab). The app is tailored for entry-level phones with limited storage (such as Android Go devices), and takes up just 2MB and uses less resources than the full-fledged client.
Kindle Lite offers a similar set of features as the Kindle app, including the ability to sync your progress across devices with Whispersync, personalised recommendations, night mode, navigating through the table of contents, and changing font sizes. I've been using the app for a few weeks, and the experience is similar to that of the full-fledged app.
Amazon is also touting a feature where you can start reading the book before it finishes downloading. Personally, I haven't run into any issues downloading ebooks (as they're routinely under 5MB in size), but the feature is likely designed for those on 2G connections. From Kindle's country manager for India Rajiv Mehta:
As part of our continued focus on India, we are always working to improve the reading experience for our customers. Apps constantly compete for space on a mobile phone and Kindle Lite solves this problem for our readers. Kindle Lite is less than 2MB and built to provide a great reading experience even on 2G/3G networks.
Kindle Lite also lets you purchase books from the Kindle store, and you'll be able to read books in five regional languages — Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, and Malayalam — aside from English. To further incentivize the usage of Kindle Lite, Amazon is offering an 80% cashback to those picking up their first ebook from within the app, provided you pay using Amazon Pay.
Overall, Kindle Lite is a nifty app that works great on low-powered hardware. With Android Go devices starting to make their way into the market, it's likely we'll see more lightweight versions of popular apps.
Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia at Android Central. He leads the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, contributing to reviews, features, and buying guides. He also writes about storage servers, audio products, and the semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.
