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PC World - At half the thickness of Amazon's first e-book reader, the Amazon Kindle 2 ($359) is pretty inviting -- it's a, sleek, curved tablet that you can easily hold in your hands. But even though Amazon has made some successful enhancements to its e-book reader, other tweaks fall flat or miss the mark entirely. And the company has done little to advance the gadget beyond its single trick: reading digital books.

In the e-book universe, the Kindle retains a significant edge. Offering built-in Sprint 3G wireless (at no extra cost to users) and tight integration with Amazon's shopping engine, the Kindle handheld delivers a cohesive reading and shopping experience (even the Kindle for iPhone application doesn't allow you to shop within the app itself). Its nearest competitor, Sony's PRS-700 Reader, can't come close: Amazon's library of Kindle e-books, all available for immediate delivery, gives new meaning to the concept of instant gratification.

I have to admit, however, that the Kindle 2 is disappointing in some ways. Yes, the polished new design looks great, as does the new screen. And yes, the redesigned paging buttons correct some issues that hampered the first-gen model. But I had hoped for more from the second-gen Kindle. I was annoyed to find that the Web browser remains a "beta" buried under the Experimental menu option -- along with MP3 playback and the new, highly touted text-to-speech feature. Equally as frustrating: You still have to e-mail documents and PDFs to yourself at your personal Kindle e-mail address for the files to be readable on the device, even though you can directly transfer files to the Kindle 2 via USB.

Now, on to what the Kindle continues to do right. The first-generation Kindle weighed 10.3 ounces and offered a paperlike E-Ink display that keeps eyestrain at bay (as compared with the backlit displays of cell phones and other mobile devices). The first Kindle was readable in sunlight; it also had long battery life and allowed you to look up words on the fly, as well as to take notes and highlight passages at will.

The Kindle 2 retains all of those capabilities, in a slimmer form (it's 0.36 inch thick). I appreciated the thinner profile: In my tests with the device, it felt easier to hold, especially one-handed. And the slim form made it easier to pack alongside my ultraportable laptop and other devices in my gear bag. At just 10.2 ounces, the device's weight is virtually the same as before.

The Kindle 2's screen is the same size as the first Kindle's -- 6 inches, with 600-by-800 resolution -- but its refreshed E-Ink technology provides 16 shades of gray, as opposed to the original Kindle's four shades of gray.