Amazon’s electronic book was launched internationally last week amid huge fanfare, and the first units have finally arrived in the UK.

It’s surprisingly small, and not quite as ugly as the pictures would have you believe - and definitely thinner than you’d expect at 0.36inches.

However, what the Kindle lacks in bulk it makes up for with buttons.  As well as a keyboard under the screen, there are six navigation buttons, as well as a mini joystick. This can be rather confusing at times, although most of the menus are clear and thankfully small. The six inch screen is very clear, and text is simple to read.

In reality, it seems Amazon has rather rushed the release, so what you are actually buying is a US Kindle - it doesn’t even come with a UK plug, and you have to pay import duties, bringing the overall price to around £200. You are also only able to buy US books, although there are a few UK newspapers and magazines available.

The killer feature of the Kindle is its 3G connection, which lets you download books directly to the device. It’s superb, and navigating around Amazon’s store is easy.

However, as this is a US device, Amazon has disabled one of the Kindle’s most interesting features, the ability to browse the web. It’s a huge shame (although oddly, on our device we were able to access wikipedia, but no other site), and a big reason to wait for the dedicated UK Kindle Amazon has promised.

Overall, its an interesting device, and if you read a lot, it is worth a look. However, for most of us, this just isn’t quite the future of reading we were promised. That said, it is a big step in the right direction for the embryonic electronic book market - its just a shame Amazon couldn't release a 'real' UK Kindle with all of its features enabled.